God is good, all the time.
A Baptist clergyman residing in Myanmar who received a six-year prison sentence by the military government in the country has now been released after serving 12 months behind bars after a massive influx of international calls were made for him to be let out. The Lord answers prayers, as this so obviously proves. Never be hesitant to turn to God with prayer requests, no matter how big or small, because He cares for us and every part of our lives.
According to the Christian Post, the Rev. Hkalam Samson, who once served as the president of the Kachin Baptist Convention, was released from prison earlier in July after serving a total of 16 months, a Kachin advocacy group revealed.
Samson was sentenced to six years of prisonlast April under the Unlawful Association Act, the Penal Code and the Terrorism Act of Myanmar, a nation also known as Burma.
“He was released after living at a house in the prison compound,” Lamai Gwanja, a leading member of the Kachin-based Peace-talk Creation Group, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “He had not been rearrested but was called in for a short time for discussion of the peace issue, and after three months, he was released.”
Samson was previously given amnesty in April; however, he was returned to custody mere hours after being released, according to the AP. The military government claimed it was to cooperate with the peace process.
The U.S. State Department, which had called for Samson’s release, celebrated the news. Spokesman Matthew Miller called Samson “a prominent, well-respected religious leader.”
“The United States welcomes the release of Reverend Dr. Hkalam Samson from prison in Burma after he served more than a year of a six-year sentence on military-led, manufactured charges,” Miller remarked. “While we welcome this news, we reiterate our calls for the military regime to end its repression of, and violence against, religious actors, communities, and sites and houses of worship in Burma.”
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Miller then said that the junta government “has continued to imprison political actors, democratically elected officials, human rights defenders, and members of civil society.”
“We continue to urge the military regime to immediately release the many individuals it has unjustly detained, cease its violence against civilians, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and respect the people of Burma’s aspirations for inclusive, representative democracy,” Miller continued.
The crime the government accused Samson of engaging in treasonous activities back in December 2022. Samson was arrested and then sentenced to six years in prison last year, which many considered to be a miscarriage of justice.
Back in 2019, Samson was one of many advocates for religious liberty that got a chance to meet with former President Donald Trump at the White House. He delivered a talk about how Christians are being persecuted in Myanmar and thanked Trump for sanctioning top Myanmar military generals.
“As Christians in Myanmar, we are being oppressed and tortured by the Myanmar military government,” Samson stated. “We don’t have a chance for religious freedom as ethnic armed groups fight against the central military government. Please American government, focus on ethnic people and ethnic leader to get democracy and federalism. It is very important for your help and your support.”
Here’s to hoping that Samson will have an opportunity to rest in the Lord for a season, recuperate physically, mentally, and spiritually, so that God can once again use him to reach the lost with the message of the gospel.