The situation in Myanmar is getting worse. Now the power cuts are extreme and people are surviving without electricity most of the time, setting alarms for when the electricity comes on so they can quickly cook their food and charge their phones. Food and basic commodities are more expensive. And Omicron is blazing through the country like a fire. All of our partner staff have had Omicron over the last month and some are suffering from long-Covid.

Trauma coping and resiliency workshops amid daily violence seems to me as bizarre and timely as Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at a well. What does healing, coping or resilience look like in a civil-war zone? Most of my trauma training has been post-trauma focused and included effective coping mechanisms such as “reminding yourself that the trauma is over and you are safe”. These understandings don’t help when the trauma is ongoing. So, what do we do when people cannot leave their trauma behind, but must live with it? When there is no end in sight for civil war, what does it mean to find healthy coping mechanisms or to be resilient?

The answer to all my questions is singular: they persist. As trauma shuts down people’s ability to make decisions for day to day basics, our partners are making plans to distribute clean water. They are negotiating with landlords not to evict the urban poor. They are drawing together communities to help one another and grow trust, despite the uncertainties. As they suffer from bombings that shake their own houses and their family members are stuck in villages that are being burned to the ground, our partners are organizing food and medicine delivery to care for the bodies of others and they are organizing online trauma coping and resiliency workshops for pastors across the country.

Traditionally trained pastors have been responding to trauma by advising their congregations to pray or read the Bible. They have no education in how trauma effects the brain and body and what tools to use for coping. During the trainings done by our partner, some of the pastors start to recognize that they are experiencing primary and secondary trauma symptoms. Our partner organization has a Biblical understanding and also trauma knowledge, so they are uniquely situated to provide this training on psychological and healing tactics. They can share specific, concrete techniques to alleviate the chronic stress and transform cognitive patterns. The pastors then share these learnings and spread healing around their communities.

Over the course of the most recent training, the pastors started talking about praying for their enemies. The week started out hostile, with many strong words and feelings of animosity towards the military. By the end of the training, they began to discuss praying for their enemies and acts of compassion they could do for the soldiers. They considered that the perpetrators are also traumatized and in need of a loving response.

To me, that is a miracle. Forgiveness and peace is the evidence of God in our midst. How else can we possibly conceive of it?

You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.

Matthew 5:43-45

So what can we do? How can we help? “Please continue to hold us in your prayers and compassion” is what they ask. As we find creative ways to provide material support and continuing counseling and training for the partners themselves, what they ask for most is our prayers.

This morning as I read Isaiah 62, it seemed not too extreme to extrapolate the words written regarding Jerusalem’s redemption to apply to Jesus’ kingdom of heaven.

I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give the LORD no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.

Isaiah 62: 6-7

And so I am considering what it would look like to give God no rest until God establishes the kingdom of heaven in Myanmar. The kingdom of heaven in Myanmar is already planted in the hearts of those who are praying for their enemies and I will endeavor to pester God to finish the work and bring full healing to that country.