A man named Don Richardson wrote a book called Eternity in their Hearts. It is published by Regal Books. The book is about different people groups all over the world and their folk religions with an emphasis on where and how those ancient religions were the road map to their acceptance of the gospel.
In it Mr. Richardson tells the story of several people groups in Burma. I want to share these stories with you. I am going to take a great deal from the book. I will do my best to use my own words, but this is not a report and I want you to really get as much of it as you can.
Do not attempt to read this if you do not have time. Do not attempt to read this unless you actually want to know what we are doing here. This is going to take a bit of a time commitment so just keep going if you don't have the time. Seriously, don't read it unless you have some interest in History and how it pertains to His-Story. Some of you may have read the book I just mentioned. Some of you may recognize the stories as you go on reading, but I promise I have a point so bare with me.
OK. Your still reading. Cool. Let's go.
First there are the people named the Karen whose folk religion taught them that they were to wait for a "white brother" who would bring them a book just like the one their forefathers lost long ago. This book was written by Y'wa the supreme God and when the book arrives they will be set free from all who oppress them. There is an account that has survived through history from an English diplomat who cam across the Karen in 1795. He was not the right "white brother," but they continued to wait.
The person who was responsible for making sure the people never forgot the promise of the white brother and the return of the book wore a special robe and carried a special wand that were a symbol of his role and spiritual authority. All throughout the villages of the Karen people there was one man who was a special kind of teacher whose job it was to remind the people that they awaited the one who would come. They were constantly reminding the people that the ways of Y'wa were different from the ways of the nats (evil spirits).
They were steadfast in their belief. They talked about the one true God and they passed down hymns that taught about Y'wa and his mercy and forgiveness. They even talked about how at one time God had loved them but they transgressed his commands and now they lived a cursed existence in their present state without any books. The story of Tha-nai and Ee-u is the explanation for this terrible state. This is the story of Adam and Eve, but in their version when sickness began to appear they went to the serpent and asked him what to do because he told them to eat the fruit. This was how they were taught what offerings were to be made. The key here is that they never stopped looking forward to the day when they would receive the mercy of Y'wa and the "white brother" would come with the book.
They remained so faithful to this promise that they always resisted the teaching of Buddha. The monks were never able to change their minds. By the 1830's the Karen said that the Europeans the "white foreigners" were originally the younger brothers of the Karen people. The Karen lost their copy of Y'wa's book, but the white brothers did not lose their copy. On the contrary, they carefully preserved theirs. Because of this the white brothers became "righteous" and are known as "guides to God." Furthermore, the white brothers learned to sail in ships and cross oceans. The tradition was that the deliverer they awaited was to be a white foreigner who would come across the sea from the west with white wings (sails) and bring Y'wa's white book.
So they waited. 800,000 people waiting for a white foreigner to show up and bring them the book.
In the meantime, another half-million people also worshipped the creator. These people were called the Kachin. They also lost the book that they were given. They did not have a legend that the book would be returned, but they were open to it's restoration.
Then there were the Lahu people. Their book was the law of Gui-Sha, creator of all things, and had been written on rice cakes. A famine came and their forefathers ate the rice cakes in order to survive, but they reasoned that this was all right because then the laws would be inside them. They continued to believe that a sense of the creators laws were within them because of the rice cakes, but that they would not be able to obey their creator perfectly until they regained the precise written form of his laws. Like the Karen the Lahu had prophets who told them that "If a man had ten armloads of walking sticks and walked until every walking stick was worn to a stub, he would still not find Gui'Sha [the true God]. But when the right time comes, Gui'Sha Himself will send a white brother with a book containing the white laws of Gui'Sha - the words lost by our forefathers so long ago! That white brother will bring the lost book to our very hearths!"
There are others in the book, but I am just going to tell you about one more. The Wa people were a group that practiced head hunting, but only once a year to bless their harvest. Every so often over their history a prophet would be born who would tell them to stop doing it. He would tell them that Siyeh, the one true God did not want them doing it. In the 1880's one such prophet arose. He was called Pu Chan and he convinced the people to stop headhunting because Siyeh, the one true God, was about to send the long awaited white brother with a copy of the lost book and if he heard that they were practicing evil things he might think them unworthy and turn away again. One morning Pu Chan saddled a Wa pony and told some of his disciples to follow it. He told them that Siyeh had told him last night that the white brother has finally come near. Siyeh will cause the pony to lead you to him. He told the disciples that when they found the white brother they were supposed to let him ride the horse back because they would be an ungrateful people if they made him walk the last part of the journey.
Here is a map showing where these people groups are located.
In 1817, Adoniram Judson arrived in Rangoon, Burma from America. He and his bible. There were 3 million people within 800 miles of where he disembarked and they were all waiting for him. If that is not a missionaries dream I do not what would be! He stayed right there in Rangoon and spent seven years banging his head against the wall trying to convert the Buddhist Burmese that were living there. Only after seven years of preaching did he have
ONE convert. The most important thing that happened during that time was his translation of the bible into Burmese. That Burmese translation was the basis for the translation into all the other tribes' languages.
What eventually happened was that a rough and tough Karen man went to Judson's house looking for work to pay a debt. His name was Ko Tha-byu and he had formerly been a robber and a murderer. While working there Judson and other members of the household shared the gospel with him. At first, he seemed to be too dense to comprehend the message, but then he started asking questions about the origin of the gospel and about these "white strangers" who had brought the message-and the book which contained it- from the West! He became a most willing convert and pursued learning the bible with great eagerness. He had realized that he was the first of his people to learn that the "lost book" had actually arrived. He took this responsibility very seriously. By this time another couple by the name of Boardman had come to Burma to minister. They decided to head to the panhandle and start a new mission in the city of Tavoy. This was what Ko Tha-byu was waiting for. He asked to join them and when they got there he headed out into the hills preaching and telling all of the Karen villages how the book had arrived.
It did not take long before the people from the villages started making their way into the city to see this "white brother" and the lost book. The Boardmans were inundated with requests for more teaching to supplement what Ko Tha-byu was sharing with them and for more detailed teachings. Meanwhile Ko Tha-byu was heading out to even more villages.
Another newly arrived colleague of Judson's named Johnathan Wade went 200 miles North of Tavoy and was also being overwhelmed by the response of the Karen. Once the Karen were converted and baptized they set out as missionaries to spread the word. American missionaries showed up in a place called Bassein only to find there were 5,000 people waiting to be baptized! By 1858 the Karen were fully convinced that they were to spread the gospel beyond their own people so they sent out teams that occasionally had an American missionary as part of the team and headed out to reach the 500,000 Kachin people. The missionaries confirmed 250,000 Kachin converts. The Kachin now had the lost book.
Are you seeing the pattern here.
In the 1890's a man named William Marcus Young was sent out to reach the Buddhist people called the Shan. He was standing in the marketplace preaching. He read Moses's ten commandments out loud and then holding the bible up in the air with its white pages gleaming in the sun he began to talk about the "laws of the true God." Out of the crowd came men who were not dressed like the Shan and who clearly were not Shan. They soon surrounded him and stared at his white face and book with white pages and listened to him talk about the law of the true God. As you might expect, they got emotional and basically kidnapped him so they could get him to their villages. They explained that they had been waiting for him for centuries and that they have meeting houses in their villages that were built in anticipation of his arrival. They wore bracelets of rope on their wrists that represented their bondage to evil spirits that he alone as the messenger of Gui'Sha may cut from their wrists but only after he has brought the lost book to their very hearths. Tens of thousands of Lahu became Christians. They could not keep up with the demand for preaching!
It was in the early stages of the Lahu response that Pu Chan saddled up his pony and sent out his disciples to follow the horse. It led them about 200 miles through the mountains and down into a city where it walked onto a mission compound and stopped in front of a well. The men looked around but they did not see a white man or a book. Then they heard sounds coming from the well so they looked inside. There was no water in the well. What they saw were two blue eyes and a white beard staring up at them. William Marcus Young said "Hello Strangers!" and climbed out of the well. They asked him if he had brought a book of God. So he nodded yes and then they broke down and begged him to come back with them. He told them he could not because thousands of Lahu were there everyday looking for teaching from him. He met with the Karen missionaries and the Lahu converts and they came up with this solution. The Wa people would be welcomed and provided a place to stay so that they could join in and learn the teachings and then go back and teach it to their people. By this method Pu Chan and thousands of his people became Christians without the white missionary even going to them. The Wa people being around so much and speaking their language led to Young's son Vincent learning the language of the Wa and the Lahu. He then translated the bible into both languages. They baptized 60,000 Lahu and soon found themselves with 10,000 Wa converts.
So, thank you for reading this far. Why have I told you all of this. You probably see the value in the stories to be an encouragement to those of us who are called to the mission field, but that is not why I wrote all of this. I wanted you to hear about these people. The Karen and the others. Why? Because these tribes still exist. The Karen still live in the same places. If you were to stop time and look around the villages of the Karen today you would probably see the same picture that these men I mentioned above saw. Not much has changed for them as far as the simplicity of their desire to farm and live in villages where they build their houses out of wood they cut down in the mountains. Modernization has reached them in another form, however. In the form of claymores and machine guns. These are the very people that are daily terrorized by the Burmese Army.
These are the people who were the victims in Rambo 4. I know it was rated R and very gory. I am not trying to be rude, but the truth is life is rated R. It is messy and gory and can be really awful. Just because we would rather not see certain things does not mean that they are not happening. I have no idea who saw the movie and who didn't, but it is not just a Hollywood fantasy. It is real. Well, real as far as what was portrayed in the crimes and atrocities. The only part not real is where Rambo shows up and shoots the bad guys. No one is doing that. They are in fact, being prayed for. The weapon of our warfare is not carnal. The real enemy is not a solider in the Burmese army. Relief workers who actually go into Burma report that they sometimes struggle to remember this. I am amazed that they can at all. They are killed if they are caught, so I can understand the temptation to forget this truth. Have you been offended by someone this week. Did they rape and torture people your trying to help and then try to kill you? Did you pray for them?
These people are being murdered and raped and forced to leave their villages for fear of their lives. Their children are murdered. Their women and young girls are routinely raped. The boys are taken and forced to be porters. They are enslaved by the Army. Their lives are utterly destroyed and they are forced to live on the run. When they try to settle and farm, the villages are burned to the ground. If they try to rebuild they find that the village has been riddled with land mines to keep them from being able to return. People are continually losing limbs to land mines. Children are being orphaned. Parents are losing children to all forms of death. They are truly hurting. They are literally being forced to watch their loved ones die.
These are the people who waited for the white brother. These are the people who waited for the book. They are people who Jesus died for and they do not have enough food or clean water. They have no sanitation facilities. They get sick and have no medicine. Malaria is very common and it is especially common among the children. These people are malnourished. They are dehydrated. They are getting sick because of the conditions. These children are not going to school. They are not learning anything, much less about the book. They have to flee for their lives and many do not make it.
These are common scenes in Burma. These people are fleeing.
They take what they can carry if they get advanced warning.
If not they just go.
Since we have arrived in Thailand we have met some amazing people who are doing something to help. They are called Partners Relief & Development. They are addressing the problems that are facing these displaced peoples. They have broken it down to these simple terms. 5 Alive is what they call it. 5 things can keep 5 people alive for a month. That is 150 pounds of rice with 10 pounds of salt. 1 cooking pot. 1 lighter. 1 machete. 1 large plastic sheet for making a roof in the jungle. They get this to them for $50.00. I think that makes it pretty simple.
This is what the large plastic sheet is for.
Yes! Those are books in their hands.
Partners works along with other organizations that are using their lives to make a positive difference for these victims. Free Burma Rangers is a group that they work with. Most of these pictures come from their brochures, which they want people to use to share what is happening. These are hard core, humble, and generous people doing something worthwhile with their lives. Rambo was not wrong. You can either die for nothing or live for something. I am putting a link here for Partners Relief & Development. I usually try to put pictures in my blogs if I can. I am grateful to have been able to use some of theirs. Please keep going you have come this far already.
http://www.partnersworld.org/We have been invited out to one of the refugee camps in Mae Sot, Thailand this April. This camp is on the border of Burma. This camp has become a city for the Karen to live in. The people at Partners are doing everything they can to help these people and show them that God does care. He is still there. He does love them. Partners is training Christian leaders, providing medical care and so much more in many camps like the one we will be visiting.
We want to stay connected with this group and we want to make sure that everyone knows how easy it is to share the love of God. The Karen need to know that God loves them. They need to be reminded in very real ways. You think your life with God gets a little difficult when you are very busy and the cares of this world creep in. Then you can imagine what 60 years of genocide could do to your faith. How many people would you have to see blown up to wonder where God is? How many of your children would have to die of Malaria in your arms before you wanted to know if God was there?
You don't have to go anywhere. You do have to take God at His word. They need food. They need medicine. They need prayer and they need healing. You can make sure all of that happens with some cash. Send it to them. Not me. I am not saying that. I am telling you to send it directly to them. This is not about me, so I am going to be really bold here. Troy would be way harsher than I am. That's why I do the writing. If you believe what you say you believe, then God as my witness you will not be able to close this page and go on with your life. I do not care if you send $10.00 because I guilted you. These people will make the most of it. So send it and salve your conscience. Send more. Send lots. Take a look at their website and see that right now you can have whatever you send matched by someone else. Your $10.00 will become $20.00 for them. I am seriously saying that if you have the love of God in your heart you will want to do something no matter how small. I know you probably can't imagine what I am trying to describe. That is why I mentioned Rambo 4. That is why I went to see it.
We are going to go there, that is what we do. We are going to the refugee camp in Mae Sot and we are going to find out what else we can do. If you have sent us here I guess that counts, but I don't want it to. I want to tell you what to do with your money because I have met the people who are doing this. They are genuine and God abides in them. I don't know what will come of our relationship with them, but I do know that they have a great deal to teach me about compassion in action. They will do it by example. They are gracious and kind and they would never bully you, so I guess there is a lot more they can teach me. I am full of the burden for this part of the world and there is nothing more that I can do. I have already chosen to lay down my life. So I have ambushed you with the reality of the great big ugly world. I can't bring myself to apologize. I know who is reading this. You are people who really do love God and you are people who know his leading. Let's just call this one "lead" already. Can we do that. Can you send something without a sign from heaven? Did you enjoy the story about the people being reached by the white brother with the book. Then please help them in whatever way you can.
Please Help.
By the way she was the only one we passed. It got pretty desolate along the way, but the course was fool proof and we made it to the finish line. I should also explain the bags I'm wearing in the picture. One was the bag I was using as a purse. It is full of maps, a camera, my wallet and other junk. Oh yeah, my water bottle also. The second bag was because Troy had picked up every brochure he found at the information tables for 3 different organizations, and we each got two different t-shirts and a set of flip flops. Troy was already wearing flip flops so he stuck with those. I had the shoes I showed up in, so I was switching back and forth and carrying two pair of shoes regardless of who was wearing what. 
She is usually making silly pictures and then calling them Troy, but this one was too cute to pass up. Then she got high tech on us.
Here's Troy sensing that she is up to no good because she had snapped a silly picture of him.
Here is what she did with that picture. I know it is blurry, but I had to take a picture of the picture that was on her camera phone with our camera ,which was not easy. This is version #1.
Here is version #2.
