Not long ago my friend constructed a small wood home in the camp where 5,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Shan State, Burma call home.  With tears in his wife’s eyes, she told me they must tear it down. They have been told that they must move. 

She held out her hands, showing me painful blisters from preparing land for the new house.  Her husband had moved to Thailand.  He found work to help support her and their 1 year-old twin daughters.  He makes $125 per month.  I asked if she wanted me to send word for her husband to come back and help.  She pleaded, “Do not say anything to him!  We have no way to survive if he comes back.” 

Both are HIV positive.  Their twins also have serious medical problems. One is completely disabled with a large tumor on her face.  She’ll never be able to function physically or mentally.  She has daily seizures.  Doctors say her life will be short-lived.  The other is blind in one eye.  This blindness reveals a more complex problem that will affect many other systems in the future.  

When my friend was being interviewed the last question asked was, “What hope do you see for you and your family?”  His eyes swelled with tears, and sobs rose up from deep within.  He realized in that moment there was no hope.  He could see no future.  There is no land, no peace, no home to call their own.  Death is knocking at their door by way of HIV/AIDS and other illnesses affecting their babies – illnesses that could have been prevented.   They flee from the brutal Burma Army.  They are unwanted in Thailand.  This is one family – and they are not alone.  There are at least 1.5 million displaced people in Burma facing similar horrors.

I got to spend time praying and helping people like this family.  I spent a couple of months last year living in this Shan displaced persons camp.  God opened the door through medical ministry and health care training to build special relationships with the refugees there.  Partners Relief & Development began a Community Health Worker training program that I helped oversee.  I’ve been learning to read, write, and speak the Shan language.   I assist with organizing and leading medical teams to participate in the training.  These teams also come to provide love and medical care to the displaced and migrant children living in dorms supported by Partners.   

God’s love compels me to take the love and skills He’s given me, and pour them out to those who are suffering in this part of the world.  His love compels me to pray with them, and watch as they experience His love and answer to prayers. My friends and many others have experienced God in special ways in spite of the enemy’s attempt to rob, kill, and destroy.  

  – by a Partners Relief & Development staff member

(All names withheld for security reasons)