[Today’s Prayer] “Sinking refugee boat with 116 Rohingya people on board' rescued by Indonesian fishermen”

A refugee boat carrying 116 Rohingya people was rescued by local fishermen just before it sank off the coast of Sumatra Island, Indonesia.

According to the Associated Press and other sources on the 1st (local time), fishermen in Aceh Province, northern Sumatra Island, discovered a boat on the verge of sinking off the coast the previous day and rescued the refugees on board.

A local police official said the refugees, most of whom were women and children, were starving and dehydrated when they were rescued, and had set out from a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh and were heading to Indonesia or Malaysia.

The official added that it is unclear how long the rescued refugees will remain there, as many Aceh residents are opposed to allowing the Rohingya refugees to stay long-term.

The Rohingya, a Muslim people who have been persecuted in Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country, fled to Bangladesh in large numbers in 2017 following a large-scale crackdown by the Myanmar military.

Since then, refugee flows have continued intermittently, and currently, about 1 million people are living in the Cox's Bazar refugee camps.

However, because life in refugee camps is also poor, many refugees board old wooden boats to go to countries such as Malaysia, where Islam is the state religion, or Indonesia, where Muslims are the majority.

Source: News

Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. (Micah 7:8)

A Rohingya refugee boat en route to Indonesia from Bangladesh is about to sink and is rescued by local Indonesian fishermen.

As a Muslim in a predominantly Buddhist country (Myanmar), we pray that the Lord will fill the Rohingya with the power of the gospel of the cross to heal the wounds of their persecution and the poverty of their spiritual and physical lives as refugees in Bangladesh.

As Rohingyas flee religious persecution and head to Bangladesh and Indonesia, two countries that share the same religion, we see that not a single Muslim country has come forward to help the Rohingyas, even though they are supposed to be brothers in Islam.

May the Rohingya people, who continue to live a life of refuge and pastoralism, seem to be at the threshold of death, but may You raise them up and bring them to You, the Light of the World.

For the Rohingya who have been rescued, but are forced to go to other countries due to the opposition of the people of Aceh Province, Indonesia, to stay for a longer period of time, that they may come to know Jesus, the Shepherd, and be led to settle in a land flowing with milk and honey with the help and protection of the Church.

May the ASEAN church know Your heart for this and intercede for the marginalized Rohingya people.

In the refugee camps of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where one million Rohingya are still displaced, may the Bangladeshi church recognize the suffering of the Rohingya and actively embrace and serve them in love.

And through the intercession of the ASEAN church and the ministry of the gospel, may the Rohingya turn away from the lies of Islam and become an army of one million ASEAN people running toward the nations with the word of truth!