The Rice for Refugees mission project got a big boost at the 2013 Mission Summit Biennial thanks to some generous visitors to the International Ministries exhibit.  Balanced atop a 50 gallon wooden barrel loaned to us by the Iron Hill Brewing Company in Phoenixville, PA, the project was prominently featured in the center of our ship exhibit.  

One couple looked at the colorful indicator we were using to show progress in giving toward the goal of raising $6,000 which would feed 3,000 people in the refugee camps for a week.  They commented that the indicator hadn’t moved much, and suggested that the $500 check they brought from First Baptist Church of Mattoon, IL might help.  It sure did! 

That check, along with donations of $1, $5, $10 and $20 from visitors resulted in $1,018 for the Rice for Refugees project received at the IM exhibit.  Donors were asked to sign their name to a paper version of a miniature rice sack.  These were taped up on the inside of the ship and soon lined the perimeter. To see the full Rice for Refugees project description and learn how you can get involved, click here. 

Chris Marziale, who oversees the mission projects for International Ministries, said she was privileged to meet a group of former refugees from Burma at the IM exhibit.   “Poepki a young man from Minneapolis, MN asked me about the Rice for Refugees project.   I shared how $1.00 would feed one person in the refugee camps for 4 days.   He put his contribution in the bowl, and with a smile on his face and excitement in his voice, Poepki  shared with those around him in his own language about the project.  Without hesitation each person started putting their money into the bowl.  I stood there in awe of their generosity and smiles.  I believe for them it was a special way of sharing and wanting to help those back in the camps.”

Chris answered questions about the project and the ship, and even took a group photo of the former refugees.  She thanked them for their generous gifts, and one young woman replied, “No, thank YOU!”  Missionaries Duane and Marcia Binkley told Chris, that for some of the former refugees, what they gave might have been their last dollar.  The Binkleys serve ethnic Karen, Chin and Kachin refugees originally from Burma who have come to live in the USA as legal immigrants.  They return to Thailand often and are very familiar with the grim conditions in the refugee camps, particularly the ongoing cuts in food rations.  According to Binkley, “This project will improve the overall survival rate of hundreds of refugees and internally displaced persons in the refugee camps, and bring them hope. 

Decades of Burmese government cruelty against these minorities have forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.  Currently 100,000 internally displaced Kachin people live in the camps inside Burma.  Another 140,000 people, mostly ethnic Karen, lives in camps inside the Thailand border. 

Like the first Christian refugees in Acts 8 & 11, the refugees live out their faith wherever they go.  In the US, God is using them to bring new life to American Baptist congregations.  In the refugee camps, God inspires them to persevere, and to prepare for the future. 

The ship and the Rice for Refugees mission project were just two of the elements that were part of the 200^th anniversary celebration of Adoniram and Ann Judson’s arrival in Burma in 1813.