ROHINGYA UPDATE
The Rohingya situation in Myanmar and Bangladesh, the nearest country of refuge, continues to be an overwhelming challenge.
While the Myanmar and Bangladesh governments work to settle issues of refugee repatriation back to Myanmar, almost a million Rohingya refugees battle the realities of daily physical survival and hopelessness in a situation where resolution seems very far away.
Medical Mission
In early March 2018 a four-day medical mission was conducted at the Shafullah Gata & Jamtoli Refugee Camp in Ukhia, Bangladesh. A Muslim doctor who runs a medical tent in the camp welcomed our Christian group. Through this facilitation, 509 patients, mostly women, were served. On Fridays, when men go to the mosque for prayer, more women come to the clinic.
Georgy, the mission team’s coordinator, requested that more female doctors be added in the next mission, to make it easier for female patients to relate to the doctors.
One patient said, “I am thankful to you and your organization that you have arranged this medical camp here… We get enough medicine and the doctors are really patient to hear our problems.”
The tender attention that the Christian medical staff gave to the Rohingya patients spoke volumes in the heart of the refugees, who have been traumatized by experiences of cruelty in their homeland.
May a Christian presence among these refugees unlock the doors of their understanding to receive the immeasurable love that God has sent to them through Jesus Christ.
One patient said, “I am thankful to you and your organization that you have arranged this medical camp here… We get enough medicine and the doctors are really patient to hear our problems.”
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS
“My mind was opened and now I am willing to accept and pray for the Muslims and the Rohingyas as my neighbors,” said a Christian evangelist from the Tripura tribe, one of the 11 ethnic minority groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
He was one of 105 leaders who attended the Regional Prayer Conference (RPC) in Cox’s Bazar, held on the first week of March 2018. A number of RPCs were organized through the Bangladesh Prayer Movement to saturate the nation with prayer for revival and harvest.
This annual prayer conference, launched in 2008, has since brought together more than 48 denominations and church group affiliations to lift their voices together for the salvation of Bangladesh’s 166 million people, more than 90% of which are Muslim.
Prayer has been an effective platform to bring unity among different denominations in diverse and divisive cultures.
“My mind was opened and now I am willing to accept and pray for the Muslims and the Rohingyas as my neighbors,” said a Christian evangelist from the Tripura tribe, one of the 11 ethnic minority groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s indigenous peoples harbored deep resentment against Bengalis, the ethnic majority, since the country’s independence from West Pakistan in 1971. At that time the government officially recognized only the Bengali culture, language and identity. The increasing presence of Bengali settlers in the hill tracts sparked ethnic conflicts and land disputes. Severe atrocities against the hill tract people and displacement of communities resulted in a 20-year insurgency demanding autonomy. The result was restricted entry to the region.
Peace accords in 1997 recognized the special status of the hill tract people and ended the insurgency but did not guarantee development for the region nor an end to discrimination and abuses against indigenous peoples.
Their resentment was a strong challenge to the Church, which received the mandate to “love your neighbor as yourself”, after loving God with all our heart, soul and strength. Most hill tract people disliked the Bengalis and many Bengali Christians, especially Muslim converts, felt the discomfort of trying to find a good place in the hearts of their non-Bengali brothers.
The Lord worked His way into the hearts of the Christian leaders at the Regional Prayer Conference. As the Word of God was taught, they started to recognize that Muslims were among the “flock outside the pen” whom Jesus would like to gather so they would have One Shepherd.
The coming of almost one million Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, their plight for survival and their need for spiritual salvation drew the conference attendees to open their hearts to love the Muslims as their neighbors. They prayed for the protection of Muslim-background believers, some of them present in the conference, to find a way to reach many more with the Gospel.
May the Church in Bangladesh be totally healed from resentment against every neighbor and take on the beautiful spirit of compassion from the heart of the Father, who is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance.
