Emergency relief supplies for cyclone victims sent by Samaritan’s Purse are offloaded at Yangon airport.

Myanmar

Responding to Disaster

God already had put the right people in place to respond when a cyclone devastated this South Asian country

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Ray and Kyla are water technicians from the Samaritan’s Purse office in Canada. After completing their training, they were assigned to our field office in Cambodia. They arrived on April 30, eager to begin traveling throughout Southeast Asia to establish projects to give people access to clean, safe water.

Their first trip was scheduled for Myanmar. They would evaluate and expand a filter program that had been established through local churches three years ago.

Their assignment changed when a cyclone slammed into the Irawaddy delta of Myanmar on May 2. A 12-foot-deep storm surge killed tens of thousands of people, left hundreds of thousands destitute, and flooded over 2,000 square miles.

Survivors were faced with a critical shortage of clean water. What had seemed a routine assignment for Kyla, Ray, and his wife, Christine, now became a mission of mercy.

The three entered Myanmar on May 5 on the first flight after the cyclone and began to work with local Christians. When Samaritan's Purse received clearance to fly in relief supplies, they were in place to train people how to use water purification kits and how to prevent the spread of malaria and other diseases.

“God did an amazing thing in putting Ray, Christine, and Kyla here,” said one of our team members who arrived later in Myanmar. “He put the right people here at the right time.”

God began to prepare Samaritan's Purse to respond to this disaster three years ago, when we began working with local Christians on the clean water program. In the aftermath of the cyclone, we were able to use that network to establish a feeding program and a system to distribute aid in devastated areas.

“It’s really been a God thing,” said another team member. “I have no doubt that many lives have been saved through the efforts of the churches that we’ve been supporting.”