Church group helps Burma refugees
March 24, 2009
By Laura Geggel
Six members from the Snoqualmie Valley Alliance Church recently flew to Thailand on a humanitarian mission to help the people of Burma.
The tropical jungle region awed the Snoqualmie Valley residents. The area had few roads, but a maze of trails and mountains as far as the eye could see.
“It’s extremely rugged terrain,” George Tronsrue III of Carnation said.
Tronsrue visited Burma with his son, David, as well as church members Mark Peaslee, Dan Dron, Scott Usselman and Pastor Monty Wright.
Tronsrue helped spearhead the trip after his family learned about the Free Burma Rangers, a group founded in 1997 that aids the repressed ethnic minorities of Burma.
Burma has a tumultuous past. It gained independence from Britain in 1948 and quickly fell into the hands of a military junta. The country’s largest ethnic group, the Burman people, rule over the Karen and Shan minority populations. In retaliation, the Karen and Shan have fought for independence, but with little success.
In 1990, the National League for Democracy won elections, but the junta refused to hand over power and placed the league’s leader, Nobel Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest.
Burma’s military dictator Than Shwe has held power since 1992. When Cyclone Nargis ripped into Burma in May, Shwe impeded international rescue efforts and instead proceeded with a constitutional referendum, a first vote in the country since 1990. The election was reportedly rigged and the regime continues to arrest people suspected of pro-democracy activities.
Tronsrue said the mission of the Free Burma Rangers moved him. He and his family have visited the Thai-Burma border three times since July 2006 with the invitation of Dave and Karen Eubank, the creators of the Rangers.
Tronsrue invited the Eubanks to speak at Snoqualmie Valley Alliance Church in August of 2007. The church’s congregation decided overwhelmingly to get involved, placing Burma on its mission’s budget.
The church already supports causes in Uganda, Guatemala, Mexico, India and Russia.
The church group flew to the Burma-Thai border from March 4-18 to assess the situation and see how they could help. Because the military regime allows very few foreigners inside the country, the group went to a refugee camp in Thailand where 60,000 displaced ethnic minorities have fled.
“Pretty much on a daily basis, they are being forced out of their homes and murdered,” said Wright.
About 1 million people inside Burma are displaced from their homes. Wright called them internal refugees. About 500,000 people have fled Burma and settled in refugee camps, like the one in Thailand.
Once at the camp, the Snoqualmie Valley Alliance Church members found a hostel filled with 20 children who were either orphans or separated from their parents. Despite their desperate condition, the children have access to a school run by the Thai government.
“There is kind of a positive ray of hope,” Tronsrue said.
The church decided it would help fund and expand the hostel, paying the $12,000 per year it needs to continue functioning.
“They don’t have any external support, except through Free Burma Rangers,” Tronsrue said. “It diverts money that Free Burma Rangers could be using for relief missions.”
One relief mission costs $2,000 to provide aid and supplies for 1,000 people. Supplies include medical care and supplies, plastic tarps and food.
“If they didn’t have to run the hostel, they could do six more relief missions a year,” Tronsrue said.
The group traveled inside Burma for the Christian Prayer for Burma day March 8, a trip that took two hours in each direction. Tronsrue said a resistance army battalion protected the location.
During the 400-person prayer session, “You could feel the urgency and the need and the hope,” Tronsrue said.
The group also visited a clinic that services 13 villages. Tronsrue plans to start a non-profit called the Jericho Alliance that would help finance the clinic, among other things.
Overall, the church group said it was excited to help the people of Burma. Wright said he enjoyed the people and the food.
“We ate a lot of rice and a lot of vegetables,” he said. “Wherever we stayed, they took great care of us.”
Wright said he hopes people will learn more about Burma and start advocating for its people, much the way groups like Amnesty International have called attention to the crisis in Darfur.
“A million people are running for their lives and no one seems to care,” Wright said.
To get involved, e-mail Wright at pastormonty@svaonline.com.
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Dear friends
Greetings, I would like to visit Mynamaras tourist
please let me know the procedure to get there so I will ibe there for 15 days
please pray for me
with love
Joseph
most probably i will trave in Ocotober