Who ever heard of Myanmar? The only time I’ve ever really seen it in writing was when I read “The Heavenly Man” before leaving on the World Race.
And then I found myself entering this “closed” country. “Closed” because you can’t preach, you can barely have a church (the government only allows Christian church to occur in buildings older than the year 1980). From just being in the country for a couple of hours the people seem happy, the border patrol was treating us like superstars (taking pictures with us as if we were really famous or something).
But there’s an undercurrent. There’s corruption at the top. The Karen people who inhabit Burma (Myanmar) are being pushed out of their homes, their farms torched, and landmines placed on their property in case they return. The only other option besides returning is to live in refugee camps in Thailand. This means they can’t work, they live in tiny shacks, treated like animals, with no freedom. We passed some of these camps on our way into Burma.
A Buddhist monk even stopped a couple of our guys to ask them what they knew about Burma, because there’s so much more than what’s on the surface. Please, read up on Myanmar, pray for a change in the government. Innocent blood is being shed every day. Pray for freedom for Christians and the Karen people. Prayer changes things!
