Dear Friends,
The Asian Ministry Committee of the North Carolina Annual Conference urges your participation in a call to prayer for Myanmar. The Myanmar military armed forces, the Tatmadaw, seized control of the democratic government via a coup d’etat on February 1, 2021. They arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the National League for Democracy which was the ruling party that had been democratically elected.
On February 4, 2021, United Methodist Global Ministries issued a statement hoping and praying for a return to democracy in Myanmar.
In our own Annual Conference, the Rev. Connie Stutts of Rhems United Methodist Church requests prayers for the members of her congregation who have come from and still have family and friends in Myanmar. She writes:
“We ask for your prayers for the people of Burma [i.e. Myanmar]. The congregation of Rhems UMC in the Sound District of our conference has a worshiping congregation half of whom have come to the US in the last 15 years as Karen and Karenni refugees from Burma. They still have families and friends in the nation whose livelihoods and very lives are facing extinction. We humbly ask for your prayers for the nation and for the people groups threatened. We ask for prayers for protection over the people, for a peaceful transfer of power, for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, and [for] the transformation of the hearts of the military regime.”
The Asian Ministry Committee strongly endorses the statement of the United Methodist Global Ministries as well as the call for prayer by Rev. Stutts. We firmly condemn the military coup d’etat and support the Myanmarese and their unwavering desire to advance democracy in a peaceful manner.
Please join with us in prayer for a peaceful return to democracy in Myanmar and the safety of the Myanmarese people.
Rev. Sang-Seon Park, Chair of the Asian Ministries Committee
Rev. Edgar DeJesus
Rev. Hyun-Soak Park
Rev. Joseph Park
Rev. Kong Suk Namkung
Rev. Sung Moy
Rev. Woo-Il Lee
Rev. Seyun Hwang
Rev. Jaye White, Director of Outreach Ministry
Rev. Johannes Gumbo, Chair of the SBC Committee
Rev. Harold Hunt, Chair of Native American Ministries
Sara Cortes, Chair of the Hispanic-Latino Committee
Pam Baker, Native American Cooperative Ministries
David Brown, Chair of the Refugee and Immigration Committee
Louise Mitchell, Chair of the Multicultural Ministries Committee
Rev. Ernesto Barriguete, Director of Race Equity and Justice Ministries