We went to Myanmar from 10 to 14 September 2009. With me was Wai Tuck and his son Conrad. Our objectives were to renew support of Pastor John’s work and inspect the church building’s progress, and secondly, to discuss and plan trips for November and December.
We went to renew our friendship with Sis Lin Young. She was formerly supported by our church through God’s Trio Partner. She was not feeling well when we visited her but through the sharing, we sensed that she was struggling in her pastoral ministry. The reason was she had spread herself too thin and she no longer focussed on church planting. Our visit was an encouragement to her as she had been thinking about us just a few days before.
From there we proceeded to visit Myanmar Compassionate Project (MCP), as usual Mr & Mrs Dal were very delighted to see us. MCP has shifted their office out of the city. Due to higher rentals, the MCP office has shifted to a double storey terrace. The office is situated on the top floor and the ground floor is a clinic. The present building belongs to Dr Dal, and the MCP has moved in rent-free. As for their future plan, Dr Dal shared that MCP owns a plot of land next door, which was donated by a Canadian couple. He plans to build a multipurpose building complex. He submitted his proposal for a multi- purpose building complex with some background detail of MCP to us.
Wai Tuck and I were impressed with the report they presented to us. The report was in regard to the S$15,000 the church donated to help to the people affected by the Nargis cyclone. Personally, I was impressed by their integrity and accountability to the last cent. Read more about the report HERE.
For the next 2 days, I conducted a Million Leaders Mandate Book Two training to about 45 people . Out of the 45 people, 22 are from Pastor John’s bible college student body. These 22 students are potential candidates for us to recruit for future church plants. The response was very encouraging and we felt a strong anointing.
We managed to get in touch with Mang No, a hardworking man and quite well respected in his own village. He has a church surrounded by poor people. He has a heart for the poor. We have a good time of fellowship and discussed about our December program.
We spent quite a lot of time with John and his family (one baby girl Lydia, 18 months old). John is fine and his ministry is slowly picking up. Our church donated money to buy land for church planting purposes. The foundation of the building was completed, and with the gift of an additional S$2000 from the church, he can now install all the 16 pillars and put up some walls and some parts of the ceiling. As for the ministry, we shared with him about potential church planters and effective strategies to plant more churches in Myanmar. We also discussed about how to help the local church workers to be self sufficient.
John brought us to a small church on Sunday and the lady pastor is from the Bamar background. She is quite dynamic and we felt the need to network with her again in November and December.
Personally, I felt that the trip was good as the objectives set were achieved. It also indicates signalled to Pastor John that we were still committed to partnering him in church planting. (report by Pastor Thomas Tan; pics are recently received from John)