Burma Nargis Relief-in short

Burma-Orphanage Day

These children from a Burmese border town showed up at a Baptist church in Yangon several years ago after their village was bombed by the Burmese government.  Seven years ago, the first time I visited them and did a VBS for them, they were still very much against Christianity. Most of them told their parents that they wouldn't convert to Christianity; they would remain Buddhist for them.  While in Yangon, the church is able to provide the children-mostly orphans- with 2 meals a day, shelter, safety, and some Bible lessons.  There is one caretaker for all 95 children.  At the end of the school year, most return to the border village to see their remaining family members.  A different group of children, and some repeats, return to Yangon when school starts again each year.  The ones who don't return escape to refugee camps in Thailand, are killed by landmines along the way, are kidnapped by the Burmese junta to become child soldiers or slaves, or die from sickness and disease.  The months they spend at the orphanage are their only opportunity to know Jesus before they return "home."

This trip, we were able to purchase school uniforms for all of the chilren so that they can attend public school this year.  We fed them lunch, and taught stories about Creation and Jesus for three hours.  We played games, sang songs, colored, made "lost sheep" bracelets with cotton balls, etc...  I emphasized repeatedly that they should share the story of Jesus with their family members back at the border village.  The children were full of giggles and delight all day.  It was wonderful.  I was brought to tears hearing them sing, "Jesus Loves Me."  I pray they remember this song as they return home and teach it's hope and love to their family members who don't know the Son.

We were also able to set up surgery for one boy's cleft lip (less than $100 to repair at a reputable hospital in Yangon), and we bought nearly a year's worth of pain medication for a boy who was severely burned back at his border village.  The burn left his arm disfigured and unable to straighten.  He needs several surgeries, but we just couldn't save them all.  Here's a couple more pictures of these children and this day. Please pray for these orphans and their Buddhist families in a very tumultuous land.  More pics and stories about other days in Burma-with displaced cyclone victims, in the Delta, with the local congregation, and aid delivery later.  Thank you to all of you who prayed and donated funds to make all of this possible.  The children thank you!!!

In the sunflowers with Sunflower on my mind...as well as a couple of other blessings.

This is the first time I've gone on a mission trip as a mom.  I must say it is a very different experience compared to how it was b.c. (before children).  Whereas before the decision to go where there were people in desperate need of physical or spiritual care was as difficult as deciding whether or not to wear shoes that day, now I have hesitation.  Should I be home to see that my kids have healthy, three meals a day?  Should I be home in case one of them skins his knee?  Should I be home to make sure my kids learn their memory verse for the week?  Well, yes I should.  But the fact is that I am.  I'm home teaching them that Jesus says to give food to people who don't have any; clothe people who are naked; tell people about Jesus who don't know him...50 weeks a year.  It quickly became clear to me that actually going to DO these things for a week or two a year was just as valuable of a lesson to my boys as talking about it.

One of my new all-time favorite memories is sitting in my bedroom with J. this week while C. was taking a nap.  We had suitcases and aid supplies all over the floor, and J. helped me organize, sort and pack everything for Burma.  He'd say, "Mommy, you need more toothbrushes.  People in Burma don't have any; they'll have stinky mouth!  You need more toothbrushes!"  We're a little opposed to "stinky mouth" around here! ;)  He sorted VBS coloring pages and said, "Kids in Burma don't know Jesus.  They can color this picture of Jesus.  Jesus is praying in this picture.  Do kids in Burma pray?"  He helped me roll up 142 kids' tee-shirts and said, "Kids in Burma don't have any clothes.  You have to go give them clothes, Mommy.  They'll get cold."  I explained that I'd miss him so much when I was gone, and reminded him that I'd only be gone 10 days.  I asked him, "Why is Mommy going to Burma?"  He knew, at 4 yrs. old, that the answer was, "To help people.  Jesus says to help and love people.  You'll come back in TEN days!  I want to go help people, Mommy."

He wouldn't have learned any of that just talking about the Great Commission and going over memory verses.

So with that insight, I have great peace about going "home."  Have you ever been somewhere, away from your actual mortgage address, and was struck with the overwhelming feeling of, "This is where my soul was made to be"?  I get that feeling in much of southeast Asia, but nowhere as strongly as Burma.  The smell of Jasmine and Frangipani, the sounds of chanting monks in the morning, the lime juice, tanaka on little girls' faces, the sunflowers that grow too numerous to count in open fields, the most peaceful, yet strong and resilient people I've ever met, my Buddhist friends, my Burmese Christian family...all of it together feels like home to me in a way this English major just can't find words to describe, but I'm sure it's close to how a baby feels in the womb.

Please pray that God use us going on this trip for His purpose, that many see His light through us, that we're kept safe, that the aid makes it to Burma and to those who need it, and that those left behind-an amazingly supportive husband and two little boys in America and a baby girl in Ethiopia especially-are flooded with peace and easy living while I'm away. See you in ten days!

The Problem and the Non-Violent Examples of Solution

The Problem:

 Solutions:

More videos on the situation in Burma here:

http://uscampaignforburma.org/

Non-politically speaking:

I'll be in Burma with a friend for about 10 days the first of July.  There are still hundreds of thousands in need there from the cyclone.  We'll be bringing them aid, encouraging the little house church I worked with there, checking up on the well-being of some of my Buddhist students, teaching the stories of Jesus at a refugee camp I worked at years ago, and just try to be Jesus' light for those trapped in darkness.  Burma is called the "black hole of Southeast Asia."  Its tales of torture, agony, injustice, poverty, and oppression, led by the above video's star, Than Shwe, are endless.  But Christ's light, and the hope and joy that come with that, can shine even in Burma.  I've seen that light be the sole motivation to face another day in the eyes of my Burmese Christian friends, and they do it with a smile and a sense of blessedness that can only be described as humbling and Heavenly.  Please pray for us as we gather aid, raise funds, prepare our hearts and minds for His work, and travel.  I'll be home just in time to go get Sunflower in Ethiopia (as long as she passes court June 24th!!!!)  There will definitely be a new post here June 24th with news of her court date, so check back then, and please pray for that too!  Blessings,

Warning-graphic video

...and let's not forget denying cyclone aid workers access into Burma so that no one can take pictures and get first hand accounts of all the horrible things this regime has done.  Please continue to pray for my friends in Burma, and that aid gets to ALL the victims, not just the victims who have never spoken out for democracy or who are of the "right" tribe.  We are STILL waiting to hear from church members we know and love in Yangon.  See my sidebar, under Partners in Progress, for ways you can help.  And just to make sure that your anger is placed in the right direction, it's China who supports the Burmese military regime. And it's Satan who is influencing China.  Yes, I'm telling myself that a lot lately: "Don't hate, Tiffany. Don't hate Than Shwe; don't hate China.  Hate Satan."  Only Satan could do things as horrible as what happens, as what I've seen with my own eyes, in Burma. 

Mid-week Miscellaneous

How unusual (and hectic) to have St. Patrick's Day, Spring Break and Easter all the same week!  Is this how it always is and I'm only noticing it because I have kids now and therefore leprechaun traps to make, eggs to dye and relatives coming to visit grandbabies at the same time?  Needless to say, it has been busy here, but there are no complaints.  We are abundantly blessed.

Jeanne, a girl I grew up with in St. Louis, is in Cambodia now with Partners in Progress (the NGO I worked with off and on for years).  This is her first third world mission, and it has been wonderful communicating with her lately getting re-aquainted (now as adults) and giving her tips to make this mission as successful as possible.  I've told her everything from the best place to get lime juice, how to teach Jesus' resurrection, what price to pay for a cyclo, and what spiritual gems to seek out in the country side and give a big hug to from me!  She has a couple of posts on her blog now about her experiences in Cambodia this past week.  It makes my heart smile to read how well she is doing, and how God is working through her there.  Join me in praying for her and her students.  Check out her blog (linked on my sidebar, marked Jeanne) for more amazing mission details!  

The weather has warmed up, and park play-dates will begin again.  

We've been waiting for a referral from Ethiopia for a week now.  The average wait for a referral from the Philippines is 18-24 months; 36 months for China, and I'm getting antsy after 7 days!!! I think I need to pray for patience! ;)  

My mom made it safely home, and we are looking forward to any other relatives that want to come out and spoil the boys and give Tim and I a night out.  There is always a room for you.  Blessings,

Sharing

I read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder lately.  It's the biography of Dr. Paul Farmer who is world-renown for his work with TB in Haiti and other extremely poor places.  

His philosophy, and method, for eradicating TB from these hotspots is simple: Share the money from the West, where these diseases are wiped-out, with countries that don't have the money to wipe them out.  He is a master fund raiser and philanthropist finder, and this, plus genuinely loving each patient with the love of Christ, has led to immense success in Haiti.  It says of Haiti in his biography

How could a just God permit great misery?  The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb: 'Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe,' in literal translation, 'God gives but doesn't share.'  This meant, as Farmer would later explain it, 'God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot.   That charge was laid upon us.'   Liberation theologians had a similar answer: 'You want to see where Christ crucified abides today?  Go to where the poor are suffering and fighting back, and that's where He is.'  Liberation theology, with its emphasis on the horrors of poverty and on redressing them in the here and now, its emphasis on service and remediation, seemed to fit the circumstances of Haiti.  And it suited Farmer temperamentally because, for all his scholarship and interest in theories, his strongest impulses were pragmatic.  He would tell me years later, with undeniable accuracy, 'I'm an action kind of guy.'

Tim and I went to a John Clayton apologetics seminar this weekend and listened to highly scientific lectures on Does God Exist?  How Old is the Earth? The Symbiosis of Science and Theology, and finally, Why Does God Allow Evil and Suffering?  You can read about most of these at www.doesgodexist.org.  The simplest lecture was by far the last one.  Why is there evil?  Because there is good.  If there is good, there must be an absence of good, which is evil. Why is there pain?  Because there is pleasure.  When pleasure is no where to be found, there lies pain.  This is logical and true for everything from matter and anti-matter to cookies in the cookie jar.  Any theologian (and most missionaries) have studied this in-depth.  C.S. Lewis covered it in The Problem of Pain, and I actually wrote a final paper in a missiology class titled, "What to say when a non-Christian says, "I don't believe in God because of pain in the world." It's a question that baffles many, but the answer is really simple.  So is the solution: SHARE!

So, since pain, suffering and evil cannot be stopped in a world where there is a living God, isn't it then the Christian's duty to share some of his or her pleasure, health and goodness?  Or joy, empathy, love, food, time or money?  I think Jesus had a word for this: Compassion.  

Veronica Njeri lost two children to malaria.  Kenya

This child is safe because of a $5-7 mosquito net donated by UNICEF

By REUBEN KYAMA and DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: October 9, 2007

We've been inspired lately to share more-more time, more knowledge, more truth, more money, more whatever we've been blessed with.  Afterall, all the food, all the money, all the medicine, all the workers and evangelists the world needs are already here.  They just aren't spread around for everyone to use them.  Before I have the boys load up the truck with one more load of their toys to share with kids that don't have as many-using Goodwill as the go-between-we need to share some too.  We've been convicted lately that sharing isn't a lesson just for children.

The African Children's Choir

The African Children's Choir assists in the well-being and education of Uganda's poorest children.  I cannot WAIT to bring our little Ethiopian light home!  

Burma update

Updates for Wed: Protest numbers were down to about 10,000 from 100,000 in Rangoon Wed. Riot police were set up at several points along the route, and they blocked off Shwedagon pagoda. Live rounds were fired over their heads. Many-monks and nuns-were beaten, tear gas was used, and between 100 and 300 of them were arrested. BBC is reporting one dead.The monks strongly urged civilians not to march with them this day, though it is estimated that about 5,000 members of the NLD did. So....it could have been worse? However, the condition of the "bloody monks" is unknown, the general public is outraged that force was used against the Sangha, and the country is still far from freedom. The links below will take you to reports about yesterday's events. There are no videos of this, only pictures. There are no reporters in country right now, apparently. For this reason, it is still unknown what happened in Mandalay yesterday, and several other smaller towns where marchers numbered in the 10,000's, and crack down was expected. Regime violence will certainly be the most brutal where there aren't video cameras.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/26/myanmar.protest.ap/index.html

and http://www.bbc.com/ This is the BBC's top story. Click on video/listen, and you can watch their video.

President Bush announced more severe sanctions against Burma today. Of course, sanctions have put factories and market places out of business, leaving tens of thousands to starve to death. The military is funded by China.

AND it is rumored that Suu Kyi has been moved form her house to Insein prison. Insein can only be compared to , I don't know...hell.

Here is the copy of an AP article on http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/pm/weblog.php?id=P278
Burma regime planning to infiltrate demonstrations to spark violence
24 Sep 2007
Burma Campaign UK sources in Rangoon have reported that soldiers have been ordered to shave their heads, in possible preparation for infiltrating peaceful demonstrations. They would start rioting or attacking police, providing the regime with a pretext for a brutal crackdown on protestors. Sources indicate that soldiers from Light Battalion 77 in Rangoon have been given the order. Sources also report that the regime has ordered 3,000 monks’ robes from a factory in Rangoon. It is a tactic the regime has used in the past, including at the Depayin massacre in 2003, during which Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested. Regime militia dressed as monks were involved in the ambush which left up to 100 democracy activists dead. Despite the widespread expectations that the regime will use violence to suppress protest, the international community has been remarkably silent, with the French government being the only one to make a strong statement warning of consequences if the regime responds with violence. ASEAN has also expressed concern. “The regime has been held in check by the peoples’ respect for the monks andthe fact that the world is watching, but the scale of protests means they will be looking for options that allow them to justify a crackdown,”said Mark Farmaner. “The UN Secretary General and other world leaders must speakout and make it clear that a violent response in unacceptable. At the momentthe international community seems to be willing to watch from the side lines as the regime moves closer to a massacre. If the regime does attack protestors, this will have been one of the most widely predicted massacres in recent history, and makes a mockery any government’s claim to becommitted to human rights.”

The Beginning of the End?

UPDATE: LATEST VIDEO (as of Sunday, Sept. 23rd): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji_R-g8T-N4 The video clip embedded here is from Thursday. The protesters are now up to 20,000, the government is rumored to be ready to use violence against them soon, and a massive protest led by the monks alliance is scheduled for Wed. this week. This hasn't happened since 1988, and even then, not to this scale. In 1988, thousands were murdered in the streets and Suu Kyi was imprisoned for the first time.

For most of you, this clip won't put you in tears. I've been on the edge of my seat however the past couple of months watching from too great a distance as these events unfold in Myanmar (Burma). (Don't worry, Timmy. I'm not jumping on a plane. Yet... J/J!) Unfortunately, I have to utilize the BBC to get information as American networks do not cover the story. The only American in the public eye who seems overtly interested is Jim Carey, of all people, who put out a public plea on YouTube last month. I was estatic while searching videos on YouTube this morning because there were several clips of the Burmese monks' protest. This is in stark contrast to not long ago when atrocities happened here that no one knew of because no one saw them outside of "the black hole of Asia." Therefore, there was no intervention, and the terror got worse. Thank you, you brave souls who smuggled these clips out of Burma this week.

Many of you won't understand why this protest is such a big deal. I don't have the time to tell you about all of the starvation orders put on villages-especially the Christian tribes in the north of Burma. (A starvation order is when the junta comes in and says, "If you grow food here, we will kill you, your children, and burn your crops." The junta would rather they grow poppy, or die off.) Or about the thousands of political prisoners, the mass shootings in the streets during previous attempts at peaceful protest against the ruling regime, the rape, child labor, the stealing of children for the purpose of bolstering child soldier forces, the poverty, denial of democracy, etc...

Or how I've been followed in the streets of Rangoon, forced out of country for evangelizing, had the film ripped out of my camera, stopped in taxis and on foot for interrogations by plain clothes officers, been taken into "safe" rooms at tea shops so spies couldn't overhear conversations I was having with Burmese friends; how I've had all of my comings and goings carefully recorded by spies around the inns I stay in while in country, or how we would walk to church one at a time, staggered over the course of an hour, so as not to give away the church location and thus put its members at risk. I would classify all of these incidents as mere annoyances, however; nothing that even compares to what happens to the Burmese who don't have a little blue passport in their pocket.

Protest against the ruling militia in Burma has meant, and may still mean, suicide at worst; torture at best. What these monks are doing is the bravest thing I've seen done in a very long time.

The people's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who the junta has kept under house arrest since her election as president two decades ago, emphatically calls for peaceful overthrow of the regime. No commandos in the night, no weapons, no violence; simply use peaceful defiance for freedom as Ghandi utilized it against the British and Martin Luther King marched with in Alabama and Washington. The problem is that when the people have done this in the past-peacefully protested-they have been shot down in the streets. But now, for the fourth day in a row, hundreds on monks are peacefully protesting in the streets and claim they will not stop until "the enemy of the people" is removed from power.

So, why am I nervous? Well, I wonder if the regime will shoot at the monks too. It's doubtful; the militia is Buddhist as well, as is most of Burma. But everyday that these videos are released, more and more unrobed citizens are marching. There is more and more applause from civilians on the sidewalk. There are more ordinary people with children at their sides standing on their porches in protest like the monks asked them to do, more and more wearing yellow for Suu Kyi, more and more defiance in the streets. This in a country where groups of more than five are forbidden by the junta's law in order to prevent organized protest.

I'm nervous because these monks are marching right in front of the little house church I work with. I have friends and former students supporting this protest. What will happen to them?

I pray that they know that eternal freedom cannot be taken away from them. As the Christian song goes, "They can have my body, but they can't have me. Take away my sight and still my soul will sing..." nothing the militia does to them can take away what Christ can give, or has given, them. With that knowledge, I pray they have the endurance to continue marching peacefully in the face of the militia's weapons, to bring change and hope and life and the blessing of earthly freedoms, like freedom of speech and religion, to their starving land. If they succeed here, it will prove once again to the world at a time when such a reminder is desperately needed, that change-even to the point of government overthrow- must not always be proceeded by violence. That hope has me on the edge of my seat.
The Burmese people have never been as brave as now, so outspoken and defiant against the horrors they've endured. I'm tired of scanning lists of political prisoners online and finding the names of former students of mine. I'm tired of worrying about the safety of the members of the little house church. I'm tired of wondering why I didn't get a Christmas card from this or that student, like I usually do. Frankly, I'm tired of praying for compassion, peace, and humanity in Burma. But I will continue to do so until the regime's clenched fist lets go of my Buddhist friends and sisters and brothers in Christ who were blessed to be born in Myanmar at such a time as this.

See the links on the sidebar under Aung San Suu Kyi's picture for more information about how you can support the plight of the Burmese people.

The Man Who Sweeps Angkor Wat...

...does so out of religious duty. His possessions are the ones you see in the above photo. He always smiles. I'm not sure if he can hear well; he was difficult to speak with. But his renouned sweetness landed him on the cover of Cambodia's Travel Guide.

Religion and daily life: In my opinion, two things that most Americans make far too complicated.

(No, I don't...but after too many hours in the mosquito filled jungles of northern Cambodia, anything is funny).

I read an atheists' account the other day of how she viewed religion as causing so many of the major conflicts in the world and concluded, "Why would I want to be a part of that?" I can't disagree there. Though, I believe true religion doesn't incite violence. Reading what the pope said this week, though admittingly out of context and through the words of journalists, I think, "Even if one doesn't agree with Islam, and feels a Christian obligation to speak against it, why in the world would a religious leader speak out in a way that offends and creates anger?" To all of the religious sects: What happened to leading by example, kindness, love to all, blessed are the peace makers, etc...

If a Christian wants to go on a mission to help humanity, it's usually prefaced with doctrinal statements, fund raising, speaches, follow-up reports, and organizational support. That's not all bad, mind you, but why has it gotten so... complicated?

"True and undefiled religion is this: to care for widows and orphans in their time of need, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." James 1:27

That's not so complicated.

And about daily life: Why do I get frustrated when my car has a minor repair issue? I didn't do that before.

Why am I catching myself praying for increased finances?! That, I certainly never did before. Why do I cram-pack a diaper bag full of stuff everytime I go out, think that my sons need another pair of shoes just because the weather is changing;

think I need new shirts because the fashion is changing; and get irritated when the washing machine jumbles through the spin cycle too loudly? What's happened to me?

I remember two years ago, having just come back from SE Asia, and going immediately into meetings with contractors to finish building our house. I remember a meeting in the lighting store, and the saleswoman asked me what lights I wanted in the closets and the garage. I looked up at thousands of lighting fixtures, thought about what she said, and actually said outloud and with too much disgust, "Are you serious? I have to choose a light for my closet?" All I could picture were bamboo huts with inhabitants who've never dreamed of electricty.

I couldn't have cared less about which wood grain the blades of our ceileing fans rotated with or what bulb lit up my closet. Yet, today, I thought, "The trim on that entryway light doesn't match the fixture in the hall. We should replace it." What???? Where are these thoughts coming from????

I've been in America now longer consecutively than I have in more than a decade. I guess the old red, white and blue is wearing off on me. It's discouraing...very discouraging to watch myself get caught up in keeping up. Which is why I posted this picture in which I've never looked worse. Granted, I just rode twenty-something miles on a rickety bike through Shan State in Myanamar and was about to go bathing with water buffolo. But still...ugh. I look rough. I need to be OK about seeing me, in my dusty, make-up free, hair un-done state on the web.

The point of this post: I read a blog today that really inspired me. Miranda is a girl I grew up with in St. Louis. We went to church together. She was a lot younger than me, but pure and sweet and beautiful. She's in Equador now-without the doctrinal statements, the fund raising, the follow-up reports and organizational umbrella. She just left, is volunteering at a hostile, learning the language, planning on earning her own dollars, and looking for ways to help humanity. Pure and simple.

Lord, how I miss pure and simple. Help me to be pure and simple in such a complicated country. A country where we have carpet in our houses, for goodness sake... And bless Miranda's love for people in a foreign land.

I've mixed in some pictures of my time in SE Asia because I miss it, and it made me feel good to look at them today. They remind me to be content, feel blessed, and hold on to the peace that comes with simplicity.


I wouldn't trade my life as a mom for anything, but I certainly wouldn't complain if Tim got a foreign embassy job in Calcutta, or Cape Town, or Vietien, or Quito, Equador. Someplace where people laugh with glee when they get three squares a day instead of getting bent out of shape when the machine that washes your clothes FOR you does so too loudly. Oh....what have I become?! Check out Miranda's blog. It's linked on the right side margin of mine. It restored my faith in children of America being untouched by the world. Though crossing these streets in Phnom Penh wasn't always simple, an uncluttered mind and heart is. And Miranda, your heart is beautiful.

What is Your Favorite Flower?

"For we are to God the aroma of Christ and through us spreads everywhere the knowledge of him." 2 Corinthians 2:14

Dad and Janne helped Tim and I get some basic landscaping planted last year for our new house. Considering our little plot of land was a tobacco farm three years ago, and we live in an area known as "the sand hills," landscaping can be be quite a challenge! But the little white blossom cherry trees, our sugar maple, and the gardenias have done beautifully.

My favorite vegetation is the frangipanier. Sorry, I have no idea what it's called in English; I only know the French name. It's a tree that grows in tropical climates, like SE Asia and the tropics, with sweet, fragrant, white blossoms with yellow centers. They smell so pungently sweet that we derive our English word frangrant from them; my nose can detect one of these trees from blocks away. (http://www.aujardin.info/plantes/frangipanier.php)

My most vivid memory of frangipanier is from a visit to Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh (otherwise known as S-21). Tuol Sleng, where thousands of Cambodians were tortured by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970's, is now a dilapidated tourist site, left-for the most part-exactly as it was the day Pol Pot walked away from it. There are torture devices rusting in the interrogation cells, and walls of photographs of the prisoners who stayed there, women and infants included. Yet, in the midst of this mire of misdirected human history are dozens of frangipanier trees. I remember standing once on the second story of the prison, just outside of a tiny cell where rats still frequent, looking down at a young Cambodian girl-maybe three years old. She wore a yellow dress and was dancing on the grounds, skipping from tree to tree. She stopped to gather the fallen frangipanier blossoms, smelled them deeply like a patient sucks into a mask who is desperate for oxygen, carefully put them in her hair, and danced some more. Truly, a heavenly fragrance in the hands of a child can drive out all echoes of evil.

Gardenias aren't frangipanier, but they are of the same family, and gardenias grow successfully in America. Since they are of the same family, the scent is similar to that which I gather to wear in my hair whenever I'm in SE Asia when passing a blossoming frangipanier. Our front yard gardenia bushes are just beyond full bloom-when I think plants smell the sweetest, though they are starting to wither-and whenever I step outside I am reminded of my second home, my son's first home: Southeast Asia, and of how beautiful is the fragrance of Christ.

Compassion-click on the following:

http://www.willienelson.com/nm/publish/news_164.html

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perserveres" 1 Cor. 13:4-7.

Remember in Bible school when your teacher would have you replace all the "love"s in that verse with your name? "Tiffany is patient, Tiffany is kind. Tiffany does not envy, she does not boast, she is not proud. . ." The point of that exercise was to remind us, even as children, that love is more than a feeling. "Love is a verb," as the trite saying goes.

That's easy for me to forget. Love isn't just the mushy feeling we get for our spouses, children, or pizza. (Side note: I always thought the great error of the English language was only having one word for love that varies in applicability from pizza to passion. Other languages, like Greek, saw the obvious need for different words). Love is choosing to act lovingly to my two year old when he throws his food on the floor, or my husband, even when he says, "The house looks clean to me-what do you mean?" Yes, love is a verb.

That's why, as I've gotten older and studied world religions, I've come to really appreciate the Buddhist ideal of compassion. If we can say, "The gospel in a word is love," they can say, and the Dalai Lama has made millions in book sales saying, "Buddhism- in a word- is compassion."

Maybe it's because love is such an overused word, but compassion speaks action to me. Love denotes a feeling that may or may not have my stomach twiterpated, spurring me to action. So, when I see that homeless man, that misbehaving child, that grieving widow, the lonely woman with a lost soul, or other "neighbors" as Jesus categorizes them, I've stopped thinking about loving them. I found it too easy to say to myself, "Yep, I love them with the love of the Lord," and walk on. I've come to think, "have compassion on them," which forces me to continue, "by (insert appropriate verb here) them." It's more difficult to feign ignorance, and walk away from citizens of the world when compassion is guiding me.

Timmy sent me this picture via email a while back because he knew they are two of my favorite people: Willie Nelson and the Dalai Lama. You may be thinking, "What a combination!" but if you've listened to the later Willie stuff, and kept up with his social and environmental activities lately, you'd see they are more alike than you think. Apparently, he also cares a lot about copyright infringements because I can't copy and paste the above mentioned picture onto this blog. You have to click on the link at the top, and view it on his website. Sorry. Blame activist Willie. Continuing on, both men also speak often of Compassion. By the way, if you haven't heard the Dalai Lama speak, read a book or watch a PBS special. His wisdom, wit, and grace are captivating. Listening to him I think, "if this is what a man who has given his life to seeking wisdom sounds like, just imagine what the Son of God sounded like!" No wonder thousands of people sat on the desert ground in the heat of middle eastern days straining to hear a not-so-attractive man teach.

So, love may do it for you- spur you to action. If so, hold to it, and love your world. If love seems to have gone a little stale lately, try compassion. It won't take you long to find someone who needs a little of it.

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. Dalai Lama

Aung San Suu Kyi

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi


"A Song about Sue and Chesse?"

"No, Aung San Suu Kyi, pronounced a little like Ong San Sue Chi."

Most of you know I have a bumper sticker on my Jeep that reads, “Free Aung San Suu Kyi,” so I get a lot of questions about who in the world this person is. That in itself is a tragedy considering if my bumper sticker read, “Free the Dalai Lama,” or “Free Nelson Mandela,” everyone would know who I was talking about. Aung San Suu Kyi’s situation is just as severe as these well knowns-more so, and the plight of the Burmese people that she represents is tragic, though ignored by most of the world.

I’m not going to get demonstratively political here, but for the sake of awareness, so I won't have to answer, "A Song Sue Who?" for a few days, and because it effects many close friends of mine who have been threatened with imprisonment, exile, torture and death, I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version of the situation in Burma (Myanmar), and who is Aung San Suu Kyi.

First, Burma is made up of many tribes, but there are several major ones. The Burmese (or Bamar) tribe is the largest, and it is some members of this tribe that are currently ruling the country in the form of a military junta. For that reason, most who live in Burma do not call Burma “Burma,” nor themselves, “Burmese,” unless of course they are actually of the Burmese tribe. They say, “Myanmar,” or “I am Mon,” “I am Kachin,” or simply “I am Myanmar.” So, that's what I'll say here: Myanmar.

In 1988, the people of Myanmar held a democratic election. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Myanmar woman who was educated in England, married an Englishman, and whose father was a leader in Burma (when it was still called Burma), overwhelmingly won the election. The junta, led by a man named Ne Win, refused to recognize this election, gave a murderous speech rivaling any by Hitler, and ordered the mass murder of hundreds of students, women, monks, nuns, and commoners in the street, resembling the Tienanmen Square massacre.

The junta put Aung San Suu Kyi in prison, and has ruled Myanmar with torture, murder, fear, and restriction ever since. Aung San Suu Kyi has been in and out of prison and house arrest since 1988. Though she has been given the opportunity to leave her imprisonment (when her husband died in England, for example), she has refused to go knowing that she will not be allowed back into Myanmar. Her loyalty to her people, even from behind bars, is non-negotiable. Even though she is, in essence, powerless to rule the country from her bedroom, her mere presence gives the Myanmar people peace and hope. Without her presence, surely the already tumultuous situation would deteriorate into chaos.

What has the junta done that is so bad? In part:
*Starvation orders on villages. (Troops show up in a village and tell them that they are not allowed to farm or use their animals. If they are caught doing so-and the troops return regularly to check-the village is burned down. Thus, the people exile into Thailand or India where they are not welcome, often dying of malaria or land mines on the way, or they starve to death).

*Bombing border villages "as a means of controlling the poppy smuggling into Thailand.” I worked at a refugee camp with 74 children who had come from one of these villages. They had seen their parents, siblings, and friends killed. Obviously, though poppy smuggling IS a problem, bombing innocent people is not the way to handle it.

*Disallowing foreign press.

*Disallowing foreign television and radio.

*Arresting, torturing, or killing anyone who is suspected to be promoting democracy.

*Disallowing large groups from meeting, for fear of insurgency. Even the Universities have been closed, and when they are open, classes are held in campuses miles apart to prevent Democratic discussion and hinder organization. There is also the desire to promote ignorance, of course, to create a submissive people, similar to the Khmer Rouge stragtegy of the 1970's in Cambodia.

*Shooting down innocent people in the street- on more than one occasion.

*Possibly bombing their own people, and blaming it on Western nations. (Somebody bombed them in May 2005, and no one knows who, but we know it wasn’t a democratic country).

So why doesn’t someone go into Myanmar, forcefully remove the junta, release Aung San Suu Kyi, and fix this severe human rights violation?
Primarily, Aung San Suu Kyi strongly opposes this strategy. She, along with 90% of the rest of Myanmar, is Buddhist. Buddhism prohibits killing; therefore, she is seeking a peaceful resolution. In her attempts to reach such a solution, she has earned the Nobel Peace Prize, forced Myanmar to pass on its ASEAN chairmanship this year, organized students, interviewed with Western journalists, thus educating the world of the problem, written books, and has been a rock of stability in a deadly whirlpool. Even so, she is still under house arrest. If you’re looking for her, she lives at 54 University Ave., BAHAN 11201, Yangon, Myanmar. You can write to her. I don't know that she receives the letters, but if she does, I'm sure she appreciates the encouragement.

I don’t know how to solve the problems in Myanmar. I know I’ve been “asked to leave” (to put it mildly) for baptizing in Myanmar. I’ve been stopped on the streets in Yangon by soldiers and interrogated. I’ve had film ripped out of my camera. I've been careful not to congregate with more than a few Myanmar at once in public. I’ve been followed by “eyes”, as the Myanmar people call junta spies, in Shan State, and every Myanmar who comes to see me at my hotel has had to sign in and out, and state the purpose of their visit. But would they dare arrest me-an American? I doubt it. That blue passport in my pocket, in many ways, serves as a get out of jail free card, though I wouldn’t want to test that theory. But my Mon, Shan, Karen, Kachin. . . friends don’t have that pass, and they live in fear of being in the wrong place at the wrong time everyday. If you have an idea on how to fix the problem, contact Sen. John McCain, or other people in government who are aware and involved with the human rights atrocities in Myanmar.

Until there comes a solution, I try to encourage my Myanmar friends to hold onto the eternal freedoms that are available in Christ. No one can take that freedom away, not even those men in olive green uniforms, with shoddy boots and dangling machine guns that stand on every corner of Yangon. I pray for the safety of my Buddhist and Christian friends there; I pray that the UN sanctions work against the junta and not against my friends who work in factories that are closing due to the sanctions that are supposed to help them, thank Condi Rice for adding Myanmar to the “axis of evil”, if for no other reason than it raises awareness, and write little bits like this.

If history has taught us anything, it's that Myanmar's future doesn't look bright, specifically Aung San Suu Kyi's. The junta reads their history books as well, and they know that it is in their advantage to keep her alive long enough that she will die of natural causes under house arrest. Change comes in tidalwaves when a civil disobedience leader is killed for his or her beliefs. The Western world became Christian from Jesus' civil disobedience. (The crusades weren't nearly as successful, evangelically, as Jesus' method when he told Peter to put down his sword). England left India and the Hindus and Muslims agreed to disagree, thanks to Ghandi; African Americans gained civil rights from Martin Luther King Jr.'s efforts, etc...But all of these leaders had to die before great change came. For example, the Dalai Lama is alive and Tibet isn't yet free. But if a Chinese hit man assassinated the Dalai Lama in the streets of NYC, worldy pressure and awareness would rise. According to history, Tibet would then soon be free. The junta knows that killing Aung San Suu Kyi will bring more harm than good to their cause. So, sadly, it looks like she's stuck in her home indefinately while her people trudge around in the dark.

I got a birthday card from a couple of friends from Myanmar recently. I'll leave their names and pictures out of this, for obvious reasons. I also received several letters from Myanmar friends asking for more Bible courses. In all the letters I have from Myanmar people, there isn't one complaint in them. But there is a lot of hope and a lot of compassion. They are a people of profound kindness.

So now you know! I'm not talking about Sue, or cheese, or singing a song. :) She's a woman for whom I have great respect. If you think of it, thank God again that you were born an American, for the freedoms you have in Christ, and in America. Certainly, not everyone is so fortunate.

For more information:
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma
*www.dassk.org
*www.aappb.org
*http://www.freeburma.org/
*http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/myanmar_burma/index.do
*Beyond Rangoon (the movie)
*Paschal Khoo Thwe's historical account, From the Land of Green Ghosts.

In The Quiet Land
(By Daw Aung San Suu Kyi)
In the Quiet Land,
no one can tell
if there's someone who's listening
for secrets they can sell.
The informers are paid in the blood of the land
and no one dares speak what the tyrants won't stand.
In the quiet land of Burma,
no one laughs and no one thinks out loud.
In the quiet land of Burma,
you can hear it in the silence of the crowd
In the Quiet Land, no one can say
when the soldiers are coming
to carry them away.
The Chinese want a road; the French want the oil;
the Thais take the timber; and SLORC takes the spoils...
In the Quiet Land....In the Quiet Land, no one can hear
what is silenced by murder
and covered up with fear.
But, despite what is forced, freedom's a sound
that liars can't fake and no shouting can drown.

The Past 7 Years. . .

The Past Seven Years. . .
It's staggering how quickly life goes by, and how different I perceive myself to be today from who I was seven years ago. Seven years ago, I would fall asleep to Tim reading Chausser to me. We'd go to work if we felt like it; go to class if we felt like it-sometimes skipping just to take 20 mile bike rides in the corn of Nebraska. Life was simple to say the least. We married in 1998 just after I returned from a three month mission to Takahagi, Japan where I had been working as a Bible teacher for a couple of summers. We lived in a slanted apartment, above three Pakistani guys who cooked stinky food. We stole our furniture from the Goodwill dumpster across the street, ate Ramen noodles every day, and frequently went without electricity due to a faulty breaker. But none of that mattered then. When we didn't have power, we climbed onto the roof to look at the stars, or we took long walks in the rain. Everyone should have years like that-where life is simple.

But then the student loan bills came; I was trying to get three BA's in four years (which I did by carrying an insane load); Tim's job as a group home counselor was getting beyond tolerable, and we were forced out of the Norman Rockwell painting some call, "Nebraska," and into the real world via the US Army.

Of course, I had many reservations about Tim joining the Army. I mean, I still drink from a coffee mug that reads, "I'm a pacifist-like Jesus." But Tim said, "They'll pay off all of the student loans (which they did), and then I'm out (which he's not)." They-whoever "they" are-say to never talk about religion and politics on a first date. Well, some rules never expire. As it should be in marriage, we've both come inward from our extreme beliefs some to meet closer in the middle. And where we still disagree, we disagree peaceably (which means silently). It's true-best friends have much more exciting times when they aren't clones of each other.

There are many advantages to the military: no student loans, free medical, free masters degree programs, job security, housing, etc. . .however, I found myself suddenly without direction. We previosuly planned on moving to Japan long-term to work as missionaries. And now? Surely my life plan was not to be a high school English teacher. Fulfilling for some, I grew weary of it fast. I fell into quite a slump, and ironically enough, it was Nietzche who pulled me out of it with his quote, "His disciples will have to look more saved if I am to believe in this Savior." I needed to snap out of it, and find the joy HE gave me again.

I realized that just because Tim joined the Army didn't mean that I couldn't do missions anymore. Afterall, the Army takes him away for 6-12 months of nearly every year. So, when Tim took off training, I joined a medical mission team in Surinam, S. America. When Tim flew off to Korea, I taught Bible and worked with refugees in Burma, Cambodia and Thailand. When Tim was sent to Afghanistan, I returned to Burma and Cambodia. It has turned out to be a very fulfilling seven years for both of us.
































Tim and I spent a much needed vacation in France for our five year anniversay. We were together 5 weeks that year, and we lived the two weeks we spent in France to the fullest. We tresspassed into vineyards in Eparnay, drank in champagne cellars, took a rickety elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower, kissed under every bridge along the Seine, and hiked the steps up to Sacre Coeur.

In our sixth year of marriage, Tim and I found ourselves at a very questionable outdoor cafe in Nogales, Mexico. (I couldn't reveal the details of how we ended up there, even I wanted to. . .). Eventually, the conversation turned to orphans we had seen and worked with around the world. It quickly became clear that we both desired to do something more permenant to care for God's children than handing out clothes and food a few months a year. So, we decided to pursue adoption. How we chose a country, an agency, age, medical needs, the number of orphans, etc...is information for another post. Though I can say that we both felt like we needed to live the next year to its fullest becuase life after children would slow us both down, or at least keep me in America more than I had been used to in a long time. And honestly, I was jealous of Tim on occasion. I would think about how he could still run off to far away places and help the oppressed, make new friends of other faiths, learn new languages. I wouldn't be able to. I remembered a poem by Amy Carmichael-a missionary to India in the 1800's. She spent her entire life saving little girls from Hindu temple postitution, sometimes staying awake with thirty babies night after night all alone becuase no one else would move to India and help her. In frustration, she wrote, "Onward Christian soldiers, sitting on the mats; nice and warm and cozy, like little pussycats; Onward Christian soldiers, Oh how brave are we; don't we do our fighting very comfortably?" Naive, I thought that staying home to raise children would turn my faith into something far too comfortable, which would then lead to apathy, stagnation, and spiritual death. I thought, "If I'm not here-in the jungle, in the camps, then what good am I? How will I grow? How can I possibly become more like Christ in the suburbs?" Oh how wrong I was! Mothers are some of God's most well used servants, and plowing the way for Christ to shine fully through the children He has entrusted us with is a humbling journey. The experience of parenting has grown Tim and I both spiritually, and though we are blissfully happy, we are often far from comfortable. Which is how it should be.