Archive for May, 2008

George Bush – “Danger Everywhere”?

Posted: May 29, 2008 in George Bush, Jeremiah, Presidential Election
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Back in ancient Biblical times, Babylon (Iraq today) was a major world power. The Jews of Judah refused to see Babylon’s danger, aided by the lies of the Chief Priest Pashur, Jeremiah Exposes Pashurwho prophesied to the people that everything would work out, and Judah (Israel today) would be victorious against them.

The prophet Jeremiah was raised up by God to reveal the lies of Pashur, who reacted violently, having Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned in stocks. When Pashur came to release Jeremiah, Jeremiah told him that his name had been changed by God. God now called him “Danger-Everywhere” because of his refusal to ignore the dangers of Babylon and in fact lie about them. Jeremiah proclaimed Pashur a danger to himself and everyone around him. All of his friends would be killed in battle while he watched. Babylon would plunder Judah and do whatever they liked with them. Jeremiah warned Pashur that he and his family would be taken into exile, exile in Babylon. He and all his “cronies” to whom he preached his lies. Here is the Biblical account as the Message Bible interprets:

Jeremiah 20:1-6 (MSG) The priest Pashur son of Immer was the senior priest in God’s Temple. He heard Jeremiah preach this sermon. He whipped Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate of God’s Temple. The next day Pashur came and let him go. Jeremiah told him, “God has a new name for you: not Pashur but Danger-Everywhere, because God says, ‘You’re a danger to yourself and everyone around you. All your friends are going to get killed in battle while you stand there and watch. What’s more, I’m turning all of Judah over to the king of Babylon to do whatever he likes with them—haul them off into exile, kill them at whim. Everything worth anything in this city, property and possessions along with everything in the royal treasury—I’m handing it all over to the enemy. They’ll rummage through it and take what they want back to Babylon. ” ‘And you, Pashur, you and everyone in your family will be taken prisoner into exile—that’s right, exile in Babylon. You’ll die and be buried there, you and all your cronies to whom you preached your lies.’ “

New Book by Scott McClellanAll of a sudden a book bursts forth on the American political scene which makes the Bush administration and George Bush himself seem like Pashur, or should we say “Danger-Everywhere”? Here are some pointed excerpts from the book by former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan:

Most of our elected leaders in Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike, are good, decent people. Yet too many of them today have made a practice of shunning truth and the high level of openness and forthrightness required to discover it. Most of it is not willful or conscious. Rather, it is part of the modern Washington game that has become the accepted norm.

As I explain in this book, Washington has become the home of the permanent campaign, a game of endless politicking based on the manipulation of shades of truth, partial truths, twisting of the truth, and spin. Governing has become an appendage of politics rather than the other way around, with electoral victory and the control of power as the sole measures of success. That means shaping the narrative before it shapes you. Candor and honesty are pushed to the side in the battle to win the latest news cycle… The press amplifies the talking points of one or both parties in its coverage, thereby spreading distortions, half-truths, and occasionally outright lies in an effort to seize the limelight and have something or someone to pick on.

Most objective observers today would say that in 2003 there was no urgent need to address the threat posed by Saddam with a large-scale invasion, and therefore the war was not necessary. But this is a question President Bush seems not to want to grapple with.

I still like and admire George W. Bush. I consider him a fundamentally decent person, and I do not believe he or his White House deliberately or consciously sought to deceive the American people. But he and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war. Had a high level of openness and forthrightness been embraced from the outset of his administration, I believe President Bush’s public standing would be stronger today. His approval ratings have remained at historic lows for so long because both qualities have been lacking to this day. In this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security.

All the president can do today is hope that his vision of Iraq will ultimately come true, putting the Middle East on a new path and vindicating his decision to go to war. I would welcome such a development as good for America, good for Iraq, and good for the world. Bush knows that posterity has a way of rewarding success over candor and honesty. But as history moves to render its judgment in the coming years and decades, we can’t gloss over the hard truths this book has sought to address and the lessons we can learn from understanding them better. Allowing the permanent campaign culture to remain in control may not take us into another unnecessary war, but it will continue to limit the opportunity for careful deliberation, bipartisan compromise, and meaningful solutions to the major problems all Americans want to see solved. Adapted from the book WHAT HAPPENED: INSIDE THE BUSH WHITE HOUSE AND WASHINGTON’S CULTURE OF DECEPTION by Scott McClellan. Copyright 2008 by Scott McClellan.

Karl Rove and George \The excerpts plus additional revelations in the newswire this morning indicate that President Bush along with his advisor’s deliberately “sold” America on the invasion of Iraq because of their own political agenda. They deliberately ignored reality and spread half-truth’s to achieve their end.

The Bush administration has been quick to label McClellan as a “disgruntled” former employee. If it was back in Bible times, he would have been beaten and placed in stocks for public humiliation.Stocks

I am a Republican and voted for George W Bush, but our leaders have a responsibility to be honest and forthright. If the book excerpts are an honest reflection of the contents, this book should be very disturbing to the American people. Jeremiah has come forth and revealed George Bush as Pashur and is calling him “Danger-Everywhere”.

Perhaps we should realize that George Bush has become a danger to himself, his Country and God-fearing American’s everywhere. This war in Babylon (Iraq) has the potential of consuming the assets of America including our young men and women. It is folly and shame that it should have been predicated upon the lies of a Pashur.

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A Day to Remember What (or Who) Made America Great

Posted: May 26, 2008 in Memorial Day, Remembering
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Meaning of Memorial Day

Does anyone know the purpose of Memorial Day?

General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868 “The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land (CALLED DECORATION DAY). In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose among other things, “of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion.” What can aid more to assure this result than cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance… Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”By order of JOHN A. LOGAN, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans’ organization,

Memorial Day Poster “Memorial Day” was first used in 1882, but did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967 . On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved three holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971 . The holiday has endured as one where most businesses stay closed because it marks the beginning of the “summer vacation season”

The official dead list from US wars since 1860:

Civil War (1861-1865) 623,026

Indian Wars (1865-1898) 919

Spanish-American War (1898) 2,446

Phillipine War (1898-1902) 4,196

Boxer Rebellion (1900-1901) 37

Mexican Revolution (1914-1919) 35

Haiti Occupation (1915-1934) 146

World War 1 (1917-1918) 116,708

World War 2 (1941-1945) 407,316

Korean War (1950-1953) 36,914

Vietnam War (1964-1973) 58,169

El Salvador (1980-1992) 20

Beirut (1982-1984) 266

ersian Gulf Support (1987-1988) 39

Invasion of Grenada (1983) 19

Invasion of Panama (1989) 40

Gulf War (1991) 269

Somalia (1992-1993) 43

Bosnia 1995 12

Afghanistan (2002-2008) 482

Iraqi (2003-2008) 4079+

A Time for Remembering

Memorial DayIt is important that we pause from time to time to remember what makes this country so great, and to honor those who have given their lives for our FREEDOM. Take time tomorrow to honor those who have served in the Armed Forces. They secure our freedom from Tyranny as well as our Freedom to Worship the God of the Bible.

We should also remember what and who has really had a hand in making our country great, and that is our Lord God Jehovah. Some would say that America is great because we Bless the Jews. But I say America is Great because it honors’ God’s Word.

I want to quote from a sermon delivered on May 27th, 1730 by Rev Thomas Prince, a Puritan pastor. He was remembering the 100th anniversary of the Puritans coming to America.

Thomas Prince (1687-1758), A Sermon Delivered at Cambridge Before the Great and General Assembly of the Province of the Massachusetts, May 27th 1730. Being the Anniversary for the Election of His Majesty’s Council for the Province. By Thomas Prince, M.A. And one of the Pastors of the South Church in Boston.

Pastor Prince said that the Puritans came to New England for religious liberty, not economic reasons. Prince’s sermon also called for government acknowledgment of God. This sermon was preached before the Massachusetts legislature.

His text was “1 Sam. 12:6, 7.”

“And SAMUEL said unto the PEOPLE; ‘It is the LORD that advanced MOSES and AARON, and that brought up your FATHERS out of the Land of Egypt; Now therefore, stand still, that I may Reason with you before the LORD, of all the Righteous Acts of the LORD, which He did to YOU and to your FATHERS.'”

I want to read his first four points.

1. When there at any time arise, either in the civil or ecclesiastical order, MEN of eminent wisdom, goodness, power and usefulness among a people of GOD, we must consider, it is the LORD their GOD, that made, accomplished and raised them up, and this in special favor to that particular people.

2. That when such a people are in a remarkable manner brought out of the hands of those that vexed them, to a place or state of ease and liberty; the gracious conduct of the LORD their GOD, is herein to be religiously observed and acknowledged by them.

3. It behooves such a people so treated of GOD, to remember all his signal operations, both of judgment and of mercy, both to them and their fathers, to view them as acts of faithfulness and righteousness to them, and consider the special and great obligations arising from them.

4. And lastly, it becomes their public teachers to remind them therefore of all these things, and from thence to reason with them before the LORD about their answerable carriage [i.e., behavior] towards Him.

In support of his observations, Pastor Prince states eloquently:

“And here I cannot forbear observing, that there never was any people on earth, so parallel in their general history to that of the ancient ISRAELITES as this of NEW ENGLAND. To no other country of people could there ever be so directly applied a multitude of Scripture passages in the literal sense, as to this particular country: that excepting miracles and changing names, one would be ready to think, the greater part of the OLD TESTAMENT were written about us; or that we, though in a lower degree, were the particular antitypes of that primitive [early] people.

However, I’m sure, that upon the present occasion, I may justly turn the text into a like address, in the Name of GOD, to this Great and General Assembly, comprehensive both of rulers and people of every order; and say–“It is the LORD that advanced your primitive civil and ecclesiastical LEADERS, and that brought up your FATHERS out of the land of their affliction; now therefore, stand still, that I may reason with you before the LORD, of all the righteous acts of the LORD, which He did to YOU and to your FATHERS!

And how extremely proper is it, upon the close of the FIRST CENTURY of our settlement in this chief part of the land, which will now within a few weeks expire,* to look back to the beginning of this remarkable transaction, and first commemorate the righteous and signal works of GOD towards us, both in our own days and in the days of our fathers; and then consider the great and special obligations they have laid upon us, with the nature of our carriage towards Him for the time past, and our interest and wisdom for the future.

(* On Saturday, June 12, 1630, arrived in Salem River, the Arabella, with Governor WINTHROP and some of his Assistants, bringing the Charter of the MASSACHUSETTS Colony, and therewith the Government, transferred hither: The other ten ships of the fleet with Deputy Governor DUDLEY and the other Assistants arrived in Salem and Charles Rivers before July 11. In the same month the Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants came with their goods to CHARLESTOWN: And the first Court of Assistants was held there on Aug. 23, the same year.)

Pastor Prince then quotes from Psalm 78:

“Give ear therefore O my People to my Law: incline your Ear to the Words of my Mouth! I will utter things of old, which we have heard and known and our Fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their Children; shewing to the Generation and Century coming on, the Praises of the LORD, and his Strength, and his Wonderful WORKS that He has done. For He established a Testimony in JACOB, and appointed a Law, a Law of Gratitude in ISRAEL, which He commanded our Fathers, that they should make known the WORKS of GOD to their Children: that the Generation to come might know them, even the Children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their Children; that they might also set their Hope in GOD, and not forget his Works, but keep his Commandments.”

He goes on to say before the Massachusetts Legislature:

And here we must own, that very many have been the wondrous WORKS which the LORD our GOD has wrought for us: they cannot be reckoned up in order before Him: if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbered. We may now therefore only touch on some of the most material; those of the most important, public and comprehensive nature.

And he goes on to list some of the mighty works God did in establishing the commonwealth of Massachusets from 1630-1730. You could never do that in Massachusetts today. They would boo you out of the legislature.

Not only did God work to form the United States, but He moved in the hearts of men to do so. Our founding Fathers honored God, they Honored God’s Word, and that made America Great.

George Washington:

“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and Bible.”

“It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.”

John Adams:

“ The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”

• “[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.” –John Adams in a letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress

John Adams:

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” –October 11, 1798

“The highest glory of the American Revolution, said John Quincy Adams, was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIANITY.” comments Adams made in a July 4, 1837 oration.

John Quincy Adams:


• “Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the Fourth of July]?” “Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity”?–1837, at the age of 69, when he delivered a Fourth of July speech at Newburyport, Massachusetts

THE SUPREME COURT:

John W. Whitehead analyzes the Supreme Court’s historic understanding of the relationship between Christianity and government in the United States:

“In 1892 the United States Supreme Court made an exhaustive study of the supposed connection between Christianity and the government of the United States. After researching hundreds volumes of historical documents, the Court asserted ‘these references add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a religious people…a Christian nation.’ Likewise in 1931, Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland reversed the 1892 decision in relation to another case and reiterated that Americans are a ‘Christian people’ and in 1952 Justice William O. Douglas affirmed ‘we are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.'”

For the first 250 years of our existence God’s Word determined the conduct of self-government in homes, churches, and civil society. God Blessed America because our forefathers built their nation with reliance on Him and His Word, and because God had a Gospel purpose for our nation.

Tomb of the Unknown SoldierTOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

But today we have forgotten our Bible Heritage and only the skeleton remains. We say HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN ONLY TO GOD. YET ANY HONORED GLORY THAT OUR NATION HAS IS BECAUSE WE SUBMIT TO AND HONOR OUR CREATOR GOD. AS WE DO NOT FORGET OUR UNKNOWN FALLEN, NEITHER SHOULD WE FORGET OUR GOD.

We as a Nation have turned away from the authority of God and His Word. I believe we have BLINDERS on our eyes, and we refuse to see the HANDWRITING ON THE WALL. I believe America is trodding on dangerous ground. We have forgotten our GOD.

America-Against God’s Word?

Posted: May 23, 2008 in McCain, Presidential Election
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Boiling Point

Reading the latest flap about John Hagee and now Pastor Rod Parsley’s support of John McCain has scratched me so deep I want to scream. It’s so funny that Preacher’s have become the main negatives in both Obama and McCain’s campaign. However, my pain comes from America’s Anti-God’s Word bias.McCain rejects Hagee\'s Endorsement

Some preacher’s do go too far in giving their own personal interpretation of what God says in His Word. But one thing that the press and many American’s refuse to acknowledge is the Supreme Authority of God and His Word.

McCain rejected the endorsement of Hagee over the latest revelation of his belief about Hitler’s role in returning the Jews to their homeland of Palestine. Hagee said “How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said, ‘My top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel’.”

Well, evidently that’s not the God that McCain wants to identify with. How could God have ever allowed a creature like Hitler to do His Will? And the reason McCain rejected Hagee’s endorsement is that most American’s don’t believe in that kind of a God. After all, God is kind and loving and would never cause harm. That is why an uproar occurred in the first place when it was revealed that Hagee preached and wrote that America is under the curse of God.

I also read that Pastor Rod Parsley’s endorsement of McCain may be rejected becauMc Cain may reject Parsley\'s Endorsementse of statements he made against Islam. McCain had sought his endorsement because he recognizes Pastor Parsley as “one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide.” Well, evidently America does not want to be guided to a God who would be restrictive and so closed minded that he would seek the destruction of any false religions like Islam, as Pastor Parsley contends. So McCain will probably reject his endorsement as well because of the negative press.

Bottom line, America rejects a God who uses evil to do His Will, and America rejects a God who is prejudiced against any religion or people.

This is where America is headed, because America has rejected the authority of God’s Word. We have made our own God according to what we believe in our hearts is right. A loving, kind, compassionate God who despises suffering and hatred and prejudice. A God who gives us our own space to worship Him in any way we chose.

The True God

God’s Word describes the True God, Jehovah, El Elyon who reigns over all: “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things. “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it. “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’? … But Israel is saved by the LORD with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right. “Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. … And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ “Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. In the LORD all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.” (Isa 45:7-25 some verses omitted)

America wants to bow their knees to a god that they have created in their own minds. They only want a God who is loving and kind and would never hurt anyone. BUT GOD’S WORD SAYS:

Lift Up Your Eyes and See

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

Look up

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. (Isa 40:21-28)

With all the tragedies and economic chaos that is going on, do we really want a god who is only loving and kind, but without Power and Standards of Right and Wrong? Do we want wishy-washy leaders who are afraid to take a stand for righteousness and justice because they are afraid of offending someone? Praise God for leaders like Truman who made tough decisions like dropping the Atomic Bomb to end World War II. We never would have done that today.

God is God, our creator. He is revealed in His Word, and if we are to honor God we must honor His Word. We must Worship Him as Sovereign and ALL-POWERFUL.

Blow the Trumpet

Blow the Trumpet

Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it? “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:6-8)

What will God have to do to get our attention? Shouldn’t our leaders be blowing the trumpet, sounding the alarm, that we need to return to the God of the Bible? We need a President of conviction, a man not afraid to worship the God of the Bible.

Every Knee

Every Knee Will Bow

Regarding Islam, ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ from Isaiah 45 is expounded upon in Philippians:

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”(Php 2:9-11)

Any religion that does not honor the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is against God. God’s Word is clear, that God has exalted Jesus Christ as the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth. He alone is worthy of our worship, for He is God. They may not like it, but one day even Muslims will bow before Jesus Christ and confess Him Lord.

BURMA NEEDS OUR HELP!!

Posted: May 9, 2008 in Burma, Uncategorized
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Total DevastationI am feeling desperate and helpless as I see the pictures and hear of the death and devastation that abound in the isolated country of Burma. I pray that God will use this disaster to open the floodgates of love and concern for this country that the world has forgotten. Just two years ago I visited some of the areas devastated by Nargis. The Christians we met tugged at our hearts because of their Joy in the face of hardship and even governmental opposition. I pray that joy continues, although I can’t imagine the heartache and despair that must be prevalent. We grew in love with the seminary students at Pathein, and now we have learned that Nargis caused the death of some, and the destruction of much of their property. The Pwo Karen have lost much in this storm. At the time of our trip I told my wife that very few Americans could live in Burma. We don’t know how to face hardship like the Burmese do. The joy on their faces and the love in their heart will be forever branded upon my soul. We must not abandon them. We must pray that God will change the hearts of those He has put in power. We must plead with them as in Psalm 2:

“Now therefore O Kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him”

The Friends of Burma organization is already at work funneling aid to organizations that already exist withing Burma (Myanmar). FOB has partnered with the Burmese over the past 20+ years since God impressed upon Neil and Diana Sowards to come to their aid. Neil’s mom and dad were missionaries to Burma for many years and were forced to leave the country in the early 60’s after the military took over. 100% of every dollar given to FOB goes toward humanitarian and Christian causes in Burma. All administrative work done in the United States is by volunteers.

WE NEED YOUR HELP! We are already in contact with several Christian organizations in Burma about the needs that are so overwhelming. We have already sent them emergency funds of $20,000 US as well as 200 mosquito nets. Here are some of the reports from our contacts in Burma:

  1. The front part of our church (the pulpit part of Pwo Karen Baptist Ch.) was totally destroyed and the five big stands were cracked. Some church members who live in our church compound are now living in Pwo Karen Theological Seminary classrooms because all their houses’ roofs and walls were lost.
  2. The worst thing is that the church near by our church, Sanchaung Sgaw Karen Baptist Church was totally destroyed. Now the church members are also living in their seminary classroom.
  3. Our working place, Myanmar Institute of Theology was also affected by cyclone. The fourth floor of our seminary was totally devastated. Our computer lab was also damaged. Some of the staff houses were also tear-down.
  4. My wife Tin Tin got ph. Contact with her family. Her father got accident on his nose and arm by broken glasses. He is now under-treatment. He had to take 16 stitches on his nose and 10 on his arm. He is now getting better. I still do not get ph. contact with my family. I do not know where my mother is, but I hope she will be doing fine. My former organization World Vision is serving among the victims. My friends informed me that one of my brothers’ house was collapsed.
  5. All goods prices are increased and people are facing difficulties with their daily food. They guess electricity will be unavailable for nearly three months. If there is no electricity, there will be shortage of water supply. There will be many consequences of this disaster: health problem, sanitation, insufficient food, etc.

“This morning, my mom got contacted with my younger sister in Burma and found out that Maung Maung Htwe got back to Yangon after being trapped in the storm in delta area. He is heading home today. I have learned some sad news from my friend from CT, that at least seven Pwo Karen Churches were being destroyed which means that seven whole villages had been wiped out by the powerful wave and wind. The Sgaw Karen Churches are three times more that Pwo Karen Churches, so you can imagine that. Saya Soe Thiha had visited those areas and reported that it had totally devastated and destroyed. There are more Buddhist villages than Christian churches, so it means there are many, many villages had been wiped out. Let’s pray that God will give some comforting arm around the survivals and his mercy and grace to them, and God loosens this hard headed military junta and let the international relief workers to go there and help these people.” (from Saya Zaw Wynn)

1) Two Pwo Kayin Seminarians were killed. 2) Most of Pwo Kayin Theological Seminary students’ parents and family members were killed. 3) 9 Pwo Karen Churches and more than 35 Pwo Kayin villages were disappeared. They guess there will be more than 3000 PK church members were killed. We, the members our Pwo Kayin Baptist Conference (PKBC) are living in delta area. In PKBC, we have 6 associations. All these associations are in delta area and all were affected by cyclone. Dr. Soe Thiha (Andover NTS), Rev. Dr. Maung Maung Htwe (ANTS), and Ko Ko Lay (PTS) alumni are leading in relief camps. Now PKBC provide a relief camp in Pathein, the capital of Irrawaddy division. Tomorrow, my youth pastor and youth will go to Pathein for relief. Pathein is nearly 200 miles far from Yangon.

The special website set up to handle your donations for the relief effort in Burma is: www.myanmarburmarelief.org

You can donate online, or you can send your donation to Friends of Burma @ 548 Home Ave Ft Wayne, IN 46807. We are a 501(c) organization, so all donations are tax deductible.

If you can’t give, please pray to that God will turn the hearts of the military regime to allow humanitarian aide into the country. The world can not sit by and allow these people to keep on suffering and perishing because no one will help.