Shan Missions
CHAPTER FOUR
21st Century Shan Mission Project (21st CSMP)
In the year 1986 I have not heard from any one talking about 21st century mission planning. It seems still far away. But one day when I was reading the words and praying in a small room at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong for my three-year-old daughter who was seriously ill and lying on hospital bed, God has revealed to me “21st Century Shan Mission Project” on September 14, 1986.
What does it mean?
What does God want me to do?
How can I do it?
After much prayer I feel that God has graciously given me full responsibility to reach out and preach the gospel to millions of Shan people in Burma who are my own people who have not heard about Jesus. They all need Jesus. Trusting in God I started working out a plan for this project without knowing much about mission. I praise God for His guidance and provision. This vision is the beginning of “Great Commission to the Shan.”
The Vision
Goals for 21st CSMP
By the year 2001; I want to achieve
Goal One: 201 Shan Evangelists trained for the harvest
Goal Two: 201 Shan Churches planted among the Shan
Goal Three: 21,000 Shan believers saved
Only about 6,000 Shan have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior in 124 years. How can I get 21,000 Shan believers within 14 years? Impossible? Wishful thinking? Day dreaming? Discouraged by Satan but encouraged by the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 17:20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you”
Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
I have decided TO GO, TO DO, TO LIVE, by FAITH.
“Trainings” for Shan believers will be conducted and produce more evangelists and send them out for “Evangelism” and “Planting Churches” among the Shan.
Vision in action
The first step is to put vision into action. I went back to Burma in December 1986 from Hong Kong, for the first time in seven years after leaving the country and had a meeting with Shan Churches’ leaders from Eastern Shan State, Northern Shan State and Southern Shan State from 12 to 13 December in Rangoon at Daw Mya Nu’s home. I sponsored all 13 leaders for their expenses in traveling and meal with Kyat 14,777.
In attendances were; Dr. Sai Htwe Maung, Sai Hsai (Eastern Shan State), Daw Mya Nu (Yangon), Rev. Sai Shwe Htun (Northern Shan State), Rev. Sai Nyunt Tha (Northern Shan State), Rev. Sai Tip (Eastern Shan State), Rev. Sai Aung Htun Shwe (Northern Shan State), Sai Myint Lay (Eastern Shan State), Sai Thein Aung Kham (Northern Shan State), Sai Htun Khaing (Southern Shan State), Kyaw Hla (Northern Shan State), Kyaw Win (Northern Shan State), Daw Shwe Sein (Northern Shan State), David Hsam (Eastern Shan State).
Meeting Shan Churches’ Leaders
Decisions made as follow;
1. Sai Htun Khaing will organize Shan Baptist Fellowship in TaungGyi.
Sai Htwe Maung will support him 100 Kyat monthly for his traveling expenses for one year.
2. Sai Stephen will evangelize the lepers in MuongPya, WanKum village, E.S.S.
Sai Htwe Maung will support him 100 Kyat monthly for one year.
3. Sai Htwe Maung has donated 2 sleeping bags, 1 camera, 1 slide projector, 2 master keys and Kyat 15,000 toward Shan Baptist mission works.
4. Sai Htwe Maung has donated Kyat 46,158 toward the Shan Baptist Ministry.
5. Sai Htwe Maung has helped getting financial support from Asian Outreach International total 64,363 Kyat for the Shan Mission in supporting Shan Bible Students.
6. Sai Htwe Maung and Asian Outreach International have sponsored 18 Shan students to study in Theological Seminaries and one student in University for four years.
7. Sai Htwe Maung put forward his vision, 21st Century Shan Mission Project for future Shan Mission.
In order to work out this project the following committee was formed.
General Director; Dr. Sai Htwe Maung
Co-coordinator; Sai Hsai
Hon. Treasure; Daw Mya Nu
Members; Rev. Sai Tip, Rev. Shwe Htun, Sai Htun Khaing, Sai Myint Lay, U Kyaw Hla, Rev. Sai Stephan, Sai Thein Aung Kham, Rev. Sai Nyunt Tha.
Support From Burma Baptist Convention
We need help in organizing training for the Shan. Not many Shan Christian leaders are well equipped and qualified to be trainers. I thought BBC could offer help in our effort in training our Shan leaders, helping us doing evangelism and Church Planting among the Shan. Therefore I sent a letter to the General Secretary of Burma Baptist Convention on June 16, 1987 asking them to help by sending some teachers and trainers from BBC and also to give some support. However BBC refused to give any help by giving reason that this 21st CSMP did not come from any Baptist Convention, which was under their recognition. According to BBC’s policy they would not give any support to any ministry if it did not come from Baptist Convention.
Letter from Rev. Zau Yaw, General Secretary, Burma Baptist Convention.
July 8, 1987 (translated from Burmese)
Dr. Sai Htwe Maung,
I have received your letter concerning 21st Century Shan Mission Project. I have heard that you have held a meeting with Shan Churches’ leaders regarding Shan Missions when you come to Rangoon. As BBC we only have opportunity of discussing with you about Macao Mission but we don’t have opportunity of talking about 21st Century Shan Mission Project.
When you write to BBC about our help we have to think about our policy. In our BBC we have 13 racial and regional conventions. Among these conventions, Southern Shan State Home Mission, Northern Shan State Baptist Convention, Eastern Shan State Baptist Convention and ShweLi Valley Shan Baptist Mission are responsible to do mission work in their own area (In Shan States). They also have joint mission work with BBC. For example, joint mission among Ahka people in Eastern Shan State, Southern mission work with ZBC. We have to think about which convention is going to take responsibility of 21st Century Shan Mission Project. There is no “Shan Convention” in Shan State. In all the mentioned conventions in Shan States they all are multiracial convention, not pure Shan Churches.
We can only consider ShweLi as pure Shan Churches group.[1] That is why it will be good if you form “Evangelism and Mission Committee” under ShweLi Valley Shan Baptist Mission. However when doing mission work (among the Shan in other region) you still need to negotiate with other regional or racial conventions (which control the region). On the other hand, in order for us to consider about it (about help), it has to come to us from a convention. The 21st Century Shan Mission Committee should write to us officially under a convention, otherwise we cannot consider about it.
In His Service,
Signed/ Rev. M. Zau Yaw,
General Secretary, Burma Baptist Convention.
It is very much regrettable because Shan Churches do not have convention to represent them. ShweLi Valley Shan Baptist Mission is only representing a few Shan, Palong and Chinese Churches in ShweLi valley. It cannot own this project for the whole Shan Churches and Shan people all over Shan States. It is also regrettable that we cannot go and do any mission work among our own people in our own Shan States without their regional convention’s permission under BBC policy. In other words we cannot go and save our own people in our own home. Whatever it is, I am determined to go ahead and do it in His name with His powder, under His grace.
Goal # 1 Training
How are we going to produce 201 Shan evangelists in 14 years? The following plans are made.
1. To invite young and old people from Shan Churches who are dedicated for Shan missions to attend three months evangelist training. After graduation they will be given certificate of achievement to work as evangelists.
2. To choose suitable places for training.
3. To choose appropriate subjects for training.
4. To send those who have committed for missions to the chosen mission fields.
5. To invite trainers from local and abroad, who are qualified and spiritually matured, to train our people.
6. To raise support from local and abroad for training, evangelism and Church Planting programs.
Sending students to Seminaries and Bible schools
The founder and President of Asian Outreach International was Rev. Dr. Paul Kauffman. By His divine appointment I have opportunity of knowing and meeting Rev. David Y.P. Wang, Vice-executive President of Asian Outreach International, in Hong Kong in 1984. I met with him, talked to him, discussed with him and worked with him about reaching the Shan people of Burma. The first step is to raise more workers for the harvest.
Invitations were sent out to all Shan Churches in all Shan States to choose and send their young people to go to study at Seminary and Bible School and prepare for the future work among the Shan. Asian Outreach and my family would sponsor them for four years, as students had to study for four years at Seminary. The response was very good. We had 19 students including one who was going to University and then would go to Seminary later. Sending 18 Shan students to Seminaries in Rangoon in 1985 was the first of its kind in history of Shan Mission. Some students were already at Seminary but need financial support. Never before such a big group of Shan students going to study in Seminaries. A Seminary teacher acclaimed, “We seldom have one Shan student in one year. What happen this time such a big group of Shan come together?” We expected that after their four years study they would be able to serve among Shan people as evangelists who bring “Good News” to the Shan and plant Churches.
18 Students to Bible Schools and Seminaries.
1. Nang Kham Yong, M.I.C.T. (Eastern Shan State)
2. Nang Kya Yung, M.I.C.T. (Eastern Shan State)
3. Nang Seng Am, M.I.C.T. (Eastern Shan State)
4. Nang Shwe Htwe Lay, M.I.C.T. (Northern Shan State)
5. Sai Aung Win, B.I.T. (Northern Shan State)
6. Sai Keing Kham, M.I.C.T. (Northern Shan State)
7. Sai Maung Lay, M.I.C.T. (Southern Shan State)
8. Sai Maung Khaing, M.I.C.T. (Northern Shan State)
9. Sai Stephen, M.I.C.T. (Eastern Shan State)
10. Sai Aung Than, M.I.C.T. (Northern Shan State)
11. Saw Ah Po, M.I.C.T. (Northern Shan State)
12. Sai Maung Than, TaungGyi Bible School, (Northern Shan State)
13. Sai Hla Oo, M.I.C.T. (Northern Shan State)
14. Ma Kya Doi, M.I.C.T. (Northern Shan State)
15. Nang Hla Khin, M.I.C.T. (Northern Shan State)
16. Sai Htun Myat, M.I.T. (Northern Shan State)
17. Sai Ai Myat, TaungGyi Bible School, (Northern Shan State)
18. Sai Noon, M.I.C.T. (Eastern Shan State)
Including Nang Thi Da Htun, (Northern Shan State) (University), who promised to go to Seminary after University.
They all are now graduated from Seminaries and Bible Schools. One of them died, two are not serving in ministry and the rest are serving in Churches as pastors. Many of them have been ordained. Regretfully none of them goes out and serves as missionary or evangelist to the Shan where there are no Churches. They all stay in well-established Churches. Some even threatened to resign if they were sent out to other remote places. Kyat 91,750 was spent for training 19 Shan students from 1985-1989.
Meeting some of our Shan Seminary students in December 1986
Training leaders
Shan Churches do not have opportunity of getting training abroad since 1966. This is the first time we have opportunity of sending our potential leaders to get training abroad.
We sent Sai Thein Aung Kham from NamKham whom we considered to be a leader of Northern Shan State, to Great Commission Institute Training in 1988 in Singapore for one month by sponsorship of Asian Outreach. After one month training he traveled to Hong Kong and we had discussion about future Shan mission. He agreed to work with us in 21st CSMP, as Hon. Assistant Director responsible to Northern Shan State. All expenses for his travel and training in Singapore were paid by Asian Outreach. We sent Sai Stephen from KengTung whom we considered to be a leader of Eastern Shan State, to Great Commission Institute Training in Thailand in December 1990 for one month by sponsorship of Asian Outreach. We expected that after graduating from GCI he would be able to work with us and conduct local training for Shan Churches in the East and produce more evangelists. In 1988, Sai Thein Aung Kham was appointed Hon. Assistant Director of 21st Century Shan Mission Project responsible for the Northern Shan State and Sai Stephen was appointed Hon. Assistant Director of 21st CSMP responsible for Eastern Shan State and I would be acting as Hon. General Director. We would work together. All were on part-time volunteer basis. We expected that Sai Stephen would lead in the Eastern Shan State and Sai Thein Aung Kham in Northern Shan State. Later Sai Stephen joined us in 1993 as full-time paid Assistant Director of 21st CSMP responsible for Eastern Shan State. We planned to conduct local training in KengTung, TaungGyi, MuSe, NamKham, MayMyo and Rangoon to produce more evangelists to meet our target. We planned to conduct GCI training with foreign trainers for Shan leaders in Maesai, TaungGyi, KengTung, MayMyo and Yangon.
Great Commission Institute (GCI)
This is a team of international trainers under Asian Outreach ministries directed by Rev. Lau Tak Siong, Singapore, moving from country to country, place to place and conducting short-course training for local Christians to be able to do evangelism and Church Planting work among their own people. It is like a “Mobile Bible School.” It is an international and interdenominational team.
Curriculum
The curriculum is a good mixture of practical ministry and basic theology:
1. Spiritual (eg. Spiritual Warfare, Prayer)
2. Emotional (eg. Inner Healing)
3. Social (eg. Conflict Management)
4. Family (eg. Christian Family)
5. Pastoral (eg. Counseling, Homiletics)
6 Theological (eg. Basic Doctrine, OT and NT Survey)
7. Ministerial (eg. Leadership I and II)
Three-level programs
Level 1:
Prayer 6 hrs
Praise and Worship 4 hrs
Basic Doctrine 10 hrs
Leadership 6 hrs
Children’s Ministry 4 hrs
Evangelism 6 hrs
How to get the best out of the Bible 6 hrs
Ministry Planning 6 hrs
The Holy Spirit (Pneumatology) 6 hrs
Total 54 hrs
Level 2:
Church Planting 6 hrs
Discipleship 6 hrs
Spiritual Warfare 6 hrs
Biblical Foundation for Missions 3 hrs
Leadership II 6 hrs
Power Theology 6 hrs
Christian Family 6 hrs
Homiletics 6 hrs
The Local Church 3 hrs
The Life & Teaching of Christ 6 hrs
Total 54 hrs
Level 3:
Counseling 6 hrs
Effective Personal Management
&Financial Planning 4 hrs
Conflict Management 6 hrs
Inner Healing 6 hrs
Apologetics 4 hrs
Pastoral Ministries 6 hrs
Cults 4 hrs
O.T. Survey 6 hrs
N.T. Survey 6 hrs
Spiritual Gifts 6 hrs
Total 54 hrs
In order to meet the need of Shan believers GCI short-course training program was first introduced to Shan Churches in 1994. It equips, trains and supports dedicated Shan Christians to become evangelists.
The 1st Shan GCI, Maesai, Thailand.
October 31- November 12, 1994
GCI Maesai 1994
Preparation
Sai Stephen met with me in LaShio, Northern Shan State on December 28, 1993 and shared about 21st CSMP work in Eastern Shan State. We also discussed and made preparation for GCI, which is going to be held in Maesai in 1994.
Planned Date: October 31 to November 12, 1994.
Teaching medium will be English from foreign trainers and translated to Shan. Shan teachers will teach in Shan.
Expected number of participants: 20 - 25
Budget total estimate: 62,000 baht (US$ 1,632)
Venue
Maesai, Chiangrai, Thailand, is a suitable place to hold the training because training with foreigners is not allowed in Myanmar and most of the trainees will be coming from Eastern Shan State. It will be held at Bethel Bible School in Maesai. Sai Stephen has got the permission to use the school. Trainees will stay at TaChiLeik Baptist Church on Myanmar side and cross the border to Maesai every day for training. Food will be arranged two times a day at the Church. Foreign trainers will stay at Maesai Hotel. Tea and Coffee will be provided by GCI at break time.
Faculty
Five foreign teachers; Jean Harper, Rev. Ong Siew Huat, Rev. Franklin Williamson, Mrs. Katie Williamson and Dr. Sai Htwe Maung. Three local teachers; Rev. Seng Tip, Rev. Aung Htun Shwe, Rev. Sai Stephen.
Subjects taught
1) Salvation
2) Evangelism & Mission
3) Christian Life
4) Leadership
5) Church Planting
6) Power Theology
7) Pray Intercession
8) Ministry Planning
Report from Jean Harper, director of GCI
Pom drove Franklin, Katie and I from Chiangmai to Chiangrai where we met Dr. Sai Htwe Maung at the airport, together with Sombat and Pantip, Boonyuen and Somlit. Our hotel was a stone’s throw from the Burma border and it was interesting to notice the constant traffic crossing the border, as well as traders of gems, clothing, food etc. The hotel has a Buddhist temple immediately behind it and we found ourselves awoken, sometimes as early as 4 AM, with broadcast Buddhist chants. Just a few minutes walk from the hotel is the Baptist Church, which has a huge, new four-storey complex. They allowed us the use of the top floor for our lectures, which provided us with beautiful views into Burma and across the hills where the tribal people live.
This GCI was very different from any other that we have conducted, in that:
1. We could not live-in with the participants, or even share meals with them in the evening.
2. The participants were billeted out into different believers’ homes in the town of other side of the border.
3. They lived in one country and we lived in another.
4. The participants “disappeared” at 5 pm each afternoon in order to cross the border before the gate closed. Therefore we were not able to participate in their evening programs.
5. The participants held their morning devotions in TaChiLeik before crossing the border. Therefore we did not have opportunity to hear their testimonies. But none of this was by any means negative.
It was also a unique GCI in that we were working with Sai Htwe Maung toward the goal of 21st Century Shan Mission Project. This was a great privilege for us as we saw the tremendous burden he has for his people, his enormous energy in working with them and his sacrificial endeavors toward that end. Every free minute he filled with recording testimonies for his radio broadcast and recording hymns from the Shan Hymnal when he discovered he had a four-part harmony choir at his disposal, unaccompanied. They came one hour earlier each morning to record. If he had had enough time, I think Sai Htwe Maung would have recorded every hymn in the book! We began to wonder if there was anything he could not do: he taught, translated, conducted the choir, can sing, play the guitar and keyboard; was out evangelizing the many Shan he discovered in Maesai. He just enjoyed being with his people.
Twenty-eight participants crossed the border each day. Of the 28 Shan, 11 are pastors, 8 are evangelists and the rest are leading youth groups, women’s and men’s fellowships, Sunday School and one is the Assistant Secretary of the Eastern Shan State Baptist association. Of the 14 evangelists/pastors that Sai Stephen has sent out, 11 participated. We felt it was a tribute to Stephen’s ministry. He is obviously a key man for the Shan vision of 2001. The local teachers who taught in the evenings became students by day. One of them is translating the New Testament of the new Shan Bible. Whilst most of the participants were very grassroots, this meant there were also a few educated men in the group with B.Th who could speak English well. However Sai Htwe Maung assured us the training in the Seminaries in Yangon is not the same and what was taught would be new to them.
Sombat was also of great help by loaning plastic crockery and cutlery items and an electric urn for hot drinks. He visited several times and Sai Htwe Maung gave him an hour in which to share on Evangelism. What a lively pair they made with Sai Htwe Maung interpreting for him! Franklin started the program with teaching on Prayer and it became apparent that this was a key topic. It would seem some do not know how to pray, or what to pray about. When a survey was held of the class many said they pray for three or four minutes a day! The overall average was 13 minutes but this was bumped up by Stephen praying for one hour and another leader for 28 minutes. Another key topic was Power Theology, also taught by Franklin. He approached the aspect of needing the power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that it did not become a doctrinal issue. He is really coming in to his own with grassroots teaching and relates so well to the participants.
Sai Htwe Maung taught the middle session each day, firstly on Evangelism and then on Spiritual Leadership. He is a great communicator so animated and alive, with a great sense of the mould the Shan Baptists are in. They have had no outside input and no exposure to anything other than Baptist teaching and tradition. The grassroots leaders were very open and receptive to this, as is Sai Stephen’s Ministry Planning was quite a challenge to teach. We are discovering that really grassroots people cannot dream big dreams. In one way it was easy as we could use the Shan 2001 vision as the best possible example. But to get them to look beyond what they are presently involved in did not seem to happen! Stephen felt the Lord speaking to him about four new mission areas that will bring forth fruit. He has a good grasp of Ministry Planning and worked with his people on their plans. All handed in systematic plans but not much Church Planting, or even evangelism, was included in them. Sai Htwe Maung shared that their mentality as far as the Church is concerned is the building rather than a body of believers. So this “hurdle” must first be overcome before Church Planting features heavily in ministry planning. Maybe, in our teaching of this topic, we need to spend more time on the importance of having a vision.
Ong Siew Huat did a great job in teaching on Church Planting at a grassroots level and they enjoyed his teaching. Many saw the need for Church Planting where they had not previously seen the need. But, as yet, their mentality might hinder them from seeing that Church Planting also means small house groups in villages and not large buildings in cities. It was good to have Ong Siew Huat and the Dudgeons stay with us for four days. Martin shared a little about his Church Planting efforts in Bolivia and I felt it was very practical and something our participants could relate to.
The response to Child Evangelism was good but I discovered their concept of children’s ministry is Sunday school teaching and not reaching out to evangelize children. I need to rewrite my notes a little to cover this aspect and challenge more in this regard. The program was set for six full days in the week, with teaching from 9 am to 5 pm with a two-hour break for lunch and then 7 pm to 9 pm at night at the other side of the border. But very rarely did we catch anyone napping!
On Sunday we all crossed the border to attend the Burmese Baptist Church in TaChiLeik. Sai Stephen and Sai Tip, a senior man with a large Church who was one of the local trainers, led the Service. They looked very much at home in their pastoral roles. If I understand correctly, Sai Htwe Maung was introduced as the voice behind the Shan radio broadcasts and shared briefly. We had “celebrity in our midst!” As foreigners we were not permitted to proceed more than 5 kms from the border so can’t really say we saw Burma! We did enjoy a meal with the Church leaders in a nicely located restaurant near our 5 kms post and shopped around the large market, which is primarily for tourists.
For graduation our hotel arranged a nice buffet dinner for less than US$2 per person and we held the Graduation Service in the Church sanctuary. Sai Htwe Maung and Stephen organized the service the Shan way. We were impressed with one of Stephen’s evangelist, Sai Kong, an Ahku, who gave a very good testimony summarizing the whole GCI program. On the last morning Sai Htwe Maung did an evaluation with the participants, who seemed to be very positive about everything. Franklin, Katie and I also did a post GCI evaluation while we were in Maesai. We felt this first Shan program exposed the participants to new ideas and new ways of doing things. The key ingredients? Sai Htwe Maung, Sai Stephen and Hungry Heart.
The next Shan GCI will be October 16-27, 1995 in TaungGyi, Southern Shan State, Myanmar. We are assured that foreigners can freely stay there, after entering Myanmar through Yangon. One of this year’s graduates pastors a Church there, which can host us. When compiling the program we would like to make the following suggestions. Sai Htwe Maung’s brief evaluation was that he felt the best things from this GCI were the topics of Prayer and Planning. Each teacher had given a little and the participants had received a lot from each one. We enjoyed all of our Thailand experience and believe the first Shan GCI was very worthwhile and will bear fruit among these people for whom we share Dr. Sai’s burden. (This training program was sponsored by GCI ministry. All the trainees were paid for their traveling, food and lodging. All trainers were self-supported)
Testimonies from trainees
Sai Htun Myat from TaungGyi
I was converted at the age of 15 and was very zealous for the ministry at that age. I finished my theological training and, after graduation, worked in a town. I continued studying for my B.D. But I realize I was not trained very well. When I came to this GCI, I changed because the teaching was practical. The theological study was theory. I have decided to sacrifice my life in TaungGyi to pray for the Holy Spirit to guide me.
Rev. Seng Tip from KengTung
One month before this GCI Sai Stephen asked if I would attend. I said, “why, our country is in a bad situation.” He said, “Don’t worry, just go.” Finally I was able to come to the training. We have been planning for this for one year. Today God’s wishes have been fulfilled. I cannot close my mouth without praising God. I also want to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you here, especially to the trainers who have come from far away country to give up your time for us, because of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ I am very honored to attend this training, The pastor here willingly allowed us to use these premises. Our thanks to him and also to Mr. and Mrs. Boon for your kindness in providing refreshment. And thanks to the trainees who have come from the various villages. I pray that we may be able to see each other again some day, somewhere.
Rev. Sai Stephen from KengTung
We are not worthy but we have been called into God’s service. We have to be humble in our service as Jesus was humble. We are so grateful to all the trainers for the love you have shown to our Shan people. We are also grateful because you have promised us that wherever you go you will remember us in your prayer.
Sai Kong from Ahku tribe
I am very happy to be able to attend this GCI training. I thought I wouldn’t be able to. But God gave me the opportunity to attend. If I missed this opportunity it would be a great loss to me. For the lessons that I have learned are really like a big, big mirror hanging on the wall into which I can look and see because all the teachings are very, very important for me in my ministry. It reminds me of all the lessons I need to learn in my ministry. I have learned how to pray and what is prayer power. In the past even though I was working in God’s ministry, my prayer life was very weak and in my village it is very rare for people to know how to pray. The second thing I have learned is how to preach. The people I am working with don’t know how to read and write. They are illiterate. In the village I am the most educated man. I thought whatever I preach they don’t know and I seldom prepare my sermon. I confess. The third thing I learned is in the youth ministry and the teaching of salvation. I know I cannot do it that way anymore. I realize that what I have done in the past is wrong and I have to start afresh. I think some of you are the same. But as we learned, we must do our best for the Lord. In Church Planting we know the Church is like a baby, just born. I need to take care of the baby Church. I know I have to work very hard, maybe among the Ahku tribe. There are about 500 of them around the KengTung area. When I go back I will start preaching the Good News to the Ahku in our area. I know that I alone cannot do the work. I asked God for a wife and at once I met the right girl but we had no money. God provided. We have seen non-Christians converted. Because of my lack of prayer the Church is very slow in growth. In this GCI I have learned to pray hard so when I go home I will continue to pray hard. Thank you to the teachers and thank to God.
2nd Shan GCI, TaungGyi, Southern Shan State, Myanmar.
October 15-27, 1995.
This is the first training to be conducted for the Shan Churches in Shan State, Myanmar, by foreign trainers since 1966 when all foreigners were asked to leave the country by military government. Also the first time for Shan Churches from the East, South and North to come and have training together at one place. 42 attended the training. 12 came from the North, 12 from the East, 2 from Yangon and 16 from the South. US$ 4,200 spent for this training. Traveling and meal expenses for trainees were paid by GCI. Accommodations were provided by GCI. Trainers were self-supported.
Report from Jean Harper, director of GCI
Our GCI team came from all regions of Asia; Delhi, Hong Kong and Singapore and met in Bangkok for the onward flight to Yangon. There we were met by Sai Htwe Maung, his nephew and two nieces. We drove to Sai Htwe Maung’s sister’s home, in a nice new apartment block quite close to the airport and then on to our hotel for the evening. Our first impression of Yangon was one of surprise at the number of cars on the road as opposed to motorcycles in Vietnam and Cambodia. When we learned that each motorist was only allowed two gallons of petrol a week and anything more than that was purchased on the black market at highly inflated prices, we were even more surprised!
TaungGyi GCI 1995, with trainees from Northern Shan State
The next morning we all flew south to TaungGyi, the capital city of Shan State. Although it is a capital city, it is more like a country town, with quite a small population. We transited briefly in Mandalay and from the air; we noticed innumerable Buddhist temples dotting the landscape. In TaungGyi, Sai Htwe Maung, Stephen and Dr. John Noi, a leader of our host Church, met us and drove us the one-hour journey to our venue. TaungGyi is several thousand feet up in the mountains so was much cooler than on the plains. This made it very conducive for study. Sai Htwe Maung discovered numerous relatives when we reached TaungGyi. The team stayed in a small family hotel of about eight rooms, a short distance from the Church in which the training was held.
The first time, the Southern Shan, Northern Shan and Eastern Shan Baptist Associations had got together for training. They usually hold separate training. This could mainly be due to distance and the cost of transport. (An evangelist receives on average US$ 15 a month, whereas the bus fare and many days of travel for many of our participants was about US$ 70) In the history of Shan Baptist Mission it is the first time foreigners have done any training among them in forty years. We felt very privileged and responsible to give of our best. This is the first time we have had more than 40 participants, 42 to be exact.
It is the first time that ALL Ministry Plans were handed in one week before graduation! The participants were given the first Saturday afternoon on which to begin working on their plans. Imagine our surprise when they were all handed in that evening. It is the first time our GCI day has commenced at 6:30 AM for devotions and testimonies - yawn! It is the first time we’ve had a farewell party of more than 20 Church members and all the ladies have cried when we left! It’s also the first time we’ve had a “party” in an airport terminal while waiting for departure!
Thein Aung Kham, a graduate from the 1987 international GCI in Singapore, brought some 12 leaders from the North. There were about the same from the South and Stephen brought a little more than that from the East. Most of them had to travel 400 miles, a journey which took most of them two or three days. One lady took seven days to get there! And one man walked 30 miles to the bus stop. There were eight ordained pastors who were Seminary graduates. Most of the remainders were farmers or working for a living as the Churches are too poor to support a pastor. It is a real step of faith for them to go full-time. We noticed that these participants were very keen note takers. From what we heard, it seems there is even cross cultural communication problems within the Shan as the North, South and East use different words for some things and have different accents. Sometimes the Northerners could not understand Eastern accent. The TaungGyi Baptist Church (pronounced towngee), although only 40 in membership, did an excellent job of hosting the GCI training. Many Church members gave of themselves tirelessly to prepare the most wonderful meals. A Chinese man was the cook and we were treated to many culinary delights! The Church was on a Baptist compound, a lot of which has been sold off but it does have a hostel, which housed most of the participants. This also was very ideal.
Sai Htwe Maung and Sai Stephen chose the topics to be taught. They were mainly from our Level 2 curriculum, with a few from Level 1 and maybe one from Level 3. But it seemed to be a good choice of topics and the order in which they were taught had a good progression. Time had been allowed in the daily timetable for sporting activities and Sai Htwe Maung went armed with football, basketball, badminton etc. Unfortunately, there was no suitable place in which to play. It would have balanced out the program a little better. To the team, the program seemed very hectic for the participants as they also had night sessions. However, as Stephen said, they seemed to have fun-night every night, so maybe they didn’t mind.
The Saturday night fun-night was one of the best we’ve ever had in a GCI and one of the longest! The participants really entered into this, with dramas, dances, songs etc. Some of the Church members also joined in. And the Bible School students came and gave three items. Franklin, Katie and I even managed to do a couple of dramas! The hall was packed out! On Sunday Sai Htwe Maung arranged for a bus to take all the participants and faculty to the famous InLe Lake. We sat on the floor of longboats and traveled to a floating village for lunch. It is quite unique. This whole village is built on a floating island. There are several floating islands and sometimes they are joined together for a time before parting company again. It was a good break from the teaching environment and good opportunity for relating. All the arrangements and the expenses were looked after by Khin Hnin Ngwe, a niece of Sai Htwe Maung.
Lau Tak Siong was with us for the first week and his teaching was well received especially that on PASTORAL MINISTRY, which is very important for the Shan. In fact it seemed to be the no. 1 topic. The team was free in the evenings so, before having an early night speaking for Franklin, Katie and I, we met together for prayer and discussion. We enjoyed these times of team relating. The second week we were joined by Dr. Vincent Leoh, senior pastor of the Glad Tidings AOG in KL and one of his Church members. They also joined in our evening team meetings. We found Vincent to be a very gifted and exciting teacher. As Franklin said he has the gift of mixing motivational preaching with solid teaching. I was impressed by the fact that, although a doctor of theology, he went as a learner and submitted to GCI. He had asked me to send him some background information on the Shan, GCI etc. He obviously did his homework as his teaching on CHURCH PLANTING and DISCIPLESHIP was very relevant to the local situation.
Dr. Leoh’s traveling companion, Sreedhar, although he has a good heart, was not so gifted in the area of teaching. This was unfortunate, as Sai Htwe Maung had specifically asked for good teaching on YOUTH MINISTRY. In the final evaluation this was the only topic that was evaluated poorly. This is a topic that many Asian countries ask for teaching on so we need to look around for someone gifted in teaching this topic. There was good response to Katie’s teaching on MINISTRY PLANNING. Sai Htwe Maung says the ministry plans are good and we await translation from him. Franklin and Katie’s teaching on CHRISTIAN FAMILY was also very much appreciated as it always is. Teaching one or two of the topics to Baptists, not exposed to outside teaching, was a challenge. This was particularly so in the case of PRAISE AND WORSHIP. In my first session one man asked the question: “These Scriptures we’ve been reading say we should bless the Lord. How can we bless the Lord? We ask Him to bless us.” I love challenges like that! Although they participated in all the different ways to praise the Lord, it would seem, from feedback, they were not comfortable with some of it. As a team we learned some lessons. We are so used to ministering to charismatic or those with charismatic leanings that we didn’t make enough adjustments to some of our teaching.
In Tak Siong’s teaching on LEADERSHIP they didn’t take too kindly to the comment that laymen can give communion, baptism etc. In Baptist circles only ordained pastors can. Well, 100 years of tradition don’t give way easily to new concepts. Another concept they had was that children couldn’t be led to the Lord. They can only be taught about Christ and when they are older be led to the Lord. I believe they had a paradigm shift on this one after being shown Scriptures and given examples. At the end of the first week I began to realize there was something wrong with the following week’s teaching schedule. There was one hour each day not accounted for. Franklin was delighted, as he had prayed there would be opportunity to teach on the HOLY SPIRIT. He taught on it very sensitively and on the night before graduation he and Vincent prayed for all the students to receive the Holy Spirit. Many of the ladies were weeping as they sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit. We didn’t hear anyone speak in tongues or see any outward manifestations but we believe God did a work in each person’s heart and each one experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in a new way. Stephen told me the next day, “now they have a new friend in the Holy Spirit.”
We were really blessed to have both Sai Htwe Maung and Thein Aung Kham. Sai Htwe Maung is a delight to minister with. He follows your every action, however dramatic, which makes it fun for the participants and stopped us every now and then to elaborate on an important point to ensure the participants understand. That kind of interpreter brings out the best in you! Kham was also very easy to minister with. Sai Htwe Maung wanted Stephen to try translating but he had no confidence. However, he was forced in to it one afternoon when Sai Htwe Maung was delayed in a meeting. As the topic was Child Evangelism I told lots of stories and the participants enjoyed seeing Stephen follow my actions. It also renewed some of his confidence.
Evaluation
We left this to Sai Htwe Maung to conduct in Shan and so the participants could freely express themselves. Their written evaluations were most positive, as you will see from Sai Htwe Maung’s translation attached. Late that afternoon Sai Htwe Maung came to our hotel, a little concerned. He said he is not sure if the North will accept us next year as we are planning for LaShio in November because of denominationalism. He also feels the North does not have good leadership. And Stephen has already said he will be too busy this year to help arrange a GCI. There was definite conflict between the leadership from the North and Sai Htwe Maung throughout the program. It seems some of the older pastors from the North were not happy with our charismatic way of teaching. One phrase we heard quite often was, “We are Baptists!” It seems they found Vincent’s exuberance he doesn’t need a microphone! His AOGness and the way he prayed loudly for people almost offensive (we noticed it didn’t stop them from coming to ask for prayer though). However they did enjoy Vincent’s teaching and they liked him as a person. They didn’t like Franklin asking them to all pray out loud together or me asking them to all sing a new song together etc. This was “not Baptist and was very confusing!” I guess these are some of the occupational hazards of being the first outsider input in more than 100 years of tradition.
As Franklin, Katie and I discussed it, we realized these comments probably came from just a few. From the overall response to our teaching (and the multitudinous gifts we received), we believe that GCI was a blessing and that much good fruit will come from the teaching. We felt it was an excellent GCI, with real quality teaching, other than that on Youth Ministry. Sai Htwe Maung kept commenting throughout the program how much better the teaching was this year than last. However, as a team we learned lessons too in that we need to be more sensitive when teaching in a non-Charismatic environment. As for Vincent we all feel he is an excellent communicator but maybe we need to take him in to a more charismatic environment and “turn him loose.” That night, on behalf of the team, Franklin asked the participants to forgive us if we had offended them in any way through our method of teaching.
Dedication
The night of graduation a dedication service was held to pray for and send out six men who during the course of the GCI felt God call them out to full-time ministry. Some of them will join in with the Shan 21st Century mission. Sai Htwe Maung needs another Sai Stephen in both the South and the North to fulfill the vision! It is very meaningful for these Shan to commit themselves to full-time ministry. It is definitely a step of faith and a willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel.
I cannot conclude this report without giving due credit to Sai Stephen for 12 months of hard work to put together an excellent program. He thought of everything and was very detailed in everything, including recording all expenditure etc. He is a very special person for the Shan. And, of course, there is no one like our Dr. Sai Htwe Maung: tireless, talented in so many areas, so zealous for the Lord and for his people, such fun to be with etc. etc. For our part we enjoyed this GCI very much. We enjoyed the warmth of the people and their responsiveness to the teaching. We feel it was an excellent GCI and trust it will be just the beginning of grassroots training among the Shan. To God be the glory!
Speeches at graduation service
Dr. John Noi,[2] on behalf of TaungGyi Shan Church. “The participants have learned a lot and it will be of great help to them in spreading the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are equipped with new strategies. They are the up and coming gospel preachers. No matter what hardship or adversity they face they will succeed by the help of God. The Holy Spirit will always help them. The Kingdom of God will be successfully propagated in the Shan State and we praise the Lord. During these two weeks we have come to know each other and make friends. Let this fellowship be eternal. I am looking forward to this wonderful occasion in the near future.”
Dr. Vincent Leoh’s message
“In heaven there will be people from every tribe, language and nation. One of the great tribes there will be the Shan people. I thank Asian Outreach for giving us the opportunity to join them. We also thank Dr. Sai Htwe Maung, Sai Stephen, Sai Htun Myat and the leadership of the Church.”
In John 15:16 Jesus emphasizes:
1. Appointment. We have not chosen to serve Him but He has chosen us to serve Him. For all the Shan people God has appointed you to service Him. This is a high calling. Don’t be alarmed by the call of God. Be true to the calling of Jesus Christ.
2. Live according to the principles Jesus has given you, so the name of Jesus will not be blamed. You are a chosen representative of Jesus Christ. You don’t just represent GCI or the denomination you come from but the King of Kings, Jesus Christ Himself. For what purpose to go and bear fruit. “Go there” is the great commission. It does not say “come” is “go.” He didn’t say go and do your own thing but bear fruit.
3. Fruit that will last. If you try to do anything for yourself it will not last. The only fruit that will last is what is done for Christ. When you go to heaven you will see the rewards the people you saved, the people you helped.
4. Promises from God. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask for in My Name. You are graduating not just with a certificate but also with the promises of God that will be with you forever. What do you need to ask the Father? Ask constantly every day.
a. Give me the Shan people. Give me this nation.
b. Fill me with your Spirit, with the power from on high, that I may go out and bear fruit for you. Ask to be filled every day.
Nang Shwe Sein, on behalf of Northern Shan State
“I am thankful to all the trainers and on behalf of the Northern Shan Baptist Association I would like to thank you very much. Thirteen of us came from the North. Thanks to Dr. Sai Htwe Maung for his vision for our Shan and coming here with GCI and all the trainers to give us this opportunity for training. Thank you to the Church and their leadership and those who served us. I have learned a lot on Prayer, the Holy Spirit, Leadership, Pastoral Ministries, Children’s Ministry, Evangelism, Youth Ministries and Ministry Planning. They were all very helpful. I would like to confess that in the Northern State our Churches are sleeping, which we regret. After coming to this training we are very much encouraged and very happy we can go with a new vision. I will be part of the vision that our Shan 21st Century project that by the year 2001 we will work, we will have 21,000 Shan converts. In conclusion, I would like to say, as Dr. Leoh said, ‘Go.’ From now on we will go in the North!”
Sai Wo Tip Cheuk, on behalf of Eastern Shan State
“By the grace of God we have the opportunity to come here for training. For those who organized it and those who came from abroad to teach us, I am very grateful to you all. You, the trainers from abroad, are the best example for us. You spent your time and money to come and teach us. So we must sacrifice and go and reach our people. We all know we have responsibility for the salvation of our own people. As I have learned I know how we can work in God’s ministry among our people. Thank you to the Church for hosting us and to those who cooked for us so well. When we go back to the East we will dedicate our lives and work harder for our people.”
Sai Htun Kaing, on behalf of the Southern Shan State
“I give thanks first to our Lord Jesus Christ. We have 12 people from the South attending this training. Thank you to all the trainers for giving us a new vision. I have attended training before but not like this one. In this one we are awakened for the Lord. We have learned and know especially Ministry Planning and know how to plan for our ministry in the future. Now we have our targets. We are looking forward to serving the Lord in the Southern Shan State. Thanks to the Church for hosting us and no one will forget the cooks and those working so hard for us.”
Rev. Sai Ba Pe
I have been in the ministry for 24 years but I realize I am not doing enough for our Shan. Some villages have already converted from their idol worship. My wife was a Buddhist leader in the village. I had to work very hard to convert her. Finally she accepted the Lord. After our marriage, we lived in a Buddhist community for 15 years. I organized a gospel team to go and evangelize that village. I had opportunity to fellowship with the Buddhist monk and could go into the village any time to have discussions with the monks. The Buddhists thought that if I was a Christian then I wasn’t a Shan but an outsider but they began to realize that Christians are good people and accepted me as one of them. Now we have moved to another town, which is producing rubies, jade and precious stones. Many people are trying to do business there. But I’m working there for the Lord. Now we are building a church but the village leaders said to us, “Don’t put a cross on the church.”
(Some Christian leaders accused him that he moved there because of the good business and he was trading in jade and rubies. In November he and another pastor are arranging a big Christian rally in the village. And now he has dedicated himself for the 21st Century Shan project and is working towards that goal.)
Sayama Nang Hla Khin
I was invited to lead the Church elders in building a Christian center. One time while witnessing, the army asked the group who their leader was. They pointed to me. The army kept them under observation and asked what tribe they were from. I replied, “Shan.” They asked if there were any Christians among the Shan. I told them I had no gift to give them but the Lord Jesus Christ and He is so precious. We were detained overnight and the following morning released. After eating breakfast, the army again picked me up. The major told me not to say anything but to follow him. I took my Bible and followed him. The major asked me, “Are you really Shan?” He showed me a Shan costume and asked me to put it on and sing a Shan song for them. I didn’t know how to sing a Shan song but prayed and God enabled me to sing a Shan song and witness to the people. I sang, “Jesus loves me.” The soldiers gave me a gift and said, “We haven’t heard pure Shan words for a long lime. Don’t be afraid. We will arrange a grand dinner for you tomorrow. You are a frontier person, like us, stationed in a very far area.
Sai Aung Than
The Holy Spirit has helped me in every way. When I graduated from Seminary I received an invitation to be a pastor. Since I was so young I couldn’t imagine how I could be a pastor but I prayed and the Lord guided me. I was very afraid to become a pastor but what we think we can’t do we find possible with God. I came to TaungGyi and in order to lead morning devotion I had to pray and prepare for two weeks and practice and practice. I felt very inexperienced at preaching and had to preach six times a day when I became a pastor. Sometimes, after preaching, I would think over the sermon I had preached and think it was quite good. Then I remembered that it was only because of the help of the Holy Spirit. When the Buddhists buy a new house they invite all the Christians to come and dedicate the house to the Lord. The daughter of the headman got food poisoning and was ill for a long time. The Buddhists said, “If the Christians come and pray she will be healed”, so invited them to pray for her. They told her, “If you have faith to believe that when we pray the power of Jesus can heal you, you will be healed.” She was healed. Up until now these people are declaring that the Lord Jesus Christ is very powerful and kind. It is very difficult for the Shan to accept Christianity. Our duty is to sow the seed. Even if we don’t see many converts, keep sowing. It is God who waters and gives the increase.
In 1992 we had leadership training in our village. As we showed a video of their ministry a soldier came and shot at us. Eight people were killed and seven wounded. In the morning, when I returned to that area, the place where I had been sitting last night was surrounded with blood. Two of my brothers in law were killed but God protected me. I re-consecrated my life to the Lord to be God’s minister all my life. Two weeks before coming to GCI a former monk was baptized. This December we are planning an open-air crusade in the village, in three dialects. Yesterday, while fasting and praying, the Lord told me, “The things that are impossible to you I will make possible.” That encouraged me to put all my efforts in to proclaiming God’s Word.
Nang Seng Kham
In 1980 I felt sick and weak and the doctors said they couldn’t detect any illness. I went to a specialist in Yangon for x-rays. In between my ribs they found some spots. People read the Bible to me and prayed for me. When I returned to TaungGyi I gave my heart to the Lord and began praying. After praying for a long lime and on my return x-ray, the spots had disappeared. I was given some medicine to take. After two years I had a check up and they found cancer in the bones. I trusted the Lord. In 1994 I was confirmed as having bone cancer. In my heart I said, “The Lord is with me, I am not afraid.” I began my treatment. I was discharged from the hospital and in January 1995 I was readmitted by the cancer specialist to the Yangon hospital. After checking me, the specialist said that he could find nothing in me. Psalm 103 greatly encouraged me. The Lord has miraculously healed all my diseases. At my last check up the doctor told me that all my problems were solved but prescribed me some medicine. Even though the doctor said it was bone cancer and bone TB and even though it was a nightmare for me the Lord helped me and by His power He healed me. I have experienced the grace and power of God.
Nang Kheo
In 1990 I gave birth to a child and I was hospitalized with high blood pressure. I was in a coma for three days. After recovery I was very tired. After examination the doctor said that I had heart disease. While in a coma all my family and Christian friends were praying for me. Otherwise I believe I would have died. I had treatment for a long time as I had several sicknesses in my body.
I was readmitted to hospital and became very thin and weak. My mother, even though a Christian, began to waiver in her faith and thought maybe some evil spirit had come in and they needed to do some ceremony. But I told my mother my life is in God’s hands. If my life ended that was God’s will but if I continued to live then He had a purpose for me. My pastor and elders prayed for me. When the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus all her diseases were healed. I felt that if the hand of the Lord just touched me I would be healed. My young brother had some medicine, which had nothing to do with the heart disease. But they prayed over it, I took it and it helped. I began to understand that God has something for me to do in the ministry so I gave my life for service. By the power of God, I said, I am healed even though the doctors said I could not be healed.
(During GCI, on the day of prayer and fasting, she didn’t think she could go without food because of her medical history but nothing happened to her after fast and prayer and she even received strength from the Lord.)
Lesson learned reported by Sai Htwe Maung
The first night when we began our training at TaungGyi Shan Baptist Church, the chairman of TaungGyi Church received a warning letter from military intelligent that it was illegal to hold training without having permission from the government. It meant that we were liable to be arrested at any time. What should we do? If we apply for permission now it will take one month or two to get the answer. Local authority would not make a decision. Instead the application would be sent to religious affair ministry in Yangon. We were already here. Should we go back home? Should we continue? We prayed for God’s guidance and protection. The chairman of the Church, Dr. John Noi, was a brave man. He said, “Don’t worry. Carry on. I will take all the responsibility. I know the authority here. If they are going to arrest us let them arrest me first.” Then we continued. Nothing happened till the last training day.
Most of the trainers had either Charismatic or Pentecostal back ground. All trainees were Baptist and they never had experienced in Charismatic or Pentecostal, speaking in tongue and experiencing in the power of the Holy Spirit. There were some difficulties in teaching them how to pray, how to praise and worship God since Baptist way of prayer, praise and worship are different from Pentecostal. Do we need to abandon Charismatic way or Pentecostal way in teaching the Baptist? Do we need to insist and teach them to experience in manifestation of the Holy Spirit? Do we need to give up? Do we need to adjust and balance? As an organizer I have a big difficulty between Pentecostal trainers and Baptist trainees. We need to be sensitive to the background culture of the people, the environment and the situation of the country. We all know that Burma is a Buddhist Country and 84% of the populations are Buddhist. The military Government is very much sided with Buddhist religion. They are not only supporting but also promoting Buddhism. If any one talking or acting against Buddhism it is just like one is committing a crime. They will not tolerate any one who is insulting Buddhist monk or Buddhism. The slogan such as “The wall of Buddhism must come down!” “Give me this Land Oh God!” is in fact very dangerous. Be wise!
After graduation ceremony one of the trainees from the North said, “We would not recognize the certificate issued by GCI because it is Pentecostal training.” How can he say that it was Pentecostal training? They did not teach Pentecostal doctrine but the Bible. What a waste of time and money! Some of these trainers have either master or doctor degree. 12 trainees came from the North. All together we have 42 trainees. Actually the majority of the trainees are very happy and transformed after training. Some of the Shan leaders from the North did not get along well with me because I was quite strict at them during the training sessions. Some trainees came to the class very late. Some leaders just sitting outside the classroom, drinking tea and smoking cigar instead of coming into the room to listen and learn. I asked them not to be late to the class, show good example to others, as they were the leaders. We had a good graduation ceremony. Representatives from the Shan States gave very positive testimonies. Emotion ran high when Sai Stephen wept.
3rd Shan GCI, KengTung
December 1-13, 1997.
KengTung GCI 1997
This is the first training to be conducted by foreigners in Eastern Shan State in forty years. The leaderships of Eastern Shan State are very open-minded and willing to learn for their own benefits in their Church growth and mission endeavor. We are willing to give to those who are willing to receive.
40 attended and Kyat 520,000 was spent for this training.
Trainers
Mun Heng from Malaysia, Goh Kek Seng from Malaysia, Jean Harper from Australia, Ong Siew Huat from Singapore, Jerry Yeoh from Malaysia, Takashi from Japan and local trainer Sai Stephen.
Report from Takashi
Mun Heng, Goh Kek Seng (FGA, KL) and I (Takashi Yoshida) traveled together to Yangon and were met by Dr. Sai Htwe Maung’s sister and her daughters. These ladies are wonderful in their hospitality and made all the internal flight bookings and Yangon hotel arrangements for us, as well as acted as tour guides and moneychangers! They met each of us as we came in and out of Yangon and took us to and from the hotel. Hla Hla Htay works in a travel agency so this was a great help, especially when she was able to get us a very nice hotel room in Yangon for less than half price! The booking of internal flights is an interesting exercise. You can only book two days beforehand and find out the scheduling and timing the morning of the flight! Whilst we had return tickets in our hands our return flight could not be booked until two days before departure!
Our flight to KengTung left at the unearthly hour of 7 AM the next morning so it was early rising. OSH and Takashi weren’t quite so fortunate one week later as their flight was delayed two hours because of fog at KengTung’s little airport. Stephen met us on arrival. Fortunately he has the use of the Shan Baptist Mission vehicle, which was a great help in transportation. The Baptist Mission has a huge compound, on which are the Shan Baptist Church (1,000+members), Lahu Baptist Church (1,000+members), Wa Baptist Church and Stephen’s Calvary Baptist which is for all tribes. By way of explanation, to have an association, you need to have at least 15 Churches and you need three associations in order to have a Convention. When Stephen went to GCI in Thailand the Eastern Shan State they only had one association and 18 Churches. Today it is a convention with 62 Churches. The Wa only have one association and so have joined the Shan convention, that is why we had Wa participants. Actually Stephen is not just involved with the Shan but also other tribes. He took us to two Palong villages and an Ahku village. The villages are quite close to KengTung, which makes it a very interesting place to visit if you love tribal people, which I do. Their housing was quite similar to the villages in Cambodia, made of bamboo and thatch, on stilts, with pigs and chickens underneath.
Participants
This was our third GCI with the Shan. Sai Stephen did another excellent job in organizing this training for 31 Shan and 9 Wa participants. Of the 31 Shan participants, seven came from TaChiLeik (on Thai border), six from MuongYang, 10 from MuongYawng and eight from KengTung. Two of the Wa came from MuongYang and the others are from the Wa Baptist Association. Eight of the participants are pastors, eight are evangelists and others are involved in youth, children’s and women’s ministries. Stephen visited each area beforehand and handpicked the participants.
The majority of the participants were young people this time and Stephen said that it was one reason why they seemed more open to new ideas than the previous two groups. They were so responsive to the teaching and seemed to enjoy every topic taught. It only took them a day to thaw out and there was plenty of classroom interaction. We certainly enjoyed teaching “hungry” people and found they have a keen sense of fun. One thing that really impressed us was the dedication and commitment of these young people to the work of the Lord often in difficult circumstances. The educational levels were again varying from some illiterate to some with university education. The majority of them took copious notes. One suggestion in the evaluations and maybe one worth considering is that Stephen set a certain educational level for the training. This would allow teaching to be at a higher level. Those who cannot read and write could be trained in Stephen’s 3 month training. Word seemed to spread around town that there was training going on and, at any given time, there could be as many as 16 outside visitors from other Churches and not just Baptist. Some were independent and one or two Catholic sisters attended some of the sessions. And once Takashi arrived, word seemed to spread that there was a Japanese in town. One morning six fathers from the Catholic Church came to visit, one of whom was Japanese and wanted to meet Takashi.
Venue
Stephen’s Church was an ideal venue for the training. Located besides his Church building is what was once a nurses’ quarters of mission hospital (now local housing). The old nurses’ quarters has many rooms upstairs which provided accommodation for the out-of-town participants and downstairs provided a large kitchen and dining area. Ten to twelve ladies from the Church did all the cooking led by a Chinese cook. It didn’t matter there was no McDonalds in town we had five-star cooking every meal!! And such a variety of green vegetables!
Teaching
Mun Heng started the teaching with POWER THEOLOGY. He was a little uncertain how to tackle this in an all Baptist environment but, as usual, he did an excellent job in teaching the topic and sensitively handled praying for the participants to be empowered by the Spirit. He also taught MINISTRY PLANNING. From the Ministry Plans he really got the five steps of planning over very well to them.
Goh Kek Seng from KL, apart from being our tallest ever teacher 6 feet 8 inches (he has lots of “tall” jokes!) was also one of our best teachers. He is very skilled and gifted in the art of teaching. In HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE he not only taught the participants how to do word studies and character studies etc. but he really applied those studies in to their lives. In fact, he “fed” those participants far more and at a far deeper level than I would have thought they could handle. He kept giving them “homework” to do and had them looking up all sorts of things in their Bibles. But they lapped it all up! In teaching on LEADERSHIP he really emphasized the need for holiness and prayed for the majority of participants who came forward for prayer for spirit, soul and/or body contamination. I felt his teaching was very practical. Kek Seng is interested in teaching in other GCIs. Other topics he is comfortable with teaching are: Homiletics, Hermeneutics, Survey of OT and NT, Second Coming, Book studies on Judges, Haggai, Romans. The idea did occur to me that he might be a good outside person to evaluate our teaching curriculum and materials.
Ong Siew Huat and Takashi Yoshida arrived the second week and Mun Heng and Kek Seng flew home. Takashi quickly learned some Shan phrases and dressed up in the traditional Burmese longee (Man’s skirt), which OSH told him made him look like a Sumo wrestler. He taught the participants Japanese songs, which they loved to learn and played games with them in class, which they also loved. He taught on PRAYER and CHRISTIAN FAMILY. He was very teachable and willing to implement any suggestions we made to him. It might have been helpful to him if he could have observed a GCI in action first before being involved in the teaching, as I think he would have been more relaxed. He was inclined to be a bit formal when teaching, which wasn’t his attitude outside the classroom. He was a delight to have around and enjoyed the visits to the villages. Goodness knows how many roles of film he used! And he delighted me by running around to open car doors for me something he said he had learned from a Ps. Oxley, not realizing he is my founding pastor!
OSH taught on CHURCH PLANTING and PASTORAL MINISTRIES. He and Mun Heng were able to identify with the participants so well because of their long involvement with the Ibans and Dayaks and they used lots of illustrations from their tribal experiences, which were very relevant. OSH had read up on the Shan beforehand and read a book of their folk tales, which he used during his teaching. He started each session with “Long, long time ago.” It gave them a good example of how to relate their folk tales in their preaching.
Stephen taught on EVANGELISM. From what he told us, he taught more on what is evangelism, rather than on how to do it. But the participants enjoyed him and evaluated him very highly. I taught on PRAISE AND WORSHIP, a little in fear and trembling as to how to do so in a Baptist context. Of course, I learned a few things from previous experiences. But these young people were open to try about anything. I only had a half-day and it wasn’t long enough. Stephen said they were also expecting more on the topic. But I think some of what they were expecting I wouldn’t have been able to give, related to music, playing guitar etc. Teaching CHILD EVANGELISM on the last day was fun and they had fun except that by that stage they were so tired some of them almost had to staple their eyes open!
We did change the program halfway through. In the first week we had three hours teaching in the morning and three hours in the afternoon leaving the evenings free for discussion and questions and answers. The weather was just gorgeous and they asked for time to play in the afternoons. So, in the second week, we had just one 90-minute teaching session after lunch and another 90-minute session at 6 pm, after dinner. The only problem with that was that some nights there was a brownout and some sessions were conducted by candlelight!
Visit to tribal villages
On the day that we arrived Stephen took us to Canaan village, a totally Christian village with 30 families of Dailoi people. One of the graduates from the Maesai GCI is pastoring them and three of their people attended the training. They served us fried sticks of sticky rice and steamed yam and then we had an impromptu Church service. Mun Heng, Kek Seng and I all shared a story, which constituted the sermon! In the afternoon we visited Miksilikon village, a Christian Shan village of 15 families. We were amused by Stephen’s comment: “On this side of the road live the Christians and on that side of the road live the Buddhists. If a Buddhist converts he has to move across the road!” The reason being you have to follow the religious practices of whichever side of the road you live on!
Mun Heng was keen to see the tribal people who live in longhouses so one afternoon we visited a Palong village, which has one Christian lady. She had been sick for quite some time and Stephen and his leaders had gone to pray for her. God healed her and she became a Christian. We discovered their longhouses aren’t quite so long when compared with the Ibans! The people were very open for the group to pray for them and gave gifts of pumpkins and green beans.
On the day that OSH and Takashi arrived we went further out of town to Sai Khong’s Ahku village where 12 new believers were baptized in the pond. Sai Khong went and lived with the villagers in October 1993 for six months. They were afraid of evil spirits and listened to what he said and finally asked for Sai Stephen, Sai Tip and Sai Philip to go and talk with them about converting to Christianity. These leaders stayed with them for four days and finally the whole village decided to turn to Christ. They had a big fire to burn all their charms and fetishes. Now they have their own Church building and love their young pastor Sai Khong. Sai Khong is not only their pastor but also the schoolteacher to teach them how to read and write. This seems to be quite common in these villages as there are no schools to send the children to. We asked who is the most powerful person in these villages. We were told that in a Buddhist village, if they have a monk living there, he is the most powerful, otherwise the headman is. And in a Christian village the pastor is the most powerful person and even the headman must listen to what he has to say. This would seem to place great responsibility on the young pastors!
New footsoldiers of Christ
It was very colorful graduation. The 12 ladies all dressed up in different traditional costumes and many of the men also wore either the traditional Shan dress, or some other tribal wear. And when they sang their graduation song they sounded like a choir of angels! Each of us was given a Shan bag, filled with a Burmese longee and Shan tea! OSH gave a short word of encouragement to the students and Stephen preached the main message. At the conclusion he challenged those who were willing to dedicate themselves to serve the Lord, wherever He would lead them, with or without salary, to come forward. Immediately 23 came forward.
After graduation seven graduates were dedicated and sent out with full support.
1. Sai Paulu - has resigned from school headmaster and will go and live in a Christian village to pastor them and train their people to become evangelists. He will also open up a school.
2. Sai Moe Lawn - he will live in an Ahka village in MuongYawng.
3. Sai Sam Khong - a Wa - he will live in a Wa village on the China border.
4. Sai Yo Bar - he will serve in MuongYawng, planting Churches among animists.
5. Saw Luther, from TaChiLeik - he will do Church planting in MuongYawng.
6. Rev. Marko Crain, a Wa pastor - he is working on the China border.
7. Sai Enoch - will do Church planting in TaChiLeik.
Stephen said he had to choose out of seven and when we asked him who the other three were, we thought they were also good candidates:
The monthly allowance for an evangelist is Kyat 3,000. On present exchange rates horrendously low that amounts to about US$10. But Stephen said to let the Shan Churches accept responsibility for Kyat 2,000. Takashi will share on these needs when he returns to Japan and will challenge seven different Churches to adopt one footsoldier. In the meantime I left Kyat 10,000 with Stephen for the first month’s support for five of the above. There was no point in my exchanging them back in to dollars for a much lower rate than I bought them! As there is some gap between January and Takashi returning to Japan. Can AOI make some arrangements for the interim period of support? I understand there are funds in the Shan account.
Budget
The budget for this GCI was US$2,200 for all food, traveling expenses of those from outside KengTung, stationery and other miscellaneous items. Each participant contributed Kyat 500, not much when you convert it to dollars but it is close to a week’s wage for the evangelists. Stephen gave me an itemized income and expenditure statement.
Testimonies
The response from trainees to GCI was as follow;
It gave me spiritual strength and encouraged me to serve the Lord. (6 persons)
The subject of Children’s Ministry helped me so much. It helped me in leading the Church. I know more about how to plant a Church. This training changed my life to be humble and to dedicate myself totally to serve the Lord.
The teaching on Leadership helped me to become a good leader in my youth ministry. It got me in touch with the Holy Spirit. I know more about how to praise and worship God. I will practice it in my Church. It brought me closer to Jesus Christ.
I am a pastor so the Pastoral Ministries helped me so much in pastoring my Church. It made me more eager to learn the Bible. The Christian Family lectures helped me so much in my family. I can see clearly what to do in the future. It touched my heart to change my life and serve the Lord. It encouraged me to give more time to prayer. My ministry will become more lively. I saw the needs and how to plant a new Church. This training changed my life. I have become more spiritually mature. It helped me how to pray. (2 persons)
My viewpoints on mission work have become widened.
The Leadership subject made me to evaluate my life.
This training changed my life and gave me strength to dedicate my life to Jesus.
This training gave me so many benefits. I learned about prayer and how to study the Bible.
The subject of Leadership was very helpful.
This training touched my heart and changed my life. All the lectures helped me to do evangelization. It gave me new thinking, new vision and new methods to do the ministry.
This training pushed me to read the Bible and strengthened me to pray.
Haynes Yu Mon (Stephen’s eldest daughter)
While studying for my matriculation I was not so well and couldn’t study well. As the exams approached I was afraid and had no confidence in my ability to pass. I prayed as I studied. On the first day of the exams I got my answers correct. The next day it was an English exam and I couldn’t do it. I prayed and found answers were coming. I couldn’t understand the science subject. When I counted the marks I would receive they only came to 39. I knew I would fail but I prayed and reminded myself that if I fail this year I can try again next year. My family prayed that I would pass. God answered their prayer. Now I am waiting for the university to open.
Sai Paulu (MuongYang)
I was headmaster of a primary school and I resigned so I could become an evangelist among the Shan. I am still single. I don’t smoke or drink. When I was a teacher in the school I had to buy liquor and cigarettes because my boss asked me to. I prayed, “Oh God, to serve these people I have to do evil things.” When I became headmaster then I was the one to ask people to buy this and that. In 1996, at the annual meeting, I was wondering what to do sometimes, as the headmaster, I am the most educated person in the village or Church and often I am asked to preach or pray. I just did it out of duty. Stephen encouraged me to work for the Church. One night I couldn’t sleep. I went outside and opened my heart to God. I prayed, “Lord, I am so full of sin. Please cleanse me, use me for your ministry. Now the annual meeting is coming and I have to help. I started praying and reading the Bible every day. My life is transformed. Before the pastor asked me to preach I wanted to preach. I wanted to witness. I started to ask for permission to preach. In June of this year Stephen challenged me to work for the Lord. My family’s situation is OK. This year I could build my own house and was happy. I resigned from my job. People said, “there’s no teacher in your village and you want to quit.” I told them I wanted to work for the Lord. I attended an evangelism-training course in Yangon and now I’m attending this GCI training. I have consecrated myself to work for the Lord. I encourage you that if the Lord is calling you, open your heart, hear what God is saying to you. He will bless you.
Sai Moe Lawn (“Zechariah”) (MuongYang)
My father is an ordained pastor in MuongYang. Even though I’m the son of a pastor I used to fall into bad habits. I got married and have four children. In our Church we have cell groups for young married couples to go and evangelize. I was selected as a group leader. There are 15 members in the group. But nobody knows how to pray and nobody attends Church. I have to lead them to go evangelizing, so I have problems! I asked the Lord to help me lead them and be a good example. I started visiting every home and praying for people. I found no change in their lives. One day I visited two of my cell members. I said we have nowhere to go today so what shall we do. They said, let’s enjoy ourselves. They got drunk and cared about nothing. Something whispered in my heart who will look after your paddy field. As I returned home I heard people shouting “fire, fire.” Everyone came and helped put out the fire. I was burnt and had to go to hospital. The house that I had just been in was burned and my friends were burned to death. I realized that God had pulled me out of the fire and I felt He had something for me to do for Him. But I wanted to test the Lord. I told my parents that unless I have a new house I would go in to the jungle and do everything against what the Lord has said. One day, when walking out from the village, I met someone who said they had heard I was looking for a house. He took me to see a house and everything was reasonable. The Lord provided what I had asked for. The Shan Association came and asked for two people to go evangelizing. I realized I had challenged God and God had provided all my needs, so I said I would go and give my life to serve the Lord. Every morning my wife teaches the children and I go out in to the villages to witness for the Lord. I was so excited serving the Lord that I taught for three days and it just poured out from me. I heard about GCI and decided I wanted to be a participant. My paddy fields were just being harvested and I thought I couldn’t come. I prayed and most of the villagers came to help me. But it rained and they couldn’t harvest. I wondered what was wrong and prayed, “Lord, if you want me to attend the GCI please stop the rain.” The rain stopped, the rice was harvested and I could come to GCI.
Rev. Marku Crain (MuongYang):
Even though I am a pastor, I have never given a testimony before! I am the eldest son in my family. My parents sent me to school. They said if I were illiterate it would be like I was a blind man. In 1971 I failed the 8th standard. I was angry with God that He didn’t help me to pass. In 1972 I prayed and passed 8th standard. The teacher then asked me to join the Bible School but I refused. I said I wanted to attend college and earn a degree. In 1973 I entered the 10th standard examination and returned home. My parents told me that as my father was now old and I was the eldest, I had to take responsibility to till the soil and look after my younger brother and sister. I was so disappointed. In 1974 I worked as a farmer and got married. Two years later we had a son. I began to read the Bible at that time. I sensed that the Lord was speaking to me through the Bible to go to the interior where there are Wa headhunters and to preach the Gospel to them. One day my pastor said to me that I was the one who is educated so I should join the Bible School and become a pastor for the Lord. I felt the need also and sensed it was the will of God, so I attended Bible School. After graduating in 1984 I was appointed youth leader in the Church. Gradually I was promoted to be General Secretary of the Wa Churches Association. But I never felt the anointing of the Spirit. On December 13, 1996, one of the Wa non-believers asked me to pray for his sick daughter who was being tormented by an evil spirit. The non-believer said he knew that if I prayed the evil spirit would leave his daughter. I knew I couldn’t do it but only God could do it. I told the parents that only God is powerful and I am just His tool. I knelt down and prayed and asked for the anointing of the Spirit. I prayed and drove out the evil spirits. That young lady came to me the next day and said she wanted to become a Christian and be baptized. After that experience I have cast out lots of evil spirits and have come to understand that education and graduating from the Bible School is not enough. You need the anointing of the Spirit. Unless you surrender yourself in to the hand of the Lord you will never have this power. Don’t be boastful when you get the anointing of the Spirit. It is not yours. It is up to the Lord. You need to be more prayerful and more submissive. Then God will provide all your needs. Up to now I am working and serving the Lord without salary but the Lord provides all that I need.
Esther Kun (Wa)
In 1992 my father died. We had a family of four and my mother sold the family business. When I passed the 9th standard I thought that because my father was gone it would be hard for my mother to support the family and I should get a job to help support them. But the Lord opened the way for me to continue my study. I failed the 10th standard and felt so sorry about it. I was disappointed and wanted to leave but my mother encouraged me to continue to study. The following year I passed 10th standard. Some people suggested I work in a government office and some suggested attending Bible School. Even though it was hard for the family to support me, my mother’s faith was so great that I was able to attend the TaungGyi University. Previously my mother was selected to be the Director of the Women’s Fellowship and we moved from our village into town. I didn’t want to leave the village but my mother told me we were chosen by God so, as God’s instruments, we have to be happy in any situation serving the Lord. When I was called to attend this GCI, I didn’t really want to come but couldn’t refuse. While attending and praying and opening my heart to the Lord I feel the Lord has touched me something has happened in my heart. I have a burden for my people. Now, if the Lord opens the way, after finishing college I will serve the Lord fulltime. Even though with our human knowledge we cannot think about everything, God can see to our every need.
Nang Seng Hom (KengTung)
Because I had a chance to attend this training it has changed my life. At first I didn’t want to attend because I was very busy with the weaving. I use to be jealous of others who were better than me. In Sunday school and in school I always received the prize. I tried very hard in my study and if someone was better than me I didn’t like them. My ambition was to become a doctor. I told my parents I wanted to go to Yangon to study. When I was there I tried very hard. When In KengTung I always got high marks. But in Yangon I couldn’t follow the others. Many students were better than me so I tried very hard. I thought I could pass the examinations in my own strength. I forgot to pray and I didn’t want to attend the Church service. I didn’t want to waste my time. Because I tried very hard and I became sick. While I was sick I was jealous of my friends because I couldn’t study but they could. I entered the matriculation examination and could answer very well. I thought I would pass the examination. Still I didn’t want to participate in the youth service. Finally I passed the examination but I didn’t get any distinctions. My parents taught me that we have to trust God and surrender all our life to Him. They invited the pastor to pray for me. Finally I came to this training. Now all my life is changed. From now I have decided, after finishing my university study, I will go to Bible College to serve the Lord. This training has touched my heart very much. My life has changed to follow Jesus Christ and serve God.
Saw Lukar
I want to thank God for giving us this training peacefully. Our thanks to Rev. Sai Stephen for organizing this GCI training. We also give thanks to the Eastern Shan Baptist Convention. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to all the teachers who came from abroad to give us a very encouraging training. Most of all, our gratitude to Jean Harper. You are a very expert person in giving demonstrations. We give thanks to our brother Takashi. He is always active in giving us training. We learned that you are so prompt in your timing. We give thanks to our Brother Ong. You are a good storyteller. You gave us a very good example of how to make use of the Bible story and making it relate to our people. We give thanks to Brother Thein Aung Kham for coming and helping in translation. We know our translator goes beyond our lecturer a bit. We want to thank the Calvary Church for providing us everything, our accommodation, water and everything else we need. To the youth of Calvary Church and to the cook, for the delicious food every, I want to say thanks, especially to the cooks. Yesterday when I tried on my pants I couldn’t wear them! So I know all our cooks are the best in the world. On behalf of the trainees I would like to apologize to you that during the training and teaching you may have observed that some of the participants were not so wholehearted. Please understand and know all our inabilities and please forgive us for that attitude. Even though you are so busy giving training in many countries you gave your time and talents to give us training here. On behalf of our participants I would like to express our heartfelt thanks to you with these gifts to show our gratitude and thanks to you. Even though they seem to be worthless they are full of our love and in remembrance of our time together.
4th Shan GCI, MayMyo (Pyin Oo Lwin)
November 15-27, 1998
Preparation
We planned for GCI training solely for the North in 1996 but not materialized because of many reasons. We consider this training program for Shan Churches in the North is very important because this can change the life of the believers, pastors and the Church. Because of the local situation we have to plan and work out very carefully. Several communications have been made with local leader Sai Thein Aung Kham, General Secretary of ShweLi Valley Shan Baptist Mission.
Sai Thein Aung Kham, NamKham, sent the following letter to Sai Htwe Maung regarding preparation for Shan GCI in MayMyo.
February 16, 1996 (Translated from Shan)
Saya Sai Htwe and family,
May God bless you all. May this year be a blessed year. I hope you have received my letter. Our ShweLi Baptist Association decided to have Great Commission Institute training in November. We expect 40 people to attend. Please continue giving us instruction regarding this training. If possible we want to have it in ShweLi. If not we will have it in LaShio. I have visited Shan Church in MuongMyit in January. One family has accepted the Lord. We have built a center in MuongMyit for students to live-in and go to school. It costs about Kyat 200,000. We now need about Kyat 50,000. We expect we can open it in June. Shan people from many places coming to the Lord now. But our ShweLi is still in the darkness. They do not accept the light of the Lord. We are planning to have a Church in LoiLom for Palong people. We are also going to have 40 days evangelistic training from April 1 to May 13. Please pray for us.
Co-worker in Christ, Sai Thein Aung Kham
Letter sent on June 29, 1998
Dear Dr. Htwe,
Greeting in name of our precious Lord Jesus Christ. I received your letter dated June 6th and learned that you haven’t received my letter. Anyway I thank God for your letter reminding me about not receiving my letter regarding the forth-coming GCI training in November. As we had discussed in Rangoon, the training will be in MayMyo and the date will be 8.11.1998 to 20.11.1998 as you proposed. I would like to make 60 instead of 40 from ShweLi Shan since it is possible for them to travel to MayMyo. The EC of ShweLi Shan had divided participants according to Churches proportionately as MuSe 15, NongSanKone 15, SeLan 5, MyoMa 5, Chinese 3, ManBong 2, LaShio 5, MoGoke 2, MuongMyit 2, MuongHbar 2, Hill tribe 4.
Will it be all right? In MayMyo we have some Shan believers whom we have relied on for our meal. They also entitled to attend. We will discuss later. Regarding translators we have Sai Htun Kyaw, Sai Aung Win and myself. If Sai Stephen comes he will be also ready to help. DaiMao and Burmese have to be used depend on situation. We’ll see to that. No problem.
Regarding expenses; (all in Kyat)
Traveling expenses;
MuSe to MayMyo 4,000 each x2x60 Total 480,000
NamKham to MayMyo 4,500 each
Allowance 400 each x2x60 Total 48,000
Lodging 200 each x14x60 Total 168,000
Meals 400 each x14x60 Total 336,000
Miscellaneous 8,000
Total 1,050,000 Kyat
I have estimated on 60 participants. We need to give donation to the hall we use for training. You may estimate altogether about 1,100,000 Kyat.
We are opening new fields in 9 areas and the Lord gives us good harvest. We plan to open another field in MuongWei and go full swing in Palong mission. We need your prayer and suggestion. Please write and inform your Mainland China mission so that we may also be somehow helpful to your mission. God bless our Dai people through your tireless toiling.
May the Lord blessing be on you and your whole family.
Abundant blessing, Yours in Christ' Service, Bro. Kham.
Sai Htwe Maung sent the following letter to Sai Thein Aung Kham on July 22, 1998.
Greetings!
I am writing to you to confirm the following points.
1. We have to change the training date to November 15-27, 1998 because Franklin & Katie cannot join us on the early date. We shall be arriving MayMyo on 14th. We hope all trainees will also arrive on 14th. 15th is the first day and 27th is graduation day.
2. We agree that the total number of trainees will be 60 (5 from Yangon, and 5 from Southern Shan State and 50 from the Northern Shan State )
3. I hope Rev. Kham will screen and choose the most suitable trainees who are interested and willing to serve the Lord.
4. I will be recruiting 20 full-time evangelists to serve in full-time mission work after this training.
In Christ, Sai Htwe Maung.
Sai Thein Aung Kham sent the following letter to Sai Htwe Maung on August 3,1998
Dear Dr. Sai Htwe,
Thank you for reminder regarding Nov. GCI, MayMyo. This is my third letter regarding our forth-coming training. There is no problem regarding date of our training. As for translators, we have Sai Aung Win, Rev. Sai Htun Kyaw, you and myself. If Rev. Sai Stephen comes he will be able to render some help. As for trainees I suggested 60. As we have discussed in Rangoon, 5 from Rangoon, 5 from S.S.S, 50 from ShweLi and some from MayMyo. At least our expenses will exceed Kyat 1,000,000. Pray that the Lord sees to our needs and provide all we need for training.
Presently our evangelism department is outing to our Shan within Kachin State. The Lord has given us good harvests. Praise be His Name!
Abundant blessing
Yours in His Service, Rev. Sai Thein Aung Kham.
Reported from Rev. Franklin and Katie Williamson
We flew into Yangon and stayed overnight at the guesthouse of Sai Htwe Maung‘s sister. Then we took a plane to Mandalay and upon arriving, we traveled by van for about two and half hours driving up into the mountains to the city of MayMyo. It is a small town but very cool and quiet. The place where the training is held is a community hall of the local Karen Baptist Church. The students stayed across the road at a place called Forest Gate. It is an old house that was given to the community for retreats and training. It is a large old British style house. Everyone was sleeping on the floor on his or her mats. The men on one side and the women on the other. Everyone bathed outside at the well. The kitchen is also outside at the back of the house. The man who runs the places says he has NEVER had so many staying there at one time before. The most he had ever had was 30 and we have around 80 people this time. The GCI team stayed at a hotel within walking distance to the venue. It took about 20 or 30 minutes to walk. I am personally thankful we are not sleeping on the floor and bathing outside in the cold.
Participants
We had 72 full-time participants who stayed through the whole program, while some of the local people came and went. All of them are from Baptist Churches. They represent about 20 different Churches. They were each sent here by their local Churches for the training. Most are involved in some way in the ministry of the local Church. We had about equal women and men.
Our oldest participants were two elderly women age 77 years. They were nurses who worked with Dr. Seagrave, who worked at NamKham hospital and a nursing training school one hundred years ago. They were present for EVERY session and one in particular would get to the scripture before anyone else. The one “grandmother” as the others called her is excellent in English. These two ladies live here in the city. Our youngest participant was a 17 year old. This young man is Chinese from up near the China border. Since he arrived without any shoes the other participants went out and purchased him some shoes. The first week he also had no Bible but eventually one was provided for him. He was very attentive and we have seen him come alive during the teachings. On one occasion, Winston was sitting on a chair in the porch of the house and as he walked out he started speaking to Winston in Mandarin. When he discovered Winston did not speak his language he was so surprised and just laughed and laughed.
Curriculum
We had to combine Level I and Level II topics. In our discussion with Sai Htwe Maung, he expressed several times that he did not want or know how to divide the students into the classes. It seemed to put him into a difficult situation. The more we talked and discussed who would miss what etc., Franklin, Katie, Roger and Dr. Sai all agreed that for most of the Level one topic; not to divide them into groups. So from Sunday through to Friday, we took one topic per day. On Saturday, we started at 8:0 AM taught 2 subjects in five hours of class.
Sun; Franklin Prayer
Mon; Roger Basic Doctrine
Tues; Franklin Holy Spirit
Wed; Katie Ministry Planning
Thur; Roger Spiritual Warfare
Fri; Roger How to Study the Bible
Sat. AM 1st session (8:00 to 10:30)
Franklin; Christian Family (Men only)
Katie; Christian Family (Women only)
2nd session (11:00 to 1:00) Roger Rice; Victorious Christian Living.
Sat; PM Free Time
Sun AM Franklin Church service
PM David Kueh Discipleship
Mon AM David Kueh Leadership
PM Lau Tak Siong Effective Leadership
Tues AM Winston Ee Biblical Basis for Missions
PM Lau Tak Siong Church Planting
Wed AM David Kueh Local Church
PM Winston Ee Praise & Worship
Thur AM Winston Ee Evangelism
PM Lau Tak Siong Homiletics
Faculty
Rev. Franklin & Katie Williamson, New Delhi, India, GCI
Rev. Roger Rice, Australia- AO Support Director
Rev. Lau Tak Siong, Singapore - AO Director of Training
pastor Winston Ee, Singapore- Operations Director(GCI)
Rev. David Kueh, East Malaysia - pastor
Dr. Sai Htwe Maung, Hong Kong - AO Myanmar
Interpreters
Dr. Sai Htwe Maung, Hong Kong, Rev. Sai Htun Kyaw, NamKham, Myanmar,
Rev. Sai Aung Win, NamKham, Myanmar
Daily Schedule
8:00 - 9:00 AM Chapel Service
9:00 - 10:30 1st Session
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 - 12:00 2nd Session
12:00 – 2:00 PM Lunch & Rest
2:00 - 3:30 3rd Session
3:30 - 4:00 Break
4:00 – 5:00 4th Session
Evening Ministry
1st week
Sun - Roger Rice A word study on “Works and Deeds”
Mon - Sai Htwe Maung
Tue - Sai Htwe Maung
Wed - Sai Htwe Maung
Thu - Sai Htwe Maung
Fri - Sai Htwe Maung
Sat - Free
2nd week
Sun - Winston Ee Prayer Life of Moses
Mon - Roger Rice Created for Good Works
Tues - David Kueh “One Thing” Ps.27
Wed - Lau Tak Siong “One Thing” Luke 10
Thu - Celebration night & Fun night
Special report from Sai Htwe Maung
I consider this GCI training very important for ShweLi and I take it very seriously because this is the first training aiming solely for ShweLi Valley Shan Baptist Churches. I have planned for this training program for two years. I don’t want to make any mistake because it can give us serious problem. I have communicated with Rev. Thein Aung Kham, local organizer, General Secretary of ShweLi, carefully to make sure that everything has been well prepared for the security and safety of our foreign trainers as well as success of the training. So far we have no problems in our past three trainings with foreign trainers in Myanmar. It seemed to me that everything was well arranged before we arrived. However to my shock surprise, when we arrived MayMyo, I was asked by Thein Aung Kham to collect all the passports from all our foreign trainers and to go to see the authority and give them photocopies of their travel documents. It never happened to us before. If we have to report to authority and give them our travel documents it is not a good sign. Why does it happen? We have never had such experience before. I went to district office with Thein Aung Kham. God is gracious! To my delight surprise, the officer of the district office was my old classmate when I was in high school in MayMyo in 1963. He handled the matter very friendly. Praise God! We had to give nothing. We had no problem till the end of our 10 days training.
Rev. Sai Htun Kyaw, who has returned from his study in Singapore, and Rev. Sai Aung Win, who has just returned from ten months study tour from US, helped us doing translation. They did very well. Some of the trainees have already attended our second GCI training in TaungGyi in 1995. They enjoyed the teaching, fellowship and food. Many people came forward at dedication time. Some still do not want to open to the new teaching, which they have never learned before. Some expressed, “This is AOG teaching. We cannot use it in ShweLi.” They said this at TaungGyi GCI in 1995. They say it again now. But why do they invite GCI again if they do not want to accept it? Why do they come? Most of our trainers showed good example in leadership and spiritual maturity but some of the local leaders and pastors showed bad example by sitting outside the training hall during training time, chatting, smoking cigar and drinking tea, not coming into the class room to listen or to participate at all. It happened at TaungGyi GCI. They are doing the same manner at MayMyo GCI. I was in tears at the closing graduation service because I realized that they did not open to receive the truth. This GCI is the most expensive in term of money, effort and sacrifice. I pray and hope that it will bear fruit in later time.
Testimonies
Sai Ye Ti
I had listened to Dr. Sai Htwe Maung’s radio program and God touched my heart and I wrote a letter to him in Hong Kong. In fact I was brought up in the Church but left when I was a young man. I owned a liquor store and I sold it as well as I drank it. Every day I would listen to Dr. Sai’s program while I drank and sold liquor. Then one day, God got through to me and I recommitted my life to Christ and went back to Church. Now I have planted a Church and am pastoring the Church. I heard about this GCI training and I came on my own. (Dr. Sai was so excited to come to meet his friend whom they have known one another in the younger years)
Nang Nang
I was the number 6th of 7 children from very poor family. My father had left the family and had many wives. The mother was left with all the children and they were always hungry and only had rags for clothes. When I was 7 years old, I started trying to work for money to get books for my school. My mother said she would feed and clothe her children but she could not afford to send them to school. I was quite bright and I managed to get to school and was always first in my studies. My mother never attended any of the awards days I received because she was dressed in rags. I was also in rags but I did not care as long as I could learn and study. When I was about 13 I was forced to quit school in order to work to help the mother. I eventually decided to leave home and go to Thailand because I heard that there was work there. I soon realized that the work was to prostitute myself and I could not bring myself to do that so I was living with a very old man. The old man told me I must get married but I did not want to marry at 16. The old man told me I could no longer live with him and I must marry the Thai man. I did marry him and then I became a Christian. I went back to my mother’s house and lived with my mother and worked with young women who return from Thailand with AIDS. I am working with the Anglican Church but I am interested in Church Planting. I am considering working with Dr. Sai.
MayMyo GCI 1998
5th Shan GCI, Yangon
July 5-15, 1999.
This is the first Shan GCI to be held in Yangon, capital city of Myanmar. It is more convenient for foreign trainers to have training in Yangon because they do not need to travel again to other places in Shan State. However it is not convenient and it is expensive for the Shan trainees to travel from Shan States to Yangon. They came from Eastern Shan State, Southern Shan State and Northern Shan State. There are few Shan Christians in Yangon. Shan Church in Yangon has rented a hall for their worship service on Sunday. However Yangon Shan Church has done a wonderful job in organizing, participating and helping the event in leading singing. Yangon Shan Church has talented musicians. All the trainees are Shan. Lectures are given in English by foreign trainers and translated to Shan. Sai Hla Shwe, Dr. Nang Hla Hla Win and I help in translation. I use Shan language when I teach.
All together 5 trainers and 70 trainees. Trainees were renewed, challenged and commissioned after training. I hope that they all will be used by the Lord in our future Shan missions.
Yangon GCI 1999 July
Trainers and subjects
Victorious Christian Living; Winston Ee
Ministry Planning; Katie Williamson
Leadership; Rev. Lau Tak Siong
Basic Doctrine; Rev. Franklin Williamson
Evangelism; Winston Ee
How to study the Bible; Katie Williamson
Prayer; Rev. Franklin Williamson
Praise and Worship; Dr. Sai Htwe Maung
The Holy Spirit; Rev. Franklin Williamson
Children’s Ministry; Local Trainer
Spiritual Warfare; Rev. Franklin Williamson
Power Theology; Rev. Franklin Williamson
Biblical Foundation for Missions; Winston Ee
Effective Leadership; Rev. Lau Tak Siong
Local Church; Rev. Lau Tak Siong
Homiletics; Rev. Lau Tak Siong
Life & Teachings of Jesus; Katie Williamson
Discipleship; Katie Williamson
Church Planting; Dr. Sai Htwe Maung
Christian Family; Rev. Franklin & Katie Williamson
The teaching faculty also took turns ministering at the nightly meetings, to challenge the students to a greater intimacy with God and greater commitment to His service.
6th Shan GCI, Yangon.
November 3-13, 1999.
Yangon GCI 1999 November
Trainers
Rev. Takashi Yoshida; Japan
Mr. Winston Ee; Singapore
Rev. Roger & Janet Rice; Australia
Rev. David Kueh; Malaysia
Dr. Sai Htwe Maung; Hong Kong
Rev. Jerry Yeoh; Malaysia
Trainees
77 attended Level 2 = 40
Level 1 = 37
Programs
Wed. 3rd Nov;
L2 Biblical basis for mission (Winston Ee)
L3 Spiritual gifts (Takashi Yoshida)
Evening: Takashi
Thu. 4th Nov
L2 Local Church (Takashi Yoshida)
L3 Key to effective ministry (Winston Ee)
Evening: Winston Ee
Fri. 5th Nov
L2 Discipleship (Sai Htwe Maung)
L3 Personal and financial management (Takashi Yoshida)
Evening: Sai Htwe Maung
Sat. 6th Nov
L2 Life and teaching of Jesus (Takashi Yoshida)
L3 People skill (Roger Rice)
Evening: Takashi Yoshida
Mon 8th Nov
L2 Christian family (Roger & Janet Rice)
L3 Leadership issue (Takashi Yoshida)
Evening: Roger Rice
Tue 9th Nov
L2 Effective leadership (David Kueh)
L3 Cults (Jerry Yeoh)
Evening: Sai Htwe Maung
Wed. 10th Nov
L2 Spiritual warfare (Jerry Yeoh)
L3 Survey of the Bible (David Kueh)
Evening: Jerry Yeoh
Thu. 11th Nov
L2 Power Theology (Jerry Yeoh)
L3 Pastoral ministry (David Kueh)
Evening: Sai Htwe Maung
Fri. 12th Nov
L2 Church Planting (Sai Htwe Maung)
L3 Conflict management (Jerry Yeoh)
Evening: David Kueh
Sat. 13th Nov
L2 Homiletic (Jerry Yeoh)
L3 Counseling (David Kueh)
Evening: Commissioning (Sai Htwe Maung)
The trainees came from Eastern Shan State, Southern Shan State, Northern Shan State and Yangon. It took 10 days for 15 people to travel by bus from Eastern Shan State to Yangon to attend this training. It cost them about 5,000 Kyat for each person in travel expenses. A pastor’s monthly salary is only 5,000 Kyat and our Footsoldier gets 3,000 Kyat monthly support. Half of the trainees paid for their own expenses and came. They were the most attentive people in the class. They sang the most beautiful choir. They had recorded ten choirs for my radio program. They traveled far away from China border. They have invited us to hold national GCI in their area in November 2000 with local sponsorship. They re-contributed ten percent of the allowance they received from GCI to the expenses of the training. 15 people traveled from Northern Shan State, most of them from NamKham. It took three days to get to Yangon. They spent extra night on the road because of flooding. One lady got sick on the way to Yangon and had to be hospitalized after three days of training. One man attended full course of training despite shivering with Malaria. 20 people traveled from the Southern Shan State. It took two days to get to Yangon. There are only three Shan Churches in the South. 27 came from Yangon Churches and others. Despite that Yangon Shan Church is only two years old it has developed tremendously. They hosted GCI twice this year very successfully. They lead worship & praise program. They have good musician, song leaders and hard working members.
Difficulty
1. It takes a long time for trainees to get to Yangon.
2. It is too expensive to travel. They cannot afford for their traveling expenses.
3. GCI trainers cannot spend fulltime for the whole course with trainees.
4. Denominational minded is so strong in Baptist Churches’ leaders.
5. Foreigners are not allowed to travel to some area of the Shan State because of security and political reason.
As we prayed for life changing ministry during training, we certainly had achieved it. Pastors, lay leaders and many others repented and rededicated their life.
Testimonies
Following his lesson on “The Biblical Basis for Missions,” pastor Winston asked for a show of hands when he asked the class, “How many of you would like Jesus to return quickly?” All but one sister had their hands high up. Thinking that she had not understood the relationship between the Abrahamic Covenant and the return of Jesus, Winston went on to revise that portion of the lesson. When the question was asked again, the same sister was the only one with her hands down. At the end of the lesson, she came up to Winston with tears streaming down her cheeks and explained, “Teacher, I don’t want Jesus to come back yet because I have not done anything for Him.” Her sincerity touched Winston’s heart.
Pastor David Kueh shared a message on repentance in one of the evening ministry sessions. A pastor said in tears that he had confessed his sin to the Lord as he had been living like a Pharisee and a hypocrite. He would return to his home Church with “a new life and new commitment.” At the same session a brother who had drifted from ministry and presently engaged in business was on his knees weeping in repentance. I told pastor Winston during one of the mid-session breaks: “GCI is in the business of changing lives; something big is going to happen at this GCI.” Something big did happen. Six trainees committed their lives to serve as fulltime footsoldiers for the Lord. Praise the Lord!
From this year our Shan graduates will take GCI training deep into Shan State into areas inaccessible to foreign missionaries. They have planned two GCls, in May and November 2000. GCI will continue to make inroads with the other people groups in Myanmar with a first time GCI for the Burmans in July 2000.
7th Shan GCI, TaungGyi, Southern Shan State.
May 18-24, 2000
51 people from various Shan Churches from Southern Shan State attended. This is the first training to be conducted with local trainers. A missionary to the Dai of China Mr. R. Minick helped us teaching three days. He traveled with us by bus the whole night through from Yangon to TaungGyi. Rev. Sai Aung Win, a pastor of MyoMa Church, NamKham and Sai Hla Shwe, a GCI graduate from Yangon also helped us teaching.
There was a good experience. A Buddhist man from KoLum who had no knowledge of Christianity but just recently converted came to attend the training. He was once possessed by evil spirit. He was chained to the tree and beaten. He was exorcised by witchdoctor but to no avail. He was running on the street of the village naked. He was about to be killed. But he was released and healed by a Christian’s prayer. He had primary education only. He could barely read Shan. He had never sung a Christian hymn in his lifetime. During training session, he sang western hymn in his own Buddhist tune. It was amazingly beautiful. He is now serving as an evangelist among heathen Shan in KoLum. Many Shan come to the Lord. A formal government officer at the rank of township governor came to attend the training. He confessed that he was released from alcoholic addiction during the training and now renewed and ready to serve the Lord. He was in fact my formal schoolteacher when I was in secondary school in 1960.
TaungGyi GCI 2000
Subjects taught
Praise & Worship: Sai Htwe Maung
Discipleship: Sai Htwe Maung
Leadership: Russell Minick
Christian Family: Sai Htwe Maung
Evangelism: Sai Htwe Maung
Church Planting: Sai Htwe Maung
Prayer: Sai Hla Shwe
Power Theology: Sai Hla Shwe
Ministry Planning: Sai Aung Win
Spiritual Warfare: Sai Aung Win
Holy Spirit: Sai Hla Shwe
Local Church: Sai Hla Shwe
8th Shan GCI, KengTung
February 2001
42 trainees attended.
Trainers: Rev. Takashi Yoshida, Rev. Jerry Yeoh
Report from Takashi
One week before I left for Myanmar there occurred a battle near the border between Myanmar and Thailand and it was politically very unstable. Of course the land border gate was closed. KengTung, the town where the GCI was held this time, is located several hours drive from the boarder of China, Laos and Thailand. There was a small drawn out war in Maesai, Thailand. Maesai was hit with numerous mortars and the border closed and the Thais shelled several Burmese outposts. Burmese feuding with the Shan has made spillover likely along long stretches of the Thai border, mostly occupied with the Ahka villages I work with, so the villages have lots of army in them, trucks, tanks, mortars dug in and armored personnel carriers…. Of course it is the uncertainty about how much this may escalate that is bothering most of the villages. Rev. Sai Stephen, an Asian Outreach East Shan State Director, and I had a discussion last July to work out a strategy for his area and decided to have a multinational GCI for the footsoldiers. Who could know that Stephen, a conspicuous leader with tremendous passion for the souls, had to go to be with the Lord only two weeks after we made a plan? He was still 47 years old. I get there via Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. I together with the new local coordinator, Rev. Sai Philip, put this plan into practice in order to raise young evangelists and Church planters in KengTung, Stephen’s hometown. However, on the very first GCI day, one and a half hours after we started, we were stopped by the local government officers because of the boarder situation. While our local coordinator tries to persuade the officers we prayed to God for His mercy and grace. He answered our prayer immediately and the local government gave us permission to restart the GCI training again. Praise the Lord! The Lord has protected us from every danger. This time we had 42 students from Wa tribe, Lahu tribe, Shan tribe and a couple more from different tribes. After I ministered for five days there, pastor Jerry Yeoh from Malaysia arrived and I handed over the responsibility to him. The GCI continued until March 1st. During my visit to KengTung, I had an opportunity to go to a small Ahku village called WanKyaing, which was evangelized by a graduate of GCI. There are 125 Ahku tribe people in 33 houses. All of them have come to the Lord, hallelujah!
On the way back to Japan, I had a meeting with some Baptist leaders in Yangon. After much discussion, we decided to have a first GCI for Asho Chin tribe and Pwokayin tribe in October 2001. Both tribes have not yet been evangelized much.
KengTung GCI 2001
Total Shan Evangelists Trained Under 21st Century Shan Mission Project
18 graduated from Myanmar Theological Seminary in 1988
14 graduated from three months training from January to March 1990 in KengTung.
14 graduated from three months training from January to March 1991 in KengTung.
19 graduated from one month training from Feb. 23, 1992 to Mar. 22, 1992 in KengTung.
13 graduated from three months training from Sept. 1, 1992 to Nov. 30, 1992 in NamKham.
20 graduated from one month training from Feb. 28, 1993 to Mar. 28, 1993 in KengTung.
28 graduated from twelve days training from Oct. 31, 1994 to Nov. 12, 1994 in Maesai. (International GCI)
20 graduated from one month training from Jun. 1, 1995 to Jun. 30, 1995 in KengTung. (Local GCI)
42 graduated from 15-27 October 1995 in TaungGyi. (International GCI)
40 graduated from 1-13 December 1997 KengTung (International GCI)
72 graduated from 15-27 November 1998 MayMyo (International GCI)
67 graduated from 5-15 July 1997 in Yangon. (International GCI)
77 graduated from 3-13 November 1997 in Yangon. (International GCI)
40 graduated from 1-13 December 1997 in KengTung (Local GCI)
51 graduated from 18-24 May 2000 in TaungGyi. (Local GCI)
42 graduated from Feb, 19 to Mar. 1, 2001 KengTung (International GCI)
Total 418 people have been trained.
New Life and New Hope
Great Commission Institute training program has tremendous impact on our Shan Churches in Myanmar. The admirable and dedicated lives of the members of the GCI team are the best living witness to our local pastors, Churches’ leaders and members of the Churches.
Amidst difficult situations in Shan State, Myanmar, we are able to conduct eight trainings in seven years. More than four hundred have graduated from the GCI programs. Even though Shan Churches are more than one hundred year old, they are still infants in terms of spiritual maturity. The glory of the Lord rarely seen in the life of the Church. Miracles seldom happen in the Church. Many of the Shan Churches are following one hundred years old tradition.
A pastor, a GCI trainee, exclaimed: “I have attended many local training programs but I have never seen any training like GCI. My life and my thinking are completely changed. Unfortunately, some of our Churches’ leaders are not here to hear. I wished they all were here.” Shan Churches are lacking God appointed qualitative leadership, ministry planning, understanding of spiritual warfare and a true understanding of the Christian family. GCI gives new life and a new hope to our Churches. Churches’ leaders are convicted and brought to their knees in repentance and renewed. Broken families are healed and young people are prepared to build true Christian families and strong Churches. The Lord’s servants are ready for spiritual warfare. Ministry planning helps to develop individuals according to their calling.
Praise the Lord!
(Kae Zu Yai Tae Tae Ka) (Thank you very much)
Goal # 2 Evangelism
How can we do evangelism among Buddhist Shan? According to the history, evangelism among the Buddhist Shan seems to be very difficult. They are the people who have their own gods and teaching which they have been following and practicing almost 2000 years. It is not easy for them to abandon long and old tradition and practices, which they have adopted as their culture and adopt Christian culture what we call Christian practices when they believe in Christ. They need great courage and sacrifice to confess their faith in Christ openly in their community, family and people who are Buddhists. Many face discrimination, persecution and excommunication or sometimes being disowned by family and community. It will not be difficult to make them knowing Christ because Shan are very polite and willing to listen. Many Shan use to say, “All religions are good. It doesn’t matter what religion you follow, what God you worship.” Some even worship all kinds of god but it will be difficult to ask them to abandon all their traditions and practices in order to become Christian. Old people use to say, “I believe but I cannot abandon Buddhism.” In the year 1978 only 0.12% of five million Shan believes in Christ, takes water baptism and becomes Christians.
Rev. Sai Stephen on evangelistic tour
Sai Stephen had done a good job in the Eastern Shan State in the past decade. As an Associate Director of 21st CSMP responsible for Eastern Shan State, financially supported by 21st CSMP since 1989. He was very committed, dedicated and active. He used to send out graduates from GCI training and local evangelist training school to do evangelism and Church Planting in chosen villages with full support. We do not have many evangelists doing evangelism among the Shan. Most of the full-time Christian workers are working in Churches as pastors. Very few Seminary graduates are going out and preaching gospel to the Shan as evangelists or missionaries. We have to admit that the evangelism among the Shan is not very successful. Most importantly we have to confess that we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, we have not received the power, we do not speak with power, we do not work with the power, we do not show the power and perform miracles in Jesus’ name, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. We also need to develop methods of gospel presentation easily understandable and acceptable to Buddhist Shan. Contextualization is very much important subject to develop in Shan situation. Many of our evangelists do not know how to present gospel to Buddhists. Some western methods of gospel presentation may not be very appropriate in Shan culture. In the year 2001, only 0.4% of five million Shan becomes Christians.
Goal # 3 Church Planting
There are five million Shan in Myanmar adopted Buddhism as their religion since AD 71.
99% of Shan are Buddhists who follow Buddha’s teaching, idol and spirit worship. Their cultures are based on Buddhist practices. Shan use to claim, ‘Shan are Buddhists and Buddhism is Shan religion.”
A new Shan Church in Eastern Shan State
How can we plant Churches among the Shan? Planting Churches is not just building church buildings. A Church is a group of believers with regular fellowship, worshiping and praising God together as the beginning of a Church in Antioch. The number of believers could be varied from 5 to 500. But Shan Baptists do not agree with this definition. Most of the Shan Baptist’s understanding of “Church Planting” is confined to “building the church building.” The Shan Baptists do not consider the fellowship of a group of believers as a Church without church building. If the church building is big they call it a big Church regardless of the number of believers, members, attendances and spiritual maturity of believers. A senior pastor of Judson Church said to me, “Yangon Shan Baptist Church is not a Church because they don’t have ordained pastor, they don’t have youth association, they don’t have women association, they don’t have Sunday school, they don’t have a church building and they are not a member of any Baptist Association,” Is this a true definition of the Church? Yangon Shan Baptist Church has more than one hundred members attending regular worship service every week and having fellowship in communion every month at rented hall for more than one year. The first Shan-Burmese Church was planted in Toungoo in 1862 by Rev. Bixby with nine members within one year of mission among the Shan refugees in Toungoo.
Under leadership of Sai Stephen, about 44 new Shan Churches planted in Eastern Shan State within eight years. Shan Churches increased from 26 to 70 in the Eastern Shan State and leading Shan Churches to be able to form “Eastern Shan State Shan Baptist Convention“ on January 19, 1997. In the year 2000, Eastern Shan State Baptist Convention has 70 Shan Churches with 8,500 baptized members. The total number of Churches, including other racial groups, in Eastern Shan State increased to 110.
ShweLi Valley Shan Baptist Mission, Northern Shan State, has 4 Churches and 875 members in the year 1955. In fact these 4 Churches are there since 1920. There are now 17 Churches in the North with 2,292 baptized members in the year 2000. 14 new Churches in 45 years. In Southern Shan State there are only 3 Shan Churches in 134 years.
Shan village setting
There are cities, towns and villages in the Shan States where the Shan live. There is at least one pagoda and a Buddhist monastery in almost every village and town. It is very important for them to have a pagoda to worship and offer sacrifices, the monastery to get together to hear the chanting of the monks, offerings things to the monks for good merit and to celebrate Buddhist festivals. The villagers use to collect offering, money and other things to build the monastery and pagoda. The village without pagoda or monastery is considered to be poor village. Richness is considered to be sign of blessing. The pagoda in the rich city or town or village is usually coated with gold leaves. That is why the color of the pagoda is yellow whether it is coated with gold leaves or painted with yellow oil paint.
The village is usually governed by village chief or monk or abbot. They are the most powerful influential persons in the village. When the order comes from the monk all have to listen and obey. The monks, including chief monk, live in monastery on the donation, giving and offering of the villagers. Foods, clothing, money and all provisions for the monks come from villagers. Monks have no other source of income. The questions are;
How can we turn such village into Christian village?
What will happen to the monks who live on support and donation of the villagers if the whole village becomes Christian?
Can the most powerful Buddhist monk of the village willing to let his village become Christian village?
If we cannot convert the whole village can we convert one person or one family to Christianity?
What will happen to this “New Christian”?
How can we plant a Church in such Buddhist village?
Spying (Exploration)
The word “spying” was first found in Joshua 7:2 “Go up and spy out the region.” We can use a better word “exploration” or “survey” in modern term. Is it necessary to do “exploration about the land or village or people” before going in and start Church Planting? In the situation of planting Churches among the Shan, it is important. The target area itself requires investigation. As it was suggested previously, we cannot completely understand our task until we are able to define it in relation to the particular area to be entered. That will require continued study. But analysis should begin before workers actually enter the area. No area should be entered with a Church Planting effort simply because some believer, however saintly, has a desire or vision for a work, however noble and lofty.
Sai Stephen said, “If you see the monastery in the village with monks, it is doomed to be a failure in our effort to plant a Church there.” “We use to go and start the work where there is no monastery. A lot easier and more successful.” Why?
When we see a monastery and monks, it indicates to us that the village is quite well established Buddhist village and under influence of Buddhist monk. It is not easy to break down the wall. Some Buddhist monks in some villages often stop people going and listening to Christian preacher. The planter is outsider, in other word, evangelists or missionaries are from other place.
Christian village
How can the whole village become Christian village, leaving monks without support or donation? We have heard the story of the whole village turned to Christ in certain tribal groups. Is it possible in Shan village? Monks are taken care of by villagers for their foods and living. Early in the morning monks use to go out with alms bowl to collect the food (meal) for the day from generous villagers who love to give foods to monks to earn good merits. The monastery is also survived with the offering of the Buddhist villagers. If the whole village turned to Christianity and no one offers alms to the monks and supply anything to the monastery what will happen to the monks and monastery? Can the most powerful Buddhist monk of the village agree to let his village become Christian village? It is impossible for the monks to allow all the villagers become Christians. They would put pressure to stop mass conversion as much as possible they can by using their influence, authority and power. The only possibility of converting the whole village to Christian village is to “first convert the most influential one like chief monk or village head” and the rest of the villagers will not be difficult. If possible make disciple of the monk, train him and let him be the pastor and live on Church support. The village will be very quiet because the Shan pastors and Churches’ leaders do not allow the Shan believers to play gong-mong Shan music and dance in their festivals any more.
Individual and family conversion
Can one person or one family becomes Christian in Buddhist village? The philosophy “all or none” is quite applicable in some situation. If a single person from the family believes in Jesus and abandons Buddhism, he/she will probably be excommunicated from the rest of the family. Sometime he/she is refused to eat with the rest of the family or asked to leave the house. In some cases a new believer is disowned by family and he/she losses his/her right to inherit the heir of the family because of conversion. Winning a young man from the family is not as good as wining the head of the family. In Shan culture, the head of the family has highest authority. All the family members use to listen and obey the father. Sometimes when the father believes in Christ, all family members follow. That is why when asking about the number of believers in the Church, village or town; they use to ask “how many Christian family in your Church, village or town.”
If one family from the village becomes Christian and abandons Buddhism, what would happen to them? They would be treated as “betrayer of Shan people and Buddhism” and they would be abandoned by other families in social relationship, excommunicated from society in social activity and gathering and in the worse case asked to leave the village. That is why seeing “Christian village” is not uncommon among the Shan villages. Christian village doesn’t mean we have converted the whole village into Christianity. In fact we have to move Christian families out of their original village and find a new place for them to live and start a new village since they were considered outcasts. In some situation, Christian village and Buddhist village is only divided by a small three feet wide demarcation path.
New Christian challenge
What will happen to this new Christian? A young man had a wife and a newborn baby. He came to know Christ and accepted Jesus as his Savior and baptized. Because of his faith in Christ and conversion, his father in-law asked him to leave the house, his wife and the baby. He had nowhere to go but to move out and lived in the farm of other person for almost a year until his father in-law called him back home and allowed him to live with his wife and child again. In this case we praise God because all the family members later became Christians.
A new Christian family was tested of their new faith. Soon after they believed in Christ and became Christians, a group of young people gathered in front of the door of their house every night, beating drum loudly, making noise and disturbing their sleep. Their belonging and utensils were stolen from home and they were challenged, “You Christian said, forgive, love, give, tolerate, if people take your clothes give your coat, if they force you to go one mile go another mile. You must not take offence what we have done.” Sometimes when they were gathering in a house for worship, the house was stoned. When a young child went out to buy food he was slapped. Some make a comment “If you are not a Buddhist you are not a Shan” and discriminate against them.
Difficult Church Planting
How can we plant a Church in such situation?
Zechariah 4:6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.”
1. Power of the Holy Spirit
It is vitally important to be filled with the Holy Spirit and His power and authority in planting Churches among the Shan Buddhist. Even though they called themselves Buddhists, they also worship many spirits. Spiritual warfare is unavoidable in daily work of evangelist, missionary and Church planter. I myself have encountered three times in three weeks when I was in mission field. Some Church planters loose the battle in spiritual warfare and have to retreat or abandon the field.
Shan Buddhists want to listen and know about true God and about life after death. But they would not believe or accept Christianity easily at one meeting or one hearing without debate. They would ask many questions, debate and challenge with their own belief. The most effective way of wining Shan Buddhists is “showing miracle through the power of the Holy Spirit.” For instance, in one village, no one wanted to become Christian because they were quite happy and satisfy with their life. But one day a young lady was possessed by the evil spirit and she was out of control. She was very aggressive. No body could drive the spirit out. Finally they called a young evangelist to come and drive out demon. Evangelist prayed and cast out the demon. Immediately the lady ran out from the house and collapsed on the ground lying motionless for a few minutes and then came round. She was completely released from the evil spirit under their own eyes. After this miracle many villagers accepted Jesus. Jesus, before crucifixion, has told his disciples to “cast out the demons” and again after resurrection, commanded us to be filled with the Holy Spirit and power to cast of demons.
2. Dedication and Sacrifice
Mission work among the Shan is not easy. It requires great dedication and big sacrifice. Hardship and danger are unavoidable. They must be strong and courageous. They must surrender and carry the cross. If we only want to serve in well-established Church the gospel will never reach the Shan. The roads and travel to Shan villages are difficult and dangerous. The jungles of Shan States are infested with Malaria. Living standard is very low. If the American missionaries could stand those hardship and sacrifice in our land and for our salvation how much more should we do for our own people. Christian workers being seen by the Shan as “Introducer of Western Religion.” We face opposition from different angles. If we are friendly to them we can easily have many friends. When we get friendship from the monks and village leaders we can easily approach and preach the gospel to the people. Remember to make friend with those who have authority over the village so that we can work peacefully.
3. Holistic Approach
Buddhist Shan love to give money, alms, and other offering to the monks and offer meals to the people believing that this is good action to get good merit for future life. If we, evangelists, missionaries, pastors, only preach the “gospel of love” to the people without showing our love in action for them to see it is not easy for them to believe the gospel unless we prove by our action. Many missionaries to the Shan were medical doctors and they evangelized the people through medical work and education. It is quite successful when we offer medical, education, social and material help to them showing the love of God in action. Feeding the poor, clothing the naked, healing the sick, casting out demons, preaching the gospel, teaching the commandment of love and saving the soul are the best strategies in reaching the Shan.
The social action will vary enormously from context to context, but will concentrate on achievable aims and working in solidarity with others “of good will” in the community. The worship of the Church will be related to its community action, not disconnected from its social context. The partnership with members of the wider community opportunities will arise for sharing faith with those who already know Church members through shared involvement.
We should have the whole Church, the whole Gospel to the whole World as declared by Lausann II World Evangelization Congress in Manila in 1989.
4. Identification
Shan people are quite “nationalistic” and “patriotic.” Why? According to history they were being attacked and governed by other people since their first kingdom in AD 225. Today they were scattered to many parts of Asia. Shan people can be found in India, China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. But they do not have their own independent kingdom or country or land today. They become minority in the other land. They always want to be united and have their own land.
Shan always offer very warm welcome to any one who identify with them as a Shan or the one who show them love and concern. When I went to Yunnan, South-west of China in 1997, to find Shan people whom I have never met before but I have heard about them since I was a child. When I was on the street of Dehong, Yunnan, I met three men walking on the road near rice field. I started talking to them in Shan language and identifying myself to them as a Shan from Shan State. When they identified me as a Shan by my Shan cultural tattoo on my arms, I was warmly welcomed and invited to stay with them, be their guest, eat with them, visit the families of Shan people and I was introduced to all the people in the village. They even allowed me to tell them about Jesus.
I met a missionary from Holland. She lives and works among Shan people for 30 years in MaeHongSon. She lives in Shan village, wears Shan dress, eats Shan food and speaks Shan language to be identified with locals. She has Shan name. Her ministry is very successful.
5. Building Church Building
Is building a church building important or necessary for Shan Christians? Shan people consider monastery as holy place. They do not wear sandals or shoes even in the muddy ground of the monastery compound. They always go to monastery for worship and do any kind of religious rite. Shan do not feel “home” as holy place so that they can worship God in the home. However Shan Christian do have a home fellowship and home service apart from Church service at the Church. Shan believers also consider church building as a holy place where they can meet God and worship Him. They use to take off their shoes or sandals before going into church building. They sit properly and do not speak out loud. They never make loud noise, never play games, and do not eat in church building. Rev. Bixby, the first missionary to the Shan, built a church building in Toungoo just two years after his arrival.
Building a beautiful and attractive church building, which makes the people feel “holy”, is important in the heart of Shan believers. That is why we can see big, beautiful and expensive church building, which cost millions of Kyat when they do not have much money to spend on evangelism and mission. Shan Christians put “Building Church building” very important ministry in their Christian life. Believers are willing to give bigger sum of money to church building fund than to mission. We need to have a church building whether big or small for worship.
Problems
1. Thousand years old culture and Christian practices.
Since Shan has adopted Buddhism as their religion since AD 71, all their festivals and practices are becoming their culture. Shan claim, “Buddhism is Shan culture” and “Shan culture is Buddhism.” If it is so how a Shan can become a Christian? All Shan Christians have to abandon their culture and adopt Christian culture when they become Christians. By the way what is Christian culture? Is Western culture Christian culture? Is American culture Christian culture? Do we have to wear long pant, tie and suite, eat bread and butter and sing western song with piano, guitar and drum when we become Christian? Shan Christians were asked to abandon their old practices, their traditional musical instruments, their traditional folk songs and dances, their wedding customs, their new home dedication ceremony, festivities etc when they become Christians. Why? Because Shan pastors and Christian leaders said that all Shan cultures are Buddhist’s practices, which should not be continued in Christian life.
How can a Shan become Christian?
How can a Shan Christian maintain his identity?
2. Shan are still un-reached group
According to Joshua Project 2000, Shan people are still classified as “un-reached group” in Asia. Only 0.4% of total five million populations are Christians with 92 Churches in 140 years. We still need to do more, work harder and develop better and more effective strategies in reaching Shan. Ways of reaching the un-reached have been explored in conferences and seminars. Prodigious efforts to communicate the gospel by means of radio and literature to people who are sealed off from a missionary presence have been undertaken. Strategies for reaching populations behind closed doors, which are now opening up again, are being researched. The true Christian can only rejoice at these efforts. The Word of God does single out for special attention those who have never heard about Christ. Missionaries are to be sent so that such people might hear and be saved. Who will work with us? Who will help us reap the harvest?
The questions remain
How can we ask them to abandon their two thousand years old traditions and practices in order to become Christian?
How can we allow them to continue their traditions and practices when they become Christian?
Why is Christian mission among the Shan not very successful?
Conclusion on Twenty-first Century Shan Mission Project
Total number of Shan Churches in Shan States and Myanmar today is 92.
Total number of baptized members today is 10,792.
Total number of evangelists trained is 418.
According to our 21st Century Shan Mission Project;
Have we hit our target?
Have we achieved our goal?
The total numbers of evangelists trained are more than expected.
Total numbers of baptized members are half of our target.
Total numbers of Shan Churches are half of our target.
There are no less than fifty Shan fellowship groups worshipping God regularly but they do not meet the Baptist requirement to be called “Church”
I praise God for the achievement in the Eastern Shan State.
They have run the race and achieved the goal.
I hope Shan Churches will continue to run till the end of 21st Century.
[1] ShweLi Valley Shan Baptist Association comprises of Shan, Chinese and Palong Churches
[2] Son of Ai Noi, the first Tai Khun convert.