FREE THE OPPRESSED
PO Box 60972, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 www.fto.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: To bring help, hope and love to people of all faiths and ethnicities in the conflict areas, to shine a light on the actions of oppressors, to stand with the oppressed and support leaders and organizations committed to liberty, justice and service.

Burma Ministries - We have 105 FBR teams in Burma and performed 86 missions in 2019, treating more than 65,000 patients with medicine and helped another 120,000 people. We performed Good Life Club (GLC) programs all over Burma, sharing the gospel by sharing the message that "Good life comes from God." To tell them the gospel story through GLC bracelets, to pray with them, and to remind them they are not forgotten by God or by the international community can bring healing. As the Burma Army continues its attacks in the ethnic areas of Burma, the Good Life Club (GLC) is now more important than ever. Burma has been divided for more than 70 years and, while the government has attempted to broker peace with the ethnic groups, the predatory attacks of the military at the same time belie the sincerity of these peacemaking overtures. The focus of the GLC is to show God's love to the children in conflict areas. Through spiritual dramas, songs, games, and other activities, GLC counselors spend time with the children and show them that, even though their lives don't always feel very stable, they are not alone. Inspired by John 10:10, where Jesus promises abundant life, the GLC believes that promise is true even for these children and strives to share this life with children everywhere they go. The Good Life Club was founded in the midst of a mission to Karen villagers who were hiding from Burma Army soldiers who were trying to capture or kill them. It was founded in faith that this verse was true, even as children had to hide in the jungle with only the few supplies they and their parents could carry, faith that God's promise of abundant life was true even for them. The GLC has wrestled with this promise from Burma to Sudan to Iraq and Syria. What is abundant life in a hide site in the jungle? What is it in the ruins of your home in Mosul, Iraq? What is it when your family is ISIS and is making a last stand against the entire world? As we encounter all kinds of oppression we have found that God's promises sustain us while we try to follow His example to share His abundant life. This is the Good Life Club. We also conducted our annual Free Burma Ranger Servant Leadership and Relief Team Training and celebrated our 22nd anniversary of FBR's existence. From October to December 2019 140 people from across Burma participated in the training including 102 new basic students, making up 22 new FBR teams. 20 advanced students, partnering with 18 students from JSMK, made up our advanced training, going deeper into the topics they had learned in their basic training the previous year. This year students came from eight different ethnic groups and represented ten different ethnic organizations. FBR had five Arakan basic teams and one advanced team, as well as four Shan basic teams. The Karen, Karenni, Kachin, Naga, Lahu, and Chin also sent men and women to be trained. One focus this year was on having the ethnic leaders teach and lead as many classes as possible. From start to finish, our ethnic headquarters leaders did an amazing job running the training, dealing with problems together, and making sure that this was one of the best trainings ever delivered. The staff that leads the training is made up of instructors and junior instructors, all who have been through FBR training and involved with FBR for many years. Most of the ethnic groups that send teams also send an instructor. This year the Kachin team travelled to camp with Zau Seng, one of FBR's most beloved instructors and headquarters leaders. When Zau was killed serving in Syria in November, the leaders and students mourned together. Taking a day off from regular training, the staff organized a memorial service for Zau and gave time and space for the students to grieve and process the loss, but also learn from Zau's death; he was one of the best videographers FBR has ever had, and he did everything with so much joy and love. Graduation took place on Dec. 26 and part of the celebration was baptizing four Rangers. Three were new Rangers and one was JSMK staff. After graduation the teams divided into four groups to complete follow-on relief missions, together with instructors. They will have an opportunity to practice their new skills on a real mission but with instructors and experienced Rangers available for further coaching and feedback. Once finished with the mission, they will return to their home areas, ready to conduct missions there. They will have learned and practiced many new skills to be able to help their people in many kinds of crisis, as well as having gained new relationships across ethnic lines. Both these skills and relationships will be of vital importance as Burma and her people move into an uncertain future. There are three requirements for FBR team members: 1) They must be literate in at least one language, to be able to send out reports. 2) They must have the physical and moral courage to be able to do physically hard and dangerous missions, and cannot run away from the enemy if the villagers they are helping cannot run. 3) They must do this work for love; they are not paid by FBR. On arriving at camp, many students find themselves next to others who they, either because of ethnicity or organization, would normally be in conflict with. But the training forces them to work together and the spirit of love that the teaching is founded on often breaks down these conflicts. Rangers are to "Help the people, get the news out." Rangers learn to document the human rights violations they encounter on missions by taking videos, photos and conducting interviews with the people they meet, including villagers who have experienced violence or oppression, local leaders, teachers, soldiers and others they are trying to serve. They go into conflict zones to give a voice to those who are oppressed and to tell their stories. Ranger reports are processed - cataloged, collated, photos and videos filed, translated when necessary, and shared all over the world. We desire to bring change by catalyzing action in those who see our reports. We stand for the dignity of those we serve by sharing their story, because every person counts. In 2019, FBR provided frontlines reporting as fighting continued in Burma, in violation of ceasefire agreements, and as the Turks launched a violent ethnic cleansing operation into northeast Syria. On November 3rd, 2019, Kachin Ranger and cameraman Zau Seng, was killed by a Turkish munition while filming the attacks of the Turkish and Free Syrian Army. Read more on our website. "Year after year, the Jungle School of Medicine-Kawthoolei is running smoothly as God is with us." - Saw Toh Win, JSMK Medical Director The Jungle School of Medicine-Kawthoolei (JSMK) is a small hospital and medical school nestled in the hills of Burma and part of FBR's Tha U Wah training camp. Patients come here to receive medical care from highly trained Karen medics, western doctors, and medics-in-training. Students participate in patient care in the morning and evening and attend classes in the afternoon. This year JSMK trained 20 medics, three interns, and four second year students. JSMK provides assessment and laboratory testing to patients; the results of these tests are then reviewed by the Karen staff and remote doctors across the world through email. A treatment plan is agreed upon and implemented by the Karen medics. JSMK has a reputation in Karen State that draws people from days away. Every year medics and students treat waves of patients with a plethora of conditions: wounds and skin infections, abdominal pain, traumatic injuries, tumors, and fevers with many causes, to name a few. But this year the team faced new challenges with three outbreaks. Early 2019 saw a measles outbreak that reached the JSMK area. Many children in the area were protected by the vaccines they've received through the Kawthoolei Village Project (KVP). Other children and adults, however, became ill. Measles usually kills through a secondary infection like pneumonia or malnutrition, or it can cause blindness. Several babies were treated at the hospital, and all villagers who had been ill were treated with Vitamin A, which prevents blindness after a measles infection. In summer 2019, Karen State saw a few cases of poliovirus. The WHO responded quickly, working with a local NGO to initiate a mass vaccine campaign. While the children around JSMK participate in KVP and were already protected, most villages have no vaccine programs. JSMK sent several medics to help with the campaign in unvaccinated areas. At the end of the summer, reports started trickling in of rabies, starting with the death of a two-year-old in a neighboring clinic. Throughout the fall the reports, and subsequent fear, continued to spread. Villagers and parents understand little about the disease, and routine vaccination for rabies is not practical in this setting. Instead, JSMK medics are talking to villagers about proper wound care and encoura

Middle East Ministries - By February 2019, all that remained of ISIS's territorial holdings was a one-square mile village in Syria called Baghouz, which held the most hardcore members of ISIS - those who had survived multiple defeats and never surrendered. As coalition forces closed in on that last remnant, some 35,000 people, mostly women and children, surrendered, submitting themselves to an uncertain future. As they were shuttled into the desert from Baghouz, they were initially detained at desert screening points, to be checked by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and U.S. forces. It was here that our team met them and provided food, medical care and relief supplies until the screening process was over, which sometimes took more than 24 hours. Once screened, the people were loaded into trucks and driven to either prisons (most of the men) or refugee camps - for many this was Al-Hawl. We worked to spread a message of love and not of hate. We treated the wounded, hugged and prayed for those who allowed it, and, through translators, shared about Jesus as the source of our own hope and love. To those who questioned why we would help ISIS, we said, "Is there any other way to change hearts? Only love does." And, sometimes, we were gifted to see it, both on our own team and amongst the people we were trying to help. One evidence of changed hearts was a friendship that sprang up, between Sahale and Suuzanne Eubank and a girl named Raghad, who had been hit in the back by shrapnel from an airstrike, paralyzing her from the waist down. As the medics cared for her physical wounds, Suu and Sahale talked to her, gave her gifts, and prayed for her. Despite her wounds, Raghad was smiling and cheerful; a special connection was formed between these girls with such different lives. When the time came to load Raghad into the bus that would take her to Al-Hawl, the girls cried. They didn't know if they would ever see each other again; love sometimes hurts. Al-Hawl camp, a sprawling, dusty tent city, held over 73,000 people, mostly ISIS families. Most (91%) of the population were women and children and 65% of the children were under the age of 12. The population represented some 50 different countries and more than 3,000 children were separated from or without any adult family members. It was the kind of situation where hearts could grow hard from grief and bitterness. Months after the battle of Baghouz ended, we were able to visit Al-Hawl and there we found Raghad again. Her mother had obtained a phone and called Dave Eubank, saying, "We love you. You've shown us another way. Please come and see us here." And so we were reunited. Suu and Sahale hugged Raghad and her mother; they all cried. Raghad's mother had procured small gifts for the team and handed them out in pink gift bags covered in hearts. It was jewelry, and the pendant on each piece was a silver, jeweled, zigzag line, like an EKG line, with a heart at the end. We see there are hearts that have changed and not been consumed by hate. There are families, like Raghad's, who yearn for another way, children who had no choice where they were born and are desperate for love and a new life. Yet ISIS is still alive as well, with a heart that beats for death and destruction to those who oppose it. There is still a need for the love that conquers all - however, sometimes the ultimate victory requires the ultimate sacrifice. There was a brief respite in northeast Syria after ISIS was defeated. Seven months later, in October 2019, after insisting the SDF remove their defenses along the Turkish border, and promising to protect them, U.S. troops were ordered to withdraw from the border and opened the door to a long- threatened Turkish attack on the Kurds. The Turks and their proxy, the Free Syrian Army (many of whom are former ISIS), immediately attacked, killing hundreds, wounding thousands and displacing more than 200,000 civilians. We returned as soon as we could, to stand by our friends, the Kurds, who had given so much to defeat ISIS. The abandoned Kurds were fighting for their lives against the armored and air attacks of the Turks, which was supplemented by the ground attack of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). One of the first to raise his hand to come back and help was Zau Seng, one of our primary videographers, who had been with us through the entire battle of Mosul and later in Baghouz. Zau believed in the power of showing the world the truth being lived by people on the ground in the middle of conflicts. In 2013, he had captured footage of Burma Army attack helicopters and bombers attacking the Kachin. The Burma government had denied fighting was happening - until international news outlets ran Zau's footage. In these attacks, he had lost five good friends when an airstrike hit their bunker just meters from where he was filming. He was wounded multiple time yet he did not give up. Zau was one of eleven different ethnic team members from Burma who have rotated through our missions in the Middle East. These Rangers, coming from the war zones of their homeland, come to help others out of love. They have experienced horrific war: people they know and love have been killed by the Burma Army, their homes have been destroyed and their lives uprooted. They know what it is to feel as if the world doesn't care about their fate. They know the temptation to respond with hate, the powerful urge to seek revenge when justice is denied. And yet, they believe in something stronger: they believe in love and they go in that love. Zau had experienced love and was grateful. He wanted to give it. "People have come to help us in Burma and so when God opens the door for us to go other places and they ask for help, we want to be able to respond," he said. Like his fellow Rangers, he had risked it all many times to respond with love to the needs of others. On Nov. 3, 2019, that risk became reality: while helping man a mobile Casualty Collection Point with our team near Tel Tamr, Syria, Zau Seng was killed by a Turkish munition that hit just seven meters from our vehicle. Zau had just finished editing a video of a rescue under tank fire the previous day, in the middle of a proclaimed ceasefire. His video would show the world the reality of the oppressed people on the ground. But his death would show the world, and especially the Kurds - who he was there to help - what the greatest love looks like. John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." Zau had always been a great friend; as remembrances of him poured in after his death, many involved his laughter, his humor, his joy - the way he had made every situation, no matter the difficulties, easier for those around him, with laughter and joy. He had been a friend, always; and in the end he was the friend that laid down his life and showed the more excellent way. Bashir, a Syrian Christian and FBR coordinator, once told us, "We are all just drops, but we are part of God's rain, and God's rain will turn into a river and flood Syria with His love." And so we believe that Zau's sacrifice was not in vain, that he is part of God's river, not just in Syria but around the world. John 12:24 says, "Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." And new life springs forth. Thank you, Zau, for your love that gave everything that others might live. The war in Syria rages on. In Idlib, western Syria, Syrian, Russian and Iranian forces are on one side attacking Turkish- supported terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Al-Nusra, and jihadiaffiliated groups such as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Both sides rely on terror and the slaughter of civilians to achieve their aims. Caught in the middle are over 700,000 civilians who have fled north into the countryside. Barred from entering Turkey, they crouch against the Turkish border wall and live in tents and shelters scattered across the countryside. Over 2,000 people have managed to flee into northeastern Syria and into the territory controlled by the SDF. This area was one of the few relatively safe areas of Syria and the only one with any form of democracy. In October 2019, the U.S. broke its promise to the Kurds, Christians, Yezidis and Arabs of this area and allowed the Turks and their jihadist proxies, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), to invade and displace over 200,000 people. This was an act of ethnic cleansing as Turkey drove out the Kurds and Christians and brought in Arabs from other parts of Syria. The disaster in Syria has become worse but we believe God has a way and that it is not too late to take corrective action. Our recommendations are at the end of this article. During our recent mission in January and February 2020, we went back to northeast Syria to give help, hope, and love. After providing relief for people fleeing Idlib, as well as follow-up care for some of the over 200,000 people displaced by the Tur

Thailand Ministries - We supported three hostels in Thailand, provided medical treatment, patient care, and other medical training. In 2019, we had our first missions completed for FBR Aviation. The purpose of Free Burma Rangers Aviation is to share the love of Jesus in any way we can through the use of aircraft. FBR aircraft are used medically to transport patients and medicine, as well as medical personnel. They are also used to transport relief supplies and personnel in support of FBR's humanitarian purposes. FBR Aviation is for the joy of flying and the inspiration it gives people to know that God's gift of aviation is for the good of everyone, including the oppressed. We also support students and short-term missionaries in Thailand. Every year on the second Sunday in March, the Free Burma Rangers participate in a Global Day of Prayer for Burma and encourage others worldwide to join in praying for Burma, its many people groups, and its ongoing conflict. As part of the DOP, FBR publishes a magazine that gives a deeper look into the situation and the people affected by it. For the 2019 DOP, 18,000 magazines were printed. The magazine was translated into Burmese, Danish, German, Karen, and Thai. Over 4,500 English copies were mailed worldwide and the remaining languages and copies were handed out throughout the year in Thailand, Burma, the United States, and many other countries. All magazines and publications, including the annual report, are available for download on the Free Burma Rangers' website.

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