A Look at the Free Burma Rangers

The mother of one of Sister’s friends was kind enough to invite us to a VIP showing of a new movie called Free Burma Rangers. It was a documentary chronicling the life of David, Karen, Suuzanne, Sahale, and Peter Eubank. David used to be a Special Forces soldier (SF guy, for my fellow Army peeps), but after he served, he started a group called the Free Burma Rangers that help IDPs (Internally Displaced People) in Syria, Iraq, and Burma. 

The Burma civil war, or Karen conflict, started in 1949, shortly after Burma declared itself an independent country. The Karen minority formed an armed group to fight for equal rights, and on January 31, 1949, the country ‘blew up’ at each other, marking the official start of the war.

In 1997, David Eubank formed the Free Burma Rangers to help the displaced Karen people (Karen is pronounced ka-REN. Go to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary website and look it up. They have a way better pronunciation guide). He began to train medics to help the IDPs who’d been wounded by the Burma army. They do not go to war zones unarmed, and have been described as ‘Doctors Without Borders with guns.”

The Rangers began to realize that, if they had a video camera, they could document the atrocities being committed by the Burma government and help spread the word. Arming themselves with video cameras as well as guns, they would record everything they saw at the IDP camps and the stories that the survivors told. 

After a prompting from God, they extended their work to Iraq, where they worked with the Iraqi military during the Battle of Mosul, helping rescue people from the city. David Eubank has become famous for his rescue of a little girl in Mosul.

One day in Iraq, he was in a building, and he looked across the street to see bodies. ISIS had set up snipers who were shooting across the street. If anyone moved, they were instantly shot down. But a little girl, who for some reason the snipers hadn’t shot, was still alive, and hiding under her mother’s burqa. So God told David to save her.

David called his American friends to drop smoke to cover his move, and the Iraqi military leader present let him have one tank for the rescue. So as the Americans dropped smoke and a few of the rangers covered him, he rushed over, grabbed the girl, and carried her behind the tank. Soon after, he saved a young woman who had been shot through the legs by throwing her a makeshift rope made out of wire and dragging her to safety.

If you feel like you want to watch the movie (warning: very intense. Lots of blood and descriptions of violence. Not at all for young children! Sister is very mature and she still couldn’t watch it), then it is definitely worth it to see the real things God is doing with real people, and know that even though you may not be called to help IDP’s in Burma, maybe you’ll help out in a soup kitchen or help a friend who’s going through a hard time. Or maybe it is something like smuggling Bibles to China or helping orphans in South America. But just know you, as well, can do work for God.

Be blessed, and see you next week!

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