11 August 2025

Karenni State, Burma

The laughter at our Good Life Club (GLC) children’s program caught my attention. It was more than the usual laughter and antics of the children – the women were also laughing, so hard they were wiping tears from their eyes. 

In Karenni State, people have been living in a state of emotional siege since the coup in 2021 that displaced thousands from stable lives to a perpetually precarious existence. After four years, the arduous toil for basic necessities has become routine, and the truncation of educational, vocational and retirement opportunities has short-circuited previous future plans. Recent floods, crop failures, and lack of funding add to a mental and emotional burden that is already bending the heart under the weight of the constant air attacks on schools, churches, clinics, and markets. Living among these friends and FBR family on mission to Karenni State, I feel, at best, the fatigue of a life that continues to use up days without seeming to gain any purposeful ground. And at worst, I feel a chronic chest constriction from the only two choices available: literally, fight or flight.

I’m in the “flight” category, as are most of the women and children who have sought refuge in an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camp. These sites offer temporary and relative safety from the frontline fighting, though always under threat from air attacks. With children of my own, I can only imagine how torn the mothers must feel, trying to simply provide for their families’ survival in the current chaos with one hand, while trying not to let go of the goals for their children that should be normal with the other. 

Shoulders bent bearing anxiety, chest tight with fear and anger, and the pull of tension in opposite directions, were my physical reactions to life in a war zone and were sympathetic responses that I hadn’t even identified until I heard the laughter that day.

When I first saw the ladies laughing, I, who brought them the program, ironically thought, “How can you be laughing like this? Don’t you know your life is miserable? This situation is unbearable and unsustainable.” But, mesmerized by their joy in the face of their reality, I was quickly infected, and, surprisingly, found myself straightening up, taking deep breaths, and relaxing. I thought, “I’m just visiting here on this mission. Have I been that tight, to also find this comedy a healing balm?” Yes, these women were truly healthy. They were open-hearted to joy, willing to abandon the many anxieties they bore, and committed to participating in fellowship with each other. While operating in a lifestyle that requires constant physical labor for water, fuel, and food, they had prioritized spiritual nourishment over that day’s work. 

Laughing light-heartedly is truly a needed prescription. It requires relaxed shoulders and deep breathing. It breaks the siege. The audible sighs from the ladies were evidence of a sense of calmness, a break in the action, a time-out. I felt it as well, and then, unexpectedly, I felt stronger again – as if humor and joy had brought about a chain reaction, refreshing me from my inward spirit outwards to my physical body. Better than a mere muscle rub, laughing had also released the knots in my mind and heart.

I was thankful for so many things. I told the young, goofy Rangers how special they were to bring such joy to the adults as well as the children. I thanked the moms for bringing their kids to our program. And I thanked them for staying to be refreshed, and for being an example of that for me. I thanked God for opening the way for us to know and share His love and joy in so many ways. 

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” 2 Corinthians 4:8–10

Thank you and God bless you,

Karen Eubank, family, and the Free Burma Rangers