Posted 191 days ago
Disaster in Myanmar
By Christine Sine
This last week I was in New Haven CT teaching a course on spiritual renewal at the Overseas Ministries Study Center. I love this opportunity to share some of my thoughts on spiritual rhythms and the need for balance in our lives. I find that I too am refreshed and renewed as I speak to others about prayer retreats, spiritual disciplines and the balances we all need to find between the spiritual and secular, community and solitude, work and rest.
However this is also one of the most challenging courses I teach as the students come from many different countries, cultures and faith backgrounds. This year, 5 of the students were from Myanmar which brought the horrors
of the devastation of the cyclone very close for me. Some of the students were unable to contact their families because the phonelines and we waited anxiously to hear if they were safe. By the end of the week some still had not been able to contact family and friends. None had lost their immediate families but they wereoverwhelmed by the loss of other family members, friends, loved ones and colleagues. Whole villages in which they worked have been swept away. Fellow church workers have been killed. One participant has lost 5 of his 6 pastoral colleagues. See
before and after aerial photos hereMore
images from New York Times
This kind of devastation is unimaginable for us. The death toll could rise to over100,000 and it is possible that disease and starvation will claim many more lives in the coming weeks. The pain and suffering that people are and will continue to endure is unimaginable to us. All we can do is pray and respond with relief goods and support. But what we can do seems so small in the wake of such devastation.
Why does God allow events like this that sweep away Christians and non Christians alike? Some see it as the expected impact of global warming. Others see it as an ecological disaster that results from stripping the land
of mangroves. Still others see it as God’s judgment on a
nation that does not follow God’s ways. To be honest I don’t
know what the reason is though I am sure that God would not judge so harshly and indiscriminately. The verse I continually return to is Lamentations 3: 31 – 33 “For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.”
More than anything I do know that God wants us to respond – with prayer, with compassion and with love. And God wants us to persevere with our responsiveness – even when we hear that a lot of the aid is not getting through or when we are frustrated by the obstructiveness of the military government. My pray is that God’s love and compassion will be poured out on the nation of Myanmar today and throughout the coming months and that out of this terrible pain and suffering God may bring hope and wholeness.
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