Pa Ling is from Chin Baptist Church and this is his story:

I looked after an orphanage in Myanmar. The Burmese military authority stopped me from doing my job. Then we were forced to leave the orphanage home. All the orphans left and were scattered and I did not know if they are alive or not.

I fled to India due to the Burmese military persecution in 2008. Sung, my wife, also fled and we met in India. We married in 2012 in India. We had a daughter named Grace. We named her Grace because our life was shown the grace of God in the long hard journey of waiting on freedom.

With my Brother-in-law’s help through sponsoring us, we were resettled as refugees in Australia in 2017. It was a great joy that we know it’s a safe country that can offer us a future. My brother-in-law also helped me get a job where I worked for him before he bought his own house in Kings Park.

After he and his family moved to their new home, I relied on my friend Pa who picked me up from my home to work. Pa and his family also bought a new home and moved to their new home in Rockbank.

My brother-in-law and Pa were not able to pick me up from my home to work and drive me back home because they all lived in different suburbs. I didn’t have any other friends close to my home. So, I learned how to drive, and by God’s grace, I got my license in October 2019. I urgently needed a car to go to work and to take my little girl for her frequent medical treatments.

Life became miserable without a car because it was hard to go to work to earn money for the survival of my family, and it kept us away from social interaction with community members. Without a car, it kept us away from attending church, and missing ongoing medical appointments for our daughter, which caused nightmares for me and my wife.

However, the BUV’s car loan removed all our nightmares, hardship and heaviest burdens and completely enabled us to integrate and settle well in our life in Australia.

My wife and I and my church always pray that the BUV can continue to support marginalized people. I would like the BUV to know how the Refugee Airfare and Assistance Loans helped us to settle in the new land that has been grace (as our daughter’s name) for us, and I wish that the BUV can continually serve others and be immensely encouraged.

Translated script:

My name is Pa Ling, and here is my wife Sung, our little daughter Grace, and 3-month-old baby girl Teresa. We asked the BUV for help, and this is the car we bought with BUV’s support. I thought the BUV’s support to families, especially those like us who are in financial hardship, is really a blessing. BUV has been doing good things for others and us, and we are praying for this service to continue and that God blesses the BUV. I am very grateful to BUV for the fact that the RAALS loan was free of interest that lifted the burden. Now we bought the car. We use it for work, church, grocery-shopping, and appointments.