14 Buddhists Open Their Hearts To Jesus Christ

  06.05.2010    SE Asia | Myanmar | Native Relief | Missions
Native Missions - Asia
Boat docks of Than Su Pin

By Brother James

Brother Sui and I made a visit to village 7 (name withheld for security reasons) which is on the Bago River. There are about 2,500 homes in the village and it serves as our base of mission operations for the lower Bago Division. The Bago Division has a population of slightly more than one million people of which only one percent call themselves “Christians”.

To get to the village, we had to arrange for a full day of transportation. We rode three different buses, each being equally hot and cram packed with people. We also had to book an hour long passage on a small motor boat to get to the village. Typically we would complete the whole trip by bus however; we are now well into the rainy season. The rural dirt roads are mostly impassable because they have become shallow pools of mud.

After an exhausting trip, we finally arrived at the village and were warmly greeted by the a few members of the church at the boat docks. After enjoying the warm embrace of long overdue hugs, we were honored to be introduced to a a group of recently baptized men and women. It was so encouraging to see the Lord working among the hearts of the unreached people of Myanmar.

Since planting the new in the village, over 60 formal Buddhists have decided to be baptized and making Jesus Christ their Lord and savior. Even though we are overjoyed at the blessings the Lord has shown us over the past two years, there still remain over one million people who remain lost in spiritual darkness, not knowing of the name of Jesus nor having heard His teachings. Much work remains before us.

The next day, Brother Sui and I joined a group of believers to going from home to home sharing the good news of Christ, inviting them to join our worship service later that night. To those that could read we also gave them Gospel tracts and, we handed out Gospel tracts to those that could read. That night, even though there was a severe thunderstorm, God blessed our efforts. Twenty villagers joined our worship service.

missionaries take water taxi
Missionaries take small water taxi boat to get to remote village after taking three buses.
native missionary church
Native missionary home and village church.

At the end of the worship service, the unbelieving villagers had many questions. They questioned us about the worship of other gods, and about evil spirits. They were sharing their concern that if they started to worship Jesus Christ that other gods would send demonic spirits against them and they would suffer illness, or die. We knew the Spirit of God was moving among their hearts, otherwise they never would have asked such questions. We showed them stories of how all spirits must and do submit themselves to the authority of Jesus Christ, including satan. We shared how the bible commands everyone to forsake all black magic and embrace Jesus Christ because it is only through Jesus would they be able to escape the power of evil spirits and live a life is pleasing to God.

The next day we noticed that the local Buddhist monks began reading Buddhist teachings throughout the day to the villagers using the loud speakers located in the Buddhist temple. Unfortunately, Christians do not have the legal authority to use loud speakers to spread the teachings of Christ. Only the Buddhist monks have that power. This is our spiritual warfare. The more we shared the gospel with the villagers, the more upset the monks became and the more they used their loud speakers to call the villagers to temple worship.

It is apparent that the Burmese people have a deep desire to learn about Jesus Christ. After our two day crusade in the village, God opened the hearts of 14 Buddhists who have decided to either make Jesus their Lord or to continue studying the teachings of Jesus Christ. Praise our God for giving us such a harvest and for advancing His kingdom despite our shortcomings. Amen!

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