Aung's Story

I was a mountain farmer. I grew rice, long beans, sesame, coconut trees and many other fruits. After the Burmese soldiers came to my village, we had to run to the forest. The Burmese army burned my whole village. We had about twenty houses, a small village. My family and I ran into the forest in all directions. We were separated until we could find each other. My friend and I were shot by the soldiers when we went to find food for our families. My friend who was a doctor, not like American doctor but a forest doctor, took out the bullet. I had four children at the time this happened. We had to stay in the forest and we had to move all the time. We built a skinny house, very small. We stayed in the forest for three or four years then we moved to another village. My wife's cousin lived in this village but she told us we had to get out of the village because it's not good, the army treat's us bad. They would take all of the food. We had to run to the forest again. Many people were sick with no medicine and no salt. We couldn't go back to the village because of the landmines. We moved to a different village, Pu Ya Loon, for one year. My wife was pregnant and we had to run to the border in a town called Matterea. We lived there one year and then moved to So Klo Camp in Thailand because the Burmese soldiers came and chased us to Thailand. We lived there many years but the Burmese army would always come across the river in hot weather because the water was low. We were always scared. My grandchild and son-in-law were shot in our house. My grandson was almost two years old when he was shot. Because there were so many problems with the Burmese army we moved to Mae La Camp.

Beginnings

We both grew up in homes where serving others was a natural part of life. In Jeremiah 29:11 it says that God has a plan for our lives to give us a future and a hope. We have seen the Lord's hand upon our lives that has led us to this point. Beka has been a nurse for fifteen (15) years and is now a Family Nurse Practitioner. I have served as a teacher and then as a minister for twenty (20) years. Before Beka began to work for Dallas County Refugee Clinic, neither one of us knew about refugees. In 2006 the Lord began bringing Karen refugees to our church at Gaston Oaks Baptist. We began to learn the processes of resettlement and how there are still so many needs that are not being met. The Lord began working in our hearts to begin a non-profit that would help empower the people. Because of what they have been through, they are an oppressed people. Work began to attain the 501c3 status and it came to fruition in February, 2009. We both quit our jobs to begin working with the people from Burma full-time. We have been blessed by our friendships and we continue to learn from each other. They have taught us the importance of relationships over everything else which is very different from our American culture. In this blog we want you to meet our friends and hear their stories.