It’s been four months now, since I’ve returned from Thailand. I dealt with my general anger at the situation in Burma and the relative apathy of the rest of the world. I dealt with my own grief and inability to think rationally about next steps after learning about Burma’s tragic reality. I dealt with the resulting strange numbness that kept me from thinking about/responding to a situation that demands immediate action. And now, friends, I’m dealing with the readiness and restlessness that is brewing in me to do something--do anything--on behalf of our oppressed brothers and sisters in Burma.
This week, since we were approaching the one year anniversary of the Saffron Revolution (when the Burmese monks led a peaceful protest against the military regime and were slaughtered/disappeared suspiciously), my heart has been back in this pressing issue, far more involved than it’s been before. I’ve been devoting most of my free time to research and writing and contacting and finding different avenues to pursue. Doors keep opening. And conversations keep happening.
All of this is coming to a head in two different ways: I will be completing my senior sociology thesis on ethnic conflict, using Burma as our contemporary example and foundation for my research. A greater challenge before me will be the starting of a chapter of the US Campaign for Burma on campus. (A student action group dedicated to raising awareness, raising funds, and participating in the ongoing conversation that demands the rest of the world to pay attention to Burma.) These are two pretty significant developments in the last week and I feel incredibly inadequate and unprepared, but I feel willing and ready and like it’s time for me do the small things that I can do right here right now.
In all of this, each time I start to get nervous about what I’m feeling led to, I receive affirmation and feel so supported from all directions. (Human Rights Awareness will be sponsoring me, two random people have stepped up to help lead, I’ll have the chance to speak, lead discussions, and show documentaries for alternate chapels, etc.). It’s an exciting thing, this Burma Burden, as I’ve been calling it, but it weighs heavily on me and I don’t want to be intimidated and run away from the tasks at hand because it’s too important and I’m too invested. So, friends, please pray with me and for me about this, because more than anything else right now, it really needs to be covered in prayer.
Pray for the situation in Burma with me. Pray for the 1400 political prisoners. Pray for the victims and families of victims who are raped and slaughtered and displaced. Pray for the 3200 villages that were burned. Pray for the millions who have fled Burma in the last twenty years. Pray for the 600,000 internally displaced peoples (who are living in the jungles) and their safety and health. Pray for the refugees who are living in camps on the Thai-Burma border. Pray for the hundreds of thousands of orphans and land-mine victims. Pray for the development of the Irrawaddy Delta region after the cyclone this summer. Pray for the relief workers and NGOs who have a presence in Burma and the refugee camps. Pray for Than Shwe, the dictator behind much of this. Pray for all the leaders in Burma. Pray for all the underdogs in Burma. Pray for the persecuted churches. Pray for change. Pray for peace.
And if you’re interested and close by, pray with me and other concerned individuals at my house (314 W Lisburn Rd) on Sunday evening at 8:30 pm.
