August-September 2008
From August 16th to September 4th I took a three week trip to Myanmar and Thailand. Our team was smaller than last time, consisting of two amazing friends of mine; a pastor from our church named Don and a worship leader from our church named Paul. We had an even better trip than last time. Click on the links belowto see some videos of our trip and scroll down for the full story. The videos are all worth watching.
(The videos will open up in YouTube. To the right of the little screen is a button that says "more info". Click on the "more info" button to open up the comments for the video.)
Movies in the delta: 21 seconds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbXoGJpaQzc
Monsoon in the delta: 38 seconds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWczg7Hr3Og
Walking in the delta: 32 seconds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0oREfzgq4s
Preaching in the delta: 42 seconds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EoIhOCqe3w
Myanmar trip slideshow: 4 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZKjeYm2XGk
Our latest trip to the delta region of Myanmar was absolutely incredible. I was joined by two of my friends, Don Sciortino and Paul Jackson. We were able again to get on the U.N. helicopter and bring a doctor, medicine, vitamins, soccer balls and 7 and a half tons of rice to several villages.
Prophesying to the Military
The first day in the delta, we were met by an army captain that came to check our papers. We asked if we could bless him and I read Romans 13:1-3 over him. “Every person must be subject to the governing authorities, for no authority exists except by God's permission. The existing authorities have been established by God, so that whoever resists the authorities opposes what God has established, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For the authorities are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.” We prophesied over him that “God put him in charge over this village because he was a man of peace and was put there to do justice and to act righteously for the good of the people there.” We then blessed him and prayed over him. His eyes lit up with joy. He was so blessed. We had prayed on both of our trips that we would have opportunities to pray and prophesy over government and military leaders and here we were, 15 minutes after landing, praying and prophesying over an army captain. Wow!
A little later, some higher military officials came to us and told us that our paperwork was not in order. They were going to make us bring all of our luggage, which was a lot, on a four-hour, one-way trip to another village to do our paperwork. After praying and apologizing for not doing our paperwork right, they decided that they would do the work for us. They then invited us to another village where they lived so we could see some of the rebuilding projects that the government was working on. After a one and a half hour boat ride, we toured their village, and the new homes that were built. In the new housing tract, we met an orphan kid that was probably three or four years old. A whole bunch of other kids were surrounding us, wondering what white people were doing there. We proceeded to ask the military officials if we could pray and bless all the children. They agreed. When we started to pray, the official took off his hat in respect and even shooshed a kid that was talking. The prayers were translated for everyone to hear.
There are so many stores of the Burmese military doing horrible things. I won’t comment on those, but when we communicated to them, honored and respected them, we were treated very well. They allowed us to come, serve the people, share about Jesus, and even allow us to lay hands on themselves and their children and pray for them. They were absolutely wonderful to us. It would have been so easy for us to bow down to fear and not come, but because the Lord told us to go, we had an incredibly fruitful trip.
100 Buddhists Come to Christ for Forgiveness and Healing
The first full day we were there, we went into the village that I had shortly visited on our first trip. It was the village where the man who started praying to the “God of the Christians” lived. Last time we arrived, he told us “your God answered my prayers”. This trip we had more time to spend with them. We gathered everyone who was available into their mud-floor schoolhouse and told them why we were there. We gave them rice, vitamins, soccer balls and shared the gospel with them. Almost everyone that heard, around 100 people, accepted Christ into their hearts. We called out words of knowledge for healing and almost everyone we laid hands on was healed. We were also able to confirm that many people were still healed from the first trip in July. The villagers were again very blessed and so were we.
100 More
The next day we went into another village and did the same thing with about the same results. Around 100 people accepted Christ into their hearts and again, almost everyone we prayed for was healed. Both of these villages were 100% Buddhist and had never heard the gospel before. Now, the villages are majority Christian. We are praying and talking with other Christian leaders as to how we are going to disciple all of these converts and plant churches in these villages. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. All we need is a person willing to go and shepherd these new sheep. Please pray that God’s man or woman would heed His call to go.
Jackie Chan Brings Healing (Who Knew)
In the bigger village where we stayed, we played movies every night. I brought my laptop, a projector and a bed sheet from home. (Some raindrops came through the tarp roof, landed on my keyboard, and ruined my laptop, but it still worked enough to show the movies.) We had initially planned to play the Jesus film but the DVDs that we bought didn’t work. So we played Jackie Chan movies and cartoons instead. Knowing all of the trauma and death that these villagers had seen, hearing them laugh so hard brought tears to my eyes. The movies alone were so healing to them.
200 Saved, Dozens Healed
On the last evening we were there, we played a slide show with pictures of them. They absolutely loved it. I also got a chance to preach the gospel. It was hard to estimate, but there were between 200 and 300 people. Even though there was a church there, the pastors believe and teach that all paths lead to heaven. When I gave the invitation to accept Jesus as their savor, almost everyone raised their hands. I then clarified further, that they were also committing to worship Jesus and Him alone. Again, almost every hand went up. Afterwards, my translator, a pastor from Rangoon, told me that if they said the things that I said, they would be taken away and never seen again. It made me feel so good that we were able to fill a vital role in the body of Christ to that nation. As foreigners, we were able to do something that the locals could not have done.
After giving the invitation to receive Jesus, we called out several words of knowledge for healing. Around 15-20 people stood up with the conditions that we called out. It was then that I realized that there were so many people that we could not see the ground and there was no way for us to get to the people to pray for them. So I challenged the 2-minute old Christians to lay hands on their neighbors and heal them. They now had the spirit of God living in them, had just committed to obeying Jesus and Jesus commanded them to heal the sick. After some encouraging, they laid hands and we prayed a general prayer over them. After they sat down, I told them to wave both arms at me if they knew 100% that they were just healed. Many people started to wave their hands in the air. I said, “See, this didn’t happen because we are magic or special. This happened because Jesus is real, He is here and He loves you. God just healed these people through your hands.” We were all amazed at God’s goodness. You can see hundreds of healings and salvations but it never gets old.
We are praying about another trip before the helicopters stop running on November 10th. We would like to do some more teaching and training, baptize the new believers and plant churches in these villages. We are also working with other ministries to do long-term aid projects. It will take years for the people of Myanmar to rebuild from the cyclone. Please pray with us for all these things to come to pass.
June-July 2008
From June 19th to July 2nd a team of myself and 5 others went into the delta region of Burma, an area in which very few people have been able to get into. It was an amazing trip. You can read the details below as well as watch some short videos to get a feel of our trip. Be sure to check out the photos on the Burma Trip Photo Album page.
Click on these links below to see short videos of our trip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtpklU79u3I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViCNWxm8Iec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VceGwVCqI1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLXUw4-u1EI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZcYk_lHseo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jyNVbIYwY8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNF7tUs54rY
Our team consisted of myself, John Ditty (the president of an American humanitarian aid organization called Giving Children Hope-GCH), his son Jonathan Ditty, my YWAM friend Dan Behrens, a doctor named Duffy Casey and the GCH country director for Indonesia Herman Waruwu. We connected with a Burmese born American named Levi and her team. Levi heads a ministry called “I Love Myanmar”.
We spent the first several days in countless meetings networking and meeting local ministries and missionaries. We even went to several U.N. meetings trying to find out who was doing what, where they were doing it and how they were doing it.
Taxi Driver Accepts Jesus
One of the first days we were there, we were riding in a taxicab in between meetings. I was busy looking out the window taking in the scenery. I was not being spiritual or even thinking anything spiritual, when I suddenly got a pain in my right knee. I immediately thought of the taxi driver. I asked him if he had a problem with his right knee. He responded that he did not so I asked him if anyone in his family had a problem with their right knee. In amazement, he responded that his mom did. I told him that Jesus had told me about the problem and wanted to heal her. He then proceeded to tell us that his dad also had cancer. After praying in the cab for his parents to be healed, I asked if he had ever heard the good news about Jesus. He said that he had heard of him but no one had ever explained enough for him to understand. I explained the gospel to him and asked if he wanted to accept Jesus as his savior. He said, “Yes, I want to.” In the taxicab, he invited Jesus into his heart. He had some friends that were Christians so we told him to tell them what he had done. When we got out of the taxicab, he was smiling broadly and thanking us. He was so ready to accept Jesus. He just needed to hear clearly. Out of love, God interrupted my sight seeing with a word of knowledge to save his taxi driving, Burmese son.
Another Driver the Next Day
The following day while riding in another taxi, I got a word of knowledge that the driver had stomach problems. When I asked him about it he said, “Yes. How did you know?” I responded, “Jesus told me and He told me because he loves you and wants to take away your pain.” His eyes got very wide and his mouth slowly dropped open. He kept saying “Jesus?” real slowly three or four times. The consequence of my statement was setting in. If what I was saying was true then Jesus is real, loving, personal and powerful. We all could feel a sense of awe descend in the taxi as the driver processed in shock what was happening. The driver was not feeling pain at that exact moment so when we prayed we could not know for sure if he was healed or not. We also tried to explain the gospel to him but his English was not good enough to understand. He did understand though that Jesus broke into his world with a personal touch of His love. We could all tell that this word of knowledge was going to drive this man to seek Jesus. God is always looking to reach out to His kids.
A Funny Story
We sent Duffy and Jonathan to one U.N. meeting to get some information on the health situation in the delta. It was supposed to be a small cluster group meeting at 9am. They arrived at the hotel and told the clerk that they were there for the meeting. He escorted them to a big fancy room and told them that they were early. They waited for an hour and finally everyone came in. U.N. ambassadors from many nations, including Italy and America, walked in along with the Undersecretary General to the U.N. who was the main speaker. Camera crews also came in from the local news station. They grew more and more uncomfortable as the ambassadors were in suits along with all of their aids and Duffy and Jonathan were dressed in t-shirts, jeans and flip-flops. By the time they figured out that they were escorted into the wrong meeting the doors were shut, the cameras were rolling and it was too late to escape. What made it worse was the fact that they were seated in front of the Italian ambassador to the U.N. In political language that meant they were more important than him. He kept asking with an angry tone, “Who are you and what are you doing here?!” At the first break they escaped as fast as they could. Who knew it could be so easy to get into a U.N. meeting.
Caught Sneaking In
Since no one has permission to stay in the cyclone-affected delta, three of us attempted to sneak in by hiding ourselves under boxes and bags in the back of a truck. It was a torturous 9-hour hot and bumpy ride. In the end, we were intercepted where we were supposed to rendezvous with a boat. Someone had either tapped the phone of a local ministry that we were partnering with or an insider ratted us out because the police knew we were coming before we even left. We figured at the least we would have machine-guns stuck in our faces and get slapped around a bit but nothing happened. They looked at our passports and put us on a taxi back to Rangoon. We were shocked but grateful.
A Helicopter Ride
From all the meetings we had attended earlier in the week, we ended up getting permission to stay overnight in the delta, (something that no one had ever gotten before). We also got a ride on a U.N. helicopter with the medicine that we snuck into the country, a ton of humanitarian supplies, and five and a half tons of rice. The village that we went to was called Daunt Gyi. For several weeks after the hurricane, they watched U.N. helicopters fly overhead several times a day without stopping. They began praying that God would send them a helicopter. So when they heard that we were coming on a helicopter they were overjoyed. We flew into the village and were met by over a hundred clapping, dancing Burmese villagers. They stood in the pouring rain and mud so they could hug and kiss us when we got out of the helicopter. It was a humbling and surreal scene that looked like it was pulled straight out of a movie.
Our doctor and pre-med student were able to diagnose and treat over a hundred patients. While they were doing that, several of us took a one-hour boat ride to a Buddhist village that had not received any aid. One Buddhist villager had been praying to the God of the Christians to send His people after giving up on his unfruitful Buddhist prayers. When we arrived, he told us that our God had answered his prayers. We gave them food and supplies, preached a little and prayed for many. One woman had lost all five of her children in the cyclone. In this one small village alone 33 people died. Physical pain and emotional trauma left people’s bodies as we ministered God’s love to them.
Surprise, You’re Preaching
After the one-hour boat ride back to the village of Daunt Gyi where we were staying, we took a late afternoon nap in our bamboo hut. Without any warning I was awakened by a man who told me that the village had heard that an American missionary was here and over 100 people, some from other villages, had come to hear him speak. They were waiting next door at the tarp covered church to hear him speak. In my grogginess, it took me several moments to realize that the American missionary they were waiting for was me! I stood up, walked a hundred yards to the church and preached the gospel. Some in the crowd were Christians but most were either Buddhist or Christians by name only that had never clearly heard the gospel. When I gave the invitation to receive Christ, the vast majority raised their hands to accept Him. I was so honored to be God’s voice of love and truth to these Burmese rice farmers. One old lady who knew Jesus, came up to me afterward and told me with tears in her eyes, “I have never felt God’s love before until now.” She grabbed my face with both hands, gave me a long kiss on the cheek and walked away. What a humbling and awesome privilege!
The next morning, several of these villagers came to where we were staying. One woman said, “Where is the church. I want to worship?” I told her, “Actually you are standing in it but this is a one hour boat ride from your village. You could actually start a church in your village.” The other villagers that were listening questioned in amazement, “You can do that?” I asked if they would be interested in a pastor coming to their village to teach them more about Jesus and they emphatically stated that they all want to learn more.
The Lord did unprecedented and shocking things while we were there. We paved the way for other teams and ministries to get into the delta much easier, faster and stay longer than anyone had been able to before. The delta area will be in need for quite a while and the opportunity for ministry is almost endless. This field is ripe for harvest as we saw first hand in just the two villages that we visited. We are discussing another trip to the delta soon. If you would like to participate financially, prayerfully and/or physically please let me know.
Thank you to all who gave financially and interceded for our team. We definitely felt your prayers.
To donate to the relief effort in Burma contact us or go to one of these links below.
www.gchope.org or www.ilovemyanmar.org
Check out the links below for more info on the situation in Burma.