88 Displaced Burmese Orphans in Thailand Need Help

A blue tarp is what 88 Burmese orphans have called home for two weeks now. Before these tarps, they lived in bamboo huts at the edge of the river that separates Burma from Thailand. Two and a half weeks ago the Burmese Army attacked their small camp, forcing the children to disperse; leaving with only the clothes on their backs. Some swam across the river into northern Thailand, and others helped each other across in small boats in order to find safety. These displaced children (not official refugees due to lack of legal paperwork) are caught in a civil war between the Burmese military junta, and the Karen National Union (KNU), who has sought independence from the Burmese military government for over 60 years.

These orphans are Karen villagers, many of whom have witnessed unimaginable horrors, including the murder of their own parents. The attack on their camp was one of many attacks on the Karen people as part of the continued genocide in Burma. ‘The Times’ of South Africa reported last Wednesday that the Burmese army and a pro-government militia called the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), attacked the border area between Burma and Thailand in a final push to destroy the KNU and their families.

Unfortunately, these 88 orphans are a part of a greater group of more than 4,000 Burmese villagers that have fled into Thailand in the last several weeks. Altogether, they form a part of one of the largest refugee movements into Thailand in recent years, and add to the approximately 100,000 Burmese refugees currently living in Thai refugee camps.

With so many people that need help, what makes this group of children special? These 88 orphans were identified out of displacement camps while still living in Burma. In an effort to make a more definite difference, earlier this year, local Thai missionaries focused their attention to orphaned Karen children. They found the children; built bamboo huts for them at the edge of the river at their own expense; and provided them with food, clothing and toys. The missionaries arranged this while trying to figure out how to help them with more than just the ability to survive.

It was in the midst of this effort that the orphans’ camp was attacked. After hearing the news, immediately, the missionaries set out to find their displaced orphans. Thankfully, every one was found! The problem they now face is not just lack of adequate shelter and supplies, but now the DKBA has convinced the Thai government to return the orphans to Burma by Wednesday of this week. The children are terrified, knowing that they would return to likely face the extinction of their people, as well as themselves.

As of right now, the missionaries who rescued them are desperately seeking help from the United Nations, as well as any other organization who is willing to help keep these 88 orphans in Thailand. Time is of the essence…


The above is the news release I wrote last night, with the purpose of sending it to major news sources in the U.S. today. Since writing it, however, new developments have occurred, that can only testify to the hand of God in the world, despite the chaos we are sometimes grieved to witness.

A friend of mine, who actually visited these camps in late May, received word this afternoon that the above mentioned missionaries had a successful meeting with U.N. officials this morning (our time), in which the safety of these 88 Burmese children was guaranteed!! Praise the Lord! I am not free to go into the details, but “chance” meetings, phone calls, etc. occurred that re-routed the fate of these orphans. Who but Author God is able to do such a thing?!

I am posting this experience on my blog because I want to share about the lesson I’ve learned through the privilege of having been minutely involved in this situation throughout these last few weeks. When my friend first called me with the prayer request for the lives of these missing orphans, my mind immediately searched for a way to help. Even as I came up with ideas, I was surprised to find new perspectives about the people I know. I began to recognize aspects of their experiences that could bring aid to this dire situation.

What’s even more interesting is that I learned that we often limit God’s ability to work through us, by not taking a moment to look at the need of the person God has brought into our lives. I know; life is busy. Mine and my friend’s lives are busy, too. As such, we’ve had to ask the Lord to give us a balance between our passion to help, and our primary purpose and commitments to our families. What a struggle it has been! In the end, I have learned to see beyond the surface of an issue, and encourage myself and others past our immediate field of vision, to see that through our God-given experiences He has placed more tools in our tool boxes than we realize.

This has been an extraordinary experience! I look forward to “seeing” these children grow up, and pray that the Lord will use them to make a difference in their own war-torn country.

The Good Shepherd and Tea

I’ve had one of those amazing weeks! Not necessarily because something spectacular happened to me personally, but because I had the opportunity to meet with several different friends at different times, through whose conversations I later saw God’s fingerprints.

One of those meetings was with my friend Julia. We had tea (a very delicious Honeydew White Tea) together on Tuesday night. Never mind the fact that when we met a year ago we found out that: 1) we both graduated from the same university, and in the same class, though we didn’t meet until 10 years later; and 2) she and her husband were the couple that bought the first house Ben & I seriously considered buying; the one I wondered if my husband made the right decision about until God gave us our first house 1½ years later. This Tuesday night, Julia shared her story with me – her story about God’s redemption of her life. I was amazed!

I knew Julia was born and raised (for a time) in Russia, and that she became a Christian after moving to the United States. This past Tuesday she shared some of the details of what happened in between. She told me she was born a Russian Jew, and is the granddaughter of a man who was drafted into the Russian army around the time of The Holocaust. Her grandfather believed his family had been killed, and lived with that void for 20 years.

Then, one day, while walking the streets of Russia, he was recognized by a woman who knew the truth. She told him that his sisters were still alive and now living in the United States! During the time of the Holocaust they had been sheltered in a cellar by a Ukrainian family in the USSR. This family’s 8 year-old boy had risked his life several times as the Nazis questioned him, commanding that he tell them if a Jewish family lived among them. He repeatedly said no. Some time later, they were able to escape to a new home in the Land of the Free. It was these great-aunts who sought refuge in the U.S., that later extracted Julia and her mother from (at that time) the Soviet Union. After college, Julia met her husband who is the person God used to present the Gospel to her.

When I left Julia’s house on Tuesday, I was reminded that God’s Word tells of the Good Shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to find the 1 lost sheep. I’ve always loved that parable, but Julia’s story gave it new meaning for me. In modern life, because we really aren’t sheep who live out in a pasture, the process of redemption looks a lot like a puzzle. If some take the pieces of their past, like Julia, they might find that God used circumstances in different places, as well as “chance” meetings, to all come together at some appointed time when the Gospel of Christ would be presented to them. At that point, the person is left with the choice to complete the picture, (as we all are), by accepting or rejecting that Gospel. However, is it not crazy to reject the love of a God who traversed the world in order to present you with salvation through His Son?

That, in my opinion, is a modern day version of the Good Shepherd’s willingness to go through extraordinary lengths to follow the one. How great and how loving is our God? Is He not worthy to be praised? Is He not worthy to receive our all? Is it not amazing to know that He has called us who already believe to be a puzzle piece in the redemption story of others? Wow! What an honor…