In the Grip of Grace: The Myanmar Update
00:01:27 – Military takeover and civil war in Myanmar
00:04:25 – Financial struggles: food and fuel prices skyrocket
00:06:22 – Empower’s response: Bible printing and border ministry
00:07:08 – Widespread persecution and fear among Christians
00:11:48 – Forgiveness in action: Christian militias welcome defectors
00:18:34 – Buddhist monks show openness to the Gospel
00:21:16 – National prayer network reaches 40,000 despite blackouts
00:25:03 – Churches remain closed under COVID pretext
00:27:00 – Revival and holistic evangelism in the countryside
Joy: Welcome to God’s Church on the Move, the podcast that takes you to the spiritual hotspots where God is actively at work. With me in the studio today are Ron and Charis Pearce. Welcome, guys!
Charis: Hi!
Ron: Good to be here.
Joy: So, I know you’ve been travelling — and as an added bonus, travelling together! Charis, you’ve been with Ron overseas, so you have an update for us?
Ron: Yes, we — yeah, we went over to Southeast Asia to interview church leaders and to see what’s going on in certain countries. Some of these places we work in, we don’t publicize that much because of, you know, the situation. One of those countries is Myanmar — or, as I still like to call it from the old days, Burma.
And the reason is, on February 1st, 2021, the military junta took over the government — cast out the old one — and a civil war broke out. Actually, as one of the leaders explained to me, they’ve had civil wars — it’s the longest-running civil war in history. It’s been going on for 70 years, which is really something.
So, this is a country in turmoil. We’ve been working there, helping Buddhist monks come to the Lord, doing orphan work, supporting church planters on the border regions, getting Bibles created — all sorts of things going on. But when the military took over in 2021, everything changed. We had to be very careful. The Christians, the leaders, the pastors — everyone was scared. There was a lot of fear. The government was persecuting blindly, and they were shooting people. You probably saw the headlines.
So, we had to come alongside and help where we could — but quietly — because we didn’t want to expose anyone to danger. We just kept doing what we could, carefully.
Now, things have lightened a bit, and we were able to meet with some leaders. They explained to us what’s going on and how the Gospel is progressing.
First off, they talked about how hard life is economically. This has hit people hard. A bag of rice that cost $10 US before now costs $40.
JOY: Wow.
Ron: And gas — gas that used to cost 200 kyat is now 3,000.
JOY: How are people affording this?
Ron: They aren’t. They said less than 5% of the population is eating healthy because it just costs too much. Rice used to be a stable, basic food, and now it’s out of reach for so many.
And the civil war has made everything more costly. Duties, supply issues — cars cost three times what they did before February 2021.
JOY: So, money-wise, it’s kind of like Cuba?
Ron: Close. Cuba is probably worse, but this is bad. People don’t have job security, everything is expensive, and life is hard.
Now, the bright spot — and I’ve checked this out with our friends there, and I saw it reported in news media too — is that over the last six months or so, the military has pulled back. They tried to take over the whole country with a lot of bloodshed, bombing villages and so on. But now, they’re mostly in the cities, and the countryside is controlled by militia armies — the state armies, tribal groups like the Karen, the Kachin.
And here’s what’s incredible: many soldiers are defecting. By the thousands. Some are even generals. They’re leaving the military and joining the rebel armies.
And most of those fighters — in the tribal areas — are Christians. They’re trying to win their country back from the bloodshed. And when those who’ve been fighting them surrender, they’re treated with dignity and forgiveness. The Christians are showing love.
One leader told us: “God loves the sinner, and life is valuable.”
And this example is powerful. People are seeing this forgiveness, and it’s making them curious about the Gospel. Buddhist monks are becoming open to the Gospel in a way they haven’t in years.
Charis: I remember one leader said they gave 500 Bibles to one of the village armies because so many were coming to the Lord.
Ron: Yes — and we’re preparing to print between 50,000 and 100,000 New Testaments. We’d do full Bibles if we could, but we can’t get them across the borders — China to the north and other countries — so we’re printing in-country.
Charis: And Bible paper is hard to get, especially during war.
Ron: Right — Bible paper is thin, special paper. So we’ll use thicker paper for these New Testaments. They’ll cost about 60 to 70 cents each to print.
We’ve printed Bibles for Myanmar for over 20 years, but that stopped when the war broke out.
Another thing — when the war started, people hit their knees. We helped fund a national prayer movement. Even though power is only on 3 or 4 hours a day in most areas, they’re using generators to get online and pray.
Since 2021, they’ve built this prayer network. Thirty thousand to 41,000 people are tuning in — gathering pastors and leaders, praying together. Churches in the cities have been closed — first because of the war, then because of COVID. But three years on, even though COVID’s done, the restrictions are still there. It seems to be a tool to keep Christians from meeting.
But despite that, the prayer movement has grown. People know they have to cry out to God. And now the tide is turning — people are coming to the Lord, Buddhist monks are responding, and everyone is seeing the difference between the military’s cruelty and the Christian love from the tribal fighters.
JOY: Are national workers out there sharing the Gospel?
Ron: Yes — we’ve got people on the borders, localized churches, various initiatives. Myanmar has that old British influence, so churches are quite traditional in form — but very evangelistic. They’re into church planting and what they call holistic evangelism: one hand offers the Gospel, the other a bag of rice. You can’t do one without the other.
People are responding, but the country has suffered so much these past three years. Many people have died — we don’t even know how many.
Joy: Well, thank you for that situational update on Burma.
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