Source: Pray for Rohingya, via Assist News, March 30, 2021
“Where can we find a home? Where can we find security? Where can we find hope?” As I sat across the table from seven Rohingya men, my mind flashed back to a week earlier when I prayed “God, I’m losing hope in humanity.” Immediately I felt Him reply, “Why is your hope in humanity?” I was reminded that our hope is in Him alone.
All eyes were on Devin and me as these men, leaders in their community, awaited our response. We sat under a tent in the heat of Bangladesh in the refugee camps with bellies full of rice. The pain in their eyes was tangible and the hopelessness they experienced was real. Anuwar, a loving father, shared that he found out his wife was pregnant that same day. He felt aborting the baby could be a more loving option than raising another child in the camps which had no future or hope.
I told them how less than a year earlier, Devin and I were praying together. Out of nowhere “Burma” came into my mind and I pictured a woman wearing a black burqa. I could not point to Burma on a map. I had no idea who the Rohingya were, let alone their situation. The men’s jaws dropped.
“It’s like magic! Most people hear about us from the media, but not you!” I told them that God put them on my heart, and now I was sitting in front of them, on the other side of the world, to tell them He has not forgotten them. He loves and cares for them. It is in Him that we can find hope. Mohammed announced they must share this story of hope with their community, to remember that God has not forgotten them.
The full story includes a few prayer points, and you can find more through the Pray for Rohingya website.
You may have read that at least 15 Rohingya were killed and tens of thousands displaced by a March 22 fire in Cox’s Bazaar, the largest Rohingya refugee camp (New York Times). Another blaze killed three more people soon after (Al Jazeera).