LIFE DURING WARTIME

We have operating in Burma/Myanmar for 35 years and have nine discipleship homes spread around the country.

The place is a nightmare to operate in because of the ongoing civil war, but the people who we work with are a dream. 

The Current Situation

The good news is that for a while democracy had truly arrived, even though the Burmese army stacked the constitution by always having overbearing influence on rule and politics. But then, they decided that democracy was going too far, so they orchestrated a coup in February 2021.                                                                              Now 25 different ethnic armies are fighting the Burmese army, with an estimated 75,000 deaths and 3 million people displaced - many young people have fled overseas.                                                                                                  The army has since forcibly conscripted some 30,000 people, sometimes just plucking people straight off the street. China could put an end to it all, but instead, they are assisting the Burmese army.                                                         Recently, after a massive earthquake in central Burma, the army decided that it would be a good time to get a paraglider to drop a bomb on innocent people at a Buddhist festival and whilst simply trying to recover from the earthquake.  The BBC reports on it.    National elections will be held in December, 2025. The people place little credence in this.

Recently, when we were visiting Burma, it was very noticeable how nobody walked the streets after dark in Yangon (population 5 million). This is because of the real fear of being plucked off the street and sent to the army. At our Yangon boys’ house, an army truck appeared at the lane entrance closeby to where our kids live. Everybody ran inside and hid. Nobody is signing up to join the army.                                                                                                                     Our house parents there have been advised by friends who work for the local government that in their area the army/police will be forcibly conscripting kids aged 15 years and above. This has sent a collective chill down their spines. Our house mother has investigated moving the whole Yangon boys’ work to Chiang Mai, Thailand! This is particularly real to them because already one of their boys was taken to join an ethnic army.