MYANMAR MISSION TRIP

Elder John Leong
Tabernacle BPC

Each year by the grace of God we plan a few mission trips to serve the Lord and be an encouragement to the brethren abroad who often serve under difficult circumstances. Thank God that we have the privilege to serve the Lord in Myanmar from 9 to 14 April 2016. The Lord opened the way for 6 of us to serve Him in Myanmar. Air tickets were booked and visas were obtained smoothly. We checked in 170 kg of luggage. We brought things to give to the poorer brethren and materials to teach at the VBS and village churches. Every step of the way God protected and provided for us.

We arrived safely at Yangon airport on Saturday 9 April afternoon. We settled in a simple local hotel and bought some necessary things at a nearby supermarket for the VBS. On Sunday 10 April, we attended the worship service in the morning at New Life Orphan Centre (NLOC) which is managed by Thangno who was an FEBC student. Our team presented a song item and I preached at the worship service from John 3:1-10 on the need to be born again.

After lunch at NLOC, we went to Yangon BP Church worship service which is located in Yangon city. This Church is pastored by Rev Andrew Kam, a graduate of FEBC. Our team presented a song item on the peace of God taken from John 14:27 which was my sermon text. After the afternoon worship service, we went back to our hotel to prepare ourselves for the VBS to be held from Monday to Wednesday.

The VBS theme was “The Life of Moses”. We taught 5 lessons from the life of Moses in the 3-day VBS beginning from his birth to his death. Each lesson came with a memory verse. Thank God that we had about 75 students in the VBS. We divided them into 4 classes: pre-primary, lower primary, upper primary, and secondary upwards. I taught the secondary class. The Lord gave us 4 good interpreters. During the VBS, we had worksheets and activities to reinforce the Bible messages that the students had learnt. There were 3 art and craft lessons and each one was related to the message. On the last day of the VBS, we had a Bible quiz. The 4 classes competed to see who was best. Each class also presented their song item to thank God for the VBS. The Lord was very good to lead and bless us throughout the 3-day VBS. We pray that every student is born again and the students will indeed obey God’s Word and walk in the path of righteousness.

We also thank God for opportunities to serve Him when the VBS ended. We had the joy of ministering to a village Church each day after the VBS. These are very poor villages and their houses are made of straw. In the 3 village churches that we visited, I preached God’s Word to them. There were about 20-30 mainly village women who came for the meetings. After my preaching, the rest of the mission team taught the children and led them in art and craft. Thank God for about 20-30 children from each village who came to hear the precious Gospel message.

It was physically very tiring each day serving the Lord, but the joy of the Lord was our strength. We have no complaints but just praises to God for we experienced His grace and help in every task we did for Him. In every aspect of the entire trip, we saw God’s hand helping and blessing us. Thank God for safe journey back to Singapore on 14 April.

This is our 5th mission trip to Myanmar but the need is so great that we desire to be back again to serve the Lord to teach His Word to the Myanmar children. May the Lord keep us faithful to serve Him even as we desire the Lord to keep our Myanmar brethren faithful to Him too.

Qiaoyan

True Life BPC

I thank God for the privilege to serve in the mission trip to Myanmar for the third time. This year, I was assigned to plan the games for the older children in the VBS in which I had no prior experience. Thus, it forced me to pray earnestly for ideas and really depend on God for the task that He had assigned me. I thank God the children and I enjoyed the simple games and indeed God blessed me with the joy of serving Him and reminded me that this mission work is His work and we are just the instruments that He uses to fulfil His great commission.

Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” The Lord planned our every destination for the trip even before our arrival. We were supposed to go up north to the Chin village after our 3 days of VBS but yet it was cancelled at the last minute before the trip. It turned out that on the last day of the trip, there was an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 up north. Thankfully we were not affected in Yangon. This reminded me of how the Lord led the Apostle Paul in his missionary journeys to Asia Minor and Europe where every destination was determined by God Himself. Likewise for us, God is the One who sent us to wherever He wanted us to go to preach His Gospel. This deeply humbled me that missions work is God’s work and He will bring it to pass. I cannot trust my own discretion in planning but to trust in Him.

Isaiah 55:11 says, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” This year, we manage to witness the yearly Myanmar Thingyan Festival which was from 12-16 April when people of all ages are seen splashing water at one another based on the Buddhist belief of cleansing their sins with water. We used this festival to teach the children the lesson on what real cleansing of sin is, which is only through the blood of Christ and not by any outward water splashing ceremony. It was indeed encouraging that the children in the orphan centre showed forth their testimony for Christ by not participating in the nationwide event.

Pray that God will continue to bless this ministry and if God willing, we will be able to go to the Chin village in North Myanmar to conduct a VBS there next year.

Email from Thangno

7 July 2016

Dear Pastor Jeffrey,

By the grace of God and your prayers and love gift support, I and my family and all the children are fine and doing well. Praise God.

Pastor, I want to request you to pray for me and my wife as we take care, guide and teach all the children. We want to be good examples, good caretakers, good guiders and good teachers to them so that they will be good examples for people when they grow up.

Good example means that we read the Bible and pray to God daily for them and we use soft words, humble words and kind heart, patient heart, good mind, good character, right way, love and kindness to show them according to the Word of God and according to God’s Will so that all the children follow and apply in their life whatever we show to them. This is what I want to be for them.

Thank God all the children and I and my family are living happily because of God’s love and we are the children of God. Actually, we are happy in the Lord always because God’s love, mercy, guidance and protection are sufficient for us in our daily life. Pastor, actually, all this happy life and blessing to us is because of your prayers and support. We are really happy and thankful to God and to True Life BP Church.

I and my wife will leave for USA on 11 July and will be back on 21 September 2016. Please pray for our safe journey and God’s guidance all the way. Thanks.

We all here pray for you and for True Life BPC and FEBC always.

Yours in Christ,

Brother Thangno
New Life Orphan Center
Yangon, Myanmar

 

GREETINGS FROM KENYA

30 June 2016

Dear Dr. Khoo and True Lifers, brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Greetings from Kenya in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I trust that you are well in the Lord.

I write to express my deep thanks to you all. My wife and I are grateful to Dr. Khoo for the opportunity to attend the church camp. We had a wonderful time of listening to the Word and seeing you all. Dr. Khoo’s exposition of 1-2 Thessalonians provided a solemn warning as well as strong encouragement for us who are living in the last days. The blessings of the camp proved to be a tremendous contrast to the surroundings, with the residents of Bali serving as reminders of the despair of the lost and of the heavy burden of spiritual ignorance. As someone who has had an old burden for Indonesia since my days as a student at FEBC, I came away with a new prayer request for the spread of the gospel in the region.

We praise God for the love gift collected for the BCEA ministry on the last day of camp, and for Dr. Khoo’s generous gift of a projector for the College that was in need of replacement. It had been four years since we visited Singapore, and we give thanks to God for the fellowship we could have. I would like to thank Dr. and Mrs. Khoo for their hospitality, for the dinner fellowship on our last day and for their kindness in seeing us off at the airport.

We praise God for the ministry of True Life BPC and for the many, especially young people, who have joined the body. To God be the glory. We remember you in our prayers.

 

In the bond of Christ,

Mark Kim