It's a Matter of Perspective

The following is from Spencer Kerrigan, National Director
Partners Relief & Development, USA ...

My full-time work with Partners first began with a significant decrease in pay. I had departed a comfy corporate career, complete with all the trimmings. I wasn't sure how I was going to weather this challenge. Would I be able to make ends meet? Would I have enough left over for a new home project, college tuition, Starbucks?

This job was a sacrifice. Or was it?

Two months into my position, a powerful storm, Cyclone Nargis, slammed into Burma and destroyed large swaths of land in the Irrawaddy Delta. Well over 130,000 people lost their lives. Millions of acres of land were ruined. Thousands of children lost one or both parents and whole communities were blotted out.

The event was catastrophic.

The Burma government defied the international community by refusing aid, blocking supplies from getting to desperate villagers, and doing very little to preserve lives. By all accounts, it appears they deliberately sabotaged the relief effort.

Partners immediately mobilized to deliver aid to the suffering. To date, our team has done the following:

● Sent in 15,000 lbs of Vitameal for food needs
● Sent in 100 rolls of plastic sheeting for shelter
● Sent in 800 heavy-duty tarpaulins
● Sent in 250,000 packs of PuR water purification solution which will provide drinking water for more than 23,000 people
● Sent in 34 UV water filters each with the capacity to provide clean drinking water for 1,000-2,000 people per day
● Sent in 9 Katadyn ceramic water filters each with a 26,000 gallon filtering capacity
● Sent in several hundred pounds of clothes
● Provided and helped facilitate more than $300,000 USD worth of food, shelter, medicine, transportation costs, and communications equipment
● Helped initiate and fund the Delta Network, comprised of more than 120 brave men and women who risk their lives to enter the delta region and bring relief and hope
● Helped create a disaster response network with an NGO on the ground in Rangoon to coordinate fund transfers, relief distribution and communications

Brave men and women risked and continue to risk their lives to transport and deliver medicine, food, shelter, and hope to stranded victims. They are heroes. They could not have delivered practical gifts of love were it not for those of you who generously gave. Literally, thousands of lives have been saved. Thank you.

In spite of the tragedy in the Delta, we have received reports of atrocities continuing in Karen State, Burma. The Burma Army has stepped up attacks on unsuspecting villagers in Walakee. The following was reported by one of our staff:

Villagers from the surrounding areas have come to the border. [The] villagers fear forced [military] portering, being used as land mine sweepers, and the extortion of money. Currently 49 families are along the border and in need of supplies. Villagers were told by the DKBA [a proxy army of the junta] that if they did not return to their villages, they would destroy their rice and corn fields. That day we sent the following: 150 blankets, 150 mosquito nets, plastic, rice, sardines, salt, oil, chiles, cooking pots, and lighters.

Though becoming the National Director of Partners USA has presented certain challenges for my family and I, they pale in comparison to the moms and dads who huddle right now with their children in hide sites in the jungle. These 49 families have literally had their entire world ripped from them - homes, land, livelihood, and in many cases, loved ones. It is likely they will never know the indulgences of our world. Those refinements are simply not to be found in a conflict zone. Its apparent to me that a decrease in my comforts, such as a healthier retirement plan or a fancy coffee, cannot be labeled sacrifice. It's a matter of perspective.

Your partnership with our work is vital. If you would like to immediately help these families, please click here.

We are grateful you continue to stand by us as we strive to love vulnerable, courageous, beautiful people. We simply could not bring emergency supplies and hope to dark, troubled places without your prayers and support.

In the journey,

Spencer Kerrigan

Burma Cyclone Relief: Update

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

Burma Cyclone Relief: Update

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.

They had been sitting under the blazing sun for two weeks. No food. No water. Not even a roof to hide under during the day when the sun was the hottest, nor to hide under when the rain poured down in buckets. They thought they were forgotten. Forgotten by the world. Forgotten by God.

Htoo Wah (name changed) was the answer to their prayers.

The most important link in the chain of aid being delivered in the delta right now are the many men and women who risk capture and incarceration by finding their way through the regime's blockades to help the overwhelming number of vulnerable people in this area. To protect their identity we call them the Delta Network. Their bravery and faith inspires me.

To understand why aid is being blocked from more than 2 million innocent victims, why the Burma Army steals aid that is shipped into the country through "legal" channels, and to grasp the context of the ongoing abuse by the by the regime, please visit our web site and our blog.

The following account is based on a debriefing with Htoo Wah, a Delta Network team leader. He is one of more than 120 ethnic leaders who are working to minister to and rescue people in the delta with financial support and emergency supplies from Partners, The Haven Foundation, and the Free Burma Rangers.

Please pray for Htoo Wah. To do what he does isn't just risky to himself and his team, he also faces the threat of retaliation to his wife and children. Thank you for standing alongside us to bless the people of Burma today.

Inspired by Faith in Action,
Steve Gumaer, Executive Director

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A Delta Network Rescue Story
With 10,000 dollars, a heart full of faith, and bravery to spare, this is what one Delta Network member accomplished.

My team and I bought locally available potatoes, cooking oil, rice, and vegetables and hired a small boat to transport us down the Pathein river to the town of Thetkethaung, on the tip of the delta.
When we arrived in Thetkethuang, we met more than 2,700 villagers who were crouching in makeshift shelters made of rubble while rain poured on them. It was a terrible scene to see. We fed them, organized them, paused to pray to God for help, and began preparing them for the upriver journey to safe ground.

I hired larger boats and filled them to capacity with survivors. In just one day I moved more than 2,700 people up river to a small village in Myuangmya township.

From Myungmya we hired 6 wheel trucks to take the displaced people to Pathein Township in loads of 200 people at a time. We had already agreed with a church to set up a temporary camp for cyclone victims on the church compound where the survivors are sheltered today. With money Partners provided, we rescued these suffering people, brought them to safety, and left enough food to last them another month.

Many of the survivors were unaccompanied children and orphans whose parents died in the cyclone or tidal waves that followed. These children were all placed in childcare homes that are administrated by one of our close partners.

More than 2.5 million people are still in desperate need of help after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma a month ago. Partners is sending help that reaches the neediest victims of this terrible disaster. Htoo Wah is only one of the many national volunteers that are willing to risk their own lives to help bring life to thousands.

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If you want to be a part of Htoo Wah's team, send your gift today.

Prayer Request

For the Cyclone Victims in Burma:
A Call to Prayer by Shaune Vincent

“When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry entered His ears.”

2 Samuel 22:7

On May 2nd, Cyclone Nargis slammed into the Irrawaddy Delta region in Burma's south, bringing with it winds of 190km/hr, torrential rain, and a devastating 3.5m storm surge which swept through the low lying delta region. In the aftermath of the storm, Burma has been left with devastation not seen in the country in living memory. Homes have been flattened, over one hundred thousand people killed, and those who remain are in a desperate situation and in need of emergency relief supplies - food, shelter, medicine and clean water.

As you know, the cyclone has killed an estimated 100,000 people, and displaced over 1.5 million. Worse than the cyclone is the response of the Burma government who continues to refuse help from disaster relief experts, and slowed down, blocked, and even confiscated aid that has been sent in to help. These actions are compounding the horrors for the people affected by the cyclone.

Many of us feel our hands are tied, and there is little we can do. But we have the greatest weapon known to mankind – we have the sword of the Spirit and the power of prayer in Jesus’ name.

Many of you have asked what you can do, so Partners is sending out a Call to Prayer. Stand in the gap for the cyclone victims by interceding in the following areas:

· We are commanded to pray for our enemies, and those who persecute and hurt us. Pray for the Burma military regime who has demonstrated tremendous inhumanity in delaying, rejecting, and blocking relief aid to the victims, especially in the delta area. Pray for their hard hearts to soften and show favor for their suffering people.
· Pray for an abundance of clean water, shelter, and food provision.
· Pray for the outbreak of disease that has already began due to the blocking of relief. There has already been an increase in malaria and water born diseases reported.
· Pray for wisdom in how to get relief supplies to the most desperate places in the delta.
· Pray for the network of relief workers who are risking their lives helping the cyclone victims. The risk is the Burma junta who does not want them to help.
· Pray for God to comfort those who survived, who have lost loved ones, and everything they own. Pray for those who sit and wait for help to come. Pray for open doors before more sorrow and death compound an already tragic situation.
· God is able to bring about something good what the enemy intended for evil. Pray that the Kingdom of God would shine, and that many would find hope in Jesus Christ.
· Pray for us who wish we could be in Burma to help. Pray that we would be a light for Christ, demonstrating His great love in word and action.

For more information, or to donate to the cyclone relief, go to www.partnersworld.org

Burma Cyclone Relief: Update

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.

We are now beginning to receive first-hand accounts of the horror Cyclone Nargis wrought in Burma. On May 11th the only survivors from a village in the delta area came to seek refuge at a church in Rangoon. According to witnesses, this 2000 household village had only 170 survivors accounted for. This is their story...

At about 5:30 pm on Friday the 2nd of May, the cyclone arrived at their village tearing down every house and bringing a flood of water up the river. The water quickly rose to as high as 12 feet so that the people had to climb trees in order not to drown. Several people faced another great danger in the trees, namely cobra snakes who also sought refuge from the water. Many died from snake bites and fell into the water below, others couldn't hold on as the hours passed by and also became victims to the water. Those strong enough to hold on helplessly watched the weaker children and the elderly drown in the water below. Most of the survivors were young, strong men.

A 70-year-old lady was the oldest survivor together with her husband. She clung to a bamboo tree for 7 hours before the water started going down again. Her arms were badly bruised from the fight of her life. After the water went down she was reunited with her husband who had been sharing his refuge in a tree with a cat, a dog, a rat and a poisonous snake that miraculously didn't bite any of them. He shared how whole families had been wiped out, including their pastor, his wife and children.

The youngest survivor was a baby only 3 months old (see photo). The mother managed to hang on to both her baby and a tree while waiting out the storm which ceased at about 9:30 pm. It still took many hours for the water to recede enough for them to stand on the ground.

Those who survived tried seeking refuge at an army camp and a monastery, but were turned away because they are Christians. A church then brought them to Rangoon by car, and they are now in the care of a church in the city. They now have rice, medicine and something to sleep on. While the team was handing out rice, another group of 70 people arrived from another village that was wiped out and another 70 more are on the way.

The trauma is written on their faces as they share. It will take much longer to heal than their bruised bodies.

Another team sponsored by Partners has just reported back that they were able to find 2,700 people in need of help, re-locate them to a church in another city and provide food and water for them for the next month. Many of these people are now orphans or unaccompanied children who have now been placed in orphanages and homes sponsored by our close contacts on the ground.

Right now more than 120 nationals supported by Partners are in the delta region, bringing hope to tens-of-thousands of people who have been intentionally neglected by their own government.

These stories are just the tip of the iceberg regarding what is really happening on the ground in the delta region of Burma. While the junta says things like, "We have already finished our first phase of emergency relief. We are going onto the second phase, the rebuilding stage," we know better. People are hungry and thirsty. Many are now dying due to a lack of action. We have already learned that outrage isn't enough. Hand-wringing isn't enough. It is time for action.

Please donate online today so that Partners can continue to take action by securing the needed supplies and funds to rescue these precious people.

Gratefully,
Craig Garrison
Partners Thailand

Burma Cyclone Relief: Update

We received the following Tuesday 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.

This afternoon our first shipment of food and shelter materials reached Rangoon. That means that 7 tons of rice and enough plastic sheeting to get 100 households under shelter from the monsoon rains will be distributed. In light of the need, this is a small drop in an ocean of suffering. But in light of the complications, the regimes blockades, and the inability of the world's governments to negotiate with the generals of Burma, it represents a miracle.

Another miracle happened today. One of our staff members was granted a visa to join the efforts in Rangoon. She is a trained tropical medicine practitioner who will join with our local partners in Rangoon to get aid through to those in desperate need. Praise God.

Staff Member Chris Dolan wrote the following article today. I hope that it moves you as it did me. More than anything else, I want to thank you for your prayers, your financial support, and for the encouragement so many of you have sent along to us as we struggle to make God's compassion a physical reality in Burma.

By Grace,
Steve Gumaer
Director, Partners Relief & Development

Swept Away
By Chris Dolan
Partners Team Coordinator and Development Specialist

Imagine seeing the ones you care most for in the world gradually tire, sink lower into the water and eventually lose the strength to hold on and be swept away. Envision in your mind's eye for a moment, watching your child's lungs fill with dirty, salty water and not being able to do anything to help. To add insult to injury, you have been cut off from the rest of the country (and the world, for that matter) by your own government, and forced to wait as food supplies get shorter, water more scarce, and the stench of decay stronger.

We received a report yesterday about a man just like this, who hung on to a tree in the floodwaters and watched helplessly as his wife and children were swept away.

On May 2, Burma, a country mired in poverty, oppression, and corruption, ruled by a brutal military regime, was hit by a Category 4 cyclone (hurricane) with winds of over 130 mph in it's Irrawaddy delta region, the country's rice bowl. Cyclone Nargis ravaged this farming region, and the devastation has been compounded by the slow, inefficient, and negligent response of the military regime. Local NGOs on the ground in Rangoon are reporting numbers now of over 150,000 dead, with the toll from disease and unrest rising higher and higher every day.

Soon after the cyclone hit, Partners was already sending in relief supplies, funds and communications equipment for the initial response. Since then, we have sent in tens of thousands of dollars donated by generous people like you and we have received substantiated reports that desperately needed food, shelter, water, and medicine have been purchased and distributed to those in the greatest need. However, the situation is getting worse as the Burmese government stonewalls while their people continue to suffer and die.

Please consider helping us help the people of Burma directly by donating today through our secure online donation site. As you are well aware, the situation is urgent and Partners has set up networks in both the delta region and Rangoon to provide immediate relief items. We need your help in order to see this through.

For every single story we receive, there are 200 more that never reach the light of day. For every survivor, there are 20 more who didn't survive. Visit our Partners blog for regular updates on what is happening on the ground and Partners ongoing response to this tragedy.

Burma Cyclone Relief: Update

We received the following Wednesday 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.

On Friday May 2nd, cyclone Nargis crushed the southern delta region of Burma. The winds flattened homes, displacing as many as 1 million people and immediately killing more than 22,980 people. Every time I check the news that number increases. The victims of this disaster need your help now.

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2: 14-17)

Imagine how you would feel if you were one of the survivors. Shari Villarosa, charge d'affaires of the U.S. embassy in Burma, said, "The information that we're receiving indicates that there may well be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area." For them the story is over. But the men, women, and children of southern Burma who lost their homes, livelihood, and in many cases, their loved ones, need help now. With just $80.00 we can feed and provide temporary shelter for a family of five for one month!

Our attempts to go into the disaster area have been frustrated by a regime that has no regard for their own population. They have rejected our visa applications and have denied the world's aid organizations access to the people who suffer. In fact, they appear to be deliberately keeping aid efforts from the victims in order to further weaken the largely Karen and Mon populations the cyclone ravaged. Does this make you mad? Knowing the cyclone was approaching, they didn't even warn the population of the danger. It's unjust, and it makes me angry.

In spite of the regime's blockades, we have partnered with our coworkers in the delta region. Tonight a truck loaded with supplies including 7 tons of rice and grain along with 100 rolls of plastic to serve as temporary shelter will make the overland trip to Rangoon for distribution. We are also arranging the delivery of water purification systems, medical aid, and people to be on the ground as ministers of love and healing.

We are able to get supplies into the Delta area, and coworkers to oversee distribution, but we need funds to keep the artery of relief functioning. It is my hope that you will join with us during this crisis to keep this lifeline of aid alive. Please pray and if you can, please donate now and help the people of Burma today.

Thank you for standing with us to help save the lives of suffering people and demonstrate God's love to the victims of this disaster. You are a crucial link in making history today for God's kingdom and the people of Burma.

Pressing On,
Steve Gumaer, Director
Partners Relief & Development

Pray for the People of Burma

YANGON, MYANMAR (BURMA) - The cyclone death toll soared above 22,000 and more than 41,000 others were missing as the international community prepared to rush in aid after Asia's deadliest storm since 1991, state radio reported. Up to 1-million people may be homeless. The complete report - plus related stories, photos and video - can be found HERE, on msnbc.com