As ISIS flees, some of the first frontline Christians already know how to follow Jesus in a war zone.
As Iraqi coalition forces claw their way into Mosul, the retreating ISIS fighters have booby trapped streets, sent suicide bombers against the liberating army, and used civilians as human shields.
The civilians left in their wake are hungry, thirsty, terrified, and exhausted.
One of the first humanitarian groups to aid Iraq’s once second-largest city, moving in even as ISIS moves out, has been a group of persecuted Christians from Burma (also known as Myanmar).
Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a Christian group originally formed to bring humanitarian aid to the Burmese minorities displaced by ongoing persecution from their military government. Led by David Eubank, a former US Army Ranger officer, the group supplies medical assistance, food, and shelter to combat areas. It also documents human rights abuses.
Members of FBR began working in the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria two years ago. The Burmese nationals and American volunteers have provided medical care, food, and water to Iraqis that were fleeing ISIS or recently liberated. They have evacuated and treated the wounded in an Iraqi supply truck ambushed by ISIS, prayed with a man whose family was killed by friendly fire, and provided programming for school children in northern Syria and northern Iraq.
And as ISIS leaves parts of Mosul, FBR is close behind, providing supplies, medical assistance, children’s programming, and the first store in the southeastern part of the city.
CT spoke with Eubank, whose answers are brief because he was in Mosul outskirts, and FBR operations coordinator Hosannah Valentine about why Burmese Christians have traded their own conflict zone for another.
CT: FBR is set up to help oppressed people in Burma/Myanmar. How did you decide to add …
