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David and Karen Eubank
Serving in Burma |
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Website: www.freeburmarangers.org
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Email: [email protected]
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The Missionary
David Eubank grew up in a missionary family, but he is far from your ordinary missionary. Growing up in Thailand as a son of missionaries, Allan and Joan Eubank, he returned to the U.S. to attend college and then spent ten years as a U.S. Army officer commanding units in the Infantry, Rangers and Special Forces.
Dave married Karen in 1993, graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1995 and returned to Thailand and Burma in 1996. He initiated the Day of Prayer for Burma in 1996 and started the Free Burma Rangers and Burma Initiative in 1997.
Dave follows a spiritual code in seemingly unspiritual situations, as this recent event shows: “I prayed for three things: First, by God’s power the Burma army would turn back; second, that the villagers and our teams would not be hurt; and third - this I did not want to pray but felt led to - that the Burma army would not be hurt and just go back. I was angry at the Burma army and I also wanted to have a part in stopping them, but I knew I should pray for them. For four days we kept moving to keep between the Burma army and the villagers as the Burma army kept changing course until they went back to their base. No shot was fired and no one was hurt. All we did was pray, move and stand with the people".
Dave married Karen in 1993, graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1995 and returned to Thailand and Burma in 1996. He initiated the Day of Prayer for Burma in 1996 and started the Free Burma Rangers and Burma Initiative in 1997.
Dave follows a spiritual code in seemingly unspiritual situations, as this recent event shows: “I prayed for three things: First, by God’s power the Burma army would turn back; second, that the villagers and our teams would not be hurt; and third - this I did not want to pray but felt led to - that the Burma army would not be hurt and just go back. I was angry at the Burma army and I also wanted to have a part in stopping them, but I knew I should pray for them. For four days we kept moving to keep between the Burma army and the villagers as the Burma army kept changing course until they went back to their base. No shot was fired and no one was hurt. All we did was pray, move and stand with the people".
The People
Burma is a country run by one of the most oppressive military juntas in the world. For nearly 60 years, the country has been embroiled in civil war. More than 1 million people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands of ethnic minorities have fled to refugee camps in neighboring Thailand escaping forced labor, rapes, killings and imprisonment. The situation has so badly deteriorated that the U.N. Security Counsel added Burma to its formal agenda.
The conflict, which has raged since 1948, has many ethnic people groups fighting for their existence against the Burmese Army who strives to annihilate them. There are nearly 130 different ethnic groups in Burma. The Karen is the largest, with nearly 7% of the total population. The other main groups are the Karenni, Shan, Pa'O, Arakan, Kachin, Chin and Lahu.
It is the desire of the Karen and the other groups to farm their land and live in peace in the land they have known all their lives. However, the Burmese Army often comes to their villages at harvest time – burning their crops and villages and forcing them to flee into the mountains. The Army will then often landmine the village so the people cannot return home, thus using starvation as a weapon. These are the people the Free Burma Rangers are dedicated to helping.
The conflict, which has raged since 1948, has many ethnic people groups fighting for their existence against the Burmese Army who strives to annihilate them. There are nearly 130 different ethnic groups in Burma. The Karen is the largest, with nearly 7% of the total population. The other main groups are the Karenni, Shan, Pa'O, Arakan, Kachin, Chin and Lahu.
It is the desire of the Karen and the other groups to farm their land and live in peace in the land they have known all their lives. However, the Burmese Army often comes to their villages at harvest time – burning their crops and villages and forcing them to flee into the mountains. The Army will then often landmine the village so the people cannot return home, thus using starvation as a weapon. These are the people the Free Burma Rangers are dedicated to helping.
The Ministry
The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement. They bring help, hope and love to people in the war zones of Burma. Ethnic pro-democracy groups send teams to FBR to be trained, supplied and sent into the areas under attack to provide emergency medical care, shelter, food, clothing, as well as the documentation of human rights. The teams also operate a communication and information network inside Burma that provides real time information from areas under attack.
In addition to relief and reporting, other results of the teams' actions are the development of leadership capacity, civil society and the strengthening of inter-ethnic unity. Since 1997, FBR has trained over 110 multi-ethnic relief teams and there are 55 full-time active teams today from 11 ethnic groups. The teams have conducted over 350 humanitarian missions in the war zones of Burma. The teams have treated over 360,000 patients and helped over 750,000 people.
However, FBR is mostly about Jesus. Dave explains: “My family and I are grateful to belong to Jesus and want to be part of His kingdom in Burma and anywhere He sends us. We want our team members to know and follow Jesus more than anything else.”
In addition to relief and reporting, other results of the teams' actions are the development of leadership capacity, civil society and the strengthening of inter-ethnic unity. Since 1997, FBR has trained over 110 multi-ethnic relief teams and there are 55 full-time active teams today from 11 ethnic groups. The teams have conducted over 350 humanitarian missions in the war zones of Burma. The teams have treated over 360,000 patients and helped over 750,000 people.
However, FBR is mostly about Jesus. Dave explains: “My family and I are grateful to belong to Jesus and want to be part of His kingdom in Burma and anywhere He sends us. We want our team members to know and follow Jesus more than anything else.”