Below you will find the transcript for the most recent episode of our podcast! You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or on Youtube. On the Youtube video below, click “CC” to read the captions while you listen.
As you will hear from Nilar in the podcast, she and Pastor Pan face enormous challenges in caring for the 60 children in their home. From regular gunfights and bombing to continuous electrical and internet blackouts. One of the greatest ways to help right now would be for their home to run completely on solar energy. Power throughout the day helps the children in their studies. The light provides safety at night. Importantly, it allows them to not be controlled by the junta cutting power whenever they want – that can be a strategic advantage at times when a military attack may be planned. It also allows them to have access to clean water through their water pump and not have to be left without when the military cuts off access to water. The entire project will cost $7000. Any amount towards this will make a huge impact in the lives of Nilar, Pan, and all of their children. To support, you can give to our Myanmar fund.
Welcome to the Harvest Bridge podcast. A part of our work here at Harvest Bridge is connecting local leaders in South Asia with people like you, here in the United States. Through our podcast we want to provide a place where you can hear their voices and listen to their stories in their own words. There is a transcription available for those who prefer to read these stories.
You have heard in previous podcasts from Pastor Pan, the Co-Country Leader in Myanmar for Harvest Bridge. Today you will hear an interview with Nilar*, his wife. For their safety we are using a pseudonym for both of them. She will share about the challenges of daily life under the coup, her hope for the future for the children in their home, and the things she is grateful for today. You will hear Nilar’s answers in Burmese along with the translations provided by Pastor Pan.
Pastor Pan and Nilar care for over 60 orphaned children in their home. These children are their family, and they care for them while also caring for the needs of their community and their church. Daily life for Nilar and Pastor Pan is very full and there are many people who depend on them. They do their ministry all while living underneath the violence and restrictions of the ongoing military coup that started in 2020. To learn more about the coup from Pastor Pan and Pastor Thang*, you can listen to episode one of this podcast. The first thing we asked Nilar is what everyday life is like for her and her family in Myanmar. Her husband, Pastor Pan* translates.
We get up early in the morning. We have a routine, to get up for the children, around 6:00, 6:30 and as they get up, even the little ones have a responsibility to clean, at least what they can do, and the middle level and the higher level, they all have responsibility to clean our whole compound.
Nilar shared here that everyone in the home rises early in the morning, around 6 am. Everyone has to do their share, including the youngest children, to take care of the compound. As they do their daily work, the children have been warned to not answer the door. It is not safe. There are people who wish them harm.
What we have told the children, a very important one is, if any one comes from outside, and until, unless you inform us, nobody should open the door, and nobody would talk to the outsiders, because we will know who is coming. Maybe some may come to destroy us. Some may come to disturb us. Some may come to make a problem with us. We don’t know, so don’t talk with any of the outsiders, if anyone even comes to the door. And of course, they follow what we have said to them.
In addition to the threats from people coming to the home, Nilar’s home also lives under the constant threat of bombings from the Junta military. Pastor Pan has mentioned in calls with Harvest Bridge that some of the younger children hardly react to the bombing sounds, as it has been present for most of their lives. They do not remember a time without war – for them, it is normal. Nilar shared:
Especially, the attack used to happen in the night time, as I said, just now, and wherever they are, noises like gunfire, like bombing, when, like the strikes all those things, when all those things come, and we used to call our children, get together in the downstairs, near, close to us, and we just stay together.And with the daily routine, there is no such regular work, but according to the situation. We have to work and we have to do things.
Having a routine is difficult when the bombings can interrupt their schedule at any time. When they do hear signs of an attack, the regular work stops and they gather the children together downstairs. The bombs have fallen very close to Nilar’s home, which is located near the army base, and some of their neighbors have died. But she credits their safety to your prayers and the presence of God.
Yeah, it’s the stress, and it gets worse, especially in [city name]. And we heard many noises around us every time. And also, since we are close to the army base, and the place where we live is one of the dangerous places, even in the [name] city and sometimes the bomb drops beside the back of our house, sometime in front of our house. But it’s not only by our prayer, but also because of your prayer, we are still safe and we are not harmed by any of those kind of things, and so I want to say thank you for not only supporting us, but because of your prayer, we are still safe till today. And also whenever the noises come, whenever the fighting comes, and the boys leave the second story and the girls in the east, and we call them all to the downstairs in the common room. And we stay there, and we keep quiet, and sometimes we pray, and sometimes all the children cry because of fearing and but the Lord was so good to us, and of course, we are still safe . . .
When the bombing happens in the evening, the regular schedule of getting the children to bed is set aside, as the family waits together. The youngest children sleep on the floor until it is safe to return to their beds.
and unless the situation calms down and we never send them to their bed and sometimes the youngest, sometimes the fighting took much, much longer, and at that time, the younger children are asleep on the floor, and we have to care for them. And when the situation comes to, we send them all to their beds.
In addition to concerns with the ongoing violence from the Junta, Nilar also worries about her older children with the new conscription laws. Under these laws, as soon as the children turn 18, they can be forced to fight on behalf of the Junta military. They are forced to serve in the same military that has been bombing near their home. For those that resist, the punishment extends to their family.
The greatest thing that we are worrying [about] is the conscription law, and now some of our children have been affected already in this age. Now, some are going to be soon as they grow up. But until today, even the troops are patrolling inside the city and go house to house and arrest and force them to serve in the military. But until today, because of our prayers, they didn’t come to our house. So we had to pray more and so that the Lord will receive our children, not to be forced in the military.
In the middle of seemingly insurmountable challenges, Nilar points to the power of prayer in their lives. Her faith has remained strong as she and Pastor Pan respond to God’s call in their lives. She asks you to pray for them too.
Yeah, because of fear and many times, and we were in a very hopeless condition, and sometimes we thought that the bomb or the gun were in our house, and we always thinking about all those bad things, but the Lord has been protected us, and we are still saved, and no one is harmed by such wicked hands, such wicked leaders. And I want you to pray continuously for the safety of our children and the safety of our home and so that we can see God’s goodness, even in the future.
It is hard to imagine what the future will look like for the children of Myanmar. Nilar shared her hopes for them and what she and Pastor Pan work on today.
As a mother of these children, it is so painful when they don’t have a good chance of learning education and also, what they lost, all for the future. It is so painful, but we still hope in God that he will open a way for them to be good men and women in the future. And what we are wanting [for] them is, we try our best to train them to become good men and women, for their parents, maybe one, maybe for their mother, maybe for some of the people, for their father, but for some of the people, no more parents, but what we do to them is to be a good men and women and a good education, a good educated person in the future. But right now, it seems to me that, to me, that their future, is their future will be very low, but we still hope in God, that God will take care of the future.
The children are not receiving the education they would have if it weren’t for the disruption from the coup. But Nilar and Pastor Pan still work everyday to raise them up to be good men and women. She admits here that their future may not be what she would have wanted for them, but still she hopes in God, trusting Him with the future for her people.
Life is difficult in Myanmar. But Nilar is full of gratitude. She is grateful to God. She is grateful for the support of Harvest Bridge. She is grateful for the way this support has protected the children from the additional hardships brought by the widespread poverty throughout Myanmar as a result of the coup.
Unexpectedly, the coup has come, and the power has been taken by the Junta. And it seems like we thought many times, and our lives will be very, very difficult, but it’s not the way that we thought. God has been so good to us through Sister Kate and the ministry, helping us a lot, and even our children, the orphan children, did not know that the hardships and the difficulties we [have] because we have enough food, we have enough clothes, and we have everything, because of the ministry. So because of your help, we are so blessed. And I have been experiencing all those things in my life.
Because of your support, the children have had clothing, food and shelter. Nilar says “we are so blessed.” We’ll end with Nilar’s favorite scripture passage:
The Bible portion which always gives me encouragement is Psalm, number 23 verse one, “The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want.
Thank you for listening to the Harvest Bridge podcast. Follow us on social media, or subscribe to our email list to learn more about the ministry of leaders throughout South Asia who are doing much, with little.