By Amanda Wells
Three New Zealand Presbyterians visited Myanmar in September, just before marches against the ruling military junta gained international prominence.
Global Mission Enabler the Rev Andrew Bell, St Columba at Botany’s the Rev Andrew Norton and his daughter Angela Norton spent six days in the country, each of them describing it as an overwhelming experience.
Andrew Bell says even the subject of the country’s name is complicated, with Burma being a British colonial transliteration of Bamar, the original name, which does not seem to be particularly favoured by the country’s inhabitants. The military regime changed Burma to Myanmar and this is the name used by the country’s Presbyterian Church. Christianity is legal in Myanmar, if not particularly favoured, and services can be held openly.
Most international visitors go no farther than Yangon, known by the British as Rangoon, but Andrew's group visited the Chin hills, where the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar (PCM) is based. This appeared to cause the military regime some nervousness, Andrew says. When they arrived in Tahan (also known as Kalaymyo-Tahan), their passports were confiscated, despite the fact that they had already entered the country in Yangon, and they were assigned a detective who shadowed them during their stay. They had to stay in the government hotel, not venture past military checkpoints stationed four miles out of town, and adhere to a 9pm curfew. A chaperone submitted a written report on their movements every night.
Andrew Bell says the PCM took a risk hosting their visit, of which they were conscious, especially as tension increased during their stay with the growth of protest marches in Yangon. “There was always stuff going on in the shadows.”
The day before the three left, their hosts drove them to the university for a planned visit, but when they were getting out of their vehicle, the principal appeared in an agitated state and they were bundled back in. When they turned o. on to a secondary road on the way back into town, an army jeep appeared alongside them with the driver shouting out of the window to turn back.
On their last evening, they went to a church service but were suddenly told they must return to their hotel, and rushed back braced for a visit from the military that never eventuated. But they were being so closely watched the next day that proper goodbyes would have put their hosts in danger.
The group had decided beforehand that, if questioned, they would be very open about what they were bringing into the country, which included six secondhand laptops donated by St Columba members that were gratefully received by PCM.
It’s a micro-wage society, with ministers earning $1 a day at the most, and teachers only 50 cents a day. A street sweeper working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, earns 30c a day. Andrew Bell says, “I fed about 10 street children for $1; it’s very di. cult to not come across as extraordinarily wealthy”.
In this kind of micro-cash economy, mission projects need to be small and practical. “Imagine what our Church could do if it mobilised itself; if we said ‘for five years we’re going to do everything we can for the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar’”.
PCM has eight synods, which correspond to the eight tribes of the Chin hill people, three of which are particularly impoverished.
The Moderator’s appeal for Myanmar, launched by the Global Mission Office last year, will be continued through the next year and Andrew says it’s already one of their most successful fundraising e. orts. Donations via the appeal have established a chicken house and bought a team of water buffalo for the Zo synod. The Tedim synod’s manse burned down earlier this year. As well as housing the minister, it includes the synod office and the worship centre itself. The GMO is raising money to rebuild it. Rebuilding itself presents difficulties because permission must be officially gained and the payments for this are considerable. The Chin tribe is discriminated against, and Chin people who are Christians find any official dealings doubly difficult. The Lairum synod will be the next that the GMO works with, and while he was in Myanmar Andrew Bell invited them to identify a project.
At a national level, the GMO facilitates scholarships for postgraduate study. Andrew says he’s talking with the Association of Presbyterian Women about scholarships particularly targeted at women because although many are studying at the theological college, cultural norms mean they are not put forward for the existing grants.
Andrew Bell says he would like to give some specific help to the Agape medical clinic in Tahan, which has primitive facilities by New Zealand standards. “They were washing their rubber gloves. It’s just horrific.”
The regime shut down the country’s one Internet service provider when the troubles started, and Andrew says he has received only limited news since their visit.
For Andrew Norton, the trip was part of his study leave, during which he examined how a local church can best go about establishing a mission partnership with a community overseas. “One of the key things for me was seeing the potential for harm is actually equal to the potential for good,” he says.
“Whose needs are being met? Are we placing them in any harm or danger? Are we giving them what they need or what we want to give them? If we’ve got the money, we’ve got the power. But that’s not actually a relationship."
“It’s about realising that your visit actually costs them,” he says – in terms of exposure to risk and in terms of accommodation, food or gifts that cultural considerations might demand, but that might be very significant costs for them.
“The last thing the oppressed need is well-meaning people who’ve heard from God to go and save them. What they do need is relationships.”
Andrew Norton says the relationships formed during the trip were special and significant, and that it was an overwhelming experience.
He says the response from St Columba has been overwhelming, with the prominence of Myanmar in the news during the three weeks after his return heightening the sense of connection.
Angela Norton says people have been hugely interested in their trip because of media coverage, not only at church but also in the workplace. Angela is a private bank executive in the investment division of the Bank of New Zealand.
She says what struck her most during the trip was the generosity and kindness of the people; “their ability to still have a smile on their face in the midst of all this oppression”. “Everything they do, they have to get permission for.” While it would be theoretically possible for people to plant vegetables in their backyard and support themselves, they can’t because of the need for official approval.
St Columba has identified four project areas in which to work together with the PCM. The first of these is “pilgrimages of pain and hope”, which are two-way visits designed to build relationships. The second is resource exchanges, which covers training in microenterprise development, short-term professional exchanges, and used laptops. Next is identified humanitarian aid: 10 hospital beds and an x-ray machine. The final area is development projects, with the goal of establishing one microenterprise unit per synod (each costs $10,000). Microenterprise means lending small amounts of money to people so that they can set up small businesses. This work in Myanmar has already been kick-started by a visit earlier this year from four Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand young people, lead by Andrew Colgan, who have set up the Aotearoa Development Cooperative to fund microenterprise projects in Myanmar.
St Columba has already raised enough money for the hospital beds. Angela says her home group is planning a silent auction that could fund further visits, whether to Myanmar or bringing people from PCM to New Zealand. The auction would give people who couldn’t donate money the opportunity to give time or professional skills, she says.
Andrew Norton says what stood out more to him than the poverty was the oppression, which took the form of having to seek permission to do anything. While he always felt safe, when he asked their hosts “are you safe?” their reply tended to be “don’t worry about us, we know what to do”.
He says he was struck by the vibrancy of the people and their outlook on life. “It made you feel overwhelmingly humbled. When I look at their faith, it’s just a wonderful example; it’s who they are, it’s how they live.”
Andrew Norton says he’s keen to help other churches work through some of the issues that St Columba has been processing in terms of doing global mission. It’s about shifting away from sending missionaries to forming partnerships with local communities, he says. “Partnership means that both are able to give and receive.”