Myanmar

An emergency team is going from our church in Tokyo to Yongon, Myanmar (Burma) next week to try to help the victims of the cyclone there. The Burmese government is not allowing access to the delta - which is the area in most need.

Currently the team has applications for visas into the embassy but as of yet none have been granted. We hope to hear something by Friday at the latest. Even if we are allowed into the country, the reach we will have may be limited. I ask your prayers for our restrictions to be loosed, and all the health and security issues to be held safely by our Lord, God.

There is the (ever so slight) chance that we could be jailed, though we aren't so anxious about that. But God is our guide and our Sustainer. Besides, Paul did some of his greatest missions from and in prison. Lets hope it doesn't come to that, but whatever happens, please pray that He Who Is is glorified. The Americans slated for the trip (including myself) may end up not going.
Each of the team members has also been told to get our booster shots for polio, Hepatitis A and B, yellow fever and malaria. The risks are fairly low of us catching anything, but we need the shots anyway. My tetanus shot still hurts a week later. I hate shots.
Well or ill, we will praise God!

Our current plan - as much as I can say - is that we will travel through Bangkok to Yangon on the 16th, meet with the Campus Crusade for Christ there and then be introduced to the Red Cross. Our visas are only "tourist" so we are likely only to be allowed to help distribute boxes and rebuild churches and homes. Those of us who have experience in construction will probably be focusing on that. Many of the homes though are bamboo and we have no idea as to how to do that, so will probably just be donating funds for that (they are only about 100 or 200 dollars a home). Will plan to come back to Tokyo on the 24th of this month.

Well, that is about all I can say. The government has asked us not to "report" this, and though I do not agree with it, I will honor it. We ask your continued prayers for, not only us, but all of God's missionaries and our families.
Let us be Christians or die trying!
God bless and bless God