matt2819.com/myanmar

This page outlines The Work being done in our part of Myanmar.

———

It can quickly get complicated trying to explain all of what’s going and who’s doing what, so I’m going to keep to the basics.

Mission Partners

The Organisation in Australia, Mission Partners, which you can read more about here, has established partnerships with 2 churches in Yangon, Myanmar. They are

• The Evangelical Reformed Church (ERC) and,
• The Free Reformed Church of Myanmar (FRCM)

Both churches were established in Myanmar before Mission Partners partnered with them. The reason they’ve been partnered with is, basically, to help them grow.

Mission Partners’ role is to work in Australia to raise awareness of their partner churches, and in doing so to raise funds or resources to send to their partners. Numerous people have made many short-term trips to the partner churches in Myanmar for the purposes of teaching, encouragement, and delivery of finances or resources, like Bibles or books.

The Missionaries

It is also the desire of Mission Partners to send long-term missionaries to work closely with their partner churches, and in the case of Myanmar they have sent me, the guy behind this website, Martin Eagle.

A brief outline of my work:

• First 12 months – Yangon University of Foreign Languages (YUFL) learning the basics of the Myanmar language.
• 2nd, 3rd, and ongoing years – Teaching various subjects at the Reformed Bible Institute (RBI), the Bible College of the Evangelical Reformed Church (ERC). Some teaching will be done in my first year, though only short intensives during my semester breaks from university.
• 2nd, 3rd, and ongoing years – Additionally I will be teaching English to the RBI first-year students. It is also hoped that the ministry here will be able to facilitate English classes to locals using a Bible-based curriculum, however this will most likely not begin before late 2014.

More about my roles can be found in The Workers section.

Our Partner Churches

Both the ERC and the FRCM are involved in the following:

• Weekly Sunday Church services
• Twice-weekly prayer meetings
• Weekly Sunday School
• Outreach and evangelism
• Each have their own Bible College with live-in students
• Community assistance programs

As well as the list above, both churches, through the assistance of donations made by the Presbyterian Church of Australia, were able to offer significant and ongoing help to many victims of the May 2008 cyclone, which claimed more than 146,000 lives and left millions homeless.

The Evangelical Reformed Church (ERC)

The ERC have a few ministries and activities which are unique to them:

• Church planting – they have planted 3 churches in and around Yangon as well as 23 churches in rural areas of Chin State
• Farming – They own and operate a farm which provides a meagre income through the growth of rubber trees. They hope to expand this to Mango trees once they have the funds.
• Rice production – They own and operate a large rice field which can supply the Pastor, his family, his farm workers and his Bible College students with rice all year round. They also produce enough rice to be able to sell some at market.
• Taxis – The Church owns 2 taxis which operate 6 days a week and are an excellent source of income. One of the taxis is driven by a church member, providing him with valuable employment.
• Orphanage – A recent addition is the financial and spiritual support of an orphanage in lower Chin State

The Free Reformed Church of Myanmar (FRCM)

The FRCM’s unique ministry is in a very poor part of Yangon where they’re involved in a home-school. Members of the FRCM visit this area of the city almost every day of the week and teach children who are too poor to go to a regular school. On Sunday, the children faithfully turn up again, this time for lessons about Jesus and the Bible.

Other Info

Below are some stats and details on the ERC and the FRCM.