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Stephanie Fisk was on my squad for the World Race in 2007. She is now leading another squad on the World Race for 2008. This is one of her recent posts about her teams experience in Myanmar. This is what it’s all about; bringing God’s Kingdom here to earth. This is our calling.
Imagine 75% of your county wiped out. We heard stories of mothers losing the majority of their families and individuals clinging to coconut trees for hours to survive. As their families were stripped from their lives, also was the feeling and vision of hope.
Currently, life in the Delta is in survival mode. Every day they wait for rice bags to arrive, rebuild bamboo homes, and relocate orphans due to lack of space. The rice fields are still soaking in salt water and much of the cattle were lost during the storm. Food is scarce and children go to school under UNICEF tarps.
Getting there involved an arduous journey. The road to the delta was long, hot, bumpy and wearying. At one point the ancient van ground to a halt after a particularly jarring rut. “Ah, we get out and push,” said our translator. So we got out and pushed the van. It started again, we hopped in, and went, chuckling, on our World Race way. Fifteen hours over the bumpiest, most potholed roads – not a single minute went by without braking hard or bouncing over a huge hole brought us to the city of LaButta, the largest city in the Irrawaddy Delta. Cyclone Nargis hit the area in May 2008, devastating villages all around and killing about 130,000 people.
We weren’t supposed to be there.
 Only Burmese government officials and a few NGOs were allowed to go into the delta. Aid workers only. No tourists.
Until we arrived.
The road to LaButta is lined with the remnants of wooden houses (in the States they would have been called shacks) that had been blown away by Nargis.
Some were still being lived in, with tarps over their bamboo-woven roofs. Many were in shambles on the ground.
Team member Katie Rowland described the following stop along the way: “I hopped out of the van once to find somewhere off the road to relieve myself, and found myself literally on top of another destroyed house. Suddenly I noticed an older woman sitting in the rubble of the house. “Minglaba,” I said, greeting her in Burmese. Bamboo rods and woven mats were scattered over the old site, and all that was still standing was a huge water jar, the kind you find outside most village houses in Southeast Asia. The woman kindly pointed me to the back of the once-house, where larger bushes would hide me from any passers-by.”
 Once we arrived, we linked up with a local church. Since Cyclone Nargis hit, the church has grown with 70 new people giving their lives to Christ. Formerly, most of the church members had been Buddhist. But they’ve found hope in Jesus that they never found in Buddha. As they meet in a wooden shack and pray on woven straw mats, they’re defying their government, which endorses Buddhism.In a wooden shack on woven mats the body of Christ rises to its knees and cries out in prayer. Fervency and desperation mark their cries as they clasp their hands in front of their chests, or hold them open to God, asking Him to bring His KINGDOM to their country. To Myanmar.
While there, here is what we heard:
Their hearts are begging for hope. Will you help us help the people of Myanmar rebuild their church? They say it will cost $8000. Please join us. The People of Myanmar need YOU! Please help us help those who were devastated by the cyclone last spring…
Send checks to:
Write checks out to “Adventures in Missions” and in the ‘for’ line write “World Race Ministry – Myanmar.”
If you prefer, you may click here to donate online through AIM’s secure website. Please indicate “World Race Ministry – Myanmar” in the box.
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Survivors’ hunger pains, 
