Two stories appeared on my world news apps this week. Both from Myanmar.

The first spoke to the Rohingya crisis. This minority people group is being detained in an “open air prison” in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. A 37-page report by the Human Rights Watch details the abuses of the Burmese military, especially against the women and girls who try to flee the ethnic cleansing to escape into Bangladesh.

The second article chronicled the history of the enacting of martial law by the country’s military government. Prior to last week, more than 50 townships were under martial law, which removes basic individual rights from the persons living in those areas. As of February 22, martial law will now be extended to three more regions in Myanmar, including new sections of Yangon.

On February 23, I received this email from our friend and pastor in Yangon, Rova.

I trust that this email finds you well. It has been some months since I last sent you email.

Concerning our project of Travel Guide to the Bible in Burmese and Mizo Chin, our work has badly been hampered by the electricity problem and the hot weather here. The electricity goes out very oftentimes during the day and the night as well till today. The translators cannot work well almost for two and half months. Our bodies have been melting with sweats when the power goes off. So our original plan was failed.

The two versions of the Travel Guide: Burmese and Mizo Chin are now under editing. We are trying our best to finalize it to be ready for printing within this coming March 2023. We have still been facing the problem of electricity. It is getting worse than before. The electricity goes out for 12 hours or more everyday these days. It also makes our work slower. Moreover, arranging the  Word List in Burmese. It also takes us a long period of hours.  I pray and believe that in the month of April 2023 the books will be in printed form. I will give you an update about the work in March again. I am thinking about buying a gasoline generator, but it is a bit expensive for me. It costs US $ 400. If we can have it, we will be much faster in our work.  Let us keep praying for the soon success of this project.

I would write back and ask a few additional questions. Rova has been one of the men who has been most passionate about the use of the books in Myanmar. With that in mind, I asked a followup question: “How much would a generator help you in your work? Here is his answer.

Yes, a generator will definitely help us in other ways as well.  When there’s no electricity, we have many problems for house lighting, water pumping, computer using, wifi and phone charging and electric fans using. If we have it, it is very useful and helpful for us. I think that this electricity problem will continue at least one or two more years. Thank you very much.

Pray for Myanmar. Pray for the church there, especially among the minority peoples who are under the harshest of government restrictions. And pray that God will help us help Rova in these difficult days.