myanmar_church_building

Dear Brothers and Sisters Christ,

First and foremost, I thank God for His faithfulness in guiding me in the ministry. I thank God that he heard our prayers and comforted us with the fruits of our labors even on this earth. Thank you too for your partnership, prayers, and supports.

Gospel Trip in April 2019

As mentioned in my last report, my team and I made a blessed gospel proclamation trip to 16 villages previous month, to 6 of them being the first time. Over two thousand people heard the Gospel, and for about five hundred, it was the first time to listen to it preached.

Response to the Gospel

It was not an easy task to travel over the mountains and across the valleys by motorbikes, mostly the road being steep, rocky and even dangerous. The people treated us differently and also responded differently to our preaching. Some received us with gladness and paid close attention to the message, while others almost drove us out of the village. By God’s special grace, we persisted and preached the Gospel with all its glory and power in various circumstances and challenges.

God proved that the Holy Spirit was at work so that our preaching was not in vain. There was a chief animist in a village where we had preached a couple of times before. This man came to us with his wife and family saying he had heard us preached many times before. He continued to say that after careful thinking about the gospel message we expounded, he was convinced that the God we preached must be the only savior and that Christianity was the only meaningful religion, a living relationship between the living God and men. Upon his request, I went to his home and removed all his animistic stuff, having preached and prayed for the family. It was a
mixed time of surprise and rejoicing that morning. He was among the 48 people I baptized at the youth conference.

Youth Conference

The conference went very well. Thank you very much for your contribution to the costs. Over five hundred were present in the evenings and around three hundred at day time that means over two hundred were animists and Buddhists from nearby villages. My coworkers and I taught on timely topics, i.e. the new birth, Honorable youth, and the works/gifts of the Holy Spirit. There were about a dozen animistic chiefs who attended the whole conference and listened to our preaching. After the conference, one animistic village invited us to them and we visited there and presented the Gospel to the villagers. They show a strong interested in and an excellent response to the message. Please pray that they would be granted the gift of salvation by the Holy Spirit’s regenerating works in their hearts. Hundreds of youth from our churches have also benefitted from the teachings. Some got baptized and some have decided to at our Bible school and prepare for the gospel ministry.

An Open Door to More Animistic Villages

As a result of our Gospel trips and preaching, three animistic villages have received our missionaries to live among them in their villages. This is usually an initial step to receive the Gospel as a whole community. Our missionaries would first teach the children our script in their respective villages. Then they will preach and live the Gospel which will result in having converts and founding a church. Who can resist the power of the Gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit?

I am sure from experience that churches will be planted in near future in those villages and even in neighboring villages. I’m still arranging to send out three couples of missionaries to those villages, who have trained at our Bible school under our solid teaching. The field is vast, and the need is great. God is with us.

Church Building Dedication

With much gratitude to you for your exceptional contribution towards the costs, we are holding the dedication service of the new church building in one of the mission fields I oversee on the 18th this week. We sent out an evangelist to the village three years ago after having preached a couple of times on our Gospel trips. Now that we have founded a new church there and we are expecting more converts from over 60 animistic families in new future through the faithful ministry of our co-laborer there.
This is typical progress in the Gospel ministry I mentioned above. We reach out to them by gospel trips, preach the Gospel and establish a good friendship, and send out missionaries and finally found churches. For this great purpose, we are training more young men and women at
our Bible school each year. We still have more animistic villages which are considering receiving evangelists in their communities. Please pray for more laborers as the fields are wipe and great.

The Growth of the Church

In my two years of the pastorate, I baptized 12 people on 28th April and added them to the church I minister. The Lord is with us, and the church is growing both in size and in the knowledge of and fellowship with God. To God alone be the glory! We are praying for a new building as members increase.

Finally, thank you very much for your faithful partnership and generous support towards the ministries I’m involved. I hope you could see the fruits of your commitment to supporting my ministries. Suffice it to say at the moment that Chris and Rufus and the men we are assisting in the particular region are being faithful to the works. Chris has seen their fourth baby boy recently. We are regaining our grounds in the region with the faithful ministry of ten churches there, including Chris’. Please continue to pray for us and the works in different locations in this part of the country. May God bless HeartCry and its supporters!

Yours faithfully in Christ,
Elijah (April & May 2019)