Myanmar (MNN) — Myanmar flexed its military muscle on Armed Forces Day earlier this week. Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing vowed to crush all opposition. He also told international critics to support his plan for the country.

“Myanmar’s military ruler was calling on the whole world to support what he called a ‘return to democracy,’” AMG International’s Brian Dennett says.

“This is after having killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians since the coup.”

Hlaing is the same military leader whose 2021 coup launched Myanmar into chaos. Daily clashes between military and rebel forces have driven 1.2 million people from their homes. Civilians accuse junta soldiers of atrocious crimes:

“…during raids on their villages, soldiers used ‘systematic tactical force’ to suppress resistance from villagers, including burning down houses, torture, rape, and mass killings.”

Believers are not immune from the nation’s suffering. “Six of our [partnering] church members have had their homes destroyed and were forced to flee into the jungle,” Dennett says.

“One church family [was] asked [to pay] a ransom or a bribe, which, of course, they were unable to pay. This poor man was killed, [and militants told] his family to come and collect his body.”

AMG partners with churches in Myanmar and the surrounding countries. When the coup began in 2021, “we mobilized our team and have been providing basic needs [such as] food, water, shelter” ever since, Dennett says.

Pray for the Light Asean Hostel, a child development center in Thailand that serves many refugee children from Myanmar.
(Photo, caption courtesy of AMG International)

One packet of food and relief aid, typically lasting a month, costs $35. Send help in the name of Jesus here.

Through local church partners, “we’re helping refugees from Myanmar that have flooded into Thailand,” Dennett says.

“We’ve started a refugee camp [and] built many homes. The hope that we bring in Jesus surpasses [everything else],” he continues.

“We have seen many in Myanmar, and now across the border in Thailand, coming to Christ as a result of the loving support our Christian brothers and sisters are showing.”

 

Header image depicts General Min Aung Hlaing at a 2017 event. (Wikimedia Commons)