Mennonite Church Canada Call to Prayer for Myanmar

Mennonite Church Canada calls on our nationwide community of faith to pray for the people of Myanmar. Pray also for our Myanmar siblings here in Canada as they are deeply concerned for their loved ones and the effect that recent actions will have on peace within Myanmar.

“We worry for our political leaders who have been imprisoned. This creates a very uncertain future. We need to lift our prayers to God,” says Jehu Lianching, assistant director Myanmar Missions International. He added, “Burma has seven states; all have their own armies. Concern is growing about the possibility of civil war.”

There are five Chin congregations in Mennonite Church Canada.

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A Response of Love

“It was hard!” says Pastor Ashenafi from Freedom Gospel Ethiopian Church, an MCEC congregation in Toronto. “Hiwot, my wife, self-isolated in one bedroom for two weeks and the family stayed in the rest of the apartment. The younger children couldn’t understand why they weren’t able to be with their Mommy.”

As a front-line personal support worker at St. Clair O’Conner Community Inc. in Toronto, Hiwot contracted Covid-19 and became ill. Ashenafi, Hiwot and their four children live in a two-bedroom apartment in Toronto. The family felt cut off – cut off in their isolation from their friends, cut off in their isolation from the outside world and cut off in their isolation even from each other. Toronto MCEC pastors soon began to hear of Ashenafi and Hiwot’s needs and the community of care surrounding Ashenafi and Hiwot began to grow. 

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Signs of the Times

In the past nearly two decades MCEC has slowly, meticulously, intentionally welcomed and invited relationship with refugee, immigrant, marginalized and under-resourced populations in Eastern Canada. These relationships have stretched our ability to listen and learn, pushing us to encounter the unique challenges faced by populations who are not able to rely upon inheritance, generational wealth or simply (and sadly) the colour of their skin to provide a head start.

Today we are being challenged to action by the call of #blacklivesmatter coming from among us – from leaders within MCEC. Listening, learning, and responding will take “courageous imagination."

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