Vision for Burma

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

In Isaiah 44, God’s Word says “You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one. All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant to their own shame. Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing?” Ninety-six percent of the people in Burma worship false gods who can profit them nothing. The Buddhist roots of Burma are evident everywhere. Their gods do not answer prayer. The prayers go up, but to no avail; they do not have the power to save. We serve the God who made all things; He stretched out the heavens and spread out the earth. There is no God besides Him.

With that knowledge we are given a tremendous responsibility to share truth with those who do not know the Good News. It is written in Romans 10, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’“ Oh Lord, let us be those feet!

Pray For

• A Breaking Down of the False gods
• Deception keeping people in bondage to false religions will be broken.
• The truth to be proclaimed fearlessly.
• Laborers to be sent into the Harvest field.

Cyclone Nargis struck May 3rd, 2008, leaving 2-3 million homeless, 60,000 orphans, over 300,000 dead, and $10 billion in damage. Entire villages were destroyed and families wiped out. The government refused all aid. Even 2 years later, the effects are still evident everywhere. Burma was already among the poorest countries of the world; even before the cyclone there was great need. Now, even what they had has been taken from them. Occupations have been destroyed, farmers have lost water buffalo to plow their rice paddies, fishing boats were destroyed, and seed crops were decimated. Many women were widowed and must now support families; orphaned children are in need of shelter and education. Thousands of children are at risk of human trafficking because they have lost the protective covering of their families. Amidst the dark despair we see Christ’s light shine even brighter. We have an opportunity to shine His light before men; that they may see our deeds and glorify our father in heaven.

Pray For: The Recovery

Those who lost family will be comforted and provided for. Opportunities to regain lost livelihoods. Access to shelter and education for orphans.

Burma, with a population of about 56 million, occupies an area slightly smaller than Texas. Eighty-nine percent of the population is Buddhist, 4% Christian, and 7% follow other religions. Religious persecution is common.

In 1989, the military government officially changed the name to Myanmar, as part of a political and cultural reform. Many opposition groups and governments (including the US, UK, Australia, France, and Canada) choose not to recognize the name because the term Myanmar has historically been used as a label for the majority ethnic group rather than the country.

Burma is ruled by a brutal military regime, known for widespread and systematic human rights abuses. It is one of the poorest nations in Southeastern Asia and among the 50 poorest in the world.

Education is only mandatory to the age of 9, and as a result the workforce is largely uneducated. The government is highly corrupt, ranking 178 out of 180 countries worldwide in the corruption perception index. Yet, nothing is hidden from God; He will judge justly.

Pray For: The Nation

• That many will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
• For peaceful transition to a democratic government.
• For an end to human rights abuses.

Join us as we set aside 30 days of prayer for the people of Burma. The 30 day prayer guide will help you focus your prayers an major issues in Burma and help bring to light many of the problems that have gone unnoticed by the west for decades. You will also get to know real people, read real stories and hear testimonies of what God is doing in the lives of your brothers and sisters, even in the midst of unspeakable persecution. 

Burma: A 30 Day Prayer Guide

Now more than ever we need to be praying for the persecuted church in Burma as the nation prepares for its first election in 2 decades. The Burmese military has no need for the Christians and wishes to exterminate them. They choose not only to exterminate them but humiliate them as well. Please be praying that God will bring down the military junta in Burma, that Christianity will be the main religion, and that the election will rise up a leader who will make God given changes to protect the country. Pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters this is the only thing that can save them !

For more information on the violence in Burma you can check out:

www.compassdirect.org

We’ve completed a new orphanage in Burma! Please continue to pray as the need to care for these precious children is staggering.

On Friday morning, Thailand’s border police stormed the Shekinah (Glory to God) orphanage in Mae Hong Son Province near the Burma border, put the names of all the residents on a register and asked them to prepare for deportation, said a worried caretaker.

“If the children go back, they will be killed. This should never happen,” she cried out, adding that she had informed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees about the possible move by the Thai government.

More Via Persecution.Org

Wes and Pat from Vision Beyond Borders have a meeting today with Kirk Cameron to discuss strategies for bringing media attention to the human rights violations in Burma. Please pray that this would be a fruitful meeting!