Serving God's people in Myanmar

I was recently blessed to be able to travel from my home in Malaysia to Myanmar to visit with and to serve God’s faithful flock. I thank God for a blessed trip and I thank God for the faithfulness of our spiritual brothers and sisters in Myanmar. The trip was encouraging to me and you may also be interested in learning a little more about how God is providing for His people in this remote but beautiful country. For the safety of our Christian brothers and sisters in Myanmar, I cannot share the names of these wonderful men and women in this report.

I arrived in Yangon International airport on Tuesday 17th January 2012. Upon arrival our faithful elder and some of his family met me at the airport. We took a taxi and arrived at a local hotel in town where we met with some additional local members. We then visited with brethren in the Sakhan Gyi village area before departing to the home of a local Church family where we had a joyous meal and a long conversation before going to sleep for the night.

The next day one of the local men bought a keyboard for his daughter who wants to play hymns for the local congregation. The local elder, his daughter-in-law and I then took a taxi to the airport to check on our air tickets to travel to Kalaymyo on the 24th January. We were told that all tickets were fully booked but only available on the 19th January. I decided to go to Kalaymyo first and then to Sakhan Gyi Village latter so I booked the air tickets for the local elder, his daughter in law and for me. This is the first time that our faithful elder or his daughter-in-law ever flew in an aero plane.

We arrived safely in Kalymyo on the 19th January. Kalaymyo is a town in the Sagaing Division, north of Myanmar. It surrounded by the Chin Mountains. The population of Kalaymyo is estimated to be 400,000, comprising 55 percent Burmese and 35 percent Chin people, and 10 percent other nationalities and foreigners. Ninety-five percent of the Chin people profess Christianity. Many of our brethren are Chin and speak the Chin language.

After custom check our local Myanmar elder was told by the immigration officer that no foreigner would be allowed to go to this village. But as you will see in my second report, to be posted later, God intervened on behalf of His people! I will report that later.

As we came out of the airport, a large group of Church members welcomed us. We stayed at Taungzalat hotel opposite the airport. The next day we visited the Chin Mountains by motor cycle to take view of the Kalaymyo University in the valley. While coming back to the hotel we wanted to check e-mail and also send our weekly report to the Church. We stopped at an Internet cafe. The Internet cafe lady told us that her sister had opened a new hotel call Shin Hong hotel. She told him since it is a new hotel she is willing to give us a special rate for the rooms.

Compared to the hotel we stayed it was cheaper and new. We immediately moved from the other hotel to the new hotel. I saw a big hall in the ground floor and asked the manager if we could use the hall for our Sabbath service. The manager was very kind and charged us only USD$50.00 for the whole day. I asked our Church members from the village to meet there for Sabbath services, which I will report to you next time.