Dear Friends,

Because we’ve got so much ministry going on in Myanmar (Burma), I’ve spent 31 of my last 46 days on two trips there. I’m now on my way home from the second trip, during which my youngest daughter, Elisabeth, and I served members of our spiritual family who are refugees, orphans, widows and among the world’s poorest. We kept very busy, and among other things, visited 38 of the orphanages that are regularly assisted through our Orphan’s Tear division.

I wish I could show you the hundreds of photos that we took of saints whom we are helping because of your compassion, but below are just a few. Thanks so much!

Every blessing,

David

When we visit the orphanages, the children always sing for us. Here are two worshippers at New Heritage Children’s Home in Yangon.

Bawi Tha Hnem of New Eden Orphanage.

The happy folks at Life Orphanage in Kalaymyo. They are standing in front of their new dorm, similar to what Heaven’s Family has built for 27 other orphanages in Myanmar over the past 7 years.

Two cuties who live at New Heritage Orphanage in Kalaymyo. The little girl on the right, Sarah, wants to become a teacher when she is older.

Our dear friends at the Handicapped Care Center in Kalaymyo. Most of the children are crippled from polio, but they are absolutely full of joy and thriving under the loving care of a very special Christian family. Their property and building were funded by Heaven’s Family.

Because we’ve funded some water projects in remote villages in Myanmar’s poorest state, we now have a growing list of villages that are asking for our help. For poor villagers, running water can be the first step out of extreme poverty, because once water is more accessible, larger gardens can be grown. The house in this photo is a typical one-room family home in Maul Nuam Village which we visited.

One of the beautiful people of Maul Nuam Village

Two of the precious children of Maul Nuam

A small chicken egg farm, funded by Heaven’s Family, that helps Living Hope Orphanage in Hbawbi generate income every day.

A new electric rice cooker at Life Concern Children’s Home, with the director, Joney Thang Hup. This cooker can cook rice for all 16 of Life Concern’s children. Now that electricity is becoming more reliable in Yangon, a number of the orphanages that we assist there no longer have to cook their meals over wood fires, and all of our Yangon orphanages are requesting such a cooker.

A happy goat keeper, Maung Nge, one of the children at Bethesda Orphanage, in Yangon.

We spent one day visiting Cang Ai village on the edge of Chin State. Since we began serving Cang Ai in 2006 with water, irrigation, and other projects, the village has grown from 7 to 26 families, 80% of which are believers. This year they enjoyed their first-ever harvest of rice, which they now grow on 25 irrigated acres. This photo is of one of Cang Ai’s young mothers and her baby.

A tiny Cang Ai citizen

Before inspecting our irrigation and pharmacy projects at Cang Ai, we passed out donated candy and little stuffed animals to Cang Ai’s children, who excitedly lined up to wait for their turn. Toys and candy are very rare to them.

This little guy received a stuffed dolphin…

Sitting with Cang Ai’s headman and an indigenous partner on the concrete water reservoir that we funded. It is difficult to see in this photo, but water is pouring from the 6-inch blue pipe on the far side of the reservoir. That pipe brings water about two miles from its source, a stream in the mountains.

We spent three days in the city of Myitkyina in Shan State, where 40,000 people have recently been displaced because of fresh outbreaks of fighting between the Burmese army and the Kachin Independence Army. We visited Jan Mai Refugee Camp, operated by Baptist believers, where about 400 women and children are living. This is a photo of Htulum Sumlut and her daughter, Jazin, residents of Jan Mai. Htulum is seizing the opportunity to reach out to the her fellow refugees with the gospel. We’ll have an article with more details in next month’s magazine.

A mother and daughter who are both residents of Jan Mai Refugee Camp. Behind them is the common living/sleeping area that they share with about 200 other women and children. Most husbands have bravely remained in their villages to work their fields.

Lagyawm Pawm Mwaw is also a resident of Jan Mai. She told us how she was conscripted by Burmese soldiers to carry their gear, and how she has learned about God’s love since fleeing to the refugee camp.

Some of the kids at Jan Mai Camp reacting to my trick of “taking off my thumb.”

Standing with the good children and directors of Goshen Orphanage in Kalaymyo. (Their new building behind them, funded by Heaven’s Family, has not been painted yet.)

Ngun Ngen Tial and Bawi Tha Par of El Shaddai Children’s Home