End of April 2025 Update

What do you do when the need is OVERWHELMING…

…when people you KNOW, friends you care about, pastors you’ve trained, leaders of house churches you’ve discipled, believers with children and parents you’ve prayed for… are struggling, needing water, shelter, and medical help?

The 7.7 March 28th earthquake in M________ (centered in Sagaing and flattening nearby cities of Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw) destroyed what little remained of the country’s infrastructure, buckling roads, smashing bridges, leveling villages, crumbling dams, and leaving thousands homeless.

And this was just the most recent calamity for the Burmese, who’ve endured five years of back-to-back disasters. First, COVID locked down villages and starved more people than the virus ever killed. Then the military coup overthrew the democratically elected leader, followed by a bitter and ongoing civil war, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced into the jungle when their villages were destroyed; then they endured last year’s colossal flooding and mudslides brought about by Typhoon Yagi; and, finally, this massive earthquake shattered a beleaguered, war-torn, and shell-shocked people. BEFORE the earthquake, there were an estimated 2 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in need of help. Now…perhaps as many as 17 million are affected in one way or another.

When news of the earthquake hit the International News, trained rescue organizations from all over the world raced to help, sending teams, medical supplies, and food to Bangkok in Thailand, to await visas to enter M________. While the government appeared to beg for help from all quarters, only large governmental aid, the UN, the Red Cross, and international agencies were allowed to send aid (mostly material supplies rather than manpower), and then largely to military-controlled areas. This was strictly enforced; some groups (ie, the Chinese Red Cross), who had failed to register, were fired upon. There were few rescue workers allowed; locals have done most of the excavation work to recover bodies. Many well-established rescue teams, particularly Christian and NGOs, sat helplessly on the sidelines in Bangkok waiting for visas, and were eventually turned away.

So… what DO you do in the face of such OVERWHELMING need?

You remember the Starfish Story.*

And you look for the miracles the LORD has arranged…

#1 ACCESS miracle: While visas were routinely being denied, one of our partners from Kingdom Mission International (with whom we’ve worked and trained for several years), ALREADY had a team of disciple-makers approved to train 120 local pastors in Yangon; they landed in M_______shortly after the earthquake hit. They were uniquely positioned to pivot, equipping and sending some of these indigenous pastors into earthquake-affected areas with essential supplies. All in all, they equipped 4 teams (2 going into Mandalay and 2 to Nay Pyi Taw) for multiple trips into earthquake-ravaged areas, bringing food, milk powder, water, mosquito nets, medical supplies, and the Gospel. Results have been thrilling, with hundreds of families (close to 200 with one team, nearly 400 with the other) receiving food packages, a blind man healed, over two hundred salvations (this continues…we get excited emails daily!), local pastors collaborating to disciple new believers, Church tents set up, and villages that were previously Buddhist and animist now allowed to have daily prayer and Bible study! The team leaders returned to Yangon to restock, the second time taking 500 packages containing solar lights, medicine, food, always, always, always clean water, and, of course, the Good News of the Gospel.

#2 CONNECTION miracle: Another close friend, a veteran American missionary (the one who first introduced us to Asian Disciple-Making multiplication techniques), heads an extensive house-church network in M__________. Ex-military, he has ways of getting relief into that war-torn country that boggle the mind and defy reason. (You’ll understand why I’m vague on ways and means, lest we endanger him and the network.) Over the years, this believer has garnered the favor of God and man, earning the trust and respect of Thai officials by helping them out, over and over again, in difficult times. (He’s the guy I’ve told you about to whom, during COVID, the government gave passes so we could go into shut-down villages, distributing food, masks, and hand soap.) Let’s just say that, on occasion, he receives intel about which routes across the border may have checkpoints and which may not…he then sends packages through to key leaders, who distribute them through the church networks to the needy households. This is the principal conduit for the water filters to get to where they need to be. The shipments are necessarily kept small; if intercepted, the loss is not too great. It would be catastrophic if a large number of water filters and medical supplies were waylaid at one time. While “hiding in plain sight,” our friend has become known underground as someone who can get supplies where they need to go, so much so that when relief teams denied visas had to depart, some left their supplies to his care. We got a joyous call from our guy returning from Bangkok with a portable X-ray machine, oxygen-producing units, and $42,000.00 worth of medical supplies, soon to be parceled out and secreted over the border! Additionally, rescue teams have gifted him with larger water purifiers (powered by solar batteries), which they’re working to somehow make mobile.

#3 RESOURCE miracle: When tragedy strikes, decisions have to be made on how best to help. With the water delivery infrastructure of M_______ destroyed by a combination of war and earthquakes, there is NOTHING more immediately necessary (or essential for long-term recovery) than clean water. The rainy season flooding has already arrived…there is plenty of water, but there is nothing to contain or deliver it; it’s in ditches and ponds, contaminated by dead animals and sewage. As of Saturday, there were 41 documented cholera deaths already.

As blessed as we were to have the right people in the right places at the right time, relief doesn’t happen without money to buy supplies. God touched the hearts of individual donors, church members, suppliers, and mission organizations to send support. Journey Global Missions, specializing in supporting its missionaries for just such times as this, launched a campaign immediately, with staggering results. Churches in Goldsboro and Snowhill gave sacrificially to purchase supplies. The church of a certain Master Chief in Florida (who orders and ships our filters) paid the massive shipping charges for the astonishing number of water filters purchased, and Sawyer, the filter manufacturer, further reduced the price substantially, so even more could be purchased. Sending money rapidly to those teams already in M______ for supply purchases was a logistical nightmare, as banks have been closed in that country for over a year; with a LOT of help from friends, midnight deposits, and foreign exchanges, it was accomplished. Only God!

#4 PEOPLE miracle: When Peter and I consider the chain of intermediaries God used to bring about this relief to His children, we are astounded anew at His providence and presence. We can only say thanks to each of you, and pray you are as blessed as we are by the part we played in connecting resources to people who could take them where they needed to go. Thank you to the donors in the States who gave sacrificially; thank you to the missions, churches, and organizations that expedited giving and shipping; thank you to the mission supporters who figured out foreign money transfers; thank you to the missionaries who transferred supplies to network key players; thank you to the house church leaders and pastors, the end distributors, who made sure people received not only help, but Living Water.

This is not, of course, the end of the story. As the weeks roll on, these resilient people will regroup and establish new villages, face the reality of a continuing bloody civil war, and pastors will continue to preach the Good News to those who have found Hope in the valley of the shadow of death. We will keep you posted.

"I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come?

My help comes from the LORD,

who made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:1-2

*Do you know the Starfish Story? Here it is.

One day, after a storm surge had stranded tens of thousands of starfish on the beach, a little boy was walking along, picking up starfish, and throwing them back into the sea. An old man saw the boy and called out to him. “Why are you doing that?” he inquired. “There are so many. You can’t possibly make a difference.”

The little boy thought for a while, picked up another starfish, and replied, “It will make a difference to this one.”