Trauma Healing Ministry

Love For Myanmar Ministries Update

Christ Centered, Servant Hearted, Myanmar Focused

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12

We continue to be deeply concerned by the crisis created by the military coup in Myanmar. Tomorrow, February 1st, marks the beginning of year four of the military coup in Myanmar. While there can be no justification for indiscriminate violence, there can be no justification for ignoring the hidden, inner impacts of this violence on the Myanmar people. While we condemn the violence, we must also try to address the long-term traumatic effects of the coup-related violence on the health and well-being of the Myanmar people. As a pathway to helping the Myanmar people deal with their diverse traumatic experiences, we intend to expand our trauma healing ministry by establishing a “Trauma Healing Center” in Yangon. This two-year project is blessed with the partnership of the Austin Baptist Church. Through their extraordinary generosity and encouraging spiritual support, the Myanmar people will receive the help they need to cope with their traumatic experiences and move forward with their lives in meaningful ways. The Austin Baptist Church has our heartfelt gratitude for their willingness to share their blessings with strangers in the far away land of Myanmar.

Of particular concern to us is the variety of stresses placed on families. Husbands, wives, children, and relatives are killed, tortured or placed in prison. As a result, the laborer or “bread winner” is often gone. Rice fields can not be harvested because of landmines well placed by the junta. There is little money since they can not harvest their fields. There are fewer and fewer job opportunities because businesses are struggling since people have little money to purchase the basic necessities. What supplies are available now cost multiple times what they did before the coup. This places an enormous stress upon families unfortunately resulting in the increased use of alcohol and drugs to cope with the hopelessness, and in a growing number of cases separation or divorce. In the meanwhile, many schools are closed primarily because of the lack of teachers who refuse to support the junta government who manages the school system and orchestrated the coup. The result is millions of children are at home watching the hopelessness of their parents unfold.

It is our intent to take a holistic approach to trauma healing using the scriptures-based training and material from the American Bible Society. Our key staff have been trained and are recognized as master facilitators by the American Bible Society’s Trauma Healing Institute. Our Trauma Healing Center will not only be a welcoming environment in which to regularly train our key staff, children’s homes directors, Fellowship Coordinators, house church leaders, and volunteers, but a place where adults or children, Buddhist, Christian, or non-believer, young or old can come to be helped with their respective traumatic experiences while being exposed to the love of the greatest healer, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Gary Watkins, LFM Co-founder

• Prayer Request: (Myanmar coup day 1,461)
  People all around us are living lives filled with trauma, and dying with no hope! As Christians, we have the hope so many need. The hope that will not only give them purpose in life but will rescue them eternally! Please pray that more of us use the gifts God has given us to to bring His light into the dark places where we live.

1. Internally displaced people number more than 3.5 million in Myanmar, of which children count for nearly one-third, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF. According to a 2024 report, six million children in Myanmar are facing a worsening humanitarian situation. “There is no food at some internally displaced persons camps, not even enough rice for the children. In some families of five, only children are fed, and the mothers cannot eat. Malnutrition is a huge problem.”
2. According to an October 2024 report by U.S.-based Freedom House, which surveyed 72 countries, Myanmar stands among the worst nations for internet freedom. The Myanmar Internet Project, a digital freedom watchdog based in Thailand, recently reported that the junta caused more than 130 internet blackouts in 82 townships in 10 regions and states in 2024 alone. The junta has cut off internet access predominantly in cities in Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Rakhine and Shan states, as well as in central Myanmar regions such as Sagaing and Magway, where its forces have lost territory to rebel factions. Regular internet access remains available in junta-controlled cities such as Yangon and Mandalay.
3. There is growing evidence that the cash-strapped junta is refusing to pay the pensions and compensation that soldiers’ families are entitled to when their husbands or sons die on duty. Since 2015, soldiers have been required to buy life insurance from the Aung Myint Moh Min Insurance Co which is owned by the son of junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. The promises made by senior officers about caring for bereaved families are becoming a joke in the junta military.