Everything is a challenge

Thomas Baldwin meets the leader of a partner church in Myanmar and learns of the large-scale everyday challenges facing people – and the valued support of the Church of Scotland.

CHURCH of Scotland leaders undoubtedly have a lot on their collective plate at the moment, but they may consider themselves fortunate when they consider the in-tray of the Rev Pek Muan Cuang.

The Rev Pek, as he introduces himself, has been the General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar (PCM) - a Church of Scotland partner church - since April 2023. In that time the church has had to deal with widespread violence caused by civil unrest, the collapse of the country’s health and education systems, and two natural disasters which have caused considerable damage to both the church’s property and that of its members.

Visiting Scotland in October, the Rev Pek was full of gratitude for the Church of Scotland’s support with the PCM’s work, but said that business was very much not as usual.

“It’s not good,” he says drily.

“We need to focus on the urgent needs of the people, because the challenges are now overwhelming. Because of the political unrest – which I would call the civil war between the military and local defence forces – there are a lot of bombings near our headquarters. In recent weeks one village with 500 houses – 2000-2500 people - was burned down, so the people from that village fled down to the town and there are a lot of refugees, that not only PCM but all the churches around the town are busy with.

“The church is also filling in the gap left by the closure of state-run schools, although Pek notes that ‘the children themselves are very happy!

“Besides that, there are a lot of people not daring to stay in their villages and fleeing to town. The church is providing shelter, food and clothing. They will return home if the situation calms down for a time, but they keep coming back.”

The church is also filling in the gap left by the closure of state-run schools, although Pek notes that ‘the children themselves are very happy!’.

“So our church took the initiative to start church schools. Since June the PCM has opened more than 20 schools, run by individual congregations and the General Assembly provides support and teacher training. In the remote places we can use the property of the school that has closed down, but at town level we don’t dare do that because the military is not happy about it, so we use church halls.”

Another challenge is healthcare. Pek says that the state-run hospitals have closed down because most of the medical staff have left. The PCM runs one hospital which is struggling to keep up with demand.

Everyday life is also impacted by the upheaval. “Everything is difficult,” he says. “Travelling is difficult because roads have been blocked, so goods cannot move from the cities to remote areas. Prices are going up. Everything is a challenge now – and in my personal view this will go long term.

“The Church of Scotland has provided us with green energy – solar panels and batteries – to help run our office and library. So we can work, we can get light, get the computers running. It has been a great help.

No improvement can be seen.”

And there are challenges from other sources, too. “In May this year we had a very strong cyclone that had a devastating impact, a lot of church buildings and pastors’ houses owned by PCM have been damaged, roofs have been blown away and some buildings are totally collapsing.

“And in August we had very heavy rain and flooding, which covered all the crops. More than 200 PCM members’ crops have been damaged and now ploughing cannot be done because the season is not friendly any more to do it. So the affected people have been looking very much to the General Assembly to get help, and we are sending requests to partner churches to help us whatever way they can.”

Christianity is very much a minority religion in Myanmar, representing only 6.5% in a country which is 85% Buddhist. From a population of around 54 million, the PCM has about 38000 members in around 250 congregations. The baptist church is bigger but, Pek says, individual baptist congregations work mostly in isolation. “As Presbyterians we are not very big, but we have a centralised ministry, so we work together a lot. We are proud of that.”

Prior to becoming General Secretary, the Rev Pek taught at the PCM’s Tahan Theological College, and was principal there from 2009-2015. It was there that he first became aware of the support of the Church of Scotland for PCM.

“The college doesn’t have a power supply from the state, since Myanmar has a very poor electrical system,” he says. “The Church of Scotland has provided us with green energy – solar panels and batteries – to help run our office and library. So we can work, we can get light, get the computers running. It has been a great help.”

The other area in which the Church of Scotland has helped PCM has been in ministry to and by women. “We have been receiving support from the Church of Scotland to provide women’s empowerment and training. This includes a self-help project for women, where we are providing them with training and then they can open their own small business.

“Another thing is nurse training. The church provides the training costs for a year for nurses to train in a hospital, and then after getting their certificate they can go home and look after sick people in their local areas. In our country many remote places have no nurses or doctors, so this is very helpful.

“And then we are empowering women’s leadership in the church, and aiming to have more women ordained as ministers in the PCM. We have one woman minister in the PCM, ordained two years ago, and are hoping to have more soon. And we have more women involved in local church decision-making bodies as well.

“Without the help of the Church of Scotland the women’s department of our General Assembly would not have such a meaningful ministry. So we are very very much in a debt of gratitude to the Church of Scotland.

“We are very thankful for the prayer, support, concern, love and care for our church.”

Anyone interested in supporting the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar can contact Carol Finlay on cfinlay@churchofscotland.org.uk