Remind us it is You who has been helping all along, letting us participate in Your work.
As we walk through this difficult time with our brothers and sisters in Myanmar, we hear many of them cry out to us through messaging apps, begging us to remember them and pray for them as they either flee their homes or take shelter from war zones.
The country they know and love and believed was turning into a safe place, is now falling apart before their eyes. They are asking if we can find their lost families because they believe the military has burned their home to the ground.
“Help me! My uncle and aunt have gone missing, and I think the military could have killed or taken them. I am not sleep today. I am think about them all day all night if they are alive or dead!”
Knowing there is little we can probably do we go ahead and ask for the names of his family so we can at least try. He is too afraid to say their names in case his phone is being watched. His fears are not paranoia. We have heard of several cases of phone messages turning into immediate apprehensions by the police.
We share with him what information we have and tell them what we can do for them, but we often have to just wait it out.
While our brothers and sisters have no choice but to fight for their families, country, and the kingdom of God without losing hope, all I can do is stand back and watch.
One of my dear brothers in Myanmar contacted me begging for prayer as he sends video of the streets below his hiding place. My eyes sting with salty tears and my heart physically hurts feeling as though something is squeezing it. I tell him I pray for them always and reminded him of his brothers and sisters here and how they are crying out on his behalf as well, reassuring him we will not forget him or his people. They are always on our hearts and minds.
A local Buddhist businessman who has become a very close friend of our family in ministry over the years said the times have become very desperate for them and that money is almost impossible to locate even for people who had quite a bit of it in the bank. They are also reaching out to see if we can help them. We want to be there for our friends too.
Younger ministries with less extensive in-country networks have been reaching out to us asking us if we can get finances to their loved ones in far flung places we’ve never been to. We passed their information on to our network and ask them to help if they can without endangering their families.
Truthfully, a part of me feels bad for sharing these heartbreaking stories, knowing they hurt you all as well, but I believe it is important for us to understand the true persecution and hardship they face. These aren’t nameless or faceless people these are people we know and love. We are one body knit together in love with each other. We are called to mourn when they mourn and rejoice when they rejoice. So we don’t lose faith knowing that according to the Scriptures “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
We must not forget their current situation. We have no idea how long this will last. But I petition you all to remember them (always) in your hearts and prayers. May their story not grow distant and forgotten as life continues for us here. We pray the Lord would use this time of uncertainty and hardship to grow our love for our brothers and sisters in Myanmar and further connect our hearts with them, growing our faith and theirs.
Your sister in Christ,
Rebekah