Believe it not, things just keep getting worse n Myanmar. The worst part is that what’s happening now is caused by men, not nature. From here on out we only have ourselves to blame for those who needlessly die from lack of aid. Here’s what’s new so far today.

Pro-Government Thugs Attack Relief Vehicles

Club-wielding members of a pro-regime citizens’ group attempted to hijack relief supplies in Rangoon, according to local charity groups and non-government organizations in the former Burmese capital.

A convoy of vehicles carrying rice to cyclone victims in Rangoon’s Thanlyin Township was attacked on Thursday by armed members of Swan-Ar-Shin, a government-supported organization that helped suppress last September’s demonstrations, one Rangoon source reported.

One NGO worker said permission had to be obtained from another pro-government organization, the Union Solidarity and Development Association, before relief supplies could be delivered.

Myanmar Junta Seizes Relief Aid, UN Suspends Shipments

The UN announced on Friday that it has suspended all aid shipments to Burma, following the junta’s seizure of all food and equipment of the World Food Program (WFP).

WFP officials said they have “no choice” but to suspend their aid efforts following the unprecedented seizure by the secretive military government.

Myaung Mya Provides Shelter For Cyclone Victims

Thousands of cyclone victims who have lost homes and families in Cyclone Nargis have come to Myaung Mya township, Irrawaddy division, where locals have given them shelter.

Ten emergency relief centres have been set up so far to accommodate those seeking refuge. “About 20 to 30 percent of the town was destroyed and all the big trees uprooted. We thought what happened in our town was really bad,” the resident said. “But after we listened to our radios, we realised what happened to us was nothing at all compared to other places.”

USA Ready To Air Drop Aid - But Needs Approval

The United States said on Thursday said it is ready to air drop relief material and food to save the lives of hundreds if thousands of people in the cyclone hit areas of the Irrawaddy delta upon approval of the Burma’s military government…Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US would not enter Burmese airspace without approval…the White House said it is involved in negotiations with the Burmese government and other countries to provide aid and relief material to the cyclone affected people.”We are hopeful that permission will be granted not only for United States aid but all sorts of international aid,” White House spokesperson Gordon Johndroe told reporters…

Eight UNSC Members Oppose French Plan For Burma

Eight United Nations Security Council members—both permanent and non-permanent—on Thursday opposed the French move to have a discussion on the humanitarian crisis and progress of relief operations in Burma in the wake of the devastation of last week’s Cyclone Nargis.

…two permanent members, Russia and China, which had opposed the French move on Wednesday, were joined by six developing countries inside the Security Council, as France again tried to garner support for its proposal.

South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam, Panama, Libya and Costa Rica were the six other nations who sided with China and Russia. Although officials of these countries conceded that the humanitarian crisis in Burma was grave, the situation was deemed not to be a threat to regional or international peace and security. As such, the Security Council would not be the appropriate forum to have a discussion on the issue.

Cyclone Survivors Racked By Disease

One in five children who survived in the areas hit by Cyclone Nargis is suffering from diarrhea, according to a UNICEF official in Rangoon.

Osamu Kunii, UNICEF’s chief of health and nutrition, told the Associated Press that the number could still rise.

Outbreaks of cholera and malaria are also being reported in the delta region, where the cyclone created all the conditions for epidemics.

“Most of the area is covered by dirty water,” said Osamu Kunii. “There are a lot of dead bodies and the people there have very poor access—sometimes no access—to clean drinking water or food.”

One Rangoon source said: “It is very difficult to bury the dead because everywhere is flooded. We needed expert relief workers.”

Pray for the people of Myanmar

This is going to be a strange edition of Short Rounds. I’ve got some very important and thought provoking links for you to read, some very strange news, and a down right bizarre video clip for all you GI Joe lovers out there! Plus more!

Strange News!

Man Wants To Be Buried In A Beer Can Casket - no I’m not making this up - sorry to all my Canadian friends!

A Yottabyte of Storage by 2013 - It won’t be long till a Gig sounds down right tiny!

Cool Tech Tool Of The Year (So Far Anyway!)

Livescribe‘s Pulse Smartpen - you’ve got to check out this digital pin that writes, records, and with a touch of the pen to your notes replays what it recorded as you jotted down that particular note! Ooooh - a Christmas delight!

Newly Discovered (by me at least!)

Atomic Tragedy - Check out these newly discovered pictures of the aftermath Hiroshima bombing taken by an unknown Japanese photographer. Unlike most of the pictures you’ve seen, these focus on the human toll. Warning - these are graphic, view at your own risk!

Covert Radio Show - an interesting podcast that deals with what’s really going on in the war on terror.

An Evangelical Manifesto:

This week the Evangelical Manifesto was published to some notice, but not much. It’s an important document however, that all Bible believing Christians ought to ponder. My thanks to Joe Carter at the Evangelical Outpost for drawing my attention to this. In the midst of all my focus on Cyclone Nargis and Myanmar I almost over looked this. Read all these posts, download and read the Manifesto, and then decide for yourself. I hope to blog on this next week sometime.

The Evangelical Manifesto - you can get the PDF here.

Thoughts on the Evangelical Manifesto - Joe Carter weighs in on it!

Jared at The Gospel Driven Church blogs about it.

The Thinklings Thoughts on it

Typical Lame Stream Media report on the Evangelical Manifesto

Strangest Video I’ve Ever Posted Here?

You make the call - and have a great weekend! Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mom’s out there!

UPDATE, 9:21 AM: Read this harrowing account of what’s it like in the ravaged delta region of Myanmar.

Not all the news about Nargis and Myanmar is bad, but most of it is! As I reported last night I have heard from one of dear friends in Yangon and he and his family is alright. However that leaves a lot of people who don’t have access to the internet who I likely won’t know about for some time to come.

Here’s some of today’s news:

Suu Kyi’s Roof Blown Off.

The roof of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house was blown off in the cyclone over the weekend, and she is living without electricity, a neighbor said on Thursday…It was not clear if Suu Kyi was injured, and whether she has enough food and water…He said he sees candles being lit at night in the house…”She has no generator in her house. I felt pity for her. It seems no one cares for her,” said the neighbor, contacted by telephone from Bangkok.

Death Toll:

The Untied States is now estimating at least 100,000 are dead in Myanmar from Nargis, the UN is estimating that about 1 million people are now homeless. According to a reporter who made it to the delta region and back to Yangon, officials there are saying at least 80,000 are dead and 700,000 are homeless in the delta region alone.

Relief Aid:

The fiasco of the whole relief situation continues nearly unabated again today. There is some very small good news here, and I’ll start with that.

Some UN aid is arriving in Myanmar today. It’s not much, not nearly enough, but at least something is getting through to them! That’s good!

The bad news is that literally tons of international aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars continues to be held up by the refusal of the Myanmar Junta to issue visa’s to them!

Critics of the regime charged that it is deliberately hampering the granting of visas so it could claim the credit for relief work in the countryside.

‘They are delaying visas for foreign aid workers, which is a clear sign that they want the materials but don’t want the foreign workers,’ said Win Min, a lecturer on Myanmar affairs at Chiang Mai University in Thailand… ‘This is a critical moment for Myanmar’s vulnerable populations,’ warned the UN Information Centre in Yangon. ‘In the next few days, assessments must be provided or thousands more could die.’

Best & Worst News of the Day:

The French of all people have suggested the UN force Myanmar to accept the aid, even if they don’t want it! Oh yeah!

The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said Wednesday that the United Nations should invoke its “responsibility to protect” civilians as the basis for a resolution to force delivery of aid to Myanmar, even if over the objections of the military government there.

A UN official in Bangkok, Richard Horsey, said Wednesday that “thousands of bodies” were floating in nearly 5,200 square kilometers, or 2,000 square miles, of the flooded delta of the Irrawaddy River, the hardest-hit area.

According to the news, the UN has turned this idea down. Meanwhile in Thailand the US has planes, food and supplies just waiting to take into Myanmar, but haven’t gotten permission yet.

Pray for the people of Myanmar.

]I have to admit that I’m feeling a bit out of whack when it comes to my regular blogging this week. My sense of dislocation comes in part from concern about my friends in Myanmar, in part from focusing on my ministry here, and in part from a few other things. So today I decided to just pick out a Bible verse and talk about it. Something new - so here I go……]

It’s the shortest verse in the English Bible, Jesus wept. John 11:35 (ESV)

The context of the verse is of course him going to the tomb of his friend Lazarus with Mary and Martha Lazarus’ sisters. They are crying and wishing Jesus had come before their brother died so that he could have healed him. At this point they don’t know that Jesus deliberately delayed his journey so that Lazarus would die before he got there.

Jesus knew his Father had something really big in mind for this particular event, but no one else did.

So, standing by the tomb Jesus wept. The word means quiet or silent tears, not loud weeping and wailing. It’s a tender and very human moment. But have you ever wondered why Jesus wept? Here’s a few of the more common ideas on this:

• Jesus wept in sympathy for the ones he loved who were grieving.
• Jesus wept for all people who grieve over the death of loved ones.
• Jesus wept over the frailty of life and the ravages of sin and despair.
• Jesus wept in anger over those present who remained in unbelief in the face of death.
• Jesus wept in sorrow for having to call Lazarus back from eternity into a world where he would die again.
  - Life Application Bible Commentary - Life Application Bible Commentary – John.

Some of those just might be at least partially true. But I wonder if any of them really catches what happened here. Of course Jesus the man had to be powerfully moved by the wave of emotion his friends were putting forth. I’ll bet all of us at one time or another have been caught up in the feelings of those around us.

But I suspect it’s that third choice that’s closest to the truth. I believe that Jesus wept over the lostness of the world, and that fact that death itself comes out of our fallen state. Death is abnormal, and only exists because of the fall, and Jesus had to have carried the pain of our fallen condition with him every single moment of his earthly life.

In times like this it’s easy to say that Jesus is weeping over the death and destruction wrought by Cyclone Nargis, and no doubt he is. But I believe that God is concerned with issues that are even larger than the life and death issues that press in on us every day.

He grieves over our lostness, and never ceases to woo us back to him through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

I suspect that if I felt half as much of God’s grief over the lost world as I do over the disaster of Cyclone Nargis, I’d be a far better Christian, and much more motivated witness for Jesus.

I just wanted to post a short note saying that I have finally heard from some of the people I know in the Yangon area and they are unharmed.

They say things are really difficult, prices on just about everything have tripled since the storm, but they are alive - and where there’s life with Jesus there’s hope!

UPDATE, 3:16 PM - Andrew Kirkwood, Burma director of Save the Children, has been keeping a diary of his life in Rangoon in the days following Cyclone Nargis, for the BBC News website.

Also - BBC Story that features some video from Myanmar TV and also this picture showing the full extent of the flooding from before & after satellite pictures.

The news continues to pour in about Cyclone Nargis, most of it bad. Here’s some information available on the Net as well as some person information I’ve picked up.

The horrible Junta government of Myanmar continues to bungle nearly everything related to this (and just about every other) issue. Not only are they slowing down the arrival of international aid by not quickly issuing visas, but now they are selling food to the survivors instead of giving it away! Unbelievable.

On top of all that - the authorities are using this disaster as a springboard for political propaganda. They are trying to stop Buddhist monks and others who oppose them from helping survivors, while selling roofing materials to others.

…the Burmese military authorities were attempting to prevent the monks from getting involved in relief efforts. Burmese military officials ordered monks not to use monasteries as safe houses for survivors and, according to journalists in Rangoon, the Ministry of Information ordered news agencies not to publish photographs of Buddhist monks aiding survivors, working in the streets or rebuilding homes.

“The authorities won’t allow people to take refuge in monasteries,” a journalist in Rangoon said. “They will only permit people to shelter in schools. Even if the monks want to distribute water to survivors, they have to get permission from the authorities.”

State-run-newspapers and television have repeatedly shown images of high-ranking generals and officers helping survivors and handing out aid packages.

Meanwhile in the delta region where Myanmar was hardest hit, practically no aid has arrived. International aid assessment teams have just arrived there, so most of what we know comes from what a few survivors who have made it to Yangon can tell us, and the news isn’t good.

Aye Kyu, a Laputta resident who managed to get to Rangoon by road on Tuesday told The Irrawaddy that half of Laputta Township—specifically the coastal area—was completely flooded and he estimated that tens of thousands of people in Laputta have already died.

Aye Kyu said that even survivors were dying for lack of food and water. Two days after the storm hit the Laputta Township in Irrawaddy Division, there were nothing to eat or drink, he said.

In an interview this morning on Fox News with Admiral Timothy J. Keating, Commander U.S. Pacific Command he estimated the fatalities from this would run anywhere from 20,000 to 25,000, with maybe a million homeless.

I have received a bit of good news about a few people I know in Myanmar. Not from the family I know best unfortunately, but I do know a few others have survived even though death is all around them. Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail, personal and place names removed.

The wind blowing lasted for 10 hours started from 3:00 P.M to 3:00 in the morning. A tree of our neighbor in the back yard of the church fell down our house and there was damages of house and wall of the fence in the back yard….And a roof of our church nurse and pianist was taken away at night and she came to ******* to borrow plastic sheet which I used it to cover our truck. In the next morning many people came to **** for helps crying for the losses of their properties. She went to ********* to check the losses. She said, the trees on the street were fell down to the ground. And … Church members were homeless and came to her with weeping for the losses of their properties. ******* gave away her money. When she got to check her house, a tree in the front of her house was fell down and there was small damage but sadly, the woman of her neighbor died in her house collapsing. She was pregnant and she died when the tree fell down to her house.

Please continue to pray for the people of Myanmar!

I don’t know about you, but the human mind and soul is a source of endless fascination to me. The way we perceive reality and react to it is nothing short of amazing.

Cyclone Nagis a great example of that for me.  As you can tell from this blog I’m very concerned about it, and have posted quite a few updates on it. I’m eagerly looking for more news all the time and hoping and praying for the best over there.

What’s so strange or fascinating about that you ask?  Just this - you will note I’m not showing that kind of concern for the ongoing horror in Dafur, or any other place in the world. Just Myanmar. That might strike someone as odd since Myanmar is half way around the world and the vast majority of Americans know little to nothing about it. My country has shown little more than token interest in the plight of it’s people until the last few years, so why am I so worked up about what’s happening there?

The answer is simple and most of you reading this know what it is. I know, love and feel very close to people there. That’s really the only reason why I feel the way I do.

The personal touch changes everything doesn’t it?

Relationship is what turns yet another disaster story into something alarming and important to me. I know and love people in Yangon and Myanmar, so what happens there is very important to me. I don’t know anyone in Darfur or any of the hundreds of other places where people are suffering and dying today, and so have much less concern about them.

Please don’t misunderstand, I do hope for the best for all those poor people, as I’m sure you do. But their plight doesn’t move me to action, because I don’t know them.

It’s that personal knowledge and relationship that changes it from a terrible story that we can all tisk, tisk, about at the water cooler at work, into something that impacts me personally in a profound way.

When you think about in that way doesn’t it give the words of Jesus new meaning?  When He said that at the judgment some would be cast out into darkness with the words, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

I often think that modern American Christianity is too concerned with this whole “personal relationship with Jesus” thing. We draw too many false conclusions from it, thinking that God handles relationships just like we do. So we have a lot of indulgent doctrine being taught and all those horrid “Jesus is my boy/girl friend” song that I despise!

But taken in balance, it gives me pause to think about it. The reason God was so moved by the world’s plight that Jesus came to die for our salvation, was because He knows every single one of us. He knew we were hopeless apart from His intervening in human history.

And our salvation ushers into an even deeper type of relationship with God, we become part of His family, and we begin in a small way to know Him. That’s why we should care about other people spiritual lives, because our Father does - and He knows exactly what they need!

It’s that personal touch that changes everything. Jesus became human, God personally touched the world, and nothings been the same since.

Update, 11:45 AM - Click Here to see some video of the cyclone in Yangon on the BBC website, there are other links on that page you might to check out.

Update, 10:28 AM: Click Here to see a map of the path Cyclone Nargis took through Myanmar and on into Thailand.

I didn’t start out to do regular updates on Myanmar, but I’m getting so many responses and requests, that I’ve decided to go ahead and do it for now.

As time passes by things are looking even more grim than they did before in many ways. Here’s the first bombshell news of the day - one that I’m hoping against hope is wrong!

May 6, 2008 (DVB)-As the scale of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis in Burma becomes clearer, government figures say that 10,000 people were killed in Bogalay township alone.

The Burmese military regime has estimated the overall death toll to be more than 15,000, though this figure is being constantly revised as new information becomes available. [ Source ]

Then there’s this - which is even worse!

At least 22,500 people died in the Burma cyclone and the toll is likely to rise rapidly as officials make contact with the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta areas, military officials said on Tuesday.

Officials said 41,054 people are missing and up to 1 million people are homeless. [ Source ]

Worse yet there’s this:

While the Burmese government has announced that the death toll from Cyclone Nargis currently stands at 22,500, witnesses who have managed to get out of Laputta Township in the Irrawaddy Delta have told The Irrawaddy that 22 villages were completely destroyed and that the death toll could be much higher.

A local source from Laputta Township estimated a total of 60,000 people could have been killed by the cyclone. This estimate could not be independently confirmed. [ Source ]

When disasters like this strike the first news out is usually over the top exaggeration, as it was for example during Katrina. I was in Malawi when that happened, and the first news we read was much, much worse than that actual event. We can hope this will be true for Myanmar, but as times goes on it looks like this is going to be much worse than first expected.

Meanwhile many government officials are deserting their posts to search for missing family members, which will impact relief efforts. And true to style, the Junta continues to insist that the vote on the referendum of their “constitution” will take place on Saturday regardless of what has happened.

On top of all that UN aid hasn’t reached Myanmar yet. Why? Well this is one time you you can’t blame the UN - this time it’s the Myanmar government hasn’t issued them visa’s to get into the country! This ought to show anyone who cares how completely incompetent the Junta is.

On the personal front, I have heard that someone I know in Myanmar, who is currently visiting the US, has heard from his family that they are alright. Otherwise I haven’t heard a thing from my many friends there. So please keep praying for them.

I’ll add updates as I get them.

May God bless Myanmar!

I had dinner tonight with a couple from church. It’s part of my Getting To Know You grand tour of KCC! Actually I’m enjoying it and it’s fun to get into people’s houses and get to know them in a more personal way that I ever could at church.

I was asked a question that really resonated with me because it similar to one I’ve been asking myself lately about my blogging. The question (my paraphrase of it anyway) was did I ever hesitate about writing like I do here. I mean I talk about all sorts of things and seem to let it all hang out.

That struck me because I’ve been wondering if I’m not being open enough here. If you read a lot of Pastor’s blogs like me, you know that some of them are very honest. At times nearly brutally honest. Some of my personal favorites even swear at times!

So here’s a few questions I’d love to have some input on from all of you readers out there!

• So how much is too much when it comes to Christian, and in particular Pastoral, blogging?
• Where’s the line between being honest, and being self absorbed, between truth and TMI?
• Would a sane person still be blogging after three years anyway?

Inquiring minds want to know! So let me know what you think, and I’ll let you know my thoughts in a future post (unless I forget!).

And now on a totally unrelated topic - enjoy two Larry Norman videos!

The news continues to pour in about this, and almost all of it is bad. I’ve got links below to articles and some pictures that will give you some idea of the damage done. Just remember the you aren’t seeing any pictures of the worst hit areas, no pictures from the slums or the countryside are in yet.

Please continue to pray, so far no news from any of my friends there.

• Some Startling Pictures
• Article - Nearly 4,000 Dead
• Junta May Seek International Aid
  

That last story proves just how bad things must be. Remember that the Junta didn’t want much aid after the Tsunami but are asking for it now, so that means things are really bad there.