We received the following from one of our Friends In Mission in Thailand, Partners Relief & Development, regarding relief efforts for those struck by the devastating cyclone in Burma. Please read it, and please give thoughtful, prayerful consideration to helping Steve and the people at Partners.
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Silver Moon is a Living Miracle
311 Out of 400 people From Her Village Died on May 2nd ... She Lived
Silver Moon is a bright-eyed 11-year-old. She is an orphan; one of hundreds of survivors Partners is now embracing to protect, provide, and care for. She is one of nine cyclone survivors my family and I met two weeks ago in Mae La Refugee Camp near the Thai-Burma border. Her four siblings, mother, and father were all swept away by the tidal waves that flattened her village in the delta of Burma. She survived the night of May 2nd after being battered by waves and debris while clinging desperately to a large banana tree. Silver Moon is a living miracle.
Your generous support has helped hundreds of children like Silver Moon. The widows, orphans, and vulnerable people in the delta continue to depend on our efforts and your support for the essentials they need to survive. Please continue to pray, and if you can, give.
Saw Keh Leh is Silver Moon's uncle and the leader of his village. His story best epitomizes what happened to the humble farmers in the delta. Like Saw Keh Leh, many of the survivors are ethnic Karen. In the middle of describing his ordeal he said this with tremendous pain in his voice:
"Then the force of the waves and, after a while, the force of the wind, made the church collapse. The small children that we had wanted to save so desperately all fell into the water and drowned. I was holding my youngest daughter. The water covered my head and I tried to keep my arms in the air, and my daughter above the water. But I could not hold on as the water knocked me off my feet and we were swept away. When I hit a tree, I clung to my daughter and I held on to the tree. God's grace and that tree saved our lives."
"All night I held on to that tree while the water rushed around me. I did not know what was happening to the people I loved. At 3 am the water level and waves started to decrease and soon it was all back in the ocean. What I saw was the destruction of my world. Everything was gone. There were dead people on the ground; however, miraculously, I found my own son still alive. He is only 9, and he survived the night by holding on to a cluster of bamboo. Out of 400 people in my village, there were less than 100 of us still alive. All the others were gone. We were so exhausted after the night of fighting with death that we had no strength left to bury the dead."
To read the rest of his account visit our blog. To learn more about our cyclone relief work in the Burma, please visit our cyclone page.
Partners continues to send supplies and funds into the Delta region of Burma. Thanks to your generosity we have been able to send in substantial resources to support 25-30 national relief teams currently serving in the delta. These teams and the vital provisions they are providing are saving lives. While the regime continues to block access, our guys keep pressing on and finding ways into remote communities of people who would otherwise be left to die.
The reports we are hearing suggest that tens of thousands are now at risk due to a lack of water, sanitation, food, shelter, and medical care. Our work, and the many teams we equip, are out on the front line of this disaster saving lives and demonstrating God's compassion. Thank you for being a crucial part of the lifeline of love and aid to these teams and the desperate people they are reaching. Please pray that shattered lives would be healed, and give so that we can continue to provide food, shelter, and hope to Silver Moon and her people.
Pressing On,
Steve Gumaer, Executive Director
Partners Relief & Development
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