Christian's in Burma - Allowed to distribute aid.

As Burma’s military junta continues to shut the door on large-scale foreign aid, local Christians are doing their part to help foreign aid agencies bring vital relief to the millions who have been left destitute in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.
The official death toll soured over the weekend to 134,000, whilst 2.4 million remain in need of emergency assistance. Yet the Burmese Government has refused to admit large-scale foreign aid for fear that its stranglehold on power will be compromised.
Christian children’s charity Global Care has managed to bypass the Burmese Government’s restrictions on foreign aid workers by sending funds to its partners on the ground in Burma. They are working with local Christian volunteers to bring relief items to their own hard hit communities.
The military junta has given local Burmese Christians permission to distribute aid within the ravaged Irawaddy Delta. The Global Care funds have enabled them to purchase vital food, water and shelter materials, and distribute them to those in greatest need, including orphanages, children’s day centres and schools in the Rangoon area.
Global Care is urging churches in the UK to support its emergency £50,000 Burma appeal.
Ron Newby, CEO and founder of Global Care, said: “With the help of churches throughout the UK we can now directly channel funds to help this ‘consortium’ of Christian believers to significantly increase their relief work in some of the worst-affected areas.
“We thank God for this way through the political complexities that have compounded this disaster, ensuring this vital aid effectively and reliably reaches those who need it the most.”
Although Global Care’s orphanage, day centre and Bible School in Rangoon were destroyed in the cyclone, all the children and students within their care survived.
‘J’, the leader of Global Care’s work in Rangoon, writes: “We are in great terrible need, but praise God that he kept us safe. Please pray for us. Our urgent needs are for clothing, blankets, food and fuel.
“We are now eating just one meal a day of rice soup because we do not have enough money for rice. Medicines are also needed as the disaster has caused us to suffer diseases.”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is to visit Burma this week in the hope of securing aid access in a meeting with junta leader Than Shwe, who has refused calls from the UN chief since the cyclone hit two weeks ago.
Britain’s Asia minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said on Sunday that diplomats had come closer to brokering an aid deal with the junta that could go some way to appeasing their deep distrust of the West.
Aid agencies are warning that the death toll will almost certainly rise considerably unless more aid reaches survivors. The UN’s World Food Programme said it had managed to bring rice and beans to just 250,000 of the 750,000 people it believes urgently need food.
Reports on Burma’s state television showed the 74-year-old Senior General meeting ministers involved in the rescue effort in Rangoon, and touring some of the affected areas.
"It is not insignificant that he has been forced out of his lair," one Yangon diplomat said. "There are obviously some in the military who see how enormous this is, and how enormously wrong it could go without further support."

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More than 22,000 killed in Myanmar (Burma) cyclone - they need our help!

Cyclone Nargis slammed through a 30,000 square kilometer (over 18,600 miles) coastal area of Myanmar over the weekend, leaving destruction and death in its wake. Government run radio has confirmed 22,464 dead and as many as 30,000 missing the hardest hit area of the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region and Yangon. Tidal waves, some up to 12 feet high, were reported to have killed most of the victims in that region. The United Nations (UN) also reports up to 1 million people have been left homeless. The Church of the Nazarene's Southeast Asia (SEA) Field and mission personnel have been trying to establish contact with local church leaders but communication is extremely difficult. Several of the 21 Nazarene churches in Myanmar are located in areas hit by Nargis. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) and Field personnel hope to travel into Myanmar later this week to survey the situation and distribute relief supplies of basic food items, water, and emergency shelter. NCM is coordinating with other international relief and aid agencies in an endeavor to collaborate for an effective response to this disaster. Please continue to pray for the families of those killed in the cyclone, as well as those still missing. SEA Field NCM and mission personnel, partnering with the local church, would also appreciate prayerful support as they encounter significant challenges.Persons and churches wishing to contribute to the relief efforts can mark their checks "Myanmar Cyclone" and send them to: Global Treasury Services, 6401 The Paseo, Kansas City, MO 64131. In Canada, checks should be made payable and sent to the Church of the Nazarene Canada, 20 Regan Road, Unit 9, Brampton, Ontario L7A 1C3. --NCN News--Asia-Pacific

Response of Other Christian Agencies

Christian Aid is responding to the devastation as well, already having committed £50,000 for local partners to carry out relief work. Ever since the Cyclone first hit on May 3, Christian Aid staff have been attempting to contact partners in Burma, but finding lines of communication has been difficult with power and telephone systems down. Christian Aid also points to Myanmar's lack of an early warning system as a concern that needs to be remedied for the future.
Samaritan's Purse is reporting that in addition to the rising death toll, some 41,000 people are missing. Many more are homeless, thanks to a 12-foot storm surge that swept away entire towns and villages.
Thankfully, Samaritan’s Purse has a team of water specialists who were in Myanmar when the storm hit. Other Samaritan’s Purse emergency teams in Southeast Asia are mobilizing to respond to needs for food, water, and emergency shelter.
World Vision is estimating that overall, 2 million people have been or will be affected by Nargis's devastation, therefore shelter and water are the most urgent needs as World Vision launches a "full-scale" response. They are asking for $3 million in global donations to provide that aid to children and families.
"News is only slowly trickling out of the country, but it is clear from the information already available that this is a major catastrophe demanding an urgent response," says Dean Hirsch, president of World Vision International. "My greatest concern is for the children of Myanmar who will be especially vulnerable at this time. We must get them shelter, clean water, and food as quickly as possible. The threat of the spread of disease is always at the door when people are living in such conditions and children are the most likely to succumb to illness."
The government of Myanmar has invited World Vision to provide assistance in the form of zinc sheets, tents, tarpaulins, and medicine. World Visision is also coordinating with authorities to explore an airlift of emergency supplies into the country from one of its global warehouses.

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Rambo in Burma

Christian Freedom International (CFI) is urging the global community to call on the Burmese Government to end the large-scale violence that has caused the deaths of thousands of its own citizens, as thousands more continue to stream into refugee camps.
The challenge comes as Rambo IV releases in theatres worldwide. In the early stages of the script's development, Sylvester Stallone consulted with Soldiers of Fortune magazine and asked one where on earth the worst atrocities were taking place but receiving the least amount of attention. The magazine’s answer was Burma.
In the latest instalment of the 20-year-old Rambo movie franchise, Stallone attempts to revive his protagonist character, John Rambo, where the Vietnam veteran is living a solitary, peaceful life in Bangkok, Thailand - until the day he's summoned to escort a group of Christian missionaries up the Salween River to deliver relief aid to war-weary refugees in Burma.
When the missionaries fail to return from their trip nearly two weeks later, the veteran is once again approached by the missionaries' pastor, who pleads for his help in locating the aid workers that have been kidnapped by the Burmese army.
CFI, the US-based Christian humanitarian agency, anticipates that the movie's recent release will “draw more attention to the grim reality of the world's oldest civil war”, in a country where Karen and Karenni Christians have been especially suffering for decades.
CFI is headed by former White House policy analyst to the Reagan administration, Jim Jacobson, who has frequently visited Burma to personally deliver aid and encouragement to displaced Christians in the region.
He is currently on location in Burma, delivering Bibles and urgently needed medical supplies to Karen and Karenni refugees.
Since 1996, Christian Freedom International has built schools, orphanages and field hospitals, as well as provided food, medicine and Bibles for thousands of suffering Christians in Burma. The organisation also remains an active voice in the political arena on behalf of Burma's refugees, and in recent months worked closely with the US State Department to assist with the resettlement effort that is allowing many of the country's exiles to begin new lives in the United States.
CFI warned that even with many Burmese living as refugees abroad, “thousands more remain in grave danger as they continue to flee from the Burmese army”.