Myanmar (MNN) — As earthquake recovery crawls forward in Myanmar, the military junta has extended its temporary ceasefire against rebel groups to April 30.
More than 140 aftershocks have terrified the region since the first quake nearly four weeks ago. Daniel Saputra* serves with Trans World Radio in Southeast Asia. He shares that people in the city of Yangon are still living on the streets, unable or too afraid to take shelter in damaged buildings. Now the rainy season is coming.
“Monsoon [season] is always bad for the people in Myanmar because even without the earthquake, when the monsoon comes, then there will [be a] flood in many different places,” Saputra says.
TWR partners are on the ground in Myanmar sharing limited immediate aid. But their next thrust is to translate a trauma response radio program into Burmese.
“During that kind of [disaster] situation, people start to ask about lives: ‘Where is God in all this? [They] start to ask about, ‘If there is a God, then why [does] he let things like these terrible things happen?’ What will happen to their future life after their husband passed away, or their whole family was wiped out by the tsunami? The things like that,” Saputra explains.
(Photo courtesy of Trans World Radio via Facebook)
The program Hope Prevails was originally developed after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis. It will share true hope for earthquake survivors in the name of Jesus.
Saputra says the program’s translators have leeway to adapt the content to fit Burmese contexts. They are working with a group of counselors in Southeast Asia. Previous translations of the program have been fruitful, he says.
“Our experience is that once we produce that program, that will [be] like a door opener, so that we can actually reach out deeper to the people’s heart. Then we build trust with the local communities that we are actually an organization that not just want[s] to broadcast something, but we really, really want to touch their heart. We really, really want to help them to recover from this trauma that they have in their life.”
Each episode closes with contact information inviting direct conversations. “Some of our listeners write back to us and even call back to us and ask questions, and that actually bring us to a deeper conversations with them,” Saputra explains.
Find your place in the story
Please pray for wisdom for translators working this month and in early May, as they consider potential religious and political barriers to their message.
Pray for safety for TWR’s partners as they travel in Myanmar’s politically instability.
Pray also for God to open the hearts of listeners to receive the hope of Christ. Pray for open doors for TWR to share more programs with listeners in Myanmar about where eternal hope can be found.
Learn more in the TWR web article at twr.org/story/hope-prevails-in-myanmar.
*Pseudonym
Header image is a representative stock image by David Mark from Pixabay.
