Buried in Fear

Love For Myanmar Ministries Update

Christ Centered, Servant Hearted, Myanmar Focused

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.” Blaise Pascal

THE WOMEN AND THE POTHOLES INCIDENT

At first, I couldn’t grasp what was unfolding before me. However, after several observances along the road from Yangon to Thaton, my initial deduction was sadly confirmed.

Women were repairing the road. They would appear from behind piles of broken rocks which rested on the side of the road, their aprons or baskets filled with so much material their bodies were hidden and their frames drawn forward to the tipping point. Once in front of a hole in the road’s surface, they emptied their aprons or baskets. The pieces of broken rocks would tumble into the hole while their bodies remained bent forward, the result I’m sure of countless hours of back-breaking work. Work, I was told, was considered by the government to be their voluntary contribution to the “common good” of their country.

It was the blankness of their faces that haunted the remainder of that day’s journey –staring into nowhere, never talking, each step taken seemingly as their last, unmindful of the steady rain or the vehicles passing by or even the soldiers who dotted the roadside positioned as if a safeguard should one of these misused women decide they had contributed enough.

I wondered what these women were thinking, what kept them going? How could stronger men such as these soldiers stand by and watch, hour after hour, these worn, small women undertake work well beyond the boundaries of any reasonable definition of dignity? For both sides, it was probably squarely centered upon fear; the women fearing punishment for themselves or retaliation on their families, while the soldiers feared the repercussions from their superiors.

I cried silently trying mightily to keep tears from my face. Now it was I who feared. I feared I had made a mistake coming to this country–a country darkened by decades of oppression. How inadequate I felt as I continued along my spiritual road, a road in desperate need of repair.

What do you do when you sense that you have involved yourself in something beyond your spiritual capabilities? A wave of panic washed over me, and I could feel myself being gradually pulled under by the thoughts of “failing”; failing my mission team members, failing myself, failing God. What could I possibly contribute to the people of this oppressed country that would make a dent in their despair?

I have been traveling into Myanmar for nearly twenty years, and every year I have learned something meaningful about my relationship with God through interacting with the Myanmar people. I encourage you to find those opportunities for placing yourself outside your comfort zone. Those situations will be the ones which will uncover the hidden strengths within you, build resilience for handling adverse times, and hone your insights into the value of surrendering circumstances in faith to God.

I encourage you to yield your time to God, to be placed in that part of the world where your unique skill set could bring about miracles in others’ lives while fulfilling your own. God can choose anyone, but He may be nudging you. Don’t let the gifts with which God has blessed you remain buried in your fear.

We have a world full of spiritually lost people traveling paths marked with potholes in need of help to fill those empty, worn places with the knowledge of a loving God before they arrive at a dead end.

“When our lives are submitted to his will and we see ourselves through his eyes, we don’t have to be afraid of the areas where we’re weak or flawed, because those weaknesses do not define us.” Ryan Denison

Gary Watkins, LFM Co-founder

Prayer request

Please pray that whatever the weight of those feelings of fear, doubt, or anxiety that may be present among our readers, and is keeping them from stepping outside their comfort zone will be replaced with God’s divine presence and fills their souls with the confidence that He will be walking right beside them if they will only step forward.

Myanmar coup day: 1,944

1. The United Nations says its special envoy on Myanmar, Julie Bishop, will travel to the country this month for her fourth visit in the role. The visit comes as Myanmar’s military leadership attempts to rebrand itself as an elected, civilian government under Min Aung Hlaing, the junta chief who earlier this year appointed himself president following elections widely dismissed as rigged.
2. Lack of formal legal status and fears of arrest and deportation make many Myanmar workers in Thailand vulnerable to abuse by their employers. The situation is especially difficult for Myanmar migrants who enter Thailand through informal border crossings, many of whom remain undocumented and highly dependent on brokers, employers, and informal networks for survival.
3. Inside Myanmar, resistance forces continued to suffer setbacks, losing control of Tonzang in Chin State and Mawdaung in Tanintharyi Region. But in Sagaing Region’s Depayin Township, anti-junta forces asserted their continued strength by capturing a police station used by the junta as a base for military operations in the area. This comes as the military intensifies its offensives in townships north of Sagaing’s capital Monywa, signalling more fighting—and more civilian casualties—to come.
4. The junta has expanded its security infrastructure in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan (Rakhine) State, by constructing new fences around entry and exit points, military installations, and army bases as it continues to maintain control over the city. Residents in Sittwe are living under constant fear due to arbitrary arrests, interrogations, beatings, and threats carried out by the coup regime. With all entry and exit routes to Sittwe blocked, commodity prices have surged sharply, pushing locals into severe livelihood hardship and worsening living conditions.
5. Following the 2021 military coup, millions of students and educators abandoned state-run schools as part of the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement, refusing to participate in an education system controlled by the military. For many, that boycott remains firmly intact as only 6.1 million students enrolled for the 2025–26 academic year that began in June. This represents less than half of the country’s estimated 13 million school-aged children.
6. Nearly 20,000 villagers from more than 30 villages have fled their homes in Magway Region’s Pakokku Township in recent weeks as junta troops carry out raids along the western bank of the Ayeyarwady River opposite Bagan. Displaced villagers face worsening humanitarian conditions, with shortages of food, medicine, and sanitation facilities. Children and elderly people among the displaced are also in need of medicines, particularly for dysentery and flu, according to aid workers, who said the approaching rainy season is increasing concerns about shelter and disease.

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