Greetings,

We wanted to make sure everyone knows that Sunday, March 9, is the Global Day of Prayer for Burma, an annual event started by Christians Concerned for Burma. If you would like to see this year's promotional brochure for the day, it is available online.

Many of you know that we recently returned from Thailand and visiting some of the refugee camps and organizations involved with resettlement from on that side. We were informed that during this fiscal year (ending September 30, 2008) that the goal is to resettle 17,000 more Karen from the camps in Thailand and Chin from Malaysia. Resettlement is still open to the Tham Hin camp and continues from the Mae La camp as well. This year, people in the Umpiem and Nu Pho camps are also being offered the chance for resettlement. Next fiscal year (2008 - 09) the plan is to make resettlement available to the two Karenni camps and the Karen camps of Mae La Oon and Mae La Ma Luang. Presumably then, resettlement will then be offered in the final camp of Don Yang in the following year.

So the influx of Karen and Chin is still just beginning. Cities with existing Karen or Chin communities will likely see more people added. Other cities with no current Karen or Chin population are getting ready to receive their first refugees from Burma. Erie, PA, for example, has received word they will be getting their first Karen this month. In places like Dumas, TX, Worthington, MN, and Huron, SD factories, particularly meat packing plants, are moving large numbers of Karen and others to new communities as they need workers. So new communities are popping up in this way as well. So please be in prayer for all of these people in transition and the people and churches that are involved as well.

Meanwhile, back in Burma, the army continues to attack unarmed Karen, Karenni, Shan and other villages. Hundreds of thousands continue to live in hiding inside Burma. In the refugee camps, the people are relatively safe, but have no future. So they face the very difficult decision of whether to resettle in another country or remain where they are and hope for some kind of change. Meanwhile, it is the better educated and better trained that generally take up the offer for resettlement first. So already, even though just a small percentage of the total camp population has left for resettlement, 70% of the teachers, camp workers and staff of the refugee organizations working in the camps have already gone.

So the other point to remember in prayer is that the situation inside Burma that creates the need for resettlement remains unchanged and more refugees are generated every day. We also need to pray for those remaining in the camps and give them wisdom and guidance as they decide whether to go to another country or not.

The needs are great and beyond what any one of us can do. But they are not beyond what God can do. So on the Global Day of Prayer for Burma and every other day as well, we encourage you to be in prayer for the people of Burma here in the US, in Burma, in the camps and in other countries around the world.

Blessings,

Duane & Marcia Binkley