Mission trip to Myanmar -15-20 August 16 (Part 1)

Praise God for another opportunity to visit the mission field in Myanmar. This was another adventurous trip with plenty of nerve-wrecking moments along the way. But it was filled with many "God moments" as well, where we witnessed His Grace and protection first-hand. Bro Albert and I went in this trip. Bishop Nehemiah was on his way to Jogjakarta. 

Bro Albert's task was to teach the 3rd batch of Church Planters in Myanmar Theological Collage (MTC). PEC sponsors this batch and we thank Bro HS Tan and Bro Samuel’s family for sponsoring this group. Bro Albert took the subject, "Rulership in Life", seven sessions in total. My objective was to visit some of the Church Planters to observe their activities. 

On 15 Aug evening we visited our church planter Pst Zaw Min Lat. This is a church amongst the Indian community, about 45 mins from MTC. About 15 people were there for the prayer meeting. We had visited this village before. Our hearts went out to them as we heard of their situation and also to see their living conditions. Many of them are of Indian origin and they live in dire conditions. Nevertheless, their faith in God is strong and many people are coming to church. We are praying that God will provide us the means and facilities to relocate these poor people.

On 16 Aug, we had the first PEC church dedication in Myanmar. This was Pst  Zaw Zaw Aung church  located at Taung Twin Gyi in Magwi Division.About 50 people had gathered for the service. This was PEC's first church dedication in Myanmar. As I sat through the service, tears whelmed in my eyes to see the fruit of our labour. Only those who had been with us through this journey would understand. The injuries, the long journey, all the inconveniences, and the discouragement did not matter anymore. The negative remarks and dissension were pale compared to what I was witnessing. The joy and emotions were simply overwhelming for me. Truly God is faithful.

On 17 Aug we wanted to visit a church planter in the Northern Shan Sate. Sis Pala Khaw Shin is running a children's Home in a small town in Northern Shan State, about 85miles from Lasio and she is planting a church there as well. If all went well we should reach our destination in 10 hrs time. 

That morning, the weather was good and the scenery breathtaking. After about 6 hrs on the road, suddenly the brakes of our truck failed. It was down a slight gradient. The vehicle just kept turning to the right and headed towards the side of the hill.  Pst John could not control the vehicle. I braised myself for a crash. There was a drain about 4 feet deep before the vehicle hits the side of a mud hill. But by some act of providence, the vehicle came to a halt just at the edge of the drain. 1 cm more and I would have been pinned in the drain, against the mud. Miraculously, we were spared. Pst John was in a state of shock as I tried to get out of the vehicle. As I surveyed the position of the vehicle, I could only say, an angel stopped the truck in time. 

We got the help of a passing truck to pull our vehicle out of the mud but we could not continue because of the brakes and the next town Lasio was about 80km away. Pst John could not explain how the brakes failed for he had sent the vehicle for servicing before trip. But praise God just a few distance down the road, there was a mechanic by the side of the road. Again providence showed up when the enemy vainly setup roadblocks.  After an hour by the side of the road, we continued with our journey and again praising God for His grace. The rest of the journey was through scenic mountains, stream and valleys - but dangerous tracks; marveled at God's creation. Myanmar is indeed blessed with such natural beauty and resources. By the time we arrived at the children's Home, it was about 8pm and probably about 7 thousand feet above sea level. 

Sis Pala Khaw Shin is one of PEC’s church planters and she runs this Home with another sister, Martha. There are 29 children there, their ages ranging from 6-16 yrs. Most of the underprivileged kids are with single parents or from poor homes. Some of the kids come from Wa Region, a communist controlled area near the China border. Sis Pala was teaching there and later was asked to leave the place because of her evangelism efforts. When she left, the children whom she was teaching also left the place together with her. In fact it was the parents who asked their children to go with her, for if they remained in the Wa Region, they would end up with the armed resistance or deal in the drugs trade. Through this ministry Sis Pala wants to reach the entire town. She runs the home by faith and is requesting PEC to adopt this Home. The children sang and worshipped the Lord and I shared a short testimony with them. It was a blessed time to spend with these children. 

To be continued.....