How one man experienced cyclone Nargis & another invitation

If you can bear it, read one man’s account of cyclone Nargis. Great tragedies are composed of many many stories like this one. But in some ways the saddest thing is that out of his suffering the military will gain.

Thbe Burmese Christian Community in West Auckland are putting on a cultural evening and food. Karen, Chin and Kachin groups are involved this is a great chance to hear their singing, see their dances and taste their food. The evening costs $25 and all profits will go to small-scale local cyclone relief:

Sunday 20th July, 5PM to 7PM
Bible College of NZ
221 Lincoln Road
Henderson (traffic light entrance opposite Pak N Save – entrance to dinner through multi-storey carpark building at the end of the drive).

Please reply to:
Adrienne Coats 837 1507
Khun Aung 630 8975
and if possible arrange to pay in advance!

ITN report from Mae Sot

If you can bear it, watch the ITN report from Mae Sot on the Myanmar military dictators and aid to the cyclone victims. The video: Myanmar’s cyclone refugees is available from the CNN site.

It is so sad. I hope it makes you angry too.

Short “video” about the school

I’ve found a new toy for converting photos to video clips (Animoto) it is fairly easy to use, and produces surprisingly good results. Here’s my first attempt, to explain why the school matters, and why helping them finish the roof for the boys’ dorm matters:

Though I had to jump through hoops to get it onto WordPress, it would have been easy on a Blogger blog – it just goes to show you can’t win (or loose) all the time 😉

Pictures and news from PhoPra

Everyone gets stuck in building the new dorm

Stu (of Partners) has been at PhoPra helping with the start of work on the dorm. He sent some pictures, and news of the project. First the corrections and apologies: the roof was not needed to replace the roof on the existing dorm, rather work could not start on the new dorm till there was money to put the roof on (otherwise in the rainy season the work and materials risk getting spoilt while waiting for money for the roof.
One of the old dorms is seen in the background
What you see in these pictures is work starting on the brand new solid, dry dorm. The pictures also give a good idea of the communal nature of such a building project among the Karen.

At the builders’ merchant

So, the money we raised won’t after all be used to replace an old leaf roof, but rather to enable work to be started (and almost finished – just another $1,500 needed from somewhere [a topic for prayer there?])

Pastor Peacefully

Here (on the left) is pastor Peacefully of the Bethel Baptist Church and some of the team. On the right an artistic shot of some cinder blocks shows the hills of Burma in the background.

Cinder blocks and the Karen hills

These are the hills that the families of the village and the children in the school have been chased from by the soldiers of the Myanmar military dictators.

Stu writes of one lad (in the photo on the right) who became special for him.

Last month his home was burnt to the ground by Burma Army. He just came to the Poppra School. I sat him on my knee and had a translator. “Are you afraid”, I asked “Yes” he said. “What of” I asked. “Of the fire” he replied. I then spent the next half hour explaining how Jesus could help him when he was afraid. I told him to call them name Jesus when he saw the flames in his mind. It was the first time he had ever heard of Jesus, he is from a Buddhist family. The little boy was never further than about 10 metres away from me for the next 3 days. I called him “My little shadow”.

There are seventy boys currently in the existing dorm (left).

So, to all of you who helped by contributing to the Party with a Purpose – THANK YOU!