A Pastor Was Killed in Myanmar; His Church Still Stands
Two pastors executed in Chin and churches burned or occupied in Kachin, while Washington resumes talks with the military junta.
On September 14, soldiers opened fire on Dal Thawn Tuang, a pastor in Myanmar, as he was returning from preaching. He was 49, with a wife and two children. International Christian Concern reported it.
Two Pastors and One State
Tuang had served for 22 years as an assistant pastor at the Lamzang Baptist church in Chin State. He was heading back to his village after religious activities in neighboring Tui Tawh Village when the shots hit him near the Kapte bridge, according to the Burma Research Institute.
An examination of his body found gunshot wounds to the chest, abdomen and thigh. The funeral was held on September 16.
«Persecuting the church does not snuff it out; it scatters it and multiplies it.»
Three months earlier, the same state lost two other believers. Reverend William, a Baptist pastor with 25 years of service, and Nam Ceu were detained in May and executed on June 4, according to the Burma Research Institute.
The military's accusation was that they supported opposition armed forces. People cited by that institute described the killings as extrajudicial executions. William leaves behind a wife and five children. Persecuting the church does not snuff it out; it scatters it and multiplies it.
Churches Occupied, Churches Burned
In Kachin, the conflict also walks in through the church door. On October 13, International Christian Concern reported that militias allied with the army used the Nant Mun Baptist church, in Mohnyin Township, for military activities.
The Burma Research Institute verified that the Shanni Nationalities Army, an armed group aligned with the junta, held a graduation ceremony there in September. People close to the case told the institute that there was dancing and alcohol inside the sanctuary, and that the church has been used to train six batches of recruits.
The same report said that a building belonging to the St. Joseph Catholic church served as a militia barracks and another was looted.
On October 12, army troops burned a Kachin Baptist Convention church and neighboring homes in Bhamo, as fighting against the Kachin Independence Army intensified, according to Burma News International. Local sources said soldiers remained in the area and prevented any assessment of the damage.
Washington Returns to the Table
Amid those attacks, the United States resumed dialogue with the military leadership, which it had avoided since the February 2021 coup. According to Reuters, there were talks in Naypyidaw in September and another round in Tokyo in October: two meetings in about a month.
Those meetings focused on the release of an American businessman and on shutting down scam centers that defraud U.S. citizens. Access to rare earth deposits emerged as a possible topic for a broader conversation.
The State Department maintained that the outreach seeks practical benefits for Americans, especially those affected by transnational crime. That is the other side of the story: Washington is sitting down with a government whose leader, Min Aung Hlaing, remains under U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended putting Myanmar back on the list of countries of particular concern, a category it held from 1999 to 2023. In August 2026, the UN reported that the situation had worsened, with abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority attributed to the army and the Arakan Army.
For a young Hispanic in Phoenix or Mexico City, Myanmar is far off the map. In the faith, it is not: "Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body" (Hebrews 13:3, ESV).
Today you can do something small and concrete: pray for Tuang's wife and two children, for William's family and for the churches of Chin and Kachin. If your church supports missions, ask how believers living under pressure are being accompanied. And the honest question: when the scroll moves on, who stays behind to look out for them?
