For the past four years, the ministry leaders in Myanmar have been living under a military coup. Everyday life and ministry during this time has been extremely difficult.

Reports of airstrikes, food shortages and inflation, as well as the arrest and torture of a Harvest Bridge pastor have come in just these past few weeks. Young adults and teens are increasingly being arrested and forced to serve in the war—some as young as 14.

The circumstances are devastating. Yet, through it all, Harvest Bridge ministry leaders continue to share healing and hope with their community. Through women’s empowerment and economic development programs, Bible training, and aid for the relocation of children and adults to safer areas, Harvest Bridge leaders are sharing the love of God even during this impossible time. In this month’s newsletter, we would like to highlight the Bible training programs that have been happening in Myanmar this year.

“Due to the ongoing crisis in Myanmar, we have lost many opportunities to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we wished. But the Lord has opened a door for us now and we have seen more and more people are open to the Gospel of salvation and have rededicated their lives to serve the Lord. By having this Bible training, the people who never heard the Gospel will hear the message of life and we can produce more leaders for our nation to serve the Lord.

We want the leaders to learn and practice what is taught in the training in order to reach the next generation with the Gospel. There are also many non-believers, and these people need to hear the Gospel message so that they will be saved. We hope to see many unbelievers confess their faith in Jesus Christ and for the Christian leaders to have more vision and to be more effective in their works.” —Pastor Pan

“There have been many challenges like fighting and some opposition. Because of the ongoing war, we have to be very careful what things are going around us while conducting our Bible training. One day, the fighting was close to us and we were just scattering and hiding here and there for more than 3 hours. But by the grace of God, the fighting was not reaching us and we could resume our training and complete it successfully. The most exciting and encouraging part of the training is to see the people who attended rededicate their lives to the Lord so that they can serve the Lord with boldness and more effectively in the future.” —Pastor Mai

Here is what two participants in the training shared:

“I learned so many new things and I hope that I will be more effective in my ministry in the future. We have been facing many challenges in our lives since the coup but as a missionary, I saw that more people are hungry for the Word of God because of the hardships that we face in our daily lives. I am called to serve the Lord among those people and teach them what I learned.” —Pastor Joseph

“Since the coup, I never got a chance to attend Bible training like this as things are getting worse and to organize such training is dangerous. I enjoyed learning many new things from the preachers and also I was greatly blessed to get to know many other pastors and church leaders. Now, I am ready to teach my community the things that I learned from the Bible training. Please pray for me!” —Pastor Tun

120 Pastors and church leaders received training

$26 Average cost per leader to attend

Thank you for making this possible! Our leaders hope to hold several more trainings in 2025.

Here is how you can help our work in Myanmar:

Join us in praying for the ministry leaders and their communities, and for an end to the coup in Myanmar.

Sadly, we believe we are moving into a new stage in the war. The People’s Defence Force (PDF—the main group fighting against the military Junta) is making progress and major gains on the ground. This will eventually be won by the people, but the military still has the strength of aircraft and bombs. Weaponry continues to come from Russia and money from China to support the Junta.

Additionally, in the last few weeks, because of sudden cuts in international funding, non-Junta controlled media has lost some funding, removing a reliable news source for our pastors. Scholarships were cut that had been helping young people have options to study abroad, while also escaping forced conscription. Several refugee camps in both Thailand and Bangladesh have also lost a major portion of their international funding.

Our leaders have expressed that this has made everything feel more hopeless in the country. The need for emergency funds, as well as funds for regular ministry—like Bible training—is needed more than ever. You can give online HERE or by check to our Myanmar fund for this purpose.

Listen to our podcast here to hear directly from our leaders, including a new update from Pastor Pan and Pastor Thang* who were able to meet together this month.

“We stand firmly in His promise, preaching and teaching His Words to the people and we have seen God moving in our ministry. With our own ability and strength, we can’t change anyone’s life. But the power of God changed men and women before us. We were so blessed to see such things in our ministry here. Thank you for your prayers and funding this need.” —Pastor Pan

*Names changed for security