“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him.”
Psalm 62:5
As COVID-19 claims the lives of thousands and overwhelms hospitals and crematoriums all over the country, Myanmar’s political crisis continues to brutally fuel its health crisis. Since February, the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military junta, has arrested and issued warrants for thousands of doctors and medical workers who refused to work under military rule and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Even now, as Myanmar’s third COVID wave decimates the country, the junta continues hunting down and detaining doctors, even faking a COVID emergency in Yangon this week to arrest three doctors before raiding their office for oxygen and medical supplies. The outcome is dire: Public hospitals are severely understaffed, while most private clinics must operate illegally under the junta’s shadow.
Civilians accuse the junta of raiding oxygen plants to supply their own hospitals, but a medical officer at a military hospital reports that the junta’s mismanagement has caused COVID infections and deaths to reign unchecked even among battalions of their own soldiers and military families. Military-run newspapers have begun urging civilians to begin daily recitations of the Ratana Sutta, a Buddhist discourse to ward off famine and disease. One Buddhist monk responded on Facebook that Myanmar’s people need oxygen more than a verse.
Prayer Requests
- Pray that the Lord will supernaturally make a way for Myanmar’s people to receive all the medical aid they desperately need, in spite of these conflicts.
- Pray that the people of Myanmar would not put their hope in any earthly government, organization, or Buddhist recitation to deliver them, but in Christ alone.
