Justice or “just-us”?

A friend recently challenged me to articulate what were the most important issues to me this election, and to explain why as a Christian, I felt those issues were important.  Whew!  I confess to usually being somewhat politically lazy (not feeling like my vote makes any difference…not doing the actions for responsible citizenship), but after watching friends from Burma who have attained citizenship in the US  demonstrate anew to me the PRIVILEGE I have of being a citizen and being able to have a voice and a vote, I repent.  

Decisions for me usually revolve around to trying to find the principle to base the action on.  The belief and principle that most impacts my coming vote is the firm belief that God calls us to seek justice, and that justice is not spelled “just-us.”  I believe I/we need to interact with the world, our society, our churches, our communities, and our families following the principles spoken of in Micah 6:8, “… What does the Lord require of you?  To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God,” and by Jesus in Matthew 7:12, “Always treat others as you would like them to treat you.”

I believe God is prolife.  Consistently pro-life…“pro everyone’s life,” not only the lives of the unborn (and their parents), and not only those who are demographically, economically, racially, culturally, or religiously most similar to us.  Putting my faith into practice might mean being more actively engaged trying to make sure human rights such as life, liberty, physical security, education, access to affordable medical care, food security, clean water, and affordable shelter become available to everyone.  I am convicted this is not optional.  

Equal access to education, jobs with a living wage, childcare and after school programs, are important to me.  Jesus said the gospel was supposed to be “good news for the poor.”  How do the economic policies we support affect those on the bottom of the economic ladder, both in the US and to those affected by our trade policies in other countries?  How do these policies affect children and families?

I agree with those who say we need to protect and strengthen marriages.  But maybe if we look first at our own lives and the lives of those we love, and then do what we can to strengthen, encourage, love and serve each other, maybe this will do more to protect and stabilize families than scapegoating other people and throwing stones at them ever could?  

I value religious freedom.  Therefore, I need to be respectful to those who practice other faiths, or no faith.  If I want tolerance and respect, I may have to give it.  

We need national policy that supports the human rights standards of international law and strongly opposes torture and inhumane treatment of anyone.  Sorry, can’t say  that one gentler.  Torture is wrong!  

I believe our power as a nation should be used in advocating for justice and respect for human rights in places like Darfur, Burma, and Palestine (and others) and exposing and bringing to justice those who commit ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity.  Matthew 5:9 says “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God,”  but can peace and democracy be effectively promoted by starting a war that leads to more people dying and being in poverty, and will leave their country (and ours) paying the price for years to come? 

Mother Theresa said, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”  So, the action part….guess I need to commit to being prayerfully, actively engaged in the system, not taking my liberty for granted and living as though I really really believe that the justice God is concerned about is not for “just-us”.    

 

 

 

You gotta read the book!

Last week in Alaska, I had time to sit and read “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace….One School at a Time,” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. This is my new all time favorite (takes my breath away with hope) book.  It tells the story of Mr. Mortenson helping to build schools in rural villages in Afghanistan and Pakistan, learning from those who know their needs, their culture, and know how to proceed with wisdom appropriate to their communities.  It gives me hope that more of us in more ways can make creative partnerships like this.  We in America have been hugely blessed with resources, but we have SO much to learn from listening to those in communities and cultures we do not understand and that are unfamiliar to us.   Seems like I always learn more by listening than by talking….asking, “How can we serve you?” gets some amazing answers.  Coming into places with our plan of how it’s going to be leads to those we’d like to “help” being left cleaning up our messes behind us.  (At one point in the book the village headman lovingly comes to him in the midst of a mutual project and says, “You’re driving us nuts!  Slow down!)  He has the grace to listen and learn.  The other cool thing with this book…all the experiences of his life that maybe didn’t add up in a conventional way, or fit the average “career path”….. but they all helped him (a mountain climber familiar with places where people ordinarily wouldn’t go who ends up where nobody in their right mind would ever be), to do what he ended up finding to do that mattered.  I’m a real sucker for those kinds of stories!

An example of how this works in another context is the Karen Teacher’s Working Group.  These folks provide teacher training, curriculum and school supplies to IDP schools in Burma.  Not an easy task.  Some of the videos on their web site, and the links to the reports from last year’s material distribution, where people are walking days through enemy territory to get to the mobile trainings or to get supplies for their schools, and very humbling.  It’s worth a look.  Education is hope in contexts of violence, oppression and poverty. Reading “Three Cups of Tea”, and having had the privilege of meeting some of the folks at the Karen Teacher’s Working Group,  convicts me to look for ways to support what they do in a greater way. The Seattle Burma Roundtable  does a raffle every year (this fall) to raises money to help support purchasing school supplies for IDP kids in Burma.  Two dollars buys school supplies for a child for one year.  Pretty good bargain, huh?  For less than the price of one well-loved latte, I could help educate a kid?  Sounds like an investment to me, and I really love coffee. (Will post more when the raffle starts….)

PS  Before I read “Three Cups of Tea,” actually, ever since I was a kid, my favorite book has been “Hinds Feet On High Places,” by Hannah Hurnard. Amazing allegory about the “Chief Shepherd” leading “Much Afraid” on a journey to become more like Him and to grow in faith and grace, in spite of her past, her failures, her present circumstances, her inadequacies, her relatives, her financial situation, or her disabilities….(anyone see where I’m going with this?). I didn’t know ’til I did a web search on her tonight that she’s considered to have gone off the theological deep end later in life.  But, since I’m not a theologian, I think I’ll still treasure the hope that book has given me for years, that God knows my weaknesses, and has a purpose for my life anyway-that I’m not the sum total of my failures.  I’ll try to pay attention to how the journey unfolds so in case something good happens, I don’t miss it.  (Her actual life story proves God is bigger than our fears and that you can do some things for the love of God or of a group of people that you wouldn’t even consider doing for any other reason!)  

Cyclone Relief Update

The following is taken from a report written by a friend who recently came back from the parts of Burma hit by Cyclone Nargis:

“Arriving in Rangoon after two decades away, it’s sad to see how the country hasn’t changed for the better for most people with the exception of few “well-connected citizens.”  Weapons traders, gemtraders, good exporters and drugtraders are the well-to-do in New Burma.  Tayza and the likes may be living in 150,000+ square foot castles with 20 cars parked outfront (including 2 humvees, a yellow Lamborghini, a red Ferrari, a black Cadilliac Escalade, a Mercedes S class, amongst many others).  Our modest hotel in the central Rangoon witness many street kids, homeless people barely struggling to make it through the day.  The pothole-ridden roads of the capital and broken down sidewalks are obvious examples of the nonexistent infrastructure. Justice Building is over taken by trees growing out of it’s clock tower, and the clock is broken.  The state of justice from Burma is apparent by looking at the chief justice building. Hotels are given electricity for the illusion of a normalcy for the tourist. Most citizens of Burma rarely experience continuously sustained electricity for more than a few hours every few days.   

Strategic coordination amongst UN agencies, international agencies and local NGOs and CBO group seem to be lacking. Due to UN and NGO’s close affiliation with military regime and USDA (kyant-phut), many smaller local CBOs are hesitant to work in ways that would make them well known. 

Some villages located close range of Yangon/Laputta, where many NGOs are based out of, seem to get repeated donations while harder to reach areas such as Ngaputaw doesn’t see regular aid. 

Distribution of aid is not transparent.  Many villagers including monks in the Ngaputaw township is taught to say to the junta leadership “we got rice, we got condensed milk,” even when they didn’t receive the aid nor the aid received was not  from the government. 

Many companies and government officials are making money from the Nargis related foreign donations. Companies are getting contracts from government/UN/ASEAN body charging $500-600 per hut that they are building in cyclone ravaged areas when we talked to local CBOs that confirm that it should not cost more than $150 per hut.  Building of these over-charged huts are done with forced labor. Another community based organization had built 75 huts for $150 each, but was being pushed out by the new rules of SPDC on cracking down the donor sources and by high costs imposed by big NGOs.  This group has enough funding to continue to build another a thousand huts, however they are being pushed out slowly with new rules every week.

Clean water is not a problem for cyclone survivors at the moment.  Due to heavy rain, rain water is the most efficient clean water accessible to most people.   It will be something to be of concern when the rainy season is over.

For families where head of household is a single mother, there are no financial assistance coming to them to restart their lives.  Farming and fishing supplies provided by NGOs is not enough to go around at the moment that providing some startup seed money to these families for a small business of paan stand or small home made food stand, etc….”

Working with small community based organizations, they were able to deliver resources donated to purchase food for 13 villages, provide a water reservoir that 13 villages can access, pay costs for medicine and transportation for medical teams for four weeks, provide roofing for a monastery/community center, and pay the salary for a teacher for 9 months in a community where there would otherwise be no school.

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To those who have donated to World Aid, Inc., (or any other group helping with needs in Burma!), thank you.  Your donations do make a difference to those needing some help.

 

 

Why I Love My Husband

Got your attention, huh?  My girls asked me one time, when they were teenagers, to describe what I would consider a hot guy.  I described their dad–they listened well enough to know exactly who I was talking about:) We’ve been married 30 years, as of last month.  I am still amazed at the gentleness and kindness this wonderful man demonstrates in his life and in all of his relationships.  Especially with me.

I’ve had a unique opportunity to observe him this week, getting to fly up to Alaska with our son, Corey, and spend a week with him on his gillnetter.  We fished for two days (something he and Corey had talked about since Corey was old enough to know what a salmon was, I think), and then headed back into town to wait for the next opening.  The seiners were going to fish Wednesday and us little guys would have to wait until Thursday and Friday.  Then the steering went out. 

Now, if you’re going to have your autopilot and your steering go out, this is actually a pretty good time for it.  We weren’t in little tight areas like we had passed through on the way from Juneau to Sitka….we were in a big pretty sound looking at a volcano with some snow still on it.  We crept into town, and the next morning found a guy who could get the part (and didn’t have to fly in from another town).  Since there was nothing we could do besides wait for parts to arrive, we spent a few days hanging out reading, exploring, and enjoying.  Nice. 

We are very different.  I work a 7-5 job in Seattle.  For this year, at least, he’s returned to fishing (what he did before he got married and had kids that he didn’t want to miss raising).  He likes google maps, I like mapquest.  He came to faith as an adult, I was raised in church.  I’m from the COUNTRY, and he was raised in the city (then lived in Alaska).  He can make friends anywhere (as we saw this week, again), I’m awkward in crowds.   He likes taking new routes, I prefer ones where the exit sign is marked and memorized and I’m not as likely to get lost.  He reads and remembers the details, I skim and then go back and read it again and take notes if it was good.  He can organize a project, I’m overwhelmed by sorting through the options…..

BUT even in our diversity, in the important things, we are united.  Both brought back from destruction by the grace of God, both hold faith to be central to our choices and our hopes, both passionate about advocating for justice, both really want to help in practical ways, both willing to be flexible on the not so important things so we can make room for the ones that matter most.  Both willing to honor the gifts each of us have that are different but complimentary to what we can do together.  Both crazy about our kids and each other. 

So, guess my point is, even though we approach a lot of things differently,  that step of faith that took us from planning our lives, to planning our life together was so worth the risk!  A long ways down the road, I realize I am even more blessed than I suspected was possible, to still have this wonderful partner in my life.

A stupid little post

In a world with big needs that need big solutions, this is going to be a stupid little post.  Maybe I’m depressed, or maybe I’ve been reading the news too much lately, but somedays the little tiny things I can contribute to make anything better seem so pathetically small I wonder “why bother?”  BUT, then I read something like this post I saw the other day on http://simplymissional.com/2008/07/29/what-is-standing-in-the-way-of-your-dream/ about “What Is Standing in the Way of Your Dream?”  And then I pick myself up off the mat, and am reminded again, as Chris Marlow says in that post, God cares a lot more about people in extreme poverty than I do, and that God’s heart is broken by the needs that are out there that we are all called to help meet.  

I was graphically reminded of that lesson a few years ago when I came home from work and walked in, and my husband (who is amazing!), had come up with a great idea on how to raise money to help support IPDs in Burma (where our hearts are connected to).  ”Let’s do a food booth and sell chicken curry at the local county fair.”  My tired brain had two thoughts: a) Cool, a way to help, and b) Where’s the money going to come from?  Now, not being totally stupid, I decided to go upstairs and have a chat with God about thought B (the money issue).  While I was on the way up the stairs to go think about this, the phone rang.  My husband picked up and it was the attorney that had closed the deal on our house six or seven years earlier, and he said he was retiring, and, go figure, he owed us money.  The check was in the mail……he had sent us $800. (Jeremiah 33:3 paraphrased: “…while you’re still asking, the answer’s already on the way…..)  

After I quit crying,  jumping up and down and shrieking in disbelief and gratitude, I was left with the lesson–God cares SO much more than we do.  And if we will do our part, He’ll help us find creative ways to partner with Him.  The food booth did happen.  We had never done this (not sure we’d ever do it again:), but we worked with 40 volunteers from all parts of the community, some  who might never have met each other otherwise, and sold huge quantities of chicken curry at a local very country fair and were able to send $1800 profit to those who needed what that money could provide through World Aid, Inc.  A small thing, but I hope to never lose the reminder it provided to me….show up.  Do what you can.  Do SOMETHING!  Giving up or quitting is not an option.  We are blessed, so we’ve got to find ways to use our blessings to help others.  

Mother Theresa quote for the day: “We are called to do small things with great love”.  

God help us!

Forced Returns of Karen Refugees to Burma

On July 17th, Thai paramilitary forces rounded up 52 Karen from two refugee camps in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province along the Burma border and, while they permitted 17 students to stay on the Thai side, sent 35 of the refugees across the border to Ei Tu Hta relocation site in Burma.  (See link from Human Rights Watch).   http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/07/18/thaila19401.htm

a) This is wrong! It is called “refoulement” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refoulement) .  These civilians fled the fighting in Burma in early 2008.  Now they are being forced back into an active war zone with the Burma Army.  

 b)  According to an announcement sent out by Partners Relief & Development, “the camp committee arranged 2 weeks of food rations (rice, salt, fishpast and cooking oil) as well as 20 large plastic sheets from their emergency stock and these items were allowed to be sent with this group of people. However the Thai Rangers did not allow any other NFIs such as blankets, mosquito nets, mats, cooking pots, etc to be sent, the reason being given that they have a very limited budget and cannot afford an extra boat for this trip“.   

According to local refugee sources, more forced returns are threatened.  There are currently an estimated 20,000 unregistered people out of the 148,000 in the nine Karen and Karenni refugee camps along the border.  

Help in meeting the basic needs of internally displaced people in Ei Tu Hta can be provided through Displaced Persons Response Network, Partners Relief & Development or World Aid, Inc.

Certain Inalienable Rights….

Wikipedia describes “inalienable rights” as follows: “Inalienable (Individual) Rights are: natural rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They are the most fundamental set of human rights, natural means not-granted nor conditional. They are applicable only to humans, as the basic necessity of their survival”. wikipedia

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (linked below) is pretty breathtaking reading.  http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html  I wonder how many people are like me and have heard about it and never read it, until now.  Wonder if those writing it thought it would help end genocide-that never again would the world have to figure out how to respond to the nightmare war and massacre and ethnic cleansing could become.  Wonder if they could imagine that Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur would happen anyway. Wonder if nations would still talk, instead of act.  Wonder if they could imagine an illegal military dictatorship blocking aid to those suffering a disaster like Cyclone Nargis, hoping a natural disaster would finish what their disastrous policies had already been working on. Wonder what would happen if all of us everywhere held our governments to the standards set out in that document, not just as they apply to our countrymen and women, families, friends, religions or ethnic groups, but as the inalienable rights of all people everywhere?  What if we lived, acted and voted, like human rights were for everyone?

Front Films-”Prayer for Peace-Relief & Resistance in Burma’s War Zones”

“Prayer for Peace” http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=80614341076993397&hl=en shows the struggle of the Karen in Burma.   (This is only a 3 minute excerpt from the 28 minute film).  Their blog is SO worth the read http://blog.frontfilms.com/.  Words are sometimes inadequate and easily glossed over.  This isn’t.

“This is Our Land” http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5273089644495608550&hl=en (also by Front Films) is a 4 minute documentation of the IDP situation.

Video from Burma: SHOOT ON SIGHT

Words are inadequate to describe some situations….this short video from Witness posted on You Tube (from Sept. 2007) describes the IDPs (internally displaced peoples) situation in Burma

  

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SPSsKcpxJMk

“To ACT NOW: www.witness.org/shootonsight. Video advocates BURMA ISSUES travel deep into the jungles of eastern Burma to document one of the world’s most urgent and most forgotten emergencies. (The video was co-produced with WITNESS)”

For current info on the situation: www.freeburmarangers.org

For other insights on how to advocate for those in Burma: http://www.partnersworld.org/advocacy.html

 and Christian Solidarity Worldwide http://csw.org.uk/TakeAction/Protest/index.htm

Other ways I’ve seen people help: getting a group together to make mother and child packs for the Good Life Club (http://www.prayforburma.org/IDX/Get_Involved/GLC/), hosting a Run for Relief in their city or at their sports club (info@freeburmarangers.org can give you info on how to do this), having a concert and donating the funds, attend monthly meetings of the Seattle Burma Roundtable http://students.washington.edu/burma/activities.html at the Greenwood Library on 1st Tuesday of the month for more ideas and action alerts, joining US Campaign for Burma uscampaignforburma.org.

If you have good ideas, I’d love to hear them!

Justice or righteousness?

It amazes me how important the choice of one word can be, either in politics, or in an argument, or even theologically.  Like a lot of American Christians, I have several Bibles, and don’t read any of them as much as I should.  (Working on that).  I was raised with the King James version (that definitely dates me!).  Learned verses like Matthew 6:33 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you, ” along with other Christians of my generation.  It’s a famous verse and a nice song. 

But that version doesn’t impact me nearly as much as the same verse taken from The New English Bible, which says: ”Set your mind on God’s kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest will come to you as well.” 

Hate quibbling about words….but this one makes me think.  Maybe ’cause I was raised on King James, (and have a thick head and hard heart at times), words can bounce off of me pretty well-lack of impact due to familiarity?  Reading in a different translation sometimes gets my attention better (or hearing the words and principles in a song!).  Righteousness seems like it’s about behaving well, or just about God instead of me.  Seeking justice pulls at me as a call to action, and highlights how ineffective some of my inaction/attempted action is at times….it calls me to more.

(The New English Bible also uses justice, just or judgment in a lot of the other verses where King James uses righteousness….another reminder to me that God cares about justice and so  should I).

I love it/hate it, when someting starts to get through to me.  Usually calls me to humility and change…..

Watch, Report, Condemn and Move One….?

Benedict Rogers, (see link) points out some parallels between Burma and Zimbabwe that we should all take notice of:

“ As the world focuses now on the crisis in Zimbabwe, the parallels between Robert Mugabe’s reign of terror in that failed state and the disaster unfolding in Burma are stark. Both countries, former British colonies, were once the most prosperous in their regions – Zimbabwe, the “bread basket” of Africa and Burma, the “rice bowl” of Asia. Both are now ruled by paranoid tyrants who have ruined their economies and terrorised their people. In both countries, there is a legitimate democratic opposition that has won elections but been denied their rightful place in government. The rulers of both nations remain in power illegitimately, having stolen their elections through intimidation, harassment, and rigging – or simply by ignoring the real result. And in both countries, the regimes are guilty of the same sad litany of human rights violations: torture, rape and murder, and the refusal to allow international aid organisations to help their people. And yet, so far in both countries the world’s politicians and media watch, report, and condemn – and then move on”.  http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=603  

http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/jul13a_2008.html#Z8

Zaw Nay Aung writes (see link above): “When a country is facing a significant challenge of humanitarian disasters, the international community has to intervene to resolve the conflicts rather than doing nothing and calling it an “internal affair.” Is it the right thing to do to let people die from natural disasters such as Cyclone Nargis in Burma or man-made disasters such as extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions and “mass intimidation’” against people who speak for justice, freedom and equality of prosperity? If you look at the recent events in Zimbabwe and Burma, the authoritarian regimes and their militias violently cracked down on the opposition and controlled power undemocratically and illegitimately. Although the UN actions are initiated, the powerful “vetoes” have been overriding the process of resolving political stalemates in Burma and Zimbabwe.”

http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/jul13a_2008.html#Z6

In Burma after the cyclone, while governments and international organizations waited for “permission” from an illegal regime to save lives,  people took things into their own hands.  Using any resources that could be acquired, and any local networks already in place, people helped each other.  In the words of one church leader quoted in Mr. Rogers article: “….nothing, not even the regime’s obstruction deterred them from the sacred duty of saving lives.”  

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Solving world problems or understanding political solutions is way, way beyond my simple mind (obviously).  It’s enough of a challenge to stick to the basics, and try to treat other people the way I would want my kids, my family, and my community to be treated if I were in their shoes.  Doing enough isn’t possible, but doing NOTHING is not an option.  In the words of Mother Theresa, “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”  (Sometimes, seems like that’s what it’s going to take!)

Chid sexual abuse

 

Warning, I’m angry!  Heard another story this week of yet another young woman trying to deal with the memories of abuse suffered at the hands of people she should have been able to trust as a child.  (There are too many stories, and yes, I know it’s not just women telling them).

 

A long time ago, I watched a friend’s child have to testify in court against her step dad for his crimes against her humanity.  I will never forget.  As a naive Christian (I’m still a Christian, but hopefully less naive about the reality of evil and of people making really sucky choices and doing awful things to each other all over the world), I was left appropriately speechless.  Pat answers, platitudes, and cliches come up pretty coldly empty at that point.  What do you say in the face of evil?  

 

The only hope I could find in that moment grew into the poem below….    

 

The Betrayal

 

The night is dark and stormy

There’s a cold wind in my soul

Seems like I’ve been torn apart

And never will be whole.

The suffocating weight that rests

Upon my broken heart

Holds me in my silence–
Lord, when will the healing start?

 

I cast about in frantic hope

That there might somehow be

Someone who can reach out

To break these chains and set me free.

But who can know the torment?

Who can really comprehend

Unless they too have been betrayed

By loved one or by friend?

 

As I cower in desperation

And in fear of what shall be,

A picture comes to mind

I know that you have given me…

I see you hanging on a cross

In agony betrayed,

Naked, torn and bleeding

So that we can be saved.

The one who lived and walked with you,

With whom you shared your soul

Was the person who betrayed you—

All my agony you know!

 

 

 

(Please do not misunderstand my point….I am not in any way trying to trivialize the suffering, grief, betrayal, rejection and incredible damages done by people who do this stuff!  I am only trying to say it’s OK to be really honest with the rage, anger, pain, betrayal and that, since God knows what you’re thinking anyway, talk to Him about it.  Jesus also was betrayed by someone He had shared life with.  Don’t let the abusers win, and destroy you.  Your life is worth more than that!)

 

 

“We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality….Take the mercy, accept the help.”  (Hebrews 4:15-16 The Message). 

 

Cyclone Nargis Relief Update

Sent from friends on the ground now, meeting with community based organizations working to meet the many needs….

“All teams we met with so far are focused on four key things in order of priority:
1. meds
2. farming
3. education
4. rebuilding

Meds are a priority for some CBOs still making weekly medical visits to villages.   Team of 4 doctors spend about $200-$250 worth of meds every week treating 300 patients every Sat/Sun weekly. XXX and villages around there are not getting any help from anyone that we are trying to identify CBOs that are willing to go there to provide assistance to them. 

For farming, timing is everything.  KBC is focused on getting tractors to farmers on time so that they can plow in time. There are two more weeks of plowing and seeding time before the season is over. They need 13-15 big tractors @ $1600 a piece ASAP.  They took a huge loan out and bought a bunch of small 1-wheel tractors and got them distributed already. They will also need about 5000 fertilizer bags for 231 villages at $9 a piece. Maybe start a “adopt a village campaign”?.  

Education is another area.  Most schools are reopened, and the kids in those villages need $ for cash to buy uniform and text books.  Estimated needs are $30 per year for elementary school students, $50 per year for middle school students and $80 per year for high school students. Total # of students needing to assistance go to school is 1121 elementary, 533 middle school, 206 high school kids over 240+ villages that our contacts are working in.

Building is still in progress, and there are many villages that is yet to rebuild properly. Rebuilding a hut will cost $90-300 depending on location, family size and materials. 

More news to follow…..

 

 

Cyclone Relief-Two Opinions

An article in yesterday’s Irrawaddy states “an estimated 46% of families in Burma’s Irrawaddy delta have less than two days’ worth of food, according to an initial post-disaster assessment….Food shortages were just part of the preliminary findings, with 60% of households reporting inadequate access to clean drinking water…59% of homes in the delta were severely damaged in the storm and subsequent tidal surge.”  A team of more than 300 people representing a variety of views, solutions and local and international agencies are participating in “the first systematic look” at the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis and the military dictatorship’s response to it.  (See the article: http://www.irrawaddy.org/print_article.php?art_id=12998)

The second article linked below, by Save the Children, gives the good news that the “vast, vast majority of people” have received some aid.  The bad news is “almost no one has received the level of assistance they need to survive and rebuild their lives.”  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7477577.stm

 I guess the good news is that someone is finally being able to assess the damage and make a plan for future needs and create a basis for sharing information between parties involved in the solution.  The bad news is, while media/world attention wanders off to the next disaster, those in the delta will still be trying to survive on their resilience and creativity and little else.  As a westerner, it’s hard for me to even start to understand what it is like to barely survive (to have the limited choices in basic matters that poverty forces on you), and then what it’s like to have a lot of those choices ripped away by circumstances way beyond your control…I will never understand.  However, as a mother, I understand, you do what you must to survive and to try to ensure the survival of your kids. But we can do better.  

An internet search will reveal lots of large, and some small, organizations working to help provide assistance to those in the delta.  I don’t know people from the large organizations, but I do know the people at Thirst Aid, Partners Relief & Development, World Aid, Inc., and Free Burma Rangers, who are supporting the work of the networks already in place before the cyclone, and working with the community based organizations of all faiths, any faith, or no faith, who are able to get relief to their people.  If you can give, choose a way to give.  If you can pray, please do, for whatever disaster or people your heart connects to.  If you can advocate for justice, please do whatever large or small steps, you feel compelled to do! If you can do all three, better yet.  Thanks!

 

How Do You Change the World?

You get a different answer from every person you ask.  The most famous answer probably comes from the Bible (Mark 12:31 “Love your neighbor as yourself” — or the paraphrased version …”Treat other people the way you want to be treated”). Our friend, Dan Imburgia*, wrote one of the best, simplest, most profound answers I’ve ever heard in the song below, “A Heart Like Yours.”  

A Heart like Yours

            by Dan Imburgia
Jesus give to us a heart like yours so that we can love
And learn to care the way you do.
Jesus give to us peace like yours to rule our hearts
And know our father’s will the way you do.
Jesus give to us tears like yours, help us learn to cry
And share the burdens the way you do .

Jesus give to us a heart like yours so that we can love
And learn to care the way you do.
Jesus give to us eyes like yours help us see the truth
And to see a person the way you do.
Jesus give to us a mind like yours, help us understand
And take the time to listen the way you do.

Jesus give to us a heart like yours so that we can love
And learn to care the way you do.
Jesus give to us grace like yours though we don’t deserve
So we’ll forgive the way you do.
Jesus give to us a joy like yours
Then we’ll be complete
And with gladness serve the way you do.

Help us to become a new creation
When we walk in the light we’re walking with you
Then we’ll have enough light left over to share with a neighbor.
When the darkness is gone we’ll find something old is made new.

(*We met Dan and his wife, Lynda, when a friend of theirs came to church one Sunday with about 10 little kids following her in.  Judy was taking care of kids for people in various transitional states and after church we went and took a bunch of bread and peanut butter to her many peopled household.  She invited us to a home group that met at her house on Friday nights, and there we met some of the best friends we’ve ever had, people we’re still really lucky to count as friends years later, now that all the kids are grown and some have kids of their own.  These were the kind of friends that  taught us that faith is meant to be lived and to change everything it touches and that community isn’t just a place you live, it’s all the relationships that make life meaningful while you do life together.  I’m grateful for Dan & Lynda, Lance & Shellie, Terry, Jim & Maureen, Johny & Judy and the many others that wandered through those years…very grateful! )

Favorite Mother Theresa quote of the day: “If we have no peace, it’s because we have forgotten we belong to each other.”