Next week, an underground network of aid supplies destined for Myanmar will pass through a church in Cranberry.

Two missionaries from the southeast Asian country -- where more than 60,000 people are dead or missing following last Saturday's cyclone -- will be at Discovery Christian Church on May 18 to solicit support for their devastated homeland, ruled by a military dictatorship that is blocking some assistance from the United Nations, the United States and major disaster relief organizations.

They'll have to travel a roundabout route, via Thailand, to deliver outside aid to survivors. It's the same risky path that missionaries have used to bring Bibles and other religious materials to the people of Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.

"The average Pittsburgher can help financially," said Bryan Gratton, pastor of community development at Discovery. "When the missionaries get back, they can purchase water purification systems, first aid and food."

The situation there has become dire in recent days. The United Nations estimates that the cyclone has affected as many as 1.9 million people. But the organization temporarily halted its aid efforts yesterday when Myanmar's ruling junta took control of massive food shipments, including 38 tons of high-energy biscuits -- enough for 95,000 people.

Officials with the U.N. World Food Program are negotiating with Myanmar's government and plan to send in two new relief flights today.

The United States has received permission to land one military C-130 in the country Monday.

"We will continue to work with the government of Burma to allow other assistance," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said yesterday. "We hope that this is the beginning of a long line of assistance from the United States to Burma."

The uncertainty surrounding aid efforts has hampered fund raising here in the United States.

"It's extraordinary that you would have a government that is so resistant to foreign aid coming in," said Luke Hingson, president of Pittsburgh-based Brother's Brother Foundation. "We don't want to make an appeal to the public unless we could properly use the resources that were given to us."

It's a sharp contrast with the aftermath of the massive tsunami that struck eleven countries Dec. 26, 2004, killing more than 225,000. Within three weeks, international aid pledges had reached $5 billion.

That included about $24 million from Pittsburgh-area companies, organizations and individuals.

Local foundations bypassed their grant-making guidelines to donate millions of dollars as quickly as possible. Brother's Brother received $400,000 from The Howard Heinz Endowment and the Vira I. Heinz Endowment.

With help from local immigrants from the affected countries, Brother's Brother was able to deliver medical supplies worth millions of dollars to Sri Lanka and India.

This time, however, many relief organizations, both local and national, can't easily deliver aid to Myanmar unless they have established connections there.

Some organizations do have those connections.

Save the Children, based in Westport, Conn., has 35 offices across the affected regions, including the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta. It also has 500 employees, mostly Burmese. Since the cyclone, the organization has reached at least 72,000 survivors, delivering bags of rice, salt and sugar, and tarpaulins that can serve as shelter.

"We have good, long-term relationships with local officials in the region," said Michael Kiernan, a spokesman for Save the Children. "We're purchasing as many materials as we can within the country."

The organization has raised $1.5 million to help relief efforts. Its goal is $10 million.

CARE and World Vision are two other organizations with large presences in Myanmar.

The Alumni Myanmar Institutes of Medicine Association, or AMIMA, a group of Burmese doctors based in the United States, is using its ties to the country to get money into the hands of local emergency medical teams.

"We expected the government to do something like this," Dr. Jennifer Chu of Philadelphia, AMIMA's president, said of the junta's decision to block outside relief workers. "We just have to find ways around it. That's all we can do."

The government's actions aren't a surprise to most longtime Myanmar observers.

"The military regime is extraordinarily xenophobic. They are afraid of everything," Sean Turnell, a Burma expert at Australia's Macquarie University, told The Associated Press. "They are more concerned with control and maintaining an omniscience in front of their people than saving lives."

Pittsburgh has a small but growing Burmese community. After years in camps in Thailand, several hundred refugees have settled in the region recently with the help of Catholic Charities, including about 36 who now live in Troy Hill.

"Most don't have TVs," said Mr. Gratton of Discovery Christian Church. "They didn't find out [about the cyclone] until we told them."

Next week, they'll meet with Joshua and Khin Htaik, the Burmese missionaries. Mr. Gratton said his church had made connections with the pair before the cyclone hit.

They'll be at the church's 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. services May 18.