At Life Impact, not only do we prevent, rescue and heal at-risk and exploited children, but our other arm has always been vulnerable people groups. And right now, in Burma, war is still raging and the people are still calling out to the world for help!
The war has not died down on our border; it has only intensified and increased to the point that, at times, we have heard
bombs from our living rooms. This has sent thousands more on our border running and fleeing for their lives! The Thai Military will not let them enter Thailand and the Burmese Military will kill them if they dare to go back to their villages. This makes them Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs). IDPs are different from refugees. Refugees can resettle at refugee camps in bamboo huts, but IDPs are stuck in the jungles; hiding in caves, squatting along river banks or living under plastic tarps with no place to call home. If all of this wasn’t bad enough, it is now the harsh monsoon season in Southeast Asia and torrential rains blow their plastic tarps, spoiling the little rice that they have. Women, children, and the elderly make up the majority of these victims of war, as well as those with disabilities who cannot run when the Burmese military jets attack their villages. They sleep under blue plastic tarps afraid, worried, cold and wet from the monsoon rains. Their only desire is to go home to their humble farming life; to harvest their rice and look after their livestock.
After knowing and seeing this day after day, we wanted to do more for them! We had already been feeding, sheltering, helping and reaching thousands upon thousands of these IDPs since the beginning of the war last year. But this time we wanted to bring HOPE and LIGHT in the darkness; showing them that there is a God who sees them, knows them, loves them and pursues them! This Easter, the Life Impact Outreach Team brought this exact message to a camp in the war-zone where over 600 IDPs are currently living, 400 of which are children.
The children laughed with us, the women cried on our shoulders, and together we called on the God of all creation to watch over them, protect them, and let them know that He is there with them in the middle of the jungle; sheltering with them under the plastic blue tarps, in the middle of the night. We told them His Son Jesus promises eternal life and the unshakeable HOPE of Heaven to those who believe in His name!
Thank you for letting us be your hands and feet to the IDPs in the jungles.
Thank you for allowing us to hold crying babies, to comfort scared women, to play with barefoot children, and tell them about a God who is watching over them so that they don’t have to be afraid.
But most of all, thank you for allowing us to bring light to the darkest places on earth.
“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in
the region and shadow of death Light has dawned”
Matthew 4:16
Love,
Lana & your Life Impact Thailand and Burma Team
