Report from BHW Myanmar Partnership Facilitator

Recent Events

General Situation

There continues to be political unrest in Myanmar, especially in the north and north-west, and several violent incidents have seen fighting in these areas. Earlier this year there were student protests from Mandalay over academic freedom which were violently put down by security forces outside Yangon.

The easing of internal migration has allowed more people to travel and children continue to be sent to Yangon both to improve their own chances of work and education as well as for safety reasons. There doesn’t seem to be a slowing in the number of kids that are arriving in Yangon from the outlying states and divisions.

The increasing pace of opening of the economy to international interests has led to the price of staple food continuing to rise regularly while wages remain largely static. Anecdotally we see and hear that the main result of increased foreign presence in Myanmar has been to put huge upward pressure on the cost of land and consequently on rent as demand for accommodation outstrips supply.

The beginning of the monsoon season this year saw the worst floods in recent memory, with large areas in western Myanmar under water. Many of the church planters in the partnership either work in or are from areas affected by the flooding. 

Pastor SM

Praising God for:
• Good health so that he has been able to share the Good News with unbelievers
• Three family members making a recommitment to the Lord Jesus
• One new minister has been appointed to assist in the ministry
• They have been able to help victims of the flooding that happened around the country in July
• For being able to support six poor students with their tuition fees
• No significant problems or hardships in our family

Pray to God for:
• Our Sunday School camp that will be held in October 2015
• For some funds as the church building needs to be extended this year    

Pastor KT

Praising God for:

• The 33 children in their pre-school who are in a good situation, and two teachers that are actively taking care of this ministry
• The church members who are able to regularly share the gospel in their surrounding villages
• Worship service and Sunday school have been able to be held regularly

Pray to God:
• That they may be able to develop the pre-school centre
• For more labourers to harvest in surrounding villages
• To uplift their faith in God and actively do His ministry     

Pastor KT

Praising God for:
• God is so faithful and gracious to his family. His love never fails and He has given another gift, a son to their family in June. His wife and son are healthy, praise the Lord forever!
• The ministry of his church is going fine. They have four places for home cell groups with Bible study.
• God added three more labourers to assist the ministry and they are actively working to expand the kingdom
• The three missionaries in a central mission field are in good health and working hard to increase the Kingdom. God has added one more labourer for the harvest with them.
• In July he was able to lead a disciple program with six potential men and women of God in another state. They were told to multiply this the same way in their community. 
• Six key mentors to make more disciples of Jesus
• They have been able to continue six churches combined prayer and Bible study every month where he leads a Bible study on the book of Acts with a focus on God’s plan for church planting. 
• He has taken in six girls from poor families from different tribal groups and regions. They are in grade 7, 8, 11, and working hard in their study. Their commitment is to stand with them until they stand by themselves educationally and spiritually. 
• The church was able to donate some relief funds to the flood victims in Kalay and Chin State.   

Pray to God:
• That he may be able to begin a discipleship program as they need more labourers for the harvest in Asho Mission field
• That God may provide for all the needs of their missionaries and mission works
• That all church members will continue growing in their faith and have hearts of mission
• Pray also for his family’s health, growing in trusting God and the children’s education
• Pray for the flood victims that they have enough food, clothes, shelter, health etc. 

Thank you so much for your love, prayer and faithful support.

Pastor MT

First of all he praises God for everything done well in his life. He has lived as a church planter since 2008 in Irrawaddy division where four religions (Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Christian) coexist.

He is committed fully to the ministry and his weekly schedule is as follows:
Sunday – two worship services, Burmese speaking service in the morning and youth service in the afternoon. Around 25 people come for both services.
Monday – visiting believers who could not come to the Sunday services 
Tuesday – teaching an English class to young learners aiming to become good leaders for the church
Wednesday – teaching an English class to Regional officers and also sharing God’s love to them
Thursday – teaching English to ministers and leaders from various churches
Friday – fasting and prayer with fellow Pastors from different denominations 
Saturday – gathering together all ministers and church members in the church to practice songs, clean and decorate the church for Sunday activity. 

In June he was able to help with the tuition fees for poor students. Through this act of God’s love, the parents of those students have acknowledged that Christian leaders are very helpful. Praise to God!

In July, through the celebration of his birthday, he shared how much God loves him and people heard about God’s love to all human beings. 

In August, flooding hit many places in Myanmar. Where he lives was not affected but they were able to help some of the victims.

Please pray for his ministry.

Pastor TC 

TC is very grateful for our help. BHW's support is not only helpful for his family but sometimes also for their neighbours who have not got enough food.

Because of prayer, his family are in good health except he has asthma which affected him while travelling on a mission trip. His wife is also in good health compared to previous years.  

He, his wife and daughter visited Rakhine State for three weeks. They visited several villages and met with many believers, many who come from surrounding villages. Some have no church building so they just spread out mats to sit on when they conducted worship services. They conducted worship services under the shade of a tree in day time. 

Some of the believers are bullied and have been attacked by other people groups from the neighbouring villages, and face much opposition.

He was able to preach the gospel at outdoor services and many people accepted Jesus. They saw many miracles and people who were healed.

They now have 53 children in the childcare centre and are in the process of applying for their school admission. Most of their unexpected donors are from another religion. God used ravens to feed Elijah!

Pastor JV

JV praises the Lord for His helping hand to their family. They are doing fine and very excited in the Master’s field.

His elder son was able to finish his study of Master Divinity this year and he is now in the Lord’s ministry. 

The eight orphans in his church, together with all the other children, are well nurtured by the word of God. Their aim with this children’s ministry is that they become very effective in the ministry in the future. 

Other ministry activities like discipleship, planting churches etc. are still doing well.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

As you can see from the above updates these men and their families are involved in a number of communities throughout Myanmar. Their position in the church gives them influence in both their churches and the wider community and most are involved in some sort of poverty relief in their local communities and advocating for those further afield.

Plans for the Future

For the most part the pastors mentioned here have the general strategy of staying the course. They are involved in a wide variety of areas and people groups, and some are more focused on teaching, pastoring or evangelism. Most are doing all three and are seeing fruit.

We have been discussing moving toward a model which would make them more self-sustaining, but as you can see from the above update these men are already rather busy. Those discussions will continue and where practical assistance will be given to develop a degree of financial independence.

Current Issues and Challenges

Prices for food and accommodation continue to rise as Myanmar's economy surges ahead. The foreign investment and opportunities have yet to touch the lives of the poor.

Recent flooding in the west of the country has made travel difficult and left many homeless and without their livelihood. There is much rebuilding to be done and international (and domestic) aid is focused in a very narrow area. Christians are generally marginalised in Myanmar and are unlikely to receive much of the limited amount of rehabilitation aid available.

There are still large areas where Christians are actively victimised, particularly in the west where violence or threats of violence between Muslims, Buddhists and Christians are common. Outreach, and sometimes just living, as a Christian in these areas can require a very deft and subtle touch.

There is a strong nationalist Buddhist lobby group in Myanmar. New legislation was passed recently that requires people wanting to change religion to apply to a local board for approval, with a number of administrative hurdles before this would be granted. There is much concern around this and other similar laws which have been introduced or are being discussed, and what their impact will be on Christians and church planters when they are introduced at a workable level.

Prayer and Praise Points

Praise for:

1) The commitment of these church planters to see the Good News preached in Myanmar and beyond
2) Safety for them during the recent troubles and flooding
3) The opportunity to get involved in the wider community through new invitations and the ability to assist where possible

Pray for:

1) Safety and security for the pastors, their families and church members
2) The ongoing growth and development of the church in Myanmar
3) Wisdom to know how to address the challenges that face them and to plan and grow in for the future

Comments

I find this group of people to be, on the whole, very impressive. They are living in a society and situation that makes life difficult for them and their families, and are living wholeheartedly for the gospel.

They are universally generous with their time and what little money they have, and are very committed to the people in their care. For many of them they have literally brought extra people in need of special care into their homes.

K, whom I have had the most to do with personally, regularly has up to 20 people outside his family living with him, whether they be students from Bible College without the funds to travel home for the holidays or children from poor regions who wouldn’t have the opportunity to get an education or employment if they stayed at home. And he (and his family) does it with such an unassuming willingness and grace that it is always a great pleasure to hear of the blessings given to them, such as the birth of their new son.