“I hate the military. They kill. They rape. They torture. But if they come to my house I will offer them something to eat. Not because I like them. But because we must have forgiveness in my country. There is no peace possible if we do not choose what is best for all of us, instead of doing what we feel.”

These brave words were spoken to me in a video call from a partner staff in Myanmar. Things are difficult there.  Not just a military coup, but a massive COVID-19 outbreak.  One partner organization has 14 out of 16 staff infected with COVID-19.  Another has 4 out of 6 staff infected.  They are attending funerals of friends and loved ones regularly, online. The military has cut off oxygen at the hospitals and made it nearly impossible through bureaucracy to get in-home oxygen.  With desperate laughter, partner staff joke that they everyone is a doctor now and google is their teacher.  They are diagnosing themselves and trying to figure out medication dosages, based on what they can find at a rare pharmacy. 

And the bombings continue. The military raids.  The state terrorism.  One partner staff smuggled money inside dead fish, trying to get funds to displaced people because carrying more than a certain amount of money is reason for arrest.  He is now in hiding in another state because the military got ahold of one of his false names he was using to purchase food for the internally displaced people in the jungle. 

In the midst of great suffering, words of peace.  Words which bring home to me how very, very hard peace is.  And how very desperate for peace we must be, because violence is a much easier way to process out rage at the injustice, brutality and evil. 

MCC has been sponsoring partner staff from Myanmar to go the Mindanao Peace Institute in the Philippines for almost a decade. While we have partners in Myanmar who work especially on peace, we have sent partners from food security and emergency response and development organizations as well.  It is one of those partners, not someone steeped in the profession of peace, who spoke those words of forgiveness.  She carries hope and gives some to me in this desperate, dark situation.