Following a military coup in 2021 and intense civil unrest, My*nm*r has worked hard to expel foreigners. They expelled media and isolated their people off from the rest of the world. They have also increasingly persecuted and marginalized certain people groups. Many My*nm*r peoples have fled to nearby countries like Thailand where it is better to live stateless and sometimes in great poverty than to live in fear for their lives, and the lives of their children.
In late October, I went to the border of these two countries to help dedicate a school opening for them. Thanks to the cooperative effort of Asia’s Little Ones, the local Thai church, and others, this will be the first school many of these stateless refugee children have attended in many years.
The refugee’s focus has been clinging to survival because of civil unrest, ethnic discrimination, language barriers and so many other obstacle. But praise the Lord for a new day and the hope for a brighter future that the gift of education provides.
During my time of ministry there, I traveled with a team of missionaries that spoke B*rmese or Thai, a Thai pastor, and a short-term church team from New York. We first visited the refugee families and brought them some food. We spent time in their homes, prayed with them, and invited them to the school dedication and church service the following day.
Every one of the new students has an incredible story, but one image that sticks with me is the light in the eyes of a young girl of 12 excited about being in 1st grade this year. Literacy and education is a gift. She knows it, and is eagerly excited to get started.
After the school dedication ceremony, all the families stayed for the church service and fellowship time. While visiting with the parents, one after another said, “Jesus,” was a name they had never heard before. In this place an Asia’s Little Ones education project has intersected with the Never Reached. Please pray for these families as they now for the first time ever, have access to the gospel, and christians who desire to explain about Jesus, and lovingly disciple them. Please pray for them that they will be able to shake off the bondages, fears and hopelessness of Buddhism that have entangled them and their ancestors for centuries.
As you join us in praying for Buddhists, please check out changethemap.net a webpage dedicated to helping people pray effectively for the Buddhist World.
