Burma’s Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has opposed her party registering for forthcoming elections, saying the junta’s new election laws are “unjust”.
View the whole article and the interview audio via Radio Australia
Thousands of Burmese Muslim refugees at an unofficial refugee camp in Bangladesh are facing starvation and acute malnutrition as the government continues to block international humanitarian aid, according to Physicians for Human Rights, a humanitarian watchdog group.
A senior UN official has called for Burma’s military rulers to be investigated over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated against Burmese civilians, in a move that will sharply increase pressure on the isolated regime ahead of controversial national elections due later this year.
More Via www.guardian.co.uk
This Sunday March 14th is the Golbal Day of Prayer for Burma. Please help us get the word out! http://ow.ly/1goeW
We have just arrived back from a trip to the Karen Refugee camps. Wow, it is so amazing to see how God is working there.
At the first camp we went to it felt very spiritually heavy and oppressed and their is a lot of new arrivals that do not yet know the Lord as their savior. Many of them wear a floss bracelet that is intended to protect them and ward off spirits. A very powerful message was preached by one of the ministries beloved contacts and person after person came forward to have the bracelets cut off. You could see and feel the heaviness lift in that place once that happened.
At another camp yesterday I must say we had one of the most powerful days of our lives…all of us. We drove down a very bumpy road for several hours to a place that seemed at the end of the earth home of thousands of refugees. At the area of the camp we went to the children were so happy to see us and started helping unload the 3 trucks of provision. They proudly walked us to their church where we spent the day. We prayed for the new children 25 of them and we held them. Several in the audience were also crying but joy filled their hearts as they were held and comforted by the team and contacts. These children have a heart of servant hood and worship unlike anything we had ever seen. Our contact told us she had to replace the floor once already because it was bamboo but the children praised with such joy they broke the floor and it had to be replaced with cement. The day was spent distributing supplies, praying, worshiping, and loving these precious children.This was the first time other women then our contacts were brought to this camp and it was apparent that these children benefited from a mothers love and fathers to with the two men from our team.
Every child at every camp has a similar story. Most have lost parents one way or another, some have lost siblings, some have looked death square in the face but one thing remains in common the joy of Jesus !
Please be praying tonight as two more team members will be joining us
Please pray for safety of the team as we travel to Nepal tomorrow
Please pray for the work that needs to be done in Nepal with the children’s homes
This update was received from the contact we work with in Thailand:
"Dear friends,
We visited our children home, all these children were attacked last year. We brought them to their new location and just started to build new buildings.
Please, pray for these children, the Thai soldiers are bothering them almost on a daily base and are telling them that they need to go back to Burma. But because of pressure from America on the Thai government, the Thais put a stop on sending the IDPs back. The Thai soldiers are acting on their own, although it is official that all these IDPs and children
will not be send back.
We visited our family camp (142 families who escaped after they were attacked last June) as well. We are providing rice, clothes, food and medicines every two weeks for both places.
We had our hiking trip again beginning of February. God blessed us with enough funds to buy food, aid and medicines for the 24 Karen families (about 100 people). Thank you Jesus!
It was a joy to meet up again after our last visit in November of 2009. During Christmas the Burmese Army crossed into Thailand to look for these families, but they could not find them and left. Praise God. These families are in hiding on the Burma/Thai border. I will send you some testimonies of some of these people later this week.
In November last year, we bought blankets, mosquito nets etc for Karen villagers inside Burma. At that moment the villagers were not in danger and still living in their village. I will also send you a report and pictures of our friends from the FBR, these villagers were attacked in January, it shows the little children in hiding under the blankets we bought for them."
Praise the Lord for the encouraging reports we are already receiving from the team that just left for SE Asia. They have not arrived in Bangkok yet, but already we have heard wonderful stories of waived overweight charges and favor with the airlines. Wes called and he has had a difficult time getting the airlines to waive baggage fees because he is dealing with two separate airlines. They have been willing to waive their own overweight, but not for the other airlines, as they do not have authority to do so.
The team was required to pick up all their luggage in Seattle and check it through with the next carrier to see if they would waive the charges. Not only did they waive the charges, but the supervisor gave his email address so that he can email him before the trips to set up the waiving of charges! Praise God for His faithfulness, and we are so grateful for your prayers.
We also received the following email from a team member who is going on the trip: "With the 3 bags in tow I went up to the counter thanks to the help of the sky cap who knows the work of the organization and he attempted to help me get the bags approved with no charges. The lady at the counter had just received a fine for a similar situation just a day or so before the skycap told me but God intervened and let the bags through with no extra charges.
I wound up to my gate in Denver a whole 3 minutes before boarding…another God thing. Then I arrived in Los Angeles, yes it felt foreign to even be there. After a mile walk and one bus I entered into the Tom Bradley International Terminal where there were paging me….kind of scary! When I got there finally again the flight was already boarding they took my passport and asked about the extra luggage since it was a different airline. After 10 minutes of prayer the head lady came out and said she would waive the charge because United had but it was highly unorthodox…highly God I say. I was the last one on the plane but made it…Praise God."
Praise the Lord for the 7,500 Hmong Bibles we received! Pray God will multiply His Word as it goes out, and that just as He has promised, it will not return void, but will accomplish every purpose for which it was intended.
Please pray for the team as they are traveling and arriving in Southeast Asia. Please pray God will use them to accomplish every purpose he has for this team, pray they will be a blessing to those they come in contact with and be a light reflecting Christ. On this trip they will be interviewing girl’s rescued from sex-slavery. Pray the girl’s testimony will show the incredible restorative love and grace of our Savior. Pray God will use their testimony to help more girls who are in similar circumstances. Pray for protection of the team, equipment, and those being interviewed.
Please continue to pray for New Testament’s for a very closed country. There is a great need, and a short window of opportunity to place these much needed New Testament’s. For $2.50 two New Testament’s can be sent with the matching funds from Voice of the Martyr.
Pray for Flannel Graphs for the ministry to carry overseas. We are receiving many requests again for these wonderful tools. In many remote areas literacy rates are low and people cannot read the written Word. In addition, oral traditions and storytelling are still used in this culture. Flannel Graphs make excellent tools to truly share the Gospel and give visual reminders to increase the amount of information people remember in the Gospel stories. These are highly effective evangelism and teaching tools, and are in great demand overseas. Please pray God will supply this need for His people and use these tools to spread the knowledge of His Word in SE Asia and around the world.
Please pray for the group going to San Quentin Mexico for a missions trip. They are going from a church in Wenachee, and Vision Beyond Borders was able to send 2 pallets of T-shirts, 300 boxes of seeds, and 100 boxes of Sweatshirts. San Quentin is a very small, poor agriculture community in Mexico. Please pray God will use these items to bless the people and that He will be glorified through this team. Pray the people will truly see the provision coming from Jehovah Jirah–the Lord provides.
Pray the Lord will use the contacts Patrick was able to meet at a recent conference to get word out about the Karen. Pray for favor on the ministry and please pray God will be glorified.
Thank you again for your prayer support!!
Patrick and staff
"I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." Psalm 121:1-4
The Burma Army has continued their attacks in Ler Doh Township, Nyaunglebin District, Karen State. Families continue to flee and over 2,000 people are in hiding and running out of food. Free Burma Ranger teams have been to the area and have engaged in land mine clearing, medical relief, and bringing help, hope, and love to the IDPs.
View the photos taken by these teams who are relaying them out.
Join us as we set aside 30 days of prayer for the people of Burma.
