A Day of Highs and Lows

Yesterday (December 4) had many memorable moments. It was a day of many joyful moments.  It was also a day when many of us shed tears.

The day began with a visit to the Myanmar Baptist Convention Union building where ABC/USA folks were joined by the General Secretary of Norwegian Baptist Union and representatives of the various "ethnic" Baptist conventions in Myanmar that have ties to refugee groups resettled in the United States: Karen, Chin, Kachin, and Karenni. Several of us in the ABC group also serve on the denomination's Burma Refugee Taskforce.  We reported on our efforts to aid various refugee groups in their transition to life in the U.S., to welcome them into American Baptist life, to aid them as they organize congregations and networks, and to advocate for Myanmar refugees and internal displace persons (IDPs) with the U.S. State Department.

Rev. Dr. Greeta Din (KBC General Secretary) and Ruth Clark (ABC President) hold U.S. map
while Rev. Florence Li (ABCHMS Asian Strategist) points out communities across the country
where Baptist refugees from Myanmar are now living and worshiping.

Dr. Saw Ler Htoo, General Secretary of the Karen Baptist Convention/USA, reported on the progress being made by various Baptist Myanmar ethnic groups now living in the U.S. to establish structures for themselves in America.  Convention leaders from Burma spoke of their endeavors to support and maintain ties with their Baptist brothers and sisters living in the United States and other third countries.

Following a lunch hosted by our MBCU friends, we went to the Myanmar Baptist Convention compound where with hundreds of others we received our registration packets and names badges.  Estimates are that there will be tens of thousands of participants in this year's MBC Convention and Judson Bicentennial Celebration --- both from within Myanmar and overseas.

My official MBC Bicentennial name badge.

After registering, we returned to the Panda Hotel which is next door to the MBC compound.  There we found the remainder of the Mission Discovery Team which had just arrived from the U.S.  Pandemonium broke out as old friends greeted one another with hugs and embraces.

American Baptists greet one another in the Panda Hotel lobby.

Our last event was the saddest and most sobering experience of my sabbatical.  We met with Internally Displaced Persons from the Kachin State.  As you may know, the Myanmar Army has been waging a campaign in the Kachin State since 2011.  Kachin people with whom we spoke describe it as a civil war. 

I expected this listening session would happen in a small conference room with perhaps a handful of IDPs telling us their stories.  Instead the ABC delegation was seated in chairs at the front of the Yangon Kachin Baptist Church with one thousand or more Kachin persons present - many were IDPs from the contested areas in the northern Kachin State near the Chinese boarder.  One after another, men and women stood to tell us their tales of eviction from their homes and villages, murder, rape, and torture at the hands of the national army's troops.  They told us that fear, deprivation, and disease have become their constant companions. 

What was to be a meeting of about an hour or so, became a meeting of several hours.  And, I am certain that if we had been able to stay longer, the stories would have continued to be told long into the night.  The IDPs asked us to remember them and pray for them. They asked us take their images recorded on our cameras and stories etched into our minds back with us to the U.S. and to share them with others.

Kachin IDP woman share her story as ABC group intently listens.

I have noticed almost a sense of euphoria among western visitors to Myanmar who have witnessed the many positive changes that have been made in the nation in the last two years.  There seems be a genuinely more open approach by the government which can particularly be seen Yangon.  However, after seeing firsthand the pain and sorrow in the eyes of my Kachin Baptist brothers and sisters last night, I wonder how genuine these changes really are.  When the president of Myanmar three times calls for the national army to cease its military campaign in the Kachin State and is ignored, one most wonder how much power rests in the newly formed civilian government.

Kachin IDP Baptist pastors recounts what he has seen.

I confess that I do not have enough information to fully understand the complexity of Myanmar politics. But, I do understand the needless suffering of God's people in the Kachin State.  Their stories are the very same stories I have heard time and time again from my Karen brothers and sisters in the U.S.  Whatever changes may have been made in this country, the horrible truth is that the military continues to wage a genocidal campaign here against minority ethnic peoples.