When Ruth Vreeland lies in bed at night, the quiet is thick. Painful. Too stifling for sleep.
With every fiber of her being, she wills the phone to ring out in the silence.
Just once.
“When you hear nothing, it doesn’t mean that nothing’s going on,” she said. “It means it’s gotten worse — much worse.”
The “it” that consumes Vreeland, a student at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School, is the unstable situation in Myanmar (Burma), her home country where her family still lives.
“I talked to my father on Tuesday (Sept. 25), and he said that the government had already cut off the Internet and that he didn’t know how long the phones would last,” she said. “I tried to call him back again the next day, and it had been cut off already.”
Demonstrations escalated
The unrest began when demonstrations against Myanmar’s military dictatorship started Aug. 19 after citizens rallied against government-induced fuel price hikes.
The peaceful demonstrations intensified as nearly 30,000 Buddhist monks repeatedly marched barefoot on several popular shrines and down main city streets surrounded at times by 70,000 to 100,000 supporters. Buddhist nuns even showed their support by marching at a Myanmar temple.
Crowds reportedly prayed and shouted “democracy” and “give us freedom” as soldiers fired tear gas and warning shots attempting to disperse the crowds.
Demonstrations became bloody when soldiers and riot police reportedly beat protestors and fired automatic weapons into crowds, killing at least 10 people including a Japanese journalist.
Most recently, media reports from the country state that troops in riot gear have occupied Buddhist monasteries beating and arresting monks and even taking them away as they slept.
“The last time I talked to my family, it was so scary,” Vreeland said. The day before, a demonstration had taken place on the street in front of her family’s home.
That night, her family turned the lights off in its house and watched through the window as soldiers marched down the street and arrested a neighbor. Now Vreeland just wants to hear word that something hasn’t happened to her family, too.
“But they have no way to communicate,” she said.
And according to The Associated Press, the lack of public Internet access severely decreases opportunities to share news reports and images from the turbulent country.
“I just want to talk to them. It’s killing me with worry,” Vreeland said.
These protests have become the biggest anti-government protests since monks and other protestors overthrew dictator Ne Win in August 1988. Unfortunately, one month later, the group of generals now leading the country seized power, killing thousands of protesters, arresting countless others and ignoring the landslide election victory of currently detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to ABC News.
Vreeland remembers 1988. And she remembers how long the effects lasted.
“I don’t know how long this will last this time. I hope not as long,” she said.
It’s a thin line that Christians in Myanmar are walking, she added — “they have no room to play.”
If Buddhists are beating fellow Buddhists, “what would they do to a minority (like Christians) if they were to appear involved in the demonstrations? The best thing for Christians to do is keep quiet and pray,” she said.
Vreeland is unsure what the immediate fate of churches will be. “It’s dangerous to gather in groups of five or more at a time, so I’m not sure if they will be able to meet this Sunday (Sept. 30).”
And she dreads what the situation will do to an already poverty-stricken country. Her family tells her that the prices of food items and other necessities have tripled since the demonstrations began.
“Meat was already almost too expensive to afford, and now it is nearly impossible to buy it,” she said.
Her family is mainly making it on rice for the time being. “As long as people there can have rice and soil and grow vegetables, they will have what they need,” she said. “And they will just eat what they have.”
Vreeland asked that Alabama Baptists pray for her family and the entire nation of Myanmar.
“Please pray for change in my country. The world says it is watching, but just watching isn’t going to help — it’s time for people to get involved,” she said.
“Please pray that no more people will be killed and that Christians there will stay safe.”
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