Students for the Relief of the Oppressed

We were blessed this morning with a successful maiden voyage of our quest to raise money and awareness at the Moscow Farmer's Market. With the aid of goodies baked by Rachel Littlejohn and Allie Bradley, we were able to raise about $95 this morning. We also disseminated 38 pamphlets outlining our ministry objectives for this summer, which will hopefully lead more donors and supporters our way soon. All of the money raised this summer will be channeled through Sabbath House to Mercy Children's Home, an orphanage in Rangoon lacking many basic needs. Our top priority is to cover medicinal costs for the orphans, and we will determine what other costs we are able to cover at the end of the summer. Thanks to all those who helped out this morning and those who gave generously!

Algeria has seen a sharp rise in official and unofficial discrimination against Christians over the last few months. Since the beginning of this year, some 20 churches have been closed; many of them have been operating officially for many years. There have also been numerous arrests of Christians, often on questionable charges. (Extract from recent Barnabas Fund newsletter.) Please pray for those suffering persecution and living in the fear of such persecution. If you are able,please write to the Algerian ambassador and/or government. Details can for that are here , as is a full report on the situation in Algeria.

News has arrived from Naing Thang that despite the huge amount of death and devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis, both the church in Yangon and the orphanage (both in the path of the cyclone) were preserved. They are very thankful for our prayers, and we are very thankful they are safe. Please do thank the Lord for his great kindness to them. We hope to raise money over the summer to help them in the aftermath of the cyclone. To achieve this we are asking our supporters to use a jar or tin to collect their loose change in over the summer. If you are able to help in this way, please do! Our friends in Burma will be blessed greatly by your sacrifice.

Thank you to everyone who showed up for the Benefit Swing Dance on Saturday Night! We had to lower our fundraising goals when it became clear the Benefit Concert would not materialize this term, but the Swing Dance brought in more than we hoped, netting about $250 after expenses. Along with money from the fundraising jars in local coffee-shops and a couple private donations, we have $390 to give to Sabbath House to help Naing Thang pay for the purchase of malaria medications in Burma--a sum that should go a long way in such a poor country. Praise God and pray for even greater fruits of our labors this fall!

Some of y'all may have already heard in the news recently about Cyclone Nargis wreaking havoc in Burma. Nargis is by far the worst cyclone ever to hit Burma/Myanmar, having scored a direct hit on the low-lying and densely-populated Irrawaddy Delta region of Burma as a Category 4 storm, and then on the capital city of Rangoon/Yangon as a Category 3 storm. Click here for video reports relating to the crisis: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/05/myanmar.relief/index.html Thankfully, most of our contacts in Burma were likely relatively safe from this disaster, as most of the churches Sabbath House is working with were north of the storm, and Christians in the Karen state were protected by mountainous terrain. However, Naing Thang, the leader of the CREC churches in Burma, as well as the orphanage there that Sabbath House is supporting, are in hard hit Yangon. Most communications are down, so nothing has been heard from them yet. Please pray: 1) That Naing Thang and the Chri...

This just in: the Sabbath House board voted today to approve the bringing of the three refugee families from Boise up to Moscow in the near future. The plan is to move them sometime in the month of June, after which time Sabbath House and local volunteers (including SRO members) will oversee their housing and furnishing needs, as well as helping them find employment, learn English, and gain other skills necessary to adjust to life in America. The only difficulty will be the translation issue--the plan is to translate using a phone contact during meetings with the family at least in the near term; hopefully something better will become available soon. Praise God for this opportunity to serve and pray that all would go smoothly.

SRO had been hoping to pull together a benefit concert this term to raise several hundred dollars to provide anti-malarial medicines to church clinics in Northern Burma, but unfortunately impracticable this term. By the Lord's providence, however, another opportunity presented itself--the end-of-the-year swing dance organized by Ben Nieuwsma. Ben has agreed to let us advertise and run the swing dance as a Benefit Dance, charging $5 for admission, about $3 of which will be able to go to funding the medicines. The Dance will be this Saturday evening. Pray that the Lord blesses the event. A Benefit Concert is still in the works, being planned for this Fall.