Christian Freedom International

Christian Freedom International recently travelled to Gaylord, Michigan to be part of a huge music festival called “Big Ticket.” We took our new exhibit, “Freedom Tent: Crisis in Burma,” to the festival to share the terrible reality of genocidal persecution that the Karen people have been experiencing at the hands of the Burmese government for more than 60 years.

What has been going on in Burma for decades is comparable to what the Nazis did to the Jews during World War II. Burma is run by a cruel military regime that hates the Karen people, most of whom are of the Christian faith. Every day, the government proves that hatred that by killing, attacking and harassing these people.

While at the festival, hundreds of visitors went through the 16 minute audio tour of the “Freedom Tent: Crisis in Burma” exhibit. There are eight rooms in the tent, all of which are designed for the visitor to experience a taste of life as a Karen refugee.

The first room focuses on the general persecution of Christians throughout the ages in various countries. A six-foot wooden cross leans against the wall, and a pile of rocks on the floor in front of it holds a burned Bible which had been donated to CFI in India. The curtain separating the first room from the second reads, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” A crude, bloody cross marks one corner of the room, and artificial blood is splashed all around.

The second room takes the visitor to Burma, displaying pictures of Adoniram Judson -- the first missionary to the Karen people -- and the first Karen converts. There is also a display of actual bullets and land mines. The audio narration that can be heard in this room says, “The Burmese soldier would set fire to our village…”

The third room portrays an IDP (Internally Displaced Person) village in Burma, a place where refugees often come after they have fled from their homes. The atmosphere in this room is especially intense, as the visitor listens to a child’s audio narration about the gross acts of violence the Burmese military perpetrates against women and children. This is not just a war where soldiers fight against soldiers, but a war where innocent women and children are sometimes raped and killed, and where the military has even killed babies simply for target practice. During the narration, the child speaks about her never-ending worry that her father will die in the middle of the violence, because “every time we heard a gunshot we thought he was killed.” The room displays drawings created by Karen children illustrating the violence they have witnessed -- crayon drawings of people, including their own parents, being shot and killed.

The fourth room is the medic tent. In this room, the curtain is adorned with the medic symbol and a passage of Scripture: “Whatever you did for the least of these my brothers you did for me.” The walls are smeared with artificial blood and covered with photos, many that capture the horrific aftermath of what happens to human flesh that comes in contact with a land mine. Against one wall is a bamboo table such as one used for surgeries in an actual medic tent. This table is also covered in “blood,” and hanging over it is a mosquito net. “Bloodied” bandages are stacked in a pile next to a plastic tube used for blood transfusions. There is a photo of a mother stretched out on a cot, a baby on either side of her…

CFI buys medicine and packs them into “backpacks” -- giant, woven baskets that are strapped to an able-bodied Karen man who takes the medicine out into the jungles of Burma to treat his sick and wounded brothers and sisters. The medic is equipped to treat everything from typhoid to malaria, bullet wounds to mine explosions…everything resulting from the gruesome violence of war. One picture in this room shows a man with his legs blown off, the painful result of having stepped on a land mine. The blast has ripped his foot off and unzipped the skin, revealing his lower leg bone.

The fifth room, a refugee camp, is the calm after the storm. Located in Thailand far away from the violence in Burma, the camp is meant to be a safe haven of sorts for Karen refugees. In this room, a blanket and pillow are laid out on the floor on a bamboo mat. The walls are covered with images of Karen people, many of which were taken in the Mae La refugee camp. Although thousands of refugees are away from the violence, refugee camps are still not the safest places, especially for children. There are hundreds -- probably thousands -- of huts clumped close together on the side of a mountain, so refugees don’t have the luxury of much privacy. Many refugee children will end up living at CFI’s Freedom House orphanage, where they will learn about the Bible.

The sixth room in the tent portrays CFI’s vocational school. This beautiful facility is located in the middle of Thailand’s countryside, surrounded by migrant workers and rice patties. It’s an oasis for many children who have been handpicked from five different refugee camps; some students have been chosen directly from Burma. In this room, there is a desk, a computer, and photos of vocational school students. A Bible verse in both English and Karen is written on a blackboard on the wall, and on the floor sits a soccer ball and a guitar.

The seventh room highlights CFI’s work in Burma, and explains what you can do for the persecuted -- especially praying. Please pray for the children in Burma, for the ones in refugee camps that long to come to the United States, and even pray that soldiers in the Burmese military will find Jesus. Pray that the violence will soon come to an end.

The last room, the eighth room, is a place for visitors to pray. A cross covered in twine is set up on a table as a sort of altar, and a Scripture verse hangs on one wall. On another wall, there is a painting of Jesus reaching down and grabbing the hand of a Karen man. In this room, Karen children lead you in praying the Lord’s Prayer. The message on the last burlap curtain admonishes you to remember the persecuted as if in prison with them.

What we want you to do is to remember our persecuted brothers and sisters in Burma -- to feel even just a small bit of their pain and understand that God Himself wants us to remember, and to somehow get involved. Maybe you can donate funds to CFI for their lifesaving projects in Burma, or even sponsor a refugee child and experience the joy of receiving letters from that child. Perhaps God is calling you to go to Thailand/Burma to serve these suffering people. If you are a Michigan resident, there are volunteer opportunities at CFI’s office in Sault Ste. Marie. There is so much background work to be done here in the U.S. so that work can be completed overseas in Thailand and Burma.

As Americans, we tend to be too comfortable and naïve to the world around us. We like our comfort “ruts,” but it is my mission to make you a bit uncomfortable. Let this motivate you to somehow get involved…don’t just sit by with this new knowledge in your head and do nothing.

Will we get involved? Sometimes getting involved is messy…getting involved means opening your heart to being hurt, and to being affected by uncomfortable things -- things like death, children being abandoned and orphaned, and babies being killed. But since we know something is happening, we need to do something about it. We can get involved and make a difference.
What will you do today to make a difference?