Nargis Relief: Week 3

First, I would like to apologize for the delay in updating. I’ve been in Singapore and didn’t update.

Now, as for the third week that I spent in Myanmar, I look very fondly on this week. For the first few days of the week we simply rested. After the week that was Bago, we needed it! We had done so much travelling around in between villages, churches and pagodas and gotten so little sleep (in addition to the fact that both Christer and Zeke were intermittently sick throughout the week), that we needed at least a few days to catch up.

When Wednesday arrived, we went to the other side of the zoo from Methodist English Church to the Office of the Methodist Committee for Nargis Relief and Rehabilitation (MCNRR). There we learned of the ministries that the Methodist Church (Lower Myanmar) is doing in the delta area one year later. Many charities and organizations in the beginning banded together to drop materials or do short term mission work, but that is not the goal or the method of the MCNRR. They are really trying to heal the Nargis affected areas holistically—body, mind and spirit. They have helped to builded over 40 houses in villages and helped to provide materials for villagers to return to providing what little income they could before the cyclone. They have sent, on several occasions, trained counselors to help villagers with the unbelievable amount of emotional damage left in the aftermath. They, after having met these needs (in other words, after having acted out the gospel) present the gospel message to them. They are involved in education. Actually, a few students from my college, Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas, raised enough money to fund most of a school for a village in the delta (go Vince and Hilary!). Also, we participated in medical mission work providing free medical care for villagers. All in all, the MCNRR is doing a very good job of reaching out and helping the people who are in need in the delta and doing in a committed, long-term, and holistic manner.

So, as we went out to Nay pyo daw, Shanguin, Seinyati, and other villages we saw the face of Christ. I am reminded of Matthew in which Jesus, after having separated the sheep and the goats, says, “Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done it for me.” I hope that I can continue to keep that mindset in social justice as I step back into my padded American world. But the idea for all of us to keep in mind is that we absolutely CAN make a difference, Hilary and Vince helped build a school. What can you do? Support a world vision child. Find out what kind of outreach your church is already doing and take a more active role. As American’s we have power and resources that others in the world could not even imagine, we have a responsibility to take that seriously.