Being Known

Love For Myanmar Ministries Update

Christ Centered, Servant Hearted, Myanmar Focused

Our sincerest thanks to those of you who gave so generously to support our Christmas events. We were able to conduct 45 Christmas events throughout our ministry areas with an estimated 3,000 participants. Everyone was provided a meal and some food supplies while being exposed to the unconditional love of God through the kind acts of our Myanmar colleagues. Thank you so much for your support! Throughout January, we will provide photos and videos of the events as they become available.

Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25:4-5

There is an unsettling irony to Christianity. It is “being known“.

We welcome the triumph of becoming a Christian, surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ, and being overcome with an extraordinary inner peace. Then, comes the realization that it is a personal relationship unlike any other because now someone truly knows our heart; absolutely nothing can be hidden from Him.

It is a delicate relationship requiring more courage from us than any other connection, but courage that can lead to an intimacy which unlaces our soul to an immeasurable abundance of blessings. “Being known” in such a way can ruffle our spirituality, and make us uncomfortable that our previously hidden desires are now vulnerable to judgment.

Our need for guidance, hope, and peace comes face to face with the need to bend our behavior and thoughts to the higher desires of God.We want a fulfilling, transformative relationship with God, but with much less vulnerability. We want a robust inner peace governing our decisions, but with much less openness about our motives. We want to discover more about God, but with much less discovery of ourselves.

The truth is that the way forward into being the person God created us to be means going through the doorway of self-discovery. Sadly, once inside, many of us are unwilling to fully surrender our vulnerabilities to the trusting wisdom of God. We constantly recalibrate the relationship to benefit our desires, to avoid the embrace of God’s instructions. In the process of protecting ourselves from unwanted scrutiny, we silence our ability to better understand ourselves, and essentially only protect our fears.

Make 2025 the year when you welcome yourself into your own heart, and discover the possible in you that is only achievable with “being known” by God.

Gary Watkins, LFM Co-founder

• Prayer Request: (Myanmar coup day 1,440)
  Many of our hearts are good but our memories are poor. We forget the struggles to obtain the freedoms we enjoy with democracy. Please open your hearts to the struggles of the Myanmar people who also want the freedoms we enjoy.

1. Throughout Myanmar, the junta troops are demanding that each household pay a substantial fee for each conscription batch to avoid the call-up to serve in the junta’s military. After multiple demands, villagers can no longer afford the payment. The junta troops are now forcing them to draw lots to determine whether they would be conscripted if they were unable to pay. Meanwhile, the soldiers are making money by arresting people under the pretext of conscripting them and then demanding ransoms for their release.
2. A “Democratic Voice of Burma” data states that since the 2021 military coup, an increasing number of Myanmar families have had to resort to marrying their daughters off to Chinese nationals out of economic desperation. A Kachin Women’s Association investigation also revealed that women have been deceived by relatives or acquaintances with the promise of a well-paid job in a factory or on a farm in China. The U.S. State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons report maintained Myanmar’s Tier 3 classification—the lowest ranking for human trafficking—listing it among 13 countries where government entities are directly implicated in human trafficking activities.
3. The Chin Brotherhood and allied resistance groups have seized control of Kanpetlet and Mindat towns in southern Chinland from junta forces on Dec. 21-22. It claims that the resistance has now seized over 80 percent of Chinland from the junta. The Chinland capital Hakha, as well as Falam, Tedim, and Thantlang in the north of the state, remain under junta control.
4. The Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar, an independent conflict monitor, stated that the military has conducted over 7,000 airstrikes on more than 150 townships in Myanmar since the 2021 coup. Approximately 200,000 civilians – over half of Karenni State’s population – are currently displaced from their homes due to the conflict and are staying temporarily in IDP camps. Aid workers and women’s rights groups have reported that the psychological impact of airstrikes on the local civilian population staying at IDP camps has caused the levels of domestic violence against women and children to escalate.
5. Since the junta enforced the conscription law last February, it has drafted 22,863 people, according to the Ministry of Human Rights under the National Unity Government (NUG). Data collected by the NUG’s ministry revealed that Rakhine, Mandalay and Ayeyarwady are the states and regions that have been most heavily targeted for conscription, with over 3,000 people drafted in each.