Since 2012, God has opened a wide door for me to do more
ministries inside Myanmar. These ministries include a leadership conference,
training Biblical students, evangelism, and youth ministry, extending from the
border between Thailand and Myanmar, Shan State, up to the North of Myanmar,
Kachin State. I traveled with students
of AIS via airplane, boat, motorcycle and on foot. It has been a real challenging ministry.
Map of
Myanmar
Waiting in
line for the ferry in order to cross over Irrawaddy River
Drilling the
well
We have
found water!
The kids at
the orphanage using the water for the first time
Stephen gave
a special treat for the kids at the orphanage with a Korean BBQ.
This was the first time in their lives.
Commonly, each family has 12-13 children but only half of
them or a third of them have survived.
Moreover, many children have lost their parents at their young
ages. For example, at the youth camp, I
met a 15 year old teenage girl, Nomanee, who just recently lost both
parent. She has just finished 10th grade
and came back to her village during the break, and had no home to live. She is moving from house to house each night
waiting for her university to be opened in hopes that she will have a shelter
at her campus dormitory. I asked her why
she didn’t go to the orphanage, and she replied that she was disqualified due
to her age. If you feel called to help several of these orphans in Myanmar by
donating 40 dollars a month, please feel free to contact our mission agency or
me directly for more information.
Nomanee
Lisu people in North Myanmar loved to hear God’s Word and
they have a heart of giving. Having very
limited means, their spirits of hospitality is par excellence. Sleeping on a floor for a month my back and
all parts of my body was sore, but with their brotherly love and friendly smile
it all disappeared at once every time I met them. Unlike many churches and places, every church
service was full with attendants, even early morning 6 AM service; people
including teenagers are packed at the church.
They love to hear God’s message, particularly the message of the cross
and God’s love. Every time when I
delivered the message of the Prodigal Son and the parable of the sheep and
goats, I saw many of the audience filled with tears of joy. They are truly hungry for God’s Word! In the past I usually thought the people at
the central Myanmar were the hungriest for God’s Word but the fact is that the
people in the North of Myanmar zeal for God’s Word hundred times more. There was a place that requested me to
preach for them on one evening. They
came to my place waiting for my answer from afternoon 4 PM to 10 PM and coming
back again in the following day starting from early in the morning 5Am to
9Am. I was so tired and exhausted, lack
of a good night sleep due to the floor with no mattress. My body was so sore. Indeed, I didn’t sleep well for a week at the
youth camp. I was scheduled to preach
for three sessions per day. Actually, I
wanted to reject the request, but at the moment I remembered the story of the
consistent widow and telling myself that if I reject the request I might reject
God’s will so I went to their congregation.
I was so embarrassed because I was asleep in front of 300 audiences while
waiting to preach, however; they gave me time to have a nap for 10 minutes
before preaching God’s Word. Indeed, God
is truly working among them, for only less than 5 percent of Lisu people in
Myitkyina are unbelievers. Most of these
unbelievers live in the very remote village on the mountain range between the
border of Myanmar and China. If God is
willing in the future, we will make an evangelistic trip to this area and win
them with the message of God’s Love which HE demonstrated on the Cross.
Preaching to
Bible students at Lashio
Preaching at
Shan State Bible students’ graduation
Actually, I went to the youth camp at Lashio and Myitkyina on
behalf of Nick. Nick and the students of
AIS had set camp since last year. Nick
could not attend the camps due to the fact that he was unable to renew his
passport because of the Bangkok shutdown.
In Myitkyina alone, there were two major camps; senior and junior
camp. There were 300 attendants at the
senior camp and 500 at the junior camp.
I chose to go with the senior camp.
I perhaps made a mistake to join the senior camp. Like most of Americans, they are very active
and hardly go to bed. Therefore, a man
at my age, it is very difficult to catch up with their energy. They kept asking me to preach, to teach, to
sing in English for they love to hear God’s Word, which is why I am very proud
of them, but singing is not my specialty.
Unlike Americans, they didn’t like to play physical activity games as
much as they should. Worst of all was my
Lisu language, which is very different from theirs. Some of my language turned out to be rude
words or laughing stock for them, for instance, a word “mouth” in my Lisu, we
say “Nahu” turned out to be a dirty word for them. They would rather say “muenue,” which is in
my Lisu word, it means “tongue.” After all,
they kept asking me to give them a promise that I will go back with Nick as the
due time.
A senior
youth camp at Mitkhyina
Truly, there is a hopeful future in the ministerial
side. However, the political side,
particularly, the tension of racism is the cause of frustrations. It really hurts me most and even broke my
heart. The hatreds between different
tribal groups cause many violation, even leads to ethnic cleansing in many
areas. For instance, at one area, namely
Tasang, about 100 miles
on west side of Lashio, where the Palong, the dominant tribal people of the area
slaughtered dozens of Lisu people who are the minority and have lived in the
area for several generations. They
annihilated the Lisu people from the area.
The massacre displaced many Lisu from their homes and farm lands. The saddest part is that these Lisu people
are Christians.
The
displaced Lisu who fled from the ethnic cleansing
Ministry needs:
- Speakers for leadership conference in Myitkyina in February-March 2015, possibly 400 Christian leaders will attend at this conference.
- Nick needs more youth workers in conducting youth camp in April 2015 in Myitkyina. Please also lift Nick up in your prayers for his financial need to carrying out his mission works.
- English teachers at English camp in Myitkyina in March-April 2015
- Medical mission or medical supplies.
Prayer requests:
If God is willing, Stephen and Nick are planning to make
their first mission trip to Laos and then continuing their mission trip to China this upcoming May. We have just heard that there are over 30,000
Lisu people living in Laos and of course none of them have ever heard the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to visit
them and see how we can reach them with Christ’s Love. We are planning to visit them before the
raining season comes. By then we will be
busy teaching our AIS’ students, which the classes will begin in June.
My gratitude goes to every one of the Wongratanamajcha,
particularly Mary who sacrificed her energy and effort for the mission
work. First of all, by allowing me to go
on mission trip for a month and taking care of the family and all the mission
works in Thailand while I was gone.
Isaac is on his summer break.
John is at his final pace at his school.
John is excited on his 16 birthday on this coming May 3. Becky is beginning her internship by teaching
English to displaced kids who live in our neighborhood.
Much appreciate for all your partnering with our mission
works in making disciples and expanding His Kingdom in Southeast Asia and
China.
In Christ’s Love,
Stephen
