BECAUSE VISION BEYONDBORDERS HAS BEEN WORKINGIN BURMA FOR OVER 14YEARS,

we have developed strategic contacts who arenow in the midst of bringing emergency relief to the people.During this 14 years, we worked with with our contacts ondelivering Bibles, seeds, clothes, assistance for children,building a medical clinic and helping women with smallbusiness loans. Now we are partnering with them in theiremergency relief efforts and assistance for 6000 recentlyorphaned children.As you know, the little girl Shwee Yin Myin is from Burma ina small village 45 minutes from Yangon. The medical clinicwe have helped build is slated to open this month. In themidst of so much tragedy we are seeing God at work. First of all, Shwee’s village was in the path of the cyclone, and yetonly a few houses were destroyed. There were no casualties.It was as though God Himself was protecting her village andthe well was not contaminated.We were in SE Asia when the cyclone hit and were supposedto be in Burma at that time, but God ordained that we werein neighboring countries. I had been in Laos praying forGod’s direction as to what we were to be focused on. Laterthat afternoon I read the newspaper about the cyclone andstarted praying for Burma. After arriving back in Bangkok, Igot a call from one of our contacts from Burma who askedme to join him and his wife for dinner.At dinner he shared about the destruction in his country. Atthat time the death count was very low. I told him that weare committed to help his country all that we can. He saidthat the greatest and most immediate need is for medicine.Over the next two days we received more reports of devastation in the country. Since our contact was waiting fora large supply of medicine we made a quick trip into Vietnamto deliver a load of Bibles. We returned to Bangkok about9:00 pm when I remembered that they needed medicine inBurma, so our team ran around Bangkok until 1:00 amtrying to buy all the medicine we could afford.

BY GOD’S GRACE WE WEREABLE TO FILL ABOUT SIXLARGE DUFFEL BAGS FULL OFMEDICINE.

Traveling into Burma, we were able toget through customs with the six bags of medicines and sixadditional bags of clothing. The majority of the medicine wassent directly to the areas where the cyclone hit the worst.

as nearly 2 million could die from the impact of Nargis,most of whom would go into eternity without Jesus unless there is immediate assistance to the people.

DEAR FRIENDS,AS I WRITE THIS LETTER MY HEARTIS BREAKING FOR THE PEOPLE OFCHINA AND BURMA

While many aid workers were waiting to get visas, we were,with God’s orchestration, already inside the country and werethe first foreigners to bring in medicine.While riding in the taxi from the airport, the driver sharedabout what was happening in his country. He had waitedeight hours in line for gasoline before beginning work. Whenhis turn came he was only able to purchase two gallons at tendollars per gallon. He said eggs had gone from 10 cents eachto over 30 cents each. Rice had doubled in price. Water,electricity, and telephones had been cut off and may not berestored for yet another month.He conveyed how the government had told the people thatthe storm would last for 30-60 minutes, and that everyoneshould return home and wait out the storm. The stormstarted at 11 pm on Saturday night and lasted twelve hours.He said the last five hours were the worst. We read that peakwinds were assessed at 135 mph. It was overwhelming to seethe beautiful city of Yangon torn apart as 100 year old treeswere uprooted everywhere, billboards torn to shreds, twistedmetal everywhere, power lines and telephones poles snappedand lying on the ground, and many roofs’ torn off buildings.One of our contacts reported that his good friend returned tohis village where he grew up and found the whole villagegone. All of his family, relatives and the people he grew upwith are completely gone. I can’t imagine the grief this youngman must be facing. How would I handle returning to theplace I grew up to find everyone gone and the placedevastated?The next day God did something I’ve never seen before inBurma. Our contact was able to bring more than 300 peoplefrom Shwee’s village into the city of Yangon where our teamwas able to minister to them. Most of the people are fromBuddhist and Hindu backgrounds, but we were able to prayfor the people individually. Many of them are very fearfuland asked that we pray for God to give them courage andstrength.One of the team members was able to share the message of hope through Jesus Christ to the 300, and to tell the peoplethat there are many people around the world who love andpray for them and want to help their country. The peopleclung to every word that he spoke, as they are so desperatefor hope. It was awesome to see their rapt attention as heshared the words of life through Jesus Christ.After ministering to the people, we were able to serve them ahearty meal with meat and rice. The team demonstrated thecharacter of Jesus as we waited on the people. After the meal,many of the people thanked us. They were so grateful. Wethen held a free medical clinic, and over 120 people wereprayed for and given medicine after being checked out by aBurmese doctor.Before returning to their village, we were able to give thepeople some rice to help their families. We helped carry theirrice to the trucks waiting to take them back to their village.We told them “We are Christians from America and havecome to help.” I’m thankful for the opportunity that we hadto serve the people and in awe of how God gave us theopportunity not just to tell people the Gospel but todemonstrate it as well .

THE LAST DAY WE WERE INBURMA WE VISITED A SMALLORPHANAGE AND WERE ABLETO DELIVER THREE BAGS OFRICE TO HELP THE 25CHILDREN LIVING THERE.

It was sadto see the downed trees everywhere, but a blessing to seemore children who love Jesus. We spent over an hour withthem singing and ministering to them. Before leaving wewalked around the compound and were shocked to see theboys’ quarters. Their dormitory is a small hut that wascompletely inundated by rain during the cyclone; it standsover the pig sty.Before leaving Burma our contact reported that there are over6,000 children who have been orphaned due to the cyclone.Our hearts are burdened for the many orphans, so we are