In This Storm

Current Death Toll From Burma Cyclone = 78,000

(with another 56,000 missing)

Current Death Toll From China Earthquake = 55,000

(with almost 25,000 missing)

133,000 DEAD.

and 81,000 MISSING.

Why isn’t anyone are so few people blogging about it?

Everyone seems to have this need
to say something about Maria Chapman…

Why not about all of the five-year-old’s
lost in Asia in one short month?

Everybody’s blogging about it.

Yours truly, included.

Okay, not everybody. But there’s definitely a high percentage of bloggers I regularly read who are blogging about Wednesday’s loss of Maria Chapman.

It’s a terribly sad story, and we all know how easily it could happen to someone we love.

A teenager driving down his own gravel driveway hits a child — his five-year-old sister.

And, really, somehow we feel like we do know them. Or him, at least. He’s been putting words to our thoughts and to our emotions for years.

So it makes sense that when the family of Steven Curtis Chapman is hit with such tragedy we’re all talking about it. Probably shedding some tears, too.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t.

(Goodness - I was drafting an entry about Emily’s engagement when I first read the news… (Multitasking online as usual.) I’ve got the whole family on my bloglines, yes I do. I’m not saying this shouldn’t affect us at some level.)

But.

Still.

It takes me back to the question I was
mulling over after the cyclone hit Burma.

Most of these same people who are blogging about Maria —

they weren’t blogging about the cyclone.

And no cause for boasting here; It took me a week to write about it.

And the earthquake in China…

I’m pretty sure I never even mentioned it myself.

Let alone did I read about it on more than one, maybe two, of the ninety-three feeds I have bloglined.

Why is that?

I mean - I “get” why we’re all talking about this precious five-year-old.

And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, or with “us.”

What I don’t “get” is why we aren’t talking about all of the five-year-olds that must have been lost in Asia in the past month…

(And that “we” includes *me*.)

Really, I’m not casting stones.

I’m just thinking out loud here.

But ~

If we are going to be so grieved
that we need to write about and talk about it

When a father loses his own child…

Shouldn’t we also be so grieved
that we need to write about it and talk about it

When our Father loses scores of His own?

We can put up fences at the end of our driveways.

(I know I’m thinking about it.)

We can take lots of extra moments with our own five and six-year-olds.

(My six-year-old became quite exasperated with my staring at her soaking her up in my mind time and time again today.)

We can be much more careful with our own driving.

And this will do a lot to bring something good from Maria’s tragic death.

Please hear me: I’m. all. for. this!

But what are we going to do to bring meaning from the deaths of all of those other sweet Chinese and Burmese children and adults?

What will our part be in God bringing good from it?

May our hearts break as much
for the thousands of lives lost this month

- so many lost eternally -

as they break for the one life lost yesterday
and for the Chapman family.

May we be so grieved for the many

As we are for the one.

And may we start,

however late,

talking about it.

And then,

doing.

Please don’t think that because “Myanmar” officials are turning away large scale help and confiscating supplies for themselves that there is nothing (besides pray - which *is* absolutely the most important thing we can do) we can do to help the Burmese people!

Small, independent organizations, especially those like Christian Freedom International *are* getting in through their established (albeit quiet) networks and they need our financial help *if* we can support them. (See text below.)

Perhaps the help must be on a small scale, but it matters to each individual person helped - physically and spiritually!

We can also share the story of the Burmese people.

The cyclone marks neither the beginning nor the end of their suffering.

So very sadly, reports like this (WARNING: GRAPHIC!) are not uncommon:

“We heard numerous eye-witness accounts of horrific human rights violations, including brutal torture, rape, forced labour and religious persecution. We heard accounts of the horrific treatment of prisoners, and how in one jail prisoners were roasted over a hot fire, repeatedly stabbed and then put into a tub of salty water. These are some of the depths to which this regime will sink. For more information and a copy of our report please see www.csw.org.uk” -Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 9-26-07

From all accounts I have read, young children are not spared from these heinous crimes. Little boys - nine, ten, eleven placed in forced labor. Little girls - nine, ten, eleven raped.

From Christian Freedom International’s website:
As All Else Fails, Christian Freedom International Dispatches Aid into Devastated Burma
Friday, 09 May 2008 18:32

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – Christian Freedom International, a Michigan-based humanitarian organization, is embarking on a unique mission to get desperately needed relief aid into cyclone-ravaged Burma. The organization’s efforts are coming at a time when other international assistance has been rejected by the Burmese government, and as U.N. food aid shipments have already been confiscated by the military for its own use in the storm’s aftermath.

Cyclone Nargis, which hit the Southeast Asian country on May 3, 2008, destroyed homes, roadways, grain stores and rice fields, and knocked out electricity in many parts of the country. To date, the official death toll from the storm has climbed to nearly 23,000, with 42,000 others still missing. It is the worst cyclone to hit Asia in 17 years, when 143,000 people were killed in Bangladesh in 1991.

Despite the overwhelming need for food, shelter, clean drinking water, and medical supplies for thousands of Burma’s survivors, the junta remains adamant in its refusal to accept the help of a major international relief operation, insisting that it alone will distribute emergency aid among the cyclone victims. “Conventional ways of delivering aid just doesn’t work in Burma,” says Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Freedom International. “Independent groups like CFI are the only answer to getting aid into the country.” Jacobson, who has personally made dozens of trips to the region to deliver relief aid to persecuted Karen and Karenni Christians, believes that the Burmese government’s indifference to the widespread suffering of its people in the wake of Cyclone Nargis is helping the international community finally understand the true level of the junta’s abject inhumanity.

For the past decade, Jacobson and his workers have witnessed firsthand the devastation of Burma’s genocidal brutality carried out against its own citizens, which has caused the displacement of tens of thousands of refugees and the vicious beatings, rapes, and murders of thousands more – a humanitarian crisis that has remained unknown to most of the international community. Burma’s repressive government also became the subject of worldwide scrutiny after the country’s recent monk-led protests demanding freedom for all Burmese citizens.

CFI, a nonprofit organization that assists persecuted Christians around the world, has an established network of underground house church pastors in Burma, through which it is wiring funds to help provide emergency assistance for cyclone victims. CFI has also dispatched a team of indigenous backpack medics into remote areas, where storm-affected victims will receive lifesaving medical care. CFI workers are also providing spiritual guidance to Burma’s suffering victims, offering Bibles and other materials to those who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

To provide a donation for Burma’s cyclone relief effort, or to learn more about CFI’s work in Burma, call 1-800-323-2273.

Or visit CFI on the web HERE.

Donate to CFI HERE.

I’ve had a heart for Burma for many years. A dear friend from college was actually born in Burma and his family literally escaped the country:

Selwyn was born in Rangoon, Burma in 1971. As the grandson of Selwyn Khin, the founder of the Burmese Air Force during Burma’s post WWII democracy period, Selwyn’s family was constantly under suspicion by the Burmese military junta that overthrew the democracy in 1962.

In 1973 his family left Burma and sought political asylum in the United States. His mother left the country with Selwyn, age 2, and his sister, age 5. His father had to escape through the jungle and reunited with them in Bangkok weeks later.

It is a fascinating story, and you can hear more about Selwyn’s personal story as well as a wonderfully put-together history and educational lesson about Burma at this page on his website: An Overview Of Burma

Why am I talking about Burma today?

See the big orange button on my sidebar?

For Myanmar?

Yeah. That’s Burma.

Or, rather, Burma is Myanmar.

That, too, is a fascinating story. In a horrible, terrible, no good, verybad kind of way. And heart wrenching. And positively maddening. Selwyn’s site is not to be missed.

With my heart so tender to Burma for so long, I have been surprised to see so few people in my “blogging rounds” talking about the deadly cyclone that hit Burma less than a week ago. But maybe we just don’t know what to say. I’ve been mulling over what to write all week. My heart is so heavy for a country and a people that were already suffering in so many ways.

And now as many as a million people have been left homeless and with virtually no food or water. And so many lives are simply no more.

It is my earnest prayer that out of such tragedy, good will come. In speaking with missionaries who were preparing to go to Burma we learned in many ways it is easier to find a way into China as missionaries than to go into “Myanmar.”

And more than anything, we know the people of Burma need the hope that comes only from knowing Jesus. I am praying that hearts will be open to the vast spiritual need in that country.

I’m also praying that eyes will be open to the people and the politics of Burma.

That we, as a nation, as a people, as the people of God, will take this opportunity to be educated about the needs there which lie outside of the desperate needs for a country literally torn apart by a cyclone.

That big orange button on my sidebar will take you to the page at Samaritan’s Purse for donating. When you “land” on their donation page, the question “To Which Project Would You Like To Contribute?” is already set to “Myanmar Relief.” It’s certainly not the only way to donate money to the relief efforts. But, a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, A full ninety percent of SP’s expenses are for ministry. And always in the name of Jesus. If you don’t have a favorite organization through which you might donate, I highly recommend them.

Most of all, won’t you pray?

And don’t forget to take a few moments to learn about Burma and the Burmese people.

Selwyn also has lots of ideas for Family and Child Friendly Events in Madison, Wisconsin

and some ideas about Visiting Disney With Children With Special Needs