Myanmar (MNN) — A new report from International Christian Concern suggests millions are at risk of starvation in Myanmar, where a humanitarian crisis has been unfolding since a military coup in 2021. Since then, fighting across political and ethnic groups has meant economic upheaval.
According to The Independent, “The conflict has severely disrupted farming in both highland and lowland areas. In addition, fuel shortages have caused transport costs to skyrocket.”
The continual presence or threat of military aggressors creates an impasse for humanitarian organizations seeking to provide citizen aid.
“To go in and to set up infrastructures to help the people in the active presence of them doing carpet bombings and attacking, indiscriminately, villages is almost impossible,” says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations.
Meanwhile, over five thousand people have been killed since 2021 as villages and citizens are routinely attacked. Kelley’s colleagues on the ground recently reported an attack on one village that left many dead and all homes destroyed.
“Everyone in that community who wasn’t killed is living in the jungles right now. They said, ‘We’re like stray dogs living in the wilderness,’” Kelley says.
News from this region is often eclipsed by that of nearby countries such as China and India. But Kelley thinks there’s another reason Myanmar often flies under the radar: its widespread adherence to Buddhism.
“Particularly from a missional standpoint, I think we tend to look at areas that are predominantly Muslim, like Bangladesh, or predominantly Hindu, like India, and we say ‘Well those are the harder areas,’” Kelley says.
Furthermore, Buddhism has a reputation for being a calm, peaceful religion, to which Kelley responds:
“I can tell you that some of the fiercest opposition to the gospel we hear around the world comes right out of Myanmar.”
Unknown Nations has 35 networks across the 10-40 window. It’s in these difficult areas that Christians must firmly draw from Scripture and offer its truth to those around them.
Image by Richard Todd from Pixabay
“We’re not just interested in making people more comfortable on their way to eternity,” Kelley says. “How can we step as the body of Christ into these crises and not share the hope of glory?”
The magnitude of loss leads people to lean on, or question, their worldview, and Kelley’s team is witnessing that in Myanmar.
“We’re seeing God move in power in the midst of this chaos,” he says. “The day after this particular attack happened where 270 homes were completely annihilated: at our training center, 18 people were water baptized.”
Please pray for peace in Myanmar. Pray also for continued spiritual harvest in this Buddhist country, and pray that more laborers would be sent toward that end.
Kelley especially asks that believers would lift up indigenous Christians:
“We need to pray for these leaders who are administering hope and bringing life,” he says.
Featured image courtesy of Wine Su11 via Wikimedia Commons
