Author Archive

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Prayer points – May 2009

Posted on Tuesday May 19th, 2009 at 4:38 pm by Martin

Martin
Thanksgiving:

  • For the assistance of a dear friend in helping me understand how to do proper and effective research for college assignments. I now feel empowered to succeed in this aspect of college.
  • For consistent financial support which has helped toward this semester’s college fees
  • For the blessing of Bible College and the opportunity to learn and be equipped for future ministry*
  • For God’s providence in the short-term mission work so far*

Petition:

  • For humility, patience, grace, love and faithfulness
  • For my walk with the Lord to deepen and my dependence on him to increase
  • To finish the correspondence TESOL course I’m still working through*
  • Financial support required – estimated $2000/month*
  • For God to prepare the way in Myanmar for ministry*

 

ERC (Evangelical Reformed Church / Thang Bwee’s church)
Thanksgiving:

  • Three months of ministerial training has been completed successfully by His guidance. About 16 young ministers received training for ministry.
  • Ram Uk, who has been studying in India, has now safely returned to Yangon for a short time of holidays
  • Be Nwe has been accepted to enter to PTS, India for M.Div program
  • Siama is in a good mode of study at PRTS (Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Michigan USA)
  • ERC have been able to provide food for about 10 villages in Chin State, releasing them from the starvation which has ravaged that part of Myanmar

Petition:

  • Financial sponsors are needed for Be Nwe and Ram Uk who are studying in India
  • For the work of the RBI’s rice paddy farm which will begin by June. This rice paddy is one of many ventures owned by ERC and RBI to assist them in gaining financial independence.
  • The next academic year of RBI will begin in June and continue on until March 2010. Please pray for students and staff.
  • To have more financial support for the starving people of Chin State (read more here)
  • To build a dormitory for the school children at Sami in Chin State
  • Kyaw Htin is still in hospital with a serious illness which the doctors are still unable to diagnose. Though he has improved slightly over the last 4 months he is still paralysed and in need of constant care and attention.
  • Future education of Thang Bwee’s son, Bowie Benjamin, who is now doing a computer course

 

FRCM (Free Reformed Church of Myanmar / James’ church)
Thanksgiving:

  • Everyone is well by the grace of God
  • Students are doing well with their studies. They are giving their hearts, their time and energies in studying the Word of God with complete devotion.
  • Praise the Lord that missionary work is very useful to convert unbelievers
  • We have a new Church at Htauk-kyant. It was started on April 5th, 2009, having no church members yet, while we focus on children mission area. The Pastor, Rev. John Piang Zam, and his family have a worship service there, and some of the local people are now interested in what our ministry is offering.
  • All students are sponsored by people of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. This allows the college to provide food, accommodation, books, travel and various other tools for the students, ensuring them the best opportunity of a quality education.*

Petition:

  • Richer people in the neighbourhood are very difficult to convert
  • Some believers are going through difficult times and always need your fervent prayers
  • Rev. John Piang Zam with his family in the new Church-plant at Htauk-kyant
  • Funds:
    • for house rental. This house will be used for worship and the Bible School (GBS)
    • for teaching staff
    • for the new Church-plant in the township of Htauk-kyat (pronounced towk-chat)
    • for the young children’s ministry in South Dagon, especially for daily food, clothing, shelter, and equipment*
    • for the installation of a telephone for the Church and Bible School*
    • Students’ learning and health*

     

    View all posts ‘For Prayer’

     

    * Thanksgiving and petition items with an asterisk indicate an ongoing prayer point, that is, one that was listed in the previous month(s)

Tags: ,

Posted in For Prayer | No Comments »

Prayer points – Feb 2009

Posted on Sunday February 8th, 2009 at 12:23 pm by Martin

Martin
Thanksgiving:

  • For rest and refreshment during the December/January college break
  • For the blessing of Bible College and the opportunity to learn and be equipped for future ministry
  • For recent financial support, meaning that I can now afford this semester’s college fees
  • For God’s providence in the short-term mission work so far*

Petition:

  • Bible college has begun. Please pray that I would be able to keep up with the assessment deadlines and that the Lord would keep me encouraged as the semester progresses.
  • To finish the correspondence TESOL course I’m still working through*
  • Financial support required – estimated $2000/month*
  • For God to prepare the way in Myanmar for ministry*

 

ERC (Evangelical Reformed Church / Thang Bwee’s church)
Thanksgiving:

  • By the grace of God two books have been published in Myanmar and are now selling in book shops in Yangon. These books are “The studies of the person and work of Christ” and “Concise Theology” (refer June ’08 prayer points)
  • All students are sponsored by people of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. This allows the college to provide food, accommodation, books, travel and various other tools for the students, ensuring them the best opportunity of a quality education.

Petition:

  • For the students to keep faithful in their given ministries
  • For RBI to find two lecturers, and also to find students who are called by God for ministry
  • For Thang Bwee to manage things properly according to God’s will and under His guidance
  • There will be three weeks of ministerial training at Sami in Chin State in early March. Rev. Pyi Su, Pye Si, Pa Bawh, and Be Nwe will teach in that in-service training.
  • 4 students are ill, 3 with TB and another, Kyaw Htin, is in hospital with a serious, life threatening illness which the doctors are unable to diagnose.
  • Ram Uk, studying in India, and Siama who will begin studies in the United States early 2009. Pray that they would assimilate well into their new countries and study and learn with the Lord’s blessing*

 

FRCM (Free Reformed Church of Myanmar / James’ church)
Thanksgiving:

  • All students are sponsored by people of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. This allows the college to provide food, accommodation, books, travel and various other tools for the students, ensuring them the best opportunity of a quality education.

Petition:

  • Funds:
    • for the Church Building, firstly to purchase a plot of land
    • for the FRCM members who are in need for their daily living, food, clothing and shelter
    • for the house rent, so that James, his family, and the Bible College students may continue to use the house now occupied
    • for the young children’s ministry in South Dagon, especially for daily food, clothing, shelter, and equipment
    • for digging a good well, so that the ministers and the church members in South Dagon no longer have to buy water every day
    • for the installation of a telephone for the Church and Bible School
    • for Church planting
  • Students’ learning and health*

 

View all posts ‘For Prayer’

 

* Thanksgiving and petition items with an asterisk indicate an ongoing prayer point, that is, one that was listed in the previous month(s)

Tags: ,

Posted in For Prayer | No Comments »

Mission to Myanmar Newsletter – Jan 2009

Posted on Thursday January 29th, 2009 at 9:36 pm by Martin

This is the January 2009 edition of my “Mission to Myanmar” newsletter (previously called “Myanmar Musings”).

New Year, New Start, New Look

It’s almost 12 months since I sent out my last newsletter so I’m thinking of calling this the “Anniversary Edition” (ha ha). When I started the newsletters it was my intention to send one out every couple of months. I amended that to every few months, and now … well, I’m not making any more promises. I would like to say sorry though. Sorry for not writing, and sorry for not letting you know what was going on.

What was 2008 like for you? For me it was up and down. First semester was very busy with many assessment tasks plus a college mission trip to Tasmania. The mission trip was a great learning experience and I really enjoyed my time with everyone down there. Upon return though, there was a lot of work to do before the end of semester which brings with it exams.

I’m happy to say that, by the grace of God, I managed to get all the work in and passed all my exams. It was a great relief and encouragement to me, and I was looking forward to second semester.
The mid-semester break saw me working on TESOL (yet again) plus an overdue visit to the dentist (“he didn’t have to drill”), and an even more overdue visit to the optometrist who has provided me with a nice new set of reading glasses (I left him an arm and a leg as payment).

Then came second semester – one I’d be happy to forget. I never really got on top of it and, as a result, can’t boast of first-semester-like success. Suffice to say I’ll be re-doing some of those subjects this year.
End of year break, the one I’m at the end of now, was spent in Newcastle at my Mum’s house. It was a great place to be and afforded me, not only some much needed rest and recuperation, but also an environment conducive to catching up on things like TESOL (yes, there it is again).

So, it’s a new year and a new start. I’m in the process of simplifying things and pushing aside distractions so I can focus almost entirely on Bible College. Lord willing, I’ll be finished my studies at the end of this year and ready to head off mid-2010.

There have been some changes
You’ll have noticed a change in the design of the newsletter. The reason is to simplify it and make it easier to compose (and therefore send out more regularly).

The website has changed too, which some of you will have already read in an e-mail I sent out.

What you need to know …

me.malleeblue.com is now being redirected to

matt2819.com/myanmar

which will be the new website relating to my efforts, and the efforts of mission partners, in Myanmar.
My 2009 Myanmar prayer calendar is also available on the website or by requesting a copy, or copies, from me.

The new website address is more relevant I think, and the new design will hopefully make it easier for everyone to find the information they’re looking for. I hope you like it.

There are other changes too with the prayer and support cards, and also with the “Learn of the Lord’s work in Myanmar” brochure (now a double-sided card). If you’d like some of these new cards please let me know how many and I’ll have them in the post ASAP.

In the Media

There has been much concern about news that came out on January 8th about…

Christians in Burma’s former capital of Rangoon find themselves in a precarious state as local authorities on Monday banned the holding of regular church services and threatened to seal off churches if congregations failed to comply.

“They [the authorities] warned us that our churches would be sealed off if we continue worshipping,” said a pastor of a church in Pabedan Township who attended the meeting.

“Eighty percent of the churches in Yangon [Rangoon] are included in the order.”

In short, our partner churches are not affected by this, though that may change. Please pray that the Lord would give them guidance and wisdom, and that He would look after them as He always has. Please also pray for the people in the churches which have been affected, and that the Lord would be made known as a result of this persecution.

Please Pray

Mon: My year ahead at Bible College. Pray that the Lord would sustain me and keep me focussed.

Tue: Our partner churches in Myanmar. Pray for the leaders (Thang Bwee & James) and their helpers.

Wed: Students attending Bible Colleges in Myanmar. Pray for their learning and as they evangelise.

Thur: Evangelism of Buddhists in Yangon and Chin State. Pray for wisdom and boldness.

Fri: The Myanmar government. Pray for the Lord to change hearts and to bring justice, peace, etc.

Sat: Health & travel safety, here & in Myanmar. In particular, some students have Tuberculosis.

Sun: Pray that God would continue to lead all those involved in the Myanmar work (in AU and in MM).

And praise God daily for the opportunities he’s opened up in Myanmar and for his constant blessing and abundant provision thus far.

Grace be with you,
Martin

Tags:

Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Chin refugees in India forced back to Myanmar

Posted on Thursday January 29th, 2009 at 7:38 am by Martin

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Up to 100,000 Christian Chin who have fled to India in the past 20 years to escape persecution by Myanmar’s Buddhist military rulers are at risk of being forced back, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

The New York-based rights said local authorities and community organisations in Mizoram frequently targeted Chin migrants, one of the former Burma’s many oppressed ethnic minorities.

“They live at the mercy of the local population,” HRW said in a report on the plight of the Chin, whose ancestral homes are in the mountainous reaches of northwest Myanmar.

“The Chin in Mizoram lack jobs, housing and affordable education,” HRW consultant Amy Alexander said, adding most were relegated to temporary, labour-intensive and low-paying jobs, earning around 100 rupees ($2) a day for 10 to 16-hour shifts.

The report comes at a time when attention has turned on the Rohingyas, another minority group in Myanmar, who have been fleeing abuse and harassment.

In the last two months, 550 Muslim Rohingyas are feared to have drowned after the Thai army forced 1,000 found in the Andaman Sea into wooden boats before towing out to international waters and cutting them adrift.

Despite relatively close ethnic ties between the Chin and Mizoram natives, tensions between the two populations regularly flared into anti-Chin pogroms, the HRW report said.

“Because they are stateless and marginalised and the poorest of the poor, they tend to be the scapegoat whenever there’s an incident at the border,” HRW researcher Sara Colm said.

The largest such campaign was in 2003, when the Young Mizo Association (YMA) forced 10,000 Chin back into Myanmar, HRW said.

In September 2008, the YMA issued an order for the Chin to leave Mizoram by the end of the month. The threat did not materialise, but it was enough for them to go into hiding, close their churches and wait till tensions were over, HRW said.

Such incidents showed India failing in its obligations to protect refugees or asylum seekers, Alexander said.

New Delhi has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention but under international law, is bound by the principle of ‘nonrefoulement’, which protects migrants from being returned to any country where they could be persecuted.

In addition to what HRW described as “decades of systematic abuse” at the hands of the Myanmar army, the Chin’s woes have been compounded by a 2007 infestation of rats that destroyed huge swathes of crops and food stores.

A recent U.N. survey estimated that 40 percent of people in Chin State, Myanmar’s poorest, did not have enough food, increasing the number of people trying to leave the country.

[ Original article ]

Tags:

Posted in Myanmar General | No Comments »

Prayer calendar

Posted on Sunday January 25th, 2009 at 1:08 pm by Martin

On behalf of those in Myanmar, and from me, thanks for your support and prayers. I know the Lord is working through your faithfulness.

If you’d like my 29-day prayer calendar you can download a PDF version here [196kb]. Print both pages on one sheet, back and front (i.e. double-sided), and then fold it in half and in half again so there are 4 sections.

If you’d like a stack of these then please order some from me – they’re FREE. Just use the Contact Martin page and they’ll be in the mail next-day.

[ If you need a PDF reader I suggest Foxit or Acrobat ]

Some great places to put your new calendar:

  • Inside your Bible – but remember it’s there
  • On your corkboard or whiteboard
  • On your bathroom mirror – pray while you brush, shave, wash, etc.
  • On the back of your toilet door – it’s a great place to pray
Tags:

Posted in ERC, FRCM, GBS, Martin, RBI | Comments Off

Share me around

Posted on Sunday January 25th, 2009 at 1:00 pm by Martin

These are some ways to “share me around” and to let others know about what the Lord is doing in Myanmar…

  • Order some Ministry Information Sheets from me (using the webform)
  • Print and share my prayer calendar with your small-group.
  • Have me or Chris, my Home Support Coordinator, come and talk to your group or church. Contact me initially using the webform.

     

Posted in Martin | Comments Off

Support continues after cyclone Nargis

Posted on Monday November 17th, 2008 at 1:25 pm by Martin

Last May (2008) Nargis, the most deadly category 4 cyclone to ever cross Myanmar’s shores, took over 140,000 lives and left in excess of 1,000,000 people homeless (this image shows the path of the cyclone).

Support from outside Myanmar has been strong and I’m happy to report that the Presbyterian Church of Australia answered the call to help with donations totalling more than AUD$50,000.

As relief efforts continue, please pray for the people and government of Myanmar, and that the Lord would be gracious toward them and cause many to call on the name of Jesus for salvation.

Tags:

Posted in Myanmar General | No Comments »

Prayer points – Nov 2008

Posted on Monday November 17th, 2008 at 11:00 am by Martin

Martin
Thanksgiving:

  • For the Lord’s comfort, patience and long-suffering with me over the last few months
  • For opportunities to share with some churches and small groups about the work the Lord is doing in Myanmar
  • God’s providence in the short-term mission work so far*

Petition:

  • Semester 2 2008 did not see me pass too many subjects so please pray that I will do better in 2009
  • To finish the correspondence TESOL course I’m still working through
  • Financial support required – estimated $2000/month
  • Bible college – to understand and retain what’s being learnt*
  • For God to prepare the way in Myanmar for ministry*

 

ERC (Evangelical Reformed Church / Thang Bwee’s church)
Thanksgiving:

  • Work has been completed on the RBI dormitory building (read more about it and see photos here)
  • Ram Uk has been accepted and is now in India furthering his theological studies
  • Siama, long-time assistant and adopted son to Thang Bwee will be leaving mid-January 2009 to further his theological studies in the United States

Petition:

  • Ram Uk, studying in India, and Siama who will begin studies in the United States early 2009. Pray that they would assimilate well into their new countries and study and learn with the Lord’s blessing
  • Different students continue to contract Tuberculosis (TB) which, though curable, isolates them for 6 months as well as halts their learning and weakens their bodies. Names aren’t important but your prayers for healing are, currently there are 3 students with this illness.
  • A 4th student is ill, though it’s not known what his illness is
  • Graduate student, now staff member at RBI, Be Nwee, hopes to do further study in India. Contact has been made with the faculty of PTS in India but no reply received yet
  • Famine throughout Chin State (read an article here)
  • Students and staff would have the leading of the Lord in evangelism*
  • Rev. Pyi Su in Chin State and his outreach to Buddhist families*
  • Church planting in Yangon and Khumi area of Chin State*
  • ERC’s Sunday school classes around Yangon*

 

FRCM (Free Reformed Church of Myanmar / James’ church)
Petition:

  • Continued financial support*
  • Students’ learning and health*

 

View all posts ‘For Prayer’

 

* Thanksgiving and petition items with an asterisk indicate an ongoing prayer point, that is, one that was listed in the previous month(s)

Tags: ,

Posted in For Prayer | No Comments »

RBI has a new building

Posted on Friday October 31st, 2008 at 9:35 pm by Martin

Thanks to more fund-raising by the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the Evangelical Reformed Church (ERC) has been able to build a solid and permanent structure at the Reformed Bible Institute (RBI) site. This building will be used for male student accommodation as well as meeting room/classroom facilities.

They’ve sent us a few photos, click here to have a look.

Tags:

Posted in RBI | No Comments »

Rampaging rats bring starvation to Burma

Posted on Wednesday October 1st, 2008 at 11:55 pm by Martin

In Burma’s north-west Chin state, thousands of people say they are starving. The Mara tribe say hundreds of their community have died in the past two months alone.

Local human rights groups say of an estimated 500,000 population, 100,000 people are at crisis point.

They blame a natural phenomenon, which occurs every 50 years in the region – a plague of rats.

The last time it happened – in the late 1950s – an estimated 15,000 people died from famine.

Across the border, India has implemented emergency measures to deal with the threat, but Burma’s military government has been silent on the matter.

Bamboo flowers

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has conducted an assessment in the region.

In an email earlier this year to a Burmese non-governmental organisation, the WFP’s country director for Burma, Chris Kaye, concluded that “people are not dying of starvation” and that the “distribution of WFP relief food would be inappropriate”.

It is a response which inspired over 50 people from the Mara tribe to walk for days through thick, mountainous jungle to meet me at a secret location on the India-Burma borderlands.

They say that the WFP’s assessment did not include southern Chin where they live and that if the international community fails to take them into account, their tribe may not survive.

They all tell the same story of how, when the bamboo flowers, it causes a plague of rats.

When the rats have finished gorging on the bamboo fruits, they go on to devour farm crops, which provide the main form of income for the Mara people.

“You can track the movement of the rats,” one man said. “Overnight the whole mountain range can be destroyed.”

Another told me how he had tried to fend off the rats by building rat traps all around his field of maize.

“More than 100, but it’s meaningless, I cannot protect the farm,” he said.

Painfully thin

The nearest hospital is miles away through mountainous jungle. All the villagers I met were painfully thin.

Dr Sasa is a local from southern Chin state and a medical student in his final year of studies in Armenia.

Before the food shortages took hold, villagers gave their livestock to pay for his training so that he could return and be their doctor.

He was not due back until he finished his studies but when he heard the WFP had dismissed claims of a famine, he set up mobile clinics in the borderlands.

In the two months he has been back in the region, he says he has delivered dozens of dead babies and seen over 200 people starve to death.

“Many of them die of malnutrition,” he says.

“Our whole body needs to be filled with food, which builds our immunity against disease. When you are malnourished, disease comes to you and you have no ability to resist.”

Government inaction

Dr Sasa and the villagers all say that the WFP’s assessment did not include them.

That view is shared by the chief minister of Mizoram state in neighbouring India, Pu Zoramthanga. Mizoram is also affected by the bamboo flowering.

“Those visitors went to the accessible areas. There will be no famine there,” says the minister. “If they had visited the area near the border with Mizoram, certainly people are suffering. They have to go back and see.”

He says if protective measures had been put in place by the Burmese government, the famine would not be happening now.

“The government of India sent a good amount of money for advance preparation to combat this – to make storage of rice and instead let us grow cash crops like ginger and turmeric, which the rats won’t eat,” the minister adds.

“With this we combat the bamboo flowering and famine.”

The villagers I have met all tell me that the Burmese government is doing nothing to help. If anything, they say, the government is making the situation worse.

They say that the military – which has increased its presence in Chin state – taxes them, takes their possessions including their livestock, and forces them to work without pay as labourers or porters.

One pastor told me he advised his parishioners to do whatever the military asked of them.

“We ask God to endure this suffering,” he says.

When I asked him how it would help, he referred to the Bible.

“If someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other, we taught like that. Is this right? I don’t know,” he asks.

[ Original article by Bernadette Carroll ]

Tags: , , ,

Posted in Myanmar General | No Comments »
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »