The devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis whichstruck Myanmar May 2, 2008, has wreaked havoc on thissmall Asian country. It is being called the worst storm inthe 21st century, with an estimated 78,000 dead with 56,000missing and another 2.5 million people homeless.Starvation and disease are claiming even more lives as themilitary government has been slow to respond the needs oftheir people. The survivors of this tragedy are looking forfamily members – children seeking parents, and parentsseeking children. The emotional and physical devastationis incalculable.

Blessings International has already prepared threeshipments of medicines for the victims of this disaster,and our ministry is making a real difference in the livesof the suffering people of Myanmar, formally known asBurma. The love and compassion of Jesus Christ is beingdemonstrated through the provision of Blessings’ donat-ed medicine distributed by our Christian medical part-ners in Myanmar. – CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO

Volume 25, No. 1, 2008 Tulsa, Oklahoma, USAwww.blessing.org(918) 250-8101

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Medicines from Blessings International

Reach the Flooded Areas of Myanmar

Medicines from Blessings International is one of the first shipments allowed into the country without being confiscated. The staff of our Burmese and U.S. partners,Hope Christian Mission and World Compassion, celebrate its arrival. These medicines are being used now to treat victims of the devastating cyclone in Yangon and in the hardest hit Irrawady Delta.

Myanmar MiraclesMyanmar, formerly called Burma, is located in

Southeast Asia and is bordered by China, Laos, andThailand to the east, and by India and Bangladesh to thewest. Myanmar is governed by a military junta. Althoughthe government held a multiparty election in 1990, and theparty called the National League for Democracy won 80%of the seats in the legislature, the government has kept theleader of this movement under house arrest for the past 18years until a new constitution could be written.

Below is a report on Blessings International’s trip toMyanmar in March, 2008. The purpose of this trip was todeliver a shipment of medications and dental equipment toour ministry partners in Mulashidi of northern Myanmar,establish a treatment program for tuberculosis, and solidify

– CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO

relationships with our partner’s newmedical staff and within the governmentinstitutions.

The Lion’s RoarBefore Linda and I began this

adventure, I began to sense thatwhile Myanmar is land of gold-gild-ed pagodas with large golden lionswhich guard Buddhist temples, therewas another type of roaring lion lurk-ing about trying to destroy ouropportunity to take medicine for usein a Christian clinic (See “lion” in 1 Peter 5:18).

Lion’s Roar # 1: I felt that this“lion” had been roaming about whenI received very serious and bad news.I had wanted us to spend time visit-ing a missionary in Chiangmai, whohad used medicine, supplied byBlessings International, to treatmalaria among the two millionBurmese refugees living in campsnear Thailand’s border withMyanmar. I learned that this mis-sionary had not returned emails andphone calls because she had been inthe hospital for a month and hadbeen deathly ill due to of a type offood she had consumed while on amedical outreach trip in Myanmar.Having been informed that she wasbeing evacuated to the USA for med-ical tests, we deeply regretted that wewould not be able to meet with heron this trip.

Lion’s Roar #2: Furthermore,only a week before our embarkation,we were informed that there hadbeen a plane crash in Putao, in north-

ern Myanmar. “Flights to Putao arebeing canceled and tickets refunded,and consequently you might not beable to go to the new Christian clinicin Mulashidi, seven miles south ofPutao.” There were four medical

team members on thatflight, as well as six BibleSchool graduates, who had been headed for theChristian clinic. Itappeared that Satan wasdoing his best to murder alarge number ofChristians; fortunately,none of the passengers on the flight was injured.Within a few days, howev-er, new flights were scheduled.Lion’s Roar #3: “Airfaresas a result of the crash fornewly scheduled flightsare going to be veryexpensive, perhaps $1000per person.”Lion’s Roar #4: “You willbe required to stay on amilitary compound a longdistance from the clinic.”This would also be farfrom a location where Icould facilitate setting up a

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Asian Lion at the gates of the Buddhist pagoda temple.

Our local partners set up med-ical clinics in the Yangon area andhave used the medications to treatthe victims there. They also tookmedications from Blessings into thehardest hit region of the IrrawadyDelta. Because the ministry isBurmese, they were allowed accessto this area, and they were able totake in the medications where for-eign aid workers have experiencedbarriers. These medications consist-ed of anti-malarials, antibiotics, andother medicines used to treat skininfections, dysentery, and other diseases.

Blessings International’s modelof working with indigenous min-istries has proved effective inMyanmar. Thanks to God’s mirac-ulous favor and timely delivery,our medications are now beingused to treat the victims of thisdevastating cyclone. Praise Godthat the medicines provided byBlessings International werecleared through customs withoutrestrictions and are reaching theneedy people of Myanmar in theareas hardest hit by the storm! Inaddition to partnerships withindigenous ministries, our partner-ships with US Christian medicalministries, such as In His Image andWorld Compassion, have multipliedour effectiveness in delivering bothlife-saving medicines and the love ofJesus to the desperate people ofMyanmar.

Through our ministry effortsover the years in Myanmar,Blessings International has estab-lished strong relationships withlocal, indigenous medical ministries.Blessings supplies medical kits forevangelist doctors along the borderregions, supports a medical clinic inMulashidi, and establishes malariaand tuberculosis treatment pro-grams in northern Myanmar.Because of our strong historical tiesto Myanmar, the medications havebeen able to get through to the peo-ple immediately.

Our executive director, Dr.Harold Harder, will be returning toMyanmar at the end of May carry-ing another shipment of medica-tions to support our Burmese part-ners in Myanmar as they ministerboth physical and spiritual healingto the suffering people. You canmake a difference, too, in the livesof the desperate people ofMyanmar. The Lord is giving us atremendous opportunity to showHis love for these people. Pleasesupport these disaster relief effortswith your prayers and your finan-cial support.

Medicines CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

Miracles CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

MYITKYINA •

••MULASHIDIPUTAO

DOTS treatment program for patientssuffering from tuberculosis.

Lion’s Roar #5: “You will not beallowed to participate in the medicalclinic in any way nor allowed into theclinic itself.”

All the plans for this trip werevery uncertain. We had all these nega-tives hanging over our heads to prayabout and more to come.Nevertheless, Linda and I had a deepsense of joy, peace and holy expecta-tion as we began this journey of faithdespite the roaring lion. It appearedthat nothing was certain about the tripexcept that we could take medicineand dental tools into Myanmar, andeven doing that was totally dependentupon the Lord’s favor.

A Gold Standard in Medicine in the

Golden LandBlessings International supports

the Christian medical clinic inMulashidi by funding the treatment ofvarious diseases, especially malariaand tuberculosis. Indeed, the firstdrug I planned to bring was Coartem,the world’s gold standard for thetreatment of resistant malaria. This

drug is not even available in Thailand,much less in Myanmar. BI had fundeda medical kit project in December whichprovided 240 medical kits for medicalevangelists. Also earlier this year, anti-malarial medicines were purchased totreat malaria in patients located inPutao District, Kachin State, in farnorthern Myanmar.

As a follow-up report on medicinesdonated by Blessings International as aresult of the contributions of our partners,Linda and I talked with Josiah, a Rawangwhose tribe in Putao had sent 10 mission-ary families to southwest Myanmar inRahkine state in 1989 to evangelize theMhr Kyrme, a different tribal/ethnic peo-

ple who speak a different language. Theynow claim 10,000 new Christians amongthe Mhr Kyrme tribe. Josiah shared thatthe need for medicines, and particularlyanti-malarial medicine, among the MhrKyrme people is even greater than inPutao. Even the government hospitallacks medicine.

As a result of meeting with Josiahwho was one of those sent to evange-lize the Mhr Kyrme people, I chose togive a portion of the medicine webrought to Myanmar, includingCoartem, was sent to Rahkine state tocare for medical needs of this tribalgroup.

Dental Tools Delivered!We enjoyed participating in a den-

tal/medical clinic held at the home ofSimon Thuang, 20 miles north ofYangon. Simon, the director of HopeMedical Mission, a Myanmar organi-zation, has lead all Burmese medicalteams to opening the new full-timeMulashidi Clinic about 8 miles southof Putao. He also trains medical evan-gelists. A physician from Simon’schurch consulted and treated patients.A great many more patients lined upfor tooth extractions. Linda and Iprayed for some of these patients. Itwas a joy to work with the dentist, Dr.Naw Le, for whom I had brought acomplete set of tools for tooth extrac-tion. Indeed, Dr. Naw Le demonstrat-ed expertise in smoothly pulling teethas many patients watched. They thengladly sat in a chair, quickly leanedtheir heads back to be anesthetized,and very willingly allowed this veryprofessional dentist to pull one ormore teeth from their mouths.

Getting the set of 102 dental toolsinto Myanmar had gone almost assmoothly as Dr. Naw Le’s pulling ofteeth! I had decided to carry the den-tal tools into the country in the many,many pockets of my photographer’svest, in order to avoid the extra bag-gage cost. Instead I became a very

heavy passenger! I cleared thismethod of carrying these dental toolswith the Tulsa Airport office of TSAahead of time, and experienced noproblems in getting through securitychecks except in Thailand. A few toolslooked “too dangerous” to passinspection there, but 98 passed inspec-tion resulting in great joy for Dr. NawLe as he both received and used theset of dental tools.

MyitkyinaOne evening, Linda and I rode on thebacks of motorcycles to a village onthe outskirts of Myitkyina, the capitolof Kachin State in northern Myanmar.On the way, we stopped to observe thebeautiful Irrawaddy River where therewere many boats with passengerswho had brought in rice, and whowere loading up boats for the returntrip with supplies they had purchased

in town. We ate dinner at the home ofSimon’s brother where a man waswaiting to see us. He had a suspiciouscough that made me suspect he hadtuberculosis. We urged him to go tothe hospital for testing and then we

prayed for hishealing.On Sunday, werode a three-wheel motorcy-cle to the homeof Timona, an 88year old Lisupastor who hadstarted a newchurch fouryears ago at theage of 84!Timona was thefirst Lisu convertto Christianity inthe Putao regionwhere he used tolive. Before theservice, we sat in

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Burmese girl with a Coartem prescrip-tion from Blessings International.

Dr. Naw Le treating a young dental patient near Yangon.

Timona, the first Lisu tribal memberto convert to Christianity, who is 84years old and still pastors a church.

the Timona’s courtyard composed ofa set of thatched-roofed houses madewith walls of woven split bamboo,and enjoyed drinking hot tea. TwoTB patients were waiting for us; theyhad heard we were coming and hadwalked all day to see us. Theyappeared to have symptoms of TBincluding coughing up blood,headaches, weakness and weightloss. However, since we had no wayto diagnose this, Simon and I encour-aged them to go immediately to thegovernment hospital a sputum exam-ine. We prayed for their healing.Then we walked a short distance tothe thatched-roofed church.Although a young pastor led the ser-vice, Timona offered a prayer with atwinkle in his eyes. He is still goingstrong. I was given the opportunityto minister to this small congregation,challenging the people from Joshua 1and Numbers 13 and 14 in a messageon “Command, Obedience, andBlessings”. The Lisu people singbeautifully and had even practiced aworship song in English so that wecould understand it.

PutaoLion’s Roar #6: “Your medicines

might be confiscated upon arrival inPutao.” Needless to say our joy wasliterally unspeakable when we col-lected our suitcases containing all themedicines. It was very difficult tocontain the joy at this great victoryfor the suitcases had cleared localcustoms with no problem whatsoev-er. With God’s favor, our primarygoal of providing essential medicinesfor the new Mulashidi clinic had beenachieved!

Lion’s Roar #7: “You will be sep-arated from other members of theteam at the airport and could expectto be treated as strangers by the teamfrom that time on.” This separationdid indeed happen. Neverthelessthis did not affect the great joy andrelief we felt deep inside. We weregreeted by one of our governmentguides and driven to a military basewhere we bivouacked at a visitingofficers’ “guest” house.

We were greeted by Marta, whogrew up in Dukdang Village nearPutao. She invited us to meet withthe elders in her village the followingday so that I could share about estab-lishing a direct observation treatment(DOTS) program for treating tubercu-losis. The following morning, Martaarrived at our barracks on the back ofa motorcycle to take us to DukdangVillage. Shortly thereafter our guidelocated a jeep and we rode togetherto Dukdang. Five elders were waitingfor us, as promised, at the DuktangTeacher Training Center.

I addressed the elders andexplained to them the concepts of theDOTS program for treating tubercu-losis and the importance of vigilancein observation of daily treatment.Each patient would be required toinitial a tally sheet for each day themedicine was taken. I emphasizedthat if a patient was not faithful intaking their medicine, they would beremoved from the treatment programand not be readmitted. The reasonfor this is that when a patient doesnot take their TB medicine faithfully,or stops taking the medicine whenthey begin to feel better, a resistantform of TB may develop which ismore virulent than the original strain

most patients suffer from. This drug-resistant form of TB may then infectthe rest of the family, which couldresult in many deaths.

A DOTS administrator must takeresponsibility to ensure that patientskeep taking their medicine until thepatient has been declared TB free bythe Putao Civil Hospital, typically byhaving three consecutive monthlysputum exams that are free of TB bac-teria. Multivitamins would be pro-vided daily to encourage compliance.The elders readily nodded towardone elder who had been a medicalevangelist in the village, who hadexperience administering medicinesincluding injections. They indicatedthat he should be the DOTS adminis-trator for their village. I heartilyagreed. Before leaving, I challengedthe elders to take a survey in theirvillage to determine how many peo-ple there had hospital-documentedtuberculosis.

Mulashidi ClinicWe had the great pleasure of

observing this new clinic in full oper-ation and of seeing the medicine,

which was provided by BlessingsInternational, being fully utilized.The Hope Medical Team ofMyanmar, which included two physi-cians and a dentist, nurse and phar-macist, were busy assessing andtreating patients, many of whom hadwalked a long distance to arrive atthe clinic. Dr. Fish is the first Lisu tobe trained as a physician and he hasnow returned to his home village topractice medicine for two years at theMulashidi Clinic. We arrived just asDr. Brang was inserting an intra-venous catheter into a man who hadwalked 4 days to get to the clinic. Hehad a bleeding ulcer and was veryweak from severe dehydration and

electrolyte imbalance. He improvedgreatly overnight and responded toomniprazole that was prescribed forhim. Linda and I prayed for thispatient and other patients who were

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Elders from the Dukdang Village who will administer the tuberculosis treatmentprogram.

Harold Harder presenting Dr. Fish,the Lisu physician and Director of theMulashidi Clinic, with medicine andan ophthalmoscope.

being treated. Many patients werebeing treated for malaria with theCoartem which we brought with us.

Later, the elder designated to bethe DOTS administrator completed alist of people who had hospital-docu-mented tuberculosis in DukdangVillage. Here was a group of peoplethat could be candidates for the TBtreatment program to be establishedat the Mulashidi Clinic.Unfortunately we had purchased forthe clinic enough medicine to treatonly 10 patients for 6 to 8 months.The following afternoon, we returnedto the Mulashidi clinic where I com-pleted giving instructions to Dr. Fishabout the administration of the DOTSprogram. I charged him with thedecision-making responsibility forthe TB treatment program andinformed him that he alone hadauthority to decide who would betreated, based on a diagnosis of eachpatient.

Malikha RiverOn our last day in Putao we

asked to visit the government hospi-tal and the old British Fort Hertz.Our guide told us we would not beallowed to visit those sites but thatwe should do the tourist thing and

take the trip toMochombo to seethe river since wehad tourist visas.So we headed out in a jeep over therough road to Mochombo. Part of thisroad was blocked off where men andwomen were setting medium sizedrocks in a bed of sand, by hand, tomake a foundation for the road.Melted tar would then be pouredover these stones to form a tarmacsurface. This was very hard work asthe people carried the rocks in wovenbaskets on their backs.

When we glimpsed the beautifulMalikha River, we realized that a tripdown this river, in a twenty-five footwooden motor boat, would indeed bea treat. As we headed down theriver, a pleasant, refreshing breezebegan sweeping across our faces. Itwas a thrill to shoot down fast-mov-ing rapids. At times all was quiet,other than the putt-putt of the engine,and it was very tranquil to glidethrough alternating still waters andlush emerald green rain forests withtrees reaching skyward seemingly100 feet.

Our return up-river trip toMochombo was even more thrillingthan the ride down-river because ourboat very deftly shot the rapids goingupward. Sometimes the rapids were

so rough, with 4 or 5 feet waves, thatwe thought the boat would beswamped for sure. But each time,after a minute, we moved very quick-ly upstream against the current.

Traveling up-stream, against thecurrent, was not unlike our wholetrip to Myanmar. We experiencedmany challenges and many opportu-nities to our faith that might havecaused us to at first think and then tobelieve that our mission might notsucceed. Despite all the roars of thelion, trying to steal our faith, Lindaand I chose to remain confident in thepeace God gave us before beginningthis journey. God was totally faithfulin granting us favor repeatedly to allchallenges to our faith in His unlimit-ed power. With your undergirdingintercessory prayers, we shotupstream against the rapids as wellas against all the lion’s roars. Godwas totally faithful to deliver us andgrant to us a great victory for thepeople of Myanmar.

Harold C. HarderPresident of Blessings International

The medical mission trip to Myanmar was anopportunity to grow in the knowledge that where Godcalls us to go, he equips us to go, and to see and experi-ence the culture of Myanmar. A theme song was givenfor our trip which was “Victory in Jesus”. We wouldend up singing that song on the trip, and especially aswe walked down a long road to a military base on avery dark night.

The daytime view from our hotel window inYangon, the capital city of Myanmar, was incrediblybeautiful. The city is 50% green with palm, banana

and bamboo trees filling the landscape. Also on thehorizon are Buddhist temples, covered with gold leaf,sparkling in the sunlight. At night the city is quite dark,with only a few lighted buildings. There are many lakesscattered about the city which adds to the beauty.However, most of the city is made up of very old build-ings, and it appears that Myanmar is a country that timehas passed by.

In the midst of the beautiful landscape of the city, we kept hearing things to discourage us from

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Dr. Fish prescribing medication from Blessings to a patient atthe Mulashidi clinic.

Christian pharmacist distributing medicines from BlessingsInternational at the Mulashidi Clinic.

Myanmar MemoriesBy “Motorcycle Mama”

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continuing our trip. Evidently wewere trying to be discouraged fromgoing to Putao at all. In the midst ofthese attacks, along with some physi-cal attacks, I woke up one morningthinking, “I’m going to do what I canfor these people. We’re just here for 2_ weeks and I’mgoing to ‘set my facelike a flint’ and headto Jerusalem,(Putao).”

I believed that inthe words of Jesus, Iwould literally havethe faith to “crossover to the otherside” in any way theLord would need usto do so. My faithwas initially chal-lenged by riding onthe back of a motor-cycle, which we didmany times, to getaround Myitkyina.God was faithful andas I asked Him foran anointing so Icould do this like thelocals, that grace wasgiven and it began tobe, yes, fun!

When our flightarrived in Putao, inKachin State innorthern Myanmar,we were thrilled thatthe suitcases of medicine went righton through at the airport with noproblems or inspection.

We would have many moreopportunities to exercize our faith,however. Later that night our jeep

picked us up from the village ofDukdang and it soon became appar-ent, as we took off on the rainy night,that our jeep truck had no headlights.Harold held his small flashlight acrossthe hood of the vehicle and a motorcy-cle drove beside us to light the road.In spite of that, another motorcycleran headfirst into the side of our jeep.

The jeep was then commandeered totake the victim to the hospital. Thisleft Harold and me and our three“guides” walking along the side of the road in the pitch darkness.Fortunately, Harold and I each had

a flashlight and one guide had a flashlight.

As we walked along the darkroad back to the military base wherewe were staying, I sang “Victory inJesus” a few times. God was faithfuland after walking three miles throughthe villages, we arrived safely back atthe military base. (We learned later

that the motorcyclevictim made a fullrecovery.)On our last day inPutao we were toldthat we wereexpected to make atourist trip to seethe Malikha River,and could also takea boat trip if wechose to do so. Theriver looked sobeautiful we didtake that trip. Aswe passed under abamboo footbridgehigh above theriver, I was gladthat I was in theboat going underthe bridge, not hav-ing to walk overthe bridge.However, I hadseen many times onthis trip that Godgives us the faith to“cross over to theother side” justwhen we need it.

Thank you, prayer warriors, forall your prayers for this trip. We liter-ally walked in your prayers.

Testifying to God’s faithfulness,Linda Lee Harder

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Burmese child with medicine from BlessingsInternational.

Please visit www.blessing.org and consider an on-line gift towards Blessings’ many projects, such as in Myamnar, Africa, the Middle East, and disaster relief.

Motorcycle Mama, Linda Harder, riding the back of a motorcycle through thestreets of Myitkyina.

MemoriesCONTINUED FROM PAGE FIVE

Inside this issue:

• Medicines Arrive in Myanmar for Disaster Relief

• Myanmar Miracles: A Report of March Mission Trip

• Memories of a Beautiful Country