Free Burma Rangers in U.S. Theaters Feb 24-25

Dave Eubank, a Texan former special forces soldier who grew up in Thailand as a TCK (Third Culture Kid), believes that

everywhere, every person in the world has something good and wonderful that we can love, learn from and build up and stand together against evil and help people who are oppressed.

The Free Burma Rangers movie, in U.S. theaters for 2 nights only on Feb 24 and 25 2020, gives voice to this vision and shares the true life tales of the Eubank family and those they serve with in Burma, Iraq and (soon-to-be) Syria.

Over twenty years ago, Dave met a Burmese doctor with whom he joined forces to provide aid to those in need. Two became ten became twenty and now over 4,500 teams have been trained and prepared for conflict situations. It is a response to the persecuted and slaughtered peoples within Burma where teams care for the wounded and dying, providing relief and documenting the atrocities being carried out in secret in the world’s longest running civil war.

The RHPNA believes that hearts are moved when stories are told. It is when we see our common humanity in the stories of refugees and forcibly displaced that we are more able to extend compassion and understanding. It is by hearing from those who have experienced trauma, and in seeing their stories, that legislation is enacted and people are mobilized to respond.

As a result of seeing this film, I am able to further understand the experience that my Rohingya shopkeeper a mile down the road here in Portland, Oregon has gone through. I can relate just a bit better to Pastor Muana and his congregation at Zomi Bethel Church in northeast Portland and thank God for American churches responding to the refugee crisis.

Sure, some might say Dave is crazy to take his family to Iraq to love people they have never met. But as committed Christians, their family represents the body of Christ who choose to do the crazy to be on the frontlines, at the very start of, the refugee highway.

This film is intense. Because of on-site filming, there is war-related blood and violence that may make stomachs churn. The story is told of Kachin missionary teachers, women who are raped and beaten to death by the Burmese army, a picture of their mutilated bodies sent via camera phone to Dave’s team. This is not for young children and viewer discretion is advised. Yet it is a story that needs to be told and issues that need to be discussed especially in a time such as this when governments around the world are closing their doors to those who are forced to flee to survive.

As a father myself, I tend to be more willing to expose my children to uncomfortable matters if I feel that it can instill within then a sense of justice vs unjustice, right vs wrong, and recognize that in doing so I am raising kids who may be unable to simply settle into a comfortable American existence. (But then again, I also raised them in rural Africa). The earlier part of this film gives a great picture of what some families who choose to live cross culturally experience: the richness, the life and death, the stories that grown up TCKs may stop telling because they are tired of the blank stares because life in the west is too great a chasm to cross in the mind.

This film focuses a lot on forgiveness; on vengeance being the Lord’s, despite our human desires to take revenge on those who commit such evil as the raping and killing of others imago dei. Dave rightly points out how he muses on Solzhenitsyn's profound insight that “the line separating good and evil passes…right through every human heart.” That any of these who are the oppressed or the oppressor could be any one of us. That forgiveness is a counter narrative.

Want to understand what has prompted the Karen, Kachin, Zomi or Rohingya peoples to flee their homelands? Or see how ISIS treats those in Mosul, Iraq? This film is an eye opener on many levels.

The Free Burma Rangers Movie is produced by Deidox Films in partnership with Lifeway Films. Running time is 1 hr 45 mins.