In the Inle region of Myanmar, around three-quarters of houses are built in or on top of water. The area is best known for its iconic Inle Lake.

But when a strong earthquake registering 7.7 in magnitude hit central Myanmar on Friday (March 28), this famous tourist destination saw its houses collapsing like decks of cards.

“The walls of the houses collapsed and trapped people in. Many people died in the water,” Pastor Gideon Kap Cin Thang, speaking via telephone, told Salt&Light on Saturday morning.

An almost fully submerged house in Inle, Myanmar.

The Inle region lies in the south of Shan State, which is next to Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city. The epicenter of the quake occurred just outside Mandalay.

Strong tremors extended into Thailand and Yunnan in south-west China, with videos on social media showing damage to buildings in Bangkok.

The death count now stands at several hundred, with numbers expected to escalate as the full picture of damage emerges.

The United States Geological Survey estimates that the death toll is likely to surpass 10,000, and that there is a strong possibility of a much higher toll.

Villages and young children left injured and hungry in the aftermath of the earthquake.

The search for the missing continues. 

Ps Gideon, who leads the Brave Ministry team in Myanmar, said he could not sleep last night.

“It was my first experience with an earthquake. It was very scary. The ground was shaking and we ran out to the road. We saw buildings and pagodas collapsing,” said Ps Gideon, 40.  

Brave Ministry is a Christian ministry founded by Singaporean Melinda Lim, a former Singapore Airlines stewardess turned missionary. She runs the ministry with her husband Samuel Lee, a former Pastor at Lighthouse Evangelism. It has teams in Cambodia and Myanmar to serve the needs of the vulnerable.

While the building of their organisation only sustained relatively minor damage – part of the ceiling fell down and cracks appeared in the walls – others were not so fortunate.

“People were trying to remove the walls and bamboo debris of the houses built in the water so that they could rescue the people who were immersed in the water,” said Ps Gideon.

Most of the houses that villagers in Inle live in are built in or on top of water.

As Myanmar has been in political turmoil since a military junta seized power in a 2021 coup, access to the country has been restricted.

“We don’t have many humanitarian organisations able to come here to help with rescue efforts. We just have to help ourselves,” said Ps Gideon.

Family members finding ways to rescue their loved ones from the waterlogged homes that have collapsed.

Rendered homeless from the earthquake and fearing aftershocks, villagers in Inle have been sleeping anywhere out in the open, whether it is out in the fields and boats or on the roads.

When dusk fell, people slept out in the open in boats, either out of fear of aftershocks or because they were made homeless by the earthquake.

A sharp spike in prices of household items and panic buying of essentials has already started, said Ps Gideon.

“Our community is in urgent need of food, clean water, medicine, and shelter for those who have lost everything. Many families are without safe drinking water and basic medical supplies, increasing the risk of disease and malnutrition,” he noted.

He estimated that about 100 homes connected to the community served by Brave Myanmar have been affected. The ministry was in the midst of running a three-month summer camp for 250 children and youth when the earthquake struck. The camp was temporarily ceased yesterday.

Ps Gideon and his team of over 20 volunteers are on standby to render any help needed to the local community. Meanwhile, it is partnering community-based organisations there to cook and distribute food to those who need it.

“Frankly, we don’t have much funding or manpower. We can only distribute food that lasts them a day or so. If we have more resources, we hope to distribute items like rice and oil that can last them longer, for a week or two,” said Ps Gideon.

Ever since the country was plunged into military and political crisis in 2021, Ps Gideon said his community there has been “growing in faith, by the grace of God”.

“But I worry for the children, for their security and health,” he added.

Prayers for provision and God’s shalom

Apart from praying for the Gospel to continue to reach people, Ps Gideon has been praying for God’s peace for his fellow countrymen.

“The worries in the hearts of people cannot be removed just by giving them food. We need to pray for God’s love and peace to be in their hearts so that they can move on. But of course, we also need to show the love of God tangibly by meeting their basic needs,” he said.

Rescue workers in Myanmar and Thailand are scrambling to find survivors. The BBC reported that rescuers have resorted to using their bare hands to dig people out of the rubble over at Mandalay.

In Thailand, rescue operations are ongoing at an unfinished high-rise building after it collapsed, with around 100 construction workers unaccounted for and six dead, according to local government officials.

Said Ps Gideon: “The scale of the disaster is overwhelming. We humbly ask for your prayers for the grieving families and the thousands who are now homeless.”

If you are interested to help, please contact Brave Ministry at [email protected]. Read more about their work in Myanmar here.

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