LATEST UPDATES FROM OUR CHURCH IN YANGON.................

On May 26th and May 30th, a total of 10 metric tons of rice (200 sacks of 50 Kg each) were bought for distribution.

The distributions were made in two villages in Dala, two villages in North Dagon and one village in Shwe Pau Kan. Video footage of this distribution will be available soon.

An interim oversight committee has also been formed to help with advice on strategy and spending to ensure effectiveness and accountability.This committee consists of members from NGO's including World Vision and World Concern.

Through Myanmar Compassion Project (MCP), an organization focused on providing care to children/orphans in Myanmar, we also hosted in our facility last week a seminar conducted by Crisis Response Training and Networks Asia (www.crtnasia.org) to give Biblical focus and practical tools to our church-based efforts in providing relief now and reconstruction later to the Nargis-affected areas we are helping.

As mentioned in the previous report, we are now focusing our weekly distribution in areas that we already have village churches or in villages we hope to start a new ministry. This strategy enables us to provide sustained contact with the people receiving assistance. For the long-term we believe this will give the most meaningful results. Our people on the ground can provide other types of assistance including simple counseling and spiritual guidance.

In June, our efforts will continue to be mainly in food distribution (we have already assisted over 10,000 families so far). This will shift to reconstruction assistance in July where we hope to assist at least 600 families. It is encouraging that close to half of our church members have also been involved in one way or another in our relief efforts.

This week approximately USD 500 was disbursed for house repairs to about 5 people.

Update on 1 Jun 2008:

Approximately USD 81,000 (SGD 110,000) has been raised for our Emergency Mynamar relief which has gone directly into helping the local people affected. The funds have enabled rice to be distributed to over 6000 households now and about 4000 of these will receive weekly distribution over the next four weeks.

Update on 25 May 2008:

On 20th May, a total of 10 metric tons of rice (200 sacks of 50kg each) was bought. In addition, we also bought 5 sacks of beans, 50kg of dried fish, 1000 litres of cooking oil, 5 sacks of onions & salt, totaling USD 5004.

The distributions were done equally in 2 areas: Dala & Kun Gyan Gon.

Kun Gyan Gon is about 3 hours south of Yangon. This was one of the most badly hit areas. We no have the means to access this area which was restricted earlier.

In Dala, we will embark on a strategy of focus on unassisted areas. The village of Ta Gyi in Dala consists of 850 houses. More than 60% were destroyed. This was a poor community before the cyclone and is now a mess of temporary thatched structures. There is no church or house church of any kind in the entire village. Until today, no government assistance has been given to them. Although the village authorities were initially resistant to our assistance, they are now welcoming us wholeheartedly. We plan to continue to provide emergency assistance to the village immediately and in the mid-term to assistn with rehabiliation and reconstruction projects.

Next week, we will deliver one more time to the Shwe Pau Kan and North Dagon areas. There have been many good testimonies of how our efforts have brought much favor from the authorities and community in those areas.

Approximately USD 3500 have been distributed for house repairs to about 10 people.

Update on 18 May 2008:

On 5th May, a total of 15 metric tons of rice (approx USD 6386) was bought. This translates to 300 sacks, each sack weighing 50kg. We distributed to 2500 households with each household receiving 2 to 3 "pyis" (about 6kg) which is sufficient supply for about 3 to 4 days for a family of 4 people.