WHEN I first heard about the Great Commission Institute (GCI) conducted by Asian Outreach to train local Asian pastors and church leaders in the Word of God, something stirred within my heart and I wanted to be part of this tremendous work.
In July this year I was given the privilege and opportunity to go and conduct the GCI in Myanmar with two other pastors from Singapore and Japan. Myanmar was hitherto an unknown destination.
In my younger days I had read challenging and fascinating exploits by Isobel Kuhn among the hill tribes and ethnic peoples, the Chins, Karens, the Shans of Myanmar. Now I was thrilled to be going there myself.
A core of 30 dedicated workers, pastors and church leaders from the various ethnic groups came together for their 1st GCI in Yangon. Some had travelled from the remote parts of the Shan state at considerable cost and expense to be part of this training and equipping programme.
Meeting some of these dedicated servants of the Lord was an eye opener and a rebuke to my “cosy” Christianity. Two personalities stood out among the crowd.
Sister Say My is in her late 50s. As a young lecturer in the University of Yangon, she had heard the Lord’s call to quit her secure post to do pioneering work among the sea gypsies inhabiting an island off Myanmar. With the help of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) she laboured for 30 years to devise a written language for this unique group of people. She was delighted to show me the New Testament in the sea gypsies’ written language which had just rolled off hot from the press. Today a church of 50 people has been established in an otherwise remote and unknown island. What a testimony of God’s faithfulness!
One of the translators at the GCI was Dr Sai, a Shan. He was practising as a medical doctor in Hongkong for many years before he resigned early this year and became a full-time staff of Asian Outreach. God had laid a burden on the heart of Dr Sai to reach his ethnic people, the Shans. Today he is involved in translating the Shan Bible into the modern Shan language, preparing Bible broadcasts for the Far East Broadcasting Corporation (FEBC) in the Shan language which are beamed from Manila. These messages nurture Shan church leaders and pastors.
The largest denomination in Myanmar, through the dynamic ministry of Adoniram Judson, is the Baptist denomination. Sadly, through the years, nominalism has set in and the Myanmar church welcomes support, cooperation and assistance, especially from the Asian church, to build up the indigenous church there. Churches in Malaysia have been working actively alongside the church in Cambodia with fruitful results. Perhaps it is time for some of our churches to be focussing on Myanmar. It is a vast nation and opportunities abound to create strategic partnerships with our Myanmar brethren for the establishment of God’s Kingdom there.
Vicky Ng is a practising lawyer in Kuala Lumpur. She worships at Praise Baptist Centre, Sri Damansara, KL. |
