Latest Update from Myanmar Relief Mission Work

Update from Myanmar Relief Mission Work, Sun. 25 2008

we had a great Lords day here in myanmar. Ubah tais daughter and son-in-law attended the morning worship at sis winsomes place. he is the only christian in his family so we were so glad to see some of his clan whom we gave medical aid last friday .attendace is 26 plus 5 children.
Joey barrier preached in the morning and jeremy is scheduled in the afternoon at sis esthers house. but joey had a bum stomach so they were late in the evening worship and i had to fill in as the speaker.we had 5 visitors in the pm service.the nieghbors who helped with the prep of the relief packages.
no need to worry abt joey. we got him some medications already.
the barrier brothers is in uncle ronnies place as i write to get info and help through their org.if they can give us certification so we can go to lapoda on tuesday. joey will also meet with the prez of myanmar ecunemical movt tom morning who is his acquaintance if the grp can help 4 foreigners (2 americans+2 pinoys) got he the delta region. as of today, accdng to douglas, only burmese are permitted to go there.
by the way, the remaining staff of winsomes former office will travel to lapoda tom. so 4 of our church members namely, phillip,sian tal, ubah tai and nim mou decided to join the grp. like i said earlier, uncle ronnies grp has already machineries in that area also and he gave our grp permission to travel with them even if we will do our own thing. they are willing to provide logistics and provide nec contacts to our team going there.
so our 3 preachers+ 1 member will serve as our advance team there.they will come back thursday,Lord willing. 4 or 5 of us will follow on tues if we can get passes or if and when the military govt will make an announcement allowing all foreigners passage to the delta area.
but i will contact the phillipne asmbassador also early tom and ask abt the phil team and how he may help us.
i released 500usd/pax as recommended for the advance team as their relief budget.
jeremy also handed to the team a handy water purification system and lots of puritabs for their use and the people theyre going to help with instruction that they will pass it on to the next team goin there.
meanwhile, dr conrad and i will go back to mhawbi tom morning for a basic healhtcare lecture for the orphans beside the bible college. edward, the tamil burmese guy you missed last mon. barrier boys will follow in the afternoon.
by the way, phillip is asking if the gen set can have at least 5KW power. the rationale is that they need at least 5kw in order for the schools electric power water pump to work. the made in china gen set with that capacity is abt 650usd.
pls include abovementioned plans and our health and welfare as well in your prayers,

to God be the glory!

shemer sameon (MARCH for Christ, Team 2)


Sat. 24 May, 2008

dear bro,
we share the same ecstasy when we heard the news last night abt the govt opening to all aid workers. but its only a news until now and many are also asking WHEN?
at our meeting, the group felt that we should go as far as lapoda bec thts whre many small villages are neglected and there are talks that the ones without relief aid are buddhist. accdng to them, majority of the populace in the delta region are baptist christians. with the the karens baptist grp relief machinery( that we can atest), the baptist burmese in the delta region have sufficient relief supply now. so the small villages with buddhist beliefs are the ones in dire need of relief goods.
church members here feels its a good time to show the love of the living God to our buddhist freinds now in small villages in the delta by going there and helping them.
after dinner last night, we went straight to get some fresh info from uncle Ronnie, winsomes boss who is now the president of Myanmar Coordinating Council for Relief-composed of churches, medium business and political grps. he remembers meeting you. anyway, we went to his house late l;ast night so i wasnt able to e-mail you bec internet cafe here closes early. he just came from the delta a few days back and said the same thing- that the relief stage has diminished bec most people there have enough food supply,except for the small villages that were overlooked.one has to ride a boat to reach these villages. the rehabilitation stage has commenced and his org will start with the housing,and procurement of tractors, diesel-fed engines saws and others.he is inviting to join us and allowed us to use their contacts there in the delta region.most of his staff are already there, except for his secretary who is goin to the church tom to have meeting with us with
regards to our delta trip.
there is NO official word that foreigners can go there now but we are hoping that it will come out tom after the UN meeting at the hotel tom. pls continue to pray for a favorable outcome bec even the locals are hesitant to bring us along with them to lapoda.
yes winsome made arrangement with our small limo to pick up the the Barrier bros tom. theyve been here 6 times so even uma win knows the 2 americans.
as for our activities: last thursday,may 22, dr conrad, phillip and i went back to Kyauk Tan for medical consultation. we wer told up[on arrival that the L:aos medical team went around the area that morning too so we went straight to the people we have befriended the day before and phillip distributed to them the jc choate book in burmese. we even prayed for friendly guy whose house( a shanty now) who offerd you a chair the 2nd time we were there. we also gave a little amount for the bed-ridden patient, just enough to bring her to the hospital and pay for routine physical tests. the dr consulted abt 4 patients that time. nim mou and and others help with the relief pack prep at sister esthers house that day. we joined the grp later that afternoon after we canvassed for the generator set for the bible college.

friday may 23, we had a medical consulation at U Ba Htays residence.many neighbors came. total of 22 patients sought medical consultation. i had a patient there too, his 4th daughter whos suffering fr neck pain.
today,may 24, we visited the bible col;lege in Hmawbi. there was medical consultation too and the good doctor saw at least 23 patients not including the children from the orphanage whom i served with multivitatmins.
ill give the money needed for the expense of the big tree that fell and blocked the entrance of the school tom. they are only asking for that lone tree to be cleared. they will leave the other 19 trees on the ground and keep them a little green and use them for firewood one tree at a time.for the gen set, we will try to purchase tom bec i need to see their situation there first as per winsomes advice.
we scheduled another mini clinic after worship at winsomes place tomorrow,Lord willing
praying for a clearer delta trip planning tom.

MINGKALABA!

shem sameon (MARCH for Christ, Team 2)

Luis Cusi wrote:

shem,

with the opening of MM to ALL foreign aid workers, pls. see how you can register so that we can being among the first to send our doctors to the irawaddy delta region. this will pave the way for evelyn, lorie, titus and verna, who all have visas, to take the next trip to MM. try getting in touch with the ambassador and coordinate your plans with him if you think this is wise. he could help you get the accreditation that the government might require. otherwise, continue as you think is best. pls. report regarding your meeting this evening. i know tomorrow you have free time. many people continue to pray for you.



Tue, 20 May, 2008

Dear brethren,
Today was a special day for me and your brethren here in Yangon, Myanmar. It rained very hard the whole morning and we thought that we would again be rained on as we got terribly wet yesterday. But praise God, our prayers were answered, and it only was overcast the whole day and did not rain at all.
We visited the village of Klaiktan ( kyak-tan), and even if we did not announce our arrival, there were about 150 women and children lined up in the streets waiting for a relief van to come. None had arrived that morning, and so at 1 pm, our arrival caused some excitement in the crowd. Immediately people lined up behind our Dyna truck; except, it wasn't a line, it look more like a hungry crowd.
We asked them to return to their homes instead because we said we wanted to meet them in their houses. So one by one, we went to over 200 houses spread apart in muddy fields. Dr. Conrad said there was an instance he had to jump over a pool of muddy water. There were 6 teams of brethren accompanied by 2 locals who carried our sacks of packed rice, dahl, dried fish and candles. For the houses that did not have a roof, we gave away tarpaulin roofing material. It was a great opportunity to interact with them as we went to their homes, and wrote down their names. They are so thankful and appreciative! Some of our teams even taught them how to say Thank you Jesus and even those who were not taught how to say this would repeatedly say "Thank you Jesus".
I particularly was able to go to three of the bigger wooden houses that was still intact. In two of them, they agreed to allow us to teach them how to read the Bible in Burmese and to conduct lessons for children. In one house, Winsome and I interviewed the men and women about how they expect to get their livelihood now that the cyclone destroyed their harvest. I preached a little to them about how they must continue to trust God and to be thankful that they are alive and still have food to eat even if it has to come from strangers. That in their time of suffering they must be drawn closer to God and listen to His voice. They were very receptive and I taught the children how to sing Jesus Loves Me and Happy Birthday. Please pray that seeds planted in Klaiktan today will be implanted deeply in their hearts and that your brethren will be able to bring them to salvation in Christ.
And this is perhaps why today was special. We all saw how important it is not to just hand over the gifts to the monks or village leaders, but to meet the people and immerse ourself in the village. All of us had very gratifying experiences! Everyone in the team felt an openness to Christians, perhaps because there was no Buddhist monastery nearby. In our dinner meeting we decided that we shall return to the village tomorrow and deliver more gifts, since there were over 500 families in the area and we brought only 300 bags. Please keep this in your prayers.
As we left Klaiktan with joy and gladness at what had taken place, we passed several more villages that had been damaged greatly by the cyclone. And as we drove the 1.5 hours to the city, and having been to Irawaddy the previous week, I pondered on how great the need is to rebuild and how humongous the task ahead to rehabilitate their livelihood. For three seasons now they have not gained money from their harvest. They have managed to survive through this, but now with many of their homes gone or badly damaged, their livestock diminished, their sources of firewood and income cut down by the winds, and this third harvest destroyed, how will they survive in the next few months. They are healthy now and they still have food, but what happens next week, or next month? Indeed it is a disaster that will continue to unfold especially with a military junta that cares only about holding on to power and not the people's well-being.
Please continue to give and ask those who have not given to give. When we first asked for funds for the cyclone Nargis victims relief fund, I told you that I would be content with only $20-$25k. You have been so generous and gave in excess of this, up to the amount of $50k. We would like to help them to rebuild their houses; sturdier ones that will stand more cyclones to come. We would like to be able to provide them with funds to buy seeds and fertilizers. We would like to be able to reach more people. Most of all, we would like to be able to provide them with Godly men from the church who can edify them and nurture them in the way of the Lord.
I leave Yangon on Thursday, and leave behind Shem Sameon and Dr. Conrad Diestro, able men who will carry on the work of providing relief aid in partnership with our Burmese brethren and volunteers. But I will be back! With your support and blessings I would like to bring 2 Filipino missionaries to work with me in the months of June, July and beyond if needed. There are already some men and women in the church of Christ in Myanmar who are stepping up their commitments and whom we are asking to move to Yangon to reinforce the brethren in the relief and evangelism work. With your prayers and support this is all happening because we saw cyclone Nargis as God's way of opening doors and hearts for the gospel to be preach and Burmese people to be added to the number of the saved.
I am yours in Christ,

CHITO CUSI