Bill Goes to Myanmar

It all happened so quickly. We invited a guest missionary to come to our area from Chiang Rai to help us further train our team in the art of crafting and telling Bible stories.

He has been going into Myanmar (Burma) regularly and has been a part of a movement where they have had reports of over eighty thousand coming to the Lord.

Since we have been longing to see a movement of Jesus followers among Thai people, we were eager to see what God is doing there and also be available to help in any way we could.

Bill reports, “The first two days I was able to spend time with the Burmese father of the movement.

He was very gracious to explain to me some of the nuances of his method of sharing the gospel with Buddhists. He was very clear in showing how he contrasts the way of Buddha with the way of Jesus.

While in Yangoon, I was able to see part of a training session that was taking place with a group of leaders. They seemed to be very sincere and committed to reaching their people with the good news of Jesus.

At the end of this meeting a couple of young people were baptized. One of them was the son of one of the leaders. This young man is a boxer and is very popular in his region. He wants to work with his father to share the gospel with the people there.

I also met one of the leaders of the Jesus followers from Hindu background and one of the brothers who had helped initiate the movement among Muslims. It is amazing what God has done through these brothers.

After visiting the leadership in the capital, we went to the Irrawaddy Region with one of the key leaders and her husband. She is a very passionate follower of Jesus who had been forced to the leave that region the last time she had been there. But she was happy to take us and arranged everything very quickly. It was rainy season and some areas were flooded. Also, most people were busy with getting their rice in the paddy. This made it difficult to gather people but we were able to go to two villages and share stories from the Bible with them and prayed with them for healing.

The first village had three believers, two of which had been baptized about a year before. This village was outside a town in which over 150,000 people had perished from typhoon Nargis several years prior. They filled the house we were meeting in with friends and relatives who listened intently to our message. Afterwards six people were baptized.

The next day we took a two and a half hour boat ride to a village that no one had shared the gospel in before. The headman had become a believer after typhoon Nargis through people in the network and was willing for us to come even though there has been much opposition. It was Sunday so we were able to meet in the one room school house and many children were able to come join the adults. They responded beautifully to the message of Jesus but we felt we should be cautious about asking if any were ready to receive baptism. It was evident that the people in this village loved the leader who brought us in very much. Afterwards a monk from the region called and chastised her for bringing Jesus to the people and for bringing in foreigners.

I am very impressed with the quality and genuineness of the people that I met in this movement. They are doing effective work in a very difficult place. God is at work in Myanmar and it is a beautiful thing to see.”