Dear Friends,

From time to time we write about the situation along the Thai-Burma border.Since shortly after World War II, the military government of Burma has been at war with many of the minority ethnic groups living in the country.Now days, the "war" is pretty one-sided.The Burmese army regularly attacks unarmed, civilian villages.People in the villages can only flee if they have enough time.The Burmese army steals or destroys the food supplies, people are raped, used for forced labor, killed, beaten or otherwise abused.The result is 150,000 Burmese have fled into Thailand living in refugee camps, another 1-2 million Burmese are living in Thailand either legally or illegally and something over a half million people are living as Internally Displaced People (IDPs) inside the western edge of Burma.To be an IDP means they must keep vigilant and move whenever the army gets close by.Many people must move a couple times per year or more.

The Karen are one of the main groups affected by the abuse of the army.Many of the Karen are Christian and the largest group among the Christians are the Baptists, who can trace their Christian roots back to Adonirum Judson.Compared to the lives of the IDPs, life in the refugee camps is fairly stable.All of the camps have Baptist churches and they have organized themselves into the Kawthooley Karen Baptist Convention (KKBC).Recognizing the hardships faced by their friends and families still inside Burma, the KKBC has formed the Internal Relief Committee to reach back into their homeland with assistance.Of course as refugees themselves, they have little to offer except themselves and a channel (albeit restricted) to the outside world.

Pastor Robert Htway is the chair of the KKBC as well as the chair of the Internal Relief Committee.I met with him recently and he asked if there was some way I could help supply him with used, warm clothing.It gets cold in the mountains during the months of November through February, especially for those living in temporary shelters as they hide from the army.This is also the season when the Burmese army is most active as it is not raining and travel is easier.During December the Internal Relief Committee will send teams inside Burma that can distribute the clothing.Of course this is at some risk for the teams as they must be careful not to be detected by the army.

So now I pass Pastor Robert's request for used clothing on to you.If you can send us clean, good quality used sweaters or jackets, sweat shirts, sweat pants or other warm clothes, especially in children and small adult sizes, we will be very grateful and will pass them on to Pastor Robert so they can be sent to the IDP areas.It will be too expensive to send them by airmail so any boxes should be sent by surface mail.Surface mail will take a full three months to reach Thailand which means the boxes would need to be mailed by the first week of September.Please mark the contents as "used clothing for the hilltribes, no commercial value".In this way we can usually receive the packages without having to pay import duty.Any packages could be sent to Duane & Marcia Binkley, PO Box 29, Chiang Mai50000, Thailand.

Let us already offer a special thanks to those of you who might be able to help.Your efforts will be appreciated.Not only will the sweaters help warm a person's body but knowing that someone from around the world cares about them will also warm their hearts.

Yours in Christ,

Duane & Marcia Binkley