{"id":67045,"date":"2013-03-08T17:21:18","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T17:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freeburmarangers.org\/?p=58691"},"modified":"2013-05-23T02:17:06","modified_gmt":"2013-05-23T02:17:06","slug":"kachin-update-photo-set-two-attacks-against-the-kachin-are-sporadic-but-displacement-is-constant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.freeburmarangers.org\/my\/2013\/03\/08\/kachin-update-photo-set-two-attacks-against-the-kachin-are-sporadic-but-displacement-is-constant\/","title":{"rendered":"Kachin Update – Photo set two; Attacks Against the Kachin are Sporadic but Displacement is Constant"},"content":{"rendered":"

FBR Report: Kachin Update – Photo set two; Attacks Against the Kachin are Sporadic but Displacement is Constant<\/h1>\n
Kachin State, Burma<\/address>\n
8 March, 2013<\/address>\n
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One of five camps for displaced Kachin that was visited on this trip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kachin girl in high mountain hiding place<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kachin pastor points to Burma army position close to IDP camp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kachin nurse at IDP clinic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kachin man wounded by the Burma army<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kachin kids sing with Rangers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kachin and Lisu Rangers lead worship for children in IDP camp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kachin and Arakan FBR Relief teams give out food to children in IDP site<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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IDP lady receives food<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Flying the Kachin flag at an IDP camp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is an update from Kachin State;<\/p>\n

We see here that although now there is sporadic\u00a0fighting and shelling, but the Burma army is strengthening its positions and
\nfor the IDPs there is constant displacement. The Burma army is resupplying\u00a0after two months of airstrikes and ground assaults. On this mission the\u00a0Burma army has been close all the time and have built more camps and crept\u00a0closer to Kachin positions and communities since we have been here. We have\u00a0reconed them in many places and they look well supplied, well fed, well
\narmed and motivated. They look like they are ready to attack again. In spite\u00a0of this God is our hope and we feel reinforced by your prayers and help.
\nWe are now high up in the mountains and the Kachin and Lisu families here\u00a0live in cold, brutal squalor with little sanitation. I feel sad and angry\u00a0when I see this. People are not to live this way. In the IDP site we are in\u00a0now at over 7,000 feet, I stepped into a plywood and tarp hut to pray with a\u00a0sick woman. She had an IV in her and was very feeble and coughing. When I\u00a0prayed with her she grabbed my hand and said, “Thank you, thank you.” I\u00a0walked out into the windy, dusty pathway and felt sad. I then looked around\u00a0me at the huddled people, blue tarps and tin covered shacks and felt mad.\u00a0This is unacceptable. Most of these people have been up here for over a year\u00a0hiding from the Burma army.<\/p>\n

The next morning I read the Bible and prayed for a word from God. I read\u00a0from Psalm 103 and in verse six it says, “God works righteousness and\u00a0justice for the oppressed”. I thought that God acts through people like you\u00a0who help the IDPs. You all, the teams here and all who help are God’s hands\u00a0and feet. I thank God for that and also that God will do something thru us\u00a0all and unilaterally to help the oppressed.<\/p>\n

This is my prayer and my hope.<\/p>\n

The FBR Kachin, Taaung, Burmese-ABSDF and Arakan relief teams are doing well\u00a0on this mission and our focus is to the more difficult to reach IDPs. The\u00a0Kachin Independence Organization and Army have made all relief possible and\u00a0we thank them. We are driving and walking to four different sites north of\u00a0Laiza between Pajao and Pang Wa. We are greeted with love and graciousness\u00a0everywhere. They live a cold, cramped and brutal life and it can seem the\u00a0world has forgotten them. When I asked the kids what they wanted, they all
\ncried out, “We want to go home!”. One man who was blinded and suffered\u00a0amputations by a landmine, when asked for how to pray for him, asked that we\u00a0pray for his fellow wounded and IDPs in hiding. All this before praying for\u00a0his own needs. He had a young wife and child and yet his main concern was\u00a0for others. One of the volunteer teachers in a IDP site said, ” We do not\u00a0trust the Burma army, they are liars, but we believe in God and know the\u00a0situation is in His hands.” In another place we were asked to pray, because\u00a0“God answers prayer and God is our only hope”.<\/p>\n

One lady who lives very close\u00a0to the attacking Burma army told us as she held her baby, “Yes I am afraid\u00a0but if I leave what will our Kachin soldiers on the hill above us do? Who\u00a0will feed them? Who will help them? How will they be encouraged? So as long\u00a0as I can I will stay with my family here. Please pray for me and all of us,\u00a0we need God’s help. We trust God.”<\/p>\n

I thank God for all of you who helped us get here, for the funds, supplies\u00a0and for all those around the world who are helping. Tonight in the hiding\u00a0place after worship, the pastor said, “God is in this, He will bring us\u00a0through.”<\/p>\n

We need prayer to do God’s work here God’s way and for healing for all those\u00a0sick on our team.<\/p>\n

Love and May God bless you,<\/p>\n

Dave, family FBR HQ and all FBR teams here in Kachin state<\/p>\n