The trauma of evil

Love For Myanmar Ministries Update

Christ Centered, Servant Hearted, Myanmar Focused

“Our troubles have always brought us blessings, and they always will. They are the dark chariots of bright grace.” Charles Spurgeon

Myanmar coup day 1,616 (nearly 4 1/2 years)

Myanmar thought

Evil is part of the human story. For the people in Myanmar, their lives are organized around the trauma of evil under the junta’s rule. They live in a perpetual state of self preservation. During this military coup, so many have experienced the loss of loved ones during midnight raids, the torture of friends or neighbors for their comments, the indescriminate bombing and burning of villages, the confiscation of family lands without compensation, the denial of an education or employment due to your religious beliefs, and much more.

Those feelings of utter helplessness and terror are causing the country to spiral into depression. The military junta is not interested in satisfying the people’s longing for justice. The military junta is indifferent towards injustice. And so, the people marred by feelings of being dishonored and disrespected are fighting back while trying to manage the internal chaos of their lives. The Myanmar people are astonishingly resilient but the internal wounds of their trauma at the hands of the military junta are deeply embedded in their hearts and minds.

The military leaders can not see beyond their own egos and take no responsibility for the destruction of their country while continually shifting the blame for their country’s problems to others. They measure themselves by their possessions, totally oblivious to the unscrupulous ways by which they are obtained. These military leaders believe “the people” exist solely for the sake of ensuring the military leaders’ prosperity. Right now, no one knows where the coup tide will eventually pull the country; however, it is certain at this point the waves of opposition are stronger than the military leaders anticipated.

Those of us outside Myanmar should not be naive about the cost involved or the accompanying suffering now being experienced by the Myanmar people during this military coup. Although Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country, there are several million Christians living there. As fellow Christians, if we believe we are marked by the hope of a risen Christ then please pray for guidance about how God wants you to be a light in one of the spiritually darkest places on earth.

Please pray
that every Myanmar Christian faced with the impossible, unbearable, overwhelming or relentless will receive to their hearts and minds God’s Wisdom, Peace, Hope.

News briefs

1. A new joint UN report warns that people in 13 hunger hot spots (which includes Myanmar) around the world face extreme hunger and risk of starvation and death in the coming months unless there is urgent humanitarian action and a coordinated international effort to de-escalate conflict, stem displacement, and mount an urgent full-scale aid response. This report makes it very clear: hunger today is not a distant threat – it is a daily emergency for millions.
2. The junta has spent several years trying to digitize, consolidate and improve the reliability of data on Myanmar’s population – data that has previously been scattered across paper archives rife with errors, omissions and duplications. A centralized and accurate digital population register allows the regime to more efficiently hunt down dissidents (Civil Disobedience Movement supporters), track the movement of all citizens and enforce a mandatory military service law. This new database includes people’s biometrics and is resulting in the issuance of Unique Identification Cards.
3. Junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing sent a letter to United States President Donald Trump asking to reduce a 40 percent tariff on Myanmar exports to the US. The junta leader was responding to a letter from Trump that announced the tariff will go into effect on August 1 if Myanmar companies do not “build or manufacture product” (sic) in the US. The letter proposed that the US reduce tariffs on Myanmar exports to between 10pc and 20pc while US exports into Myanmar will only be taxed up to 10pc.
4. China, which controls, refines, produces, and stockpiles nearly 90% of the world’s rare earth minerals, has long sourced a significant share of its raw materials from Myanmar’s northern border regions. There are nearly 400 mining sites in Myanmar’s Kachin State alone with an area of operations the size of Singapore.
5. The junta government and Moscow recently signed an investment agreement for projects, including in the Dawei Special Economic Zone, where a 660-megawatt coal-fired thermal power plant is being developed. The CEO of Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom has said that a 100-megawatt nuclear power plant project would be built near Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw.