We wanted to share this letter with you. It is by a good friend from Partners Relief and Development, who help us in many ways including the training of the Good Life Club counselors that are on each Free Burma Ranger team. We are grateful for their help and encouraged by their love. God bless you, Dave

Good Life Club Training

by Oddny, Partners

"Yes, I know what that feels like," said Kaw Bla Sei. I was teaching a group of young men and women about trauma and I wasn't really sure if my examples were relevant. "My mother and I were captured by the Burma Army when I was 5 years old. For a whole day they dragged us through the jungle without any food and water. Then they let us go. After that happened I was always afraid. It did not go away until I turned 12."

The group I was speaking to were the Good Life Club Counselors. They are the men and women who will focus on the needs of children when they, together with the rest of the relief team they are a part of, enter a village or an IDP site. "Why are the children important?" I ask them every time I start teaching. "Because they are the future!" is the answer I get back. "What is the most important quality you need to serve the children?" "We must love them." Then we spend time talking about how to practically demonstrate this love to the most vulnerable of all: the children of the ethnic groups in Burma. On their journey to the villages and hide sites of the displaced people all over the country, they will assess the children's needs and try to find ways to meet these needs, both the physical and spiritual ones.

I feel humble while I talk to these young men and women, most of them in their early twenties. It's easy for me to stand there on the mud floor with my notes and ideas. The only sacrifice I am making is three weeks away from my kids and my husband, my hot showers and the annoyance of hundreds of mosquito bites. The people I am training are going into a war zone. There are no promises of safety or comfort. They may never be rewarded for their efforts. Hunger, fatigue, sickness and even death may be in store for them. And yet they choose to embrace their calling with enthusiasm and joy.

"This is what I want to do," says Kaw Bla Sei after our session is over. "I really want to help the children of my land." His head is shaven; around his neck he has a string with a tooth on it. I have watched him and the others on his team do their physical exercise in the mornings and the afternoons. His physical strength is the level of a great athlete. Caring for children is not the task I would have chosen for a man like him. "In fact, I have already started helping children," he says proudly, the tooth necklace dangling when he nods his head for emphasis. "A while ago I found four children aged 4 to 10 wandering aimlessly around a village. They did not have any parents. I helped them get to a refugee camp where they were taken in at an orphanage. They are all doing really well now."

He is grateful for the Good Life Club patch that I give him to put on his jacket. "This means you are a qualified GLC counselor," I tell him. "We want this patch to be a symbol that children will start to recognize. When they see the GLC smiley face, they should know that here is a safe person who cares about the children." He holds the patch close to his jacket. He wants us to tell him where we think he should put it. It is not much, but it is a small symbol that lets him know that we trust him and he has been given a job that we consider supremely important.

He has chosen to follow Jesus' calling to serve the little children, and I believe there will be a really special prize for people like him. Until then he will be busy looking for children in need, the Good Life Club patch clearly visible so that all can see it.

Practicing delivering a baby at the Good Life Club station

GLC counselor