Sunday, March 11th is the Global Day of Prayer for Burma. If there is any country or people that need extra prayer support from Christians right now, it’s Burma (also known as Myanmar).

The Persecution of Christians and other religious minority groups has intensified in Burma during the past five years and there is new evidence The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is stepping up efforts to monitor and control the activities of Christians. (Read or see the related story in this week’s WorldWatch report).

The SPDC government has closed churches and has prohibited the construction of new ones in Chin state since 1996. Government army troops have destroyed churches in rural areas and reportedly have attempted to forcibly convert Naga and Chin Christians to Buddhism. Karen and Karenni Christian villages have been destroyed, their women and young girls have been raped, boys and young men have been abducted and forced to serve as porters or army conscripts.  

Last month, a young Chin woman named Cheery Zahau presented the United Nations with fresh evidence of atrocities conducted by the Burmese Army. She told of gang rapes and the raping of victims as young as 12 years old in Burma’s Chin State. Zahau reportedly testified, “Often the rapes have been carried out with extreme brutality and in some cases they resulted in the death of the victim. In one case, a woman was stripped naked and hung on a cross, in a deliberate act of mockery against her Christian religion.”

During the past fifteen years, I’ve heard Karen and Karenni refugees detail countless stories of atrocities committed against them by the Burmese government. While these stories have been uncomfortable to hear, they’ve been even more difficult for these God loving, God fearing people to endure.
We’ve shared many of their stories with our CBN News audience over the years.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know the Karen and Karenni, learning of their hardships, praying with them and hearing them tell of their undying hope for the future.
On one visit to the jungle, I was awakened at the crack of dawn to the sweet sounds of young Karenni voices singing, Morning Has Broken. It’s a song of praise and hope.
It brought back fond memories from my youth when I listened to the Cat Stevens 45 on my record player (45, record player, what’s that?) 

Ten years later, the Karen, Karenni, Shan, Chin and other ethnics still wait for the dawn of a new day to break in Burma.

We join them in praying they may soon awaken every morning to sing Morning Has Broken with new meaning. We look forward to the day when they will sing “Praise with elation, praise every morning, God’s recreation of the new day” in a free and democratic Burma.