the land of oz.

the emblem of/the land i love/ is changing from a temple to a tragedy.

the country of myanmar, formerly burma, where i lived for nearly one year, is seeing devastation of all kinds. "the saffron revolution" which occured late last year showed us that what we thought we understood about this country was beginning to change...that the untouchable, venerable monks in robes who lined the city streets and provided the people with wisdom of the buddha were no more immune to the corruption of burma's brutal military regime. day after day monks were taken from their hostels and forced into the most excruciating of circumstances..being starved and beaten, and some even killed. that core commitment to buddhism that these men had began to wane, and their commitment to their country quickly died. injustice was rampant.
for years the people of this country have been denied their basic liberties, their basic "rights" as we call them in the west. democracy loomed on the horizon for half a century but still seems so far off. what damage this has done to the soul of this nation will only be seen in time.

but last week, tragedy of a new kind entered the area. natural disaster whirled, slammed, and pounded through the country. with a death toll rising by the day, no clean water to treat the injured or revive the thirsty, and no electricity to insure some means of communication or survival, the people face ever-increasing challenges. pictures haunt the internet of children needing hospital treatment, communities needing comfort and sustenance, chaos reigning again in the city streets. this chaos seems to be a more frequent presence in the lives of myanmar's people.

once a country sunk into the recesses of our world's mind, myanmar is now surfacing into our consciousness. and a government that never seemed to care for it's people is now saying it needs help to sort this problem out. this is a HUGE defeat of satan's army. as the doors to this nation begin to creep open, pray god floods in with power. i know this is our chance to make him known in one of the world's darkest corners.

do anything you can to help this situation. pray. give. send people. don't let yourself remain untouched by this reality. although it is not yours, it is someone's. and as god's people we are called to action.


for pics and other stuf go to --http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354088,00.html