11th March, 2007 was the Global Day of Prayer for Myanmar or Burma as some of its nationals still call it., a country with promising missionary beginnings, especially with the Baptist work pioneered by Adoniran Judson from 1813 onwards.
But since Independence in 1948 it is a divided and troubled land, still suffering under a military regime which has crushed the National League for Democracy and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, disallowing its landslide election victory in 1990.
The Anglican Church has stayed there through thick and thin, Perth’s late Archbishop George Appleton being a missionary there in his younger days, and recently Archbishop Roger keeping up connections with a visit. The WA church has welcomed displaced and migrant families, many of whom now form an integral part of our Victoria Park parish.
Other links with WA include visits by Michael Lush of Scripture Union, training youth workers and Sunday School teachers; and also Peter and Louise Snowsill, who lived there with their children for Interserve, training teams for village development.
But tragically, many of the large ethnic minorities, who contain the majority of Burma’s Christians, are currently being brutally suppressed, because of their desire for autonomy within their own states. Villages are torched, children abducted and – and now Thailand has closed its doors to refugees.
Last month Dr Summerville told our 10.00 o’clock congregation of his regular trips to Thailand, to teach health care to tribes people from North Burma.
Dr Mitch Ryan goes on forays across the border into the jungle world of the Karen with the Free Burma Rangers. He takes medicines for malaria, TB etc, and teaches prospective health workers how to relieve suffering. The team also has a Karen pastor/counsellor and a human rights reporter with a simple video camera, whose footage sometimes gets on our TV screens.
Let us pray for the church in Burma.
But since Independence in 1948 it is a divided and troubled land, still suffering under a military regime which has crushed the National League for Democracy and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, disallowing its landslide election victory in 1990.
The Anglican Church has stayed there through thick and thin, Perth’s late Archbishop George Appleton being a missionary there in his younger days, and recently Archbishop Roger keeping up connections with a visit. The WA church has welcomed displaced and migrant families, many of whom now form an integral part of our Victoria Park parish.
Other links with WA include visits by Michael Lush of Scripture Union, training youth workers and Sunday School teachers; and also Peter and Louise Snowsill, who lived there with their children for Interserve, training teams for village development.
But tragically, many of the large ethnic minorities, who contain the majority of Burma’s Christians, are currently being brutally suppressed, because of their desire for autonomy within their own states. Villages are torched, children abducted and – and now Thailand has closed its doors to refugees.
Last month Dr Summerville told our 10.00 o’clock congregation of his regular trips to Thailand, to teach health care to tribes people from North Burma.
Dr Mitch Ryan goes on forays across the border into the jungle world of the Karen with the Free Burma Rangers. He takes medicines for malaria, TB etc, and teaches prospective health workers how to relieve suffering. The team also has a Karen pastor/counsellor and a human rights reporter with a simple video camera, whose footage sometimes gets on our TV screens.
Let us pray for the church in Burma.
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