[Index]
“A Journey of Faith”
On May 2 & 3, 2008, the cyclone devastated a vast area of the Irrawaddy Delta in an eastward sweep to as far as the city of Yangon. More than 150,000 people perished. At a church leadership meeting, Pastor Richard Toh mentioned he was going to Myanmar to participate in the relief work after cyclone Nargis hit that country. I offered myself to go with him.
It was a month after the cyclone that we made our journey to Myanmar. Our first test of faith was bringing in a large sum of money collected from CBC members for the relief work. Secondly, we were told that no foreigners had so far been successful in getting into the affected areas. We were determined to see the extent of the devastation, and were willing to take the risk. The obvious thing to do was to pray!
On arrival in Yangon, we walked through the ‘green lane’ smiling at the
custom officers. God must have smiled at His ‘smugglers.’ We passed the first
test. On the way to the hotel, we saw uprooted trees and roofless houses. After
checking in at the hotel, Rev. Van Peng from the Myanmar Bible Society visited
us and shared the relief work he had done. We contributed some money to buy
some rice for the cyclone victims through him.
The next day, we met up with Andrew, brother of Sister Levi, who set up the “I LOVE MYANMAR” organization. Andrew was one of the first relief workers who went to help the victims after the flood subsided. He had much to share with us and he was also to be our guide for our trip to the same area. Next, we went to buy food supplies for the relief work. As our local friends negotiated for the supplies, we noted that when went near, prices seem to go higher. In the end, we just stayed clear and let our friends bargain for better prices.
The next morning, my alarm rang at 6.30 a.m. Pastor Richard was already kneeling on his bed praying. By 7 a.m. we packed our luggage, had our breakfast and Andrew came to fetch us with a half-loaded truck at 7.30 a.m. sharp. At Andrew’s office, we were joined by 25 other volunteers. Three of them were doctors and several others were nurses. Loading the 4 trucks we hired was tricky with all the supplies for toilet construction, Bibles and food stuff. The 2 Malaysians had to sit between the locals to avoid detection by the authorities – there were at least 10 military check points.
The journey to Bogale was not pleasant at all. Over bumpy roads, we had
an 8 hour ‘massage’ of our bottoms! You can either sit on the floor of the
truck, or, you squat!
God was with us. At each check point, Pastor Richard would pretend he was sleeping (without his ‘modern’ glasses, since they would be a give-away that he’s a foreigner.) As for me, don’t I resemble a Myanmaris? We stopped at a few villages for tea. Destruction was seen everywhere. The last town we stopped was Chiak Lat. From there, we drove without stopping and all 4 trucks had to stay close to each other as there were reports of villages coming to rob for food. This town was badly damaged by the cyclone. Children came to beg, so we dropped off some biscuits for them. Before long, more children appeared and we had to speed off. It saddened my heart looking at them.
Hungry
villagers line the road, hoping food will drop from trucks.
.
The roads after Chiak Lat were deplorable. At one point, the truck engine suddenly seized. It took us more than half an hour to identify the problem. By 6.30 p.m. the sky grew dark. Curious villagers started to surround us. The monsoon rain poured on us and that was when I did not get a good feeling about the whole situation. “Oh Lord! Please get this truck moving again!” was my cry. The radiator hose had a leak. The fix was temporary because every now and then, when the engine temperature rose, we had to stop, wait for the engine to cool off, fill the radiator with water before we continued the journey. Each time we stopped, we also feared the villagers might come to ask for food.
At about 11 p.m., we arrived at the final check point before entering
Bogale town. A military officer asked Andrew a few questions, including his
name. Andrew was wise to give his Burmese name. The officer then checked his
documents before waving us off. At 11.15 p.m. after crossing a bridge, we
reached Bogale. Everyone was filled with joy and laughter. The Lord protected
us all the way!
We unloaded the truck in complete darkness as Bogale had no electricity. The only lights were from candles and a nearby generator. We walked to Bogale Baptist Church, 500 meters away using torch lights, on a muddy path. I now understand why people in Myanmar like to wear slippers! We are thankful we bought ours in Yangon – our leather shoes were inappropriate.
While the team continued unloading the goods onto a boat (for our next
phase of travel,) Andrew brought us to the Baptist pastor’s old bamboo house.
It resembled very much the Orang Asli dwellings in Malaysia. Andrew interpreted
as we dialogued with the pastor. Before we left, Pastor Richard prayed for him.
For the night, we slept in a hut set up for volunteer workers like us. Where was the toilet? It’s a 5-minute walk away. There was no pipe water. Rain water was the only resource for drinking, washing and bathing. By the time I finished bathing and walked back to the tent, my feet were muddy again. The ladies cooked noodles with eggs for our dinner.
After that, the men continued loading the boat while Pastor Richard and
I stayed behind to take care of the ladies. We had a time of worship and
prayer. Extremely exhausted and with a painful backside, I laid down to rest.
Looking at my watch, it was 2 a.m.! It was difficult to sleep. The mosquitoes
had a hay day with human flesh that night – our mosquito repellent didn’t
work!
Joshua Chan Wen Jye
Continuing where Joshua left off, Pastor Richard Toh writes………
With barely 3 hours of sleep, we had to get up and venture into our
next phase of travel - a boat trip along the river. I am thankful I was spared
from loading the boat as I was the oldest among all the team members. (Also, I
had just recovered from an operation on my Achilles tendon four months ago. My
right foot was still swollen from the previous day’s activities.) We left at 6
a.m. Our journey by boat to Kha Tha Min village took six hours. The boat owner
struck a deal with us – he provided the boat, and we paid him with rice and
diesel. Everyone was in good spirits as we sailed up river.
Very soon, we sighted dead bodies in the river. Strangely, there was no stench. Before long, our eyes became accustomed to seeing more of them, as there were so many. We also saw dead bodies on land which were bloated, and these putrefied bodies exuded a terrible stench. The authorities have not buried any bodies and this will lead to terrible health consequences.
After 5 hours, we had to transfer to smaller boats as the river
narrowed and the river bed was shallower. Another journey of about 2 hours
ensued. We sailed pass towns and villagers and found no building spared by
Nargis. Every foundation was shaken and left unsafe to dwell in. There was a
Christian village where for the past eight years, the 1000 inhabitants prayed
an hour twice daily – at 4 a.m. and at 5 p.m. Because of their faithfulness,
only two persons perished in the cyclone. (This is a great testimony for
prayerful lives!)
The weather was still drizzly. At one village, we saw a whole roof of a
rice mill destroyed. The flood waters rendered the rice unpalatable. As rice
was the staple food of Myanmar people, the villagers gathered the wet rice,
laid them on a long plastic sheet, and then covered it with another sheet. They
then walked up and down this rice ‘tube’ in an effort to dehusk the rice. We
were also invited to take a walk along this path! We just wondered whether the
rice is edible, bearing in mind, the flood was actually sea water that swept
miles inland from the Indian Ocean.
The villagers helped to unload the
boats and brought the supplies to the church (the second building to be
restored.) Our arrival caused some excitement as that meant stomachs would soon
be filled, and the sick can be attended to by the medical team. At 2 p.m. we
hung the banner: “I Love Myanmar” and set up a clinic for the sick and provided
counseling for the distressed. Prayer was offered before the day’s work
started. The medical team got busy with taking blood pressure, prescribing
medicines, and counseling patients. Many people were depressed and some had
remained traumatized. The queue was long and by 8 p.m., we had to turn away the
remaining people to go home.
“I Love Myanmar” was set to undertake relief work and is a project
under the Emmanuel Foundation Inc., (named after Sister Levi’s daughter) which
is an organization that helps needy women and children.
The team moved to another village called Daoh Gyi. Here, you found Buddhists and Christians. Out of 700 people, ten perished in the disaster. One of the first shelters to be restored was the pastor’s home so that
people can come to receive pastoral care.
Walking towards the pastor’s home, we noted the undulating ground with pools of trapped stagnant water. No wonder mosquitoes multiply so quickly. The villagers depend on rain water for drinking, washing and bathing. Some even used river water. The risk of contracting malaria, cholera, diarrhea, and dysentery was great.
Children played and ran around the village. Many have lost one or both
parents. Some children showed signs of skin diseases. We heard how the
authorities had offered children for adoption in Yangon. These were kids taken
from villages. Apparently, within half an hour, 25 children were adopted.
Alerted by some Non-Governmental Organizations, who suspected human traffickers
at work, the adoption was promptly stopped.
Village schools were destroyed by Nargis. The children have no where to go, so they played everyday. When I brought this news back to CBC, the leadership decided to build one school in such a village. (The funds were deposited during my second trip with Joshua in August. By end of this year, our school should be ready for the children to resume classes.)
The non-medical team organized the supplies before distribution – rice,
onions, cooking oil, cutleries, etc. It was an orderly distribution. For rice,
each family (whether Buddhist or Christian) brought a container and exactly 8.5
scoops were dished out. That ration would probably last each family 2 weeks.
They also received ‘maggi’ mee, canned sardines, bowls, pails and Christian
tracts. As the villagers were required to queue up, some even started reading
the tracts while waiting their turn.
The floods also washed away and damaged Bibles. We brought a few boxes of Bibles for the church. Later, we prayed for some of the villagers.
As our mission was to restore the community, CBC sponsored 2 carpenters to work in 2 villages with the available funds I had remaining. To really rebuild the villages, we actually needed 5 carpenters. (Praise God, when I shared this need when I got back to CBC, one brother readily committed to sponsor three more carpenters!)
The Lord laid upon my heart the following time line in helping two of the villages we visited.
1. Rescue – Temporary tents – 1 month
2. Relief – Basic necessities like rice and medicine – 3 to 4months
3. Rebuild – clinic, shelters, huts, drained water in clogged areas and later, for the rice fields, provide seedlings for replanting, essential utilities, etc – 6 to 12 months.
4 Restore – Back on their feet – 6 to 12 months
5. Resurrection – Right to preach the Gospel
Jesus said: “"If you give even a cup of cold water to
one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded"
Matthew 10:
Richard Toh
Pastor
Richard and Joshua Chan returned to
[Index]