Christ Centered, Servant Hearted, Myanmar Focused

Love For Myanmar Ministries Update

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry for help. The face of the Lord is set against those who do what is evil, to remove all memory of them from the earth.” Psalms 34:15-16

The leaders of the junta’s military coup in Myanmar look at their country only through the lenses of power and oppression. As a result, the military has lost its prestige among the Myanmar people who are experiencing the deterioration of their public education system, the dysfunctioning of their healthcare network, the corrupting of its government, and the crumbling of its economy. The junta has alienated itself from the Myanmar people, and is perfectly comfortable with pursuing only their private interests.

Despite the prevalence of the junta’s selfishness, the Myanmar people are committed to ensuring that the usual moral decay which accompanies a military coup is minimalized. Military coups have a way of transforming their victims into worse people. Relentless oppression weakens people’s resolve to their principles, it shrinks their courage.

God’s love through acts of genuine kindness is awakening souls among the Myanmar people, 90% of whom are Buddhists. Christianity is just a vague concept until it is personally experienced: receiving food and other survival supplies, having your home rebuilt or repaired, learning that your loved one’s hospital bill has been paid, or providing your children with educational opportunities. These are just some of the examples of the ways your thoughtful generosity is shared throughout our ministry areas in Myanmar.

Since our beginning in 2008, you have blessed us with a warehouse of treasured experiences of changed lives. It is these changed lives for Christ that will ultimately define Myanmar’s future because they will see their country through the lenses of love and mercy, and experience what men and women are truly capable of accomplishing when surrendering to God, not generals.

• Prayer Request: Please pray that God will sustain the Christians in Myanmar by keeping their faith alive when under attack from the Evil One and they grow weary with the challenges and hardships of living a Christian life in a Buddhist-dominated country.

Ministry thought

“For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Romans 7:19

I do not understand why I continue to commit certain sins. I do not understand why the Holy Spirit doesn’t help me overcome them. I do not understand why the new heart I was given when I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior still allows certain thoughts to enter my thinking. I do not understand why my prayers about these mysteries go unanswered.

Not only do I suffer the consequences of my sinful actions, but unbelievers feel deceived, and God is dishonored. I can’t live up to the beliefs I profess I cherish, and the consequence is hypocrisy, a living contradiction to my Christianity.

I wish non-believers who are so quick to point their fingers at our sinful behaviors could peer into our minds and see we have the same tangled thoughts of defeat and resentment as anyone else. I wish non-believers could peer over the walls of our hearts and see the real difference between us, our pain of disappointing God.

Believing in God transforms life from something unfolding towards The End to something unfolding towards The Beginning. It is a challenging journey plentiful with controversy and confusion, but the only one with signs all along the way written with the blood of our God’s son, Jesus Christ.

Gary Watkins, LFM Co-founder

Myanmar coup day 1,258: click on article titles for complete stories

“If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.” Isaiah 58:10

• Genocide: While governments and international media have recognized China’s culpability in the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang, they have overlooked China’s involvement in the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar/Burma. China views Myanmar as a strategic ally in its broader regional ambitions. By supporting Myanmar, China can counterbalance the influence of other powers, such as India and the United States, in Southeast Asia.
• Shan State: In Lashio Township, located in northern Shan State and recently a focal point of conflict, the junta has intensified defensive measures by airlifting hundreds of reinforcement troops. Roads around Lashio have been destroyed and tightening security is impacting the transportation of supplies. In addition, the number of landmine incidents is increasing in northern Shan, as well as in the Hsihseng and Pinlaung areas of southern Shan.
• United Nations report: Ongoing conflict continues to lead to further displacement across multiple parts of the country with nearly 3.2 million people internally displaced as of June 24. This includes 93,500 people internally displaced since the end of May.
• New soldiers: The first round of soldiers recruited under Myanmar’s controversial military draft law have completed their training and are being deployed to the front lines of the junta’s war against rebels in the country’s remote border areas.
• The internet: According to a Myanmar Internet Project database, there have been 291 internet shutdowns across the country since the February 2021 coup. Eighty (80) out of the 330 townships in Myanmar are now completely cut off. Timely information about military raids and airstrikes can mean the difference between life and death. Internet access also allows citizens to inform the world about human rights violations or stay connected with family and friends.
• Myanmar schools: Documenting damage to Myanmar’s education system since the 2021 coup, Myanmar Witness has documented 174 distinct incidents of violence affecting educational institutions. Myanmar Witness recommends that international lawyers investigate these events to determine the status of these school buildings as protected sites under international law. Read the report here.
• Monsoon season: It has been reported that 4,125 people from 1,333 households in 1,180 homes in the Patakhe village tract, Myanaung Township, Ayeyarwady Region, have been affected by flooding. This flood is the most severe in 29 years, damaging sesame and other crops in the village.
• Junta/Russia military strategy: Intentional targeting of the civilian population and total destruction of civilian infrastructure and people’s livelihoods is not a side effect, or unfortunate collateral damage, but the core and essence of Russia’s and Min Aung Hlaing’s (junta chief general) military strategy. The main principles of this strategy are: Whatever we cannot control, we will simply destroy, burn to the ground. We do not fight primarily our armed enemies, instead, we intentionally and as massively as we can, target their civilians, so that internally displaced persons, cut off from food, shelter, sanitation, medicines and fuel, become a burden for the resistance.