Battle Log
Friday, 13 September, 2019
Posted 14 September 2019, 10:31 AM by Glen Richards. Permalink
The last three days of outreach in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) have been a bit of a blurr! Six hours a day of outreach: three hours in the morning, an hour for lunch, and then another three hours in the afternoon. We break into smaller teams and go to various locations in Yangon, and we pair up with local Christians for translation and mutual encouragement.
My team was at a shopping center on Wednesday. A lot of rain that day, but there was shelter under an overpass (pictured) where we could talk to lots of people about the Gospel. On Thursday we were at Sule park - with rain in the afternoon. And on Friday we were at a different shopping center (pictured) in the morning, and then at the university in the afternoon - no rain till after the outreach finished that day! :)
I am learning a lot on this mission - from all my teammates, and also the local Christians we are working with. I am grateful to God for that and for them!
For me, I’ve had many difficult Gospel conversations. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing! I’ve had people seem to come under conviction of sin, and break the conversation before I can share the good news of Jesus :( I’ve had a lot of people become argumentative and resistant to the Gospel. But, all glory to God, there have been conversations with people who were receptive to the message of grace (2 x pictured)!
The most exciting conversation I had was with a Buddhist monk (pictured). I was surprised he bothered to stop to talk to me, and so I launched into a Gospel presentation quite quickly (starting with the law). He quickly started throwing up smoke screens and trying to led me down rabbit trails. I refused to allow it to happen, and with my wonderful translators help, persisted to share the law and the Gospel (praise God that I got through it). I then tracked back and started to address his questions. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I just gave simple answers to each one. E.g., he asked, “why does the Bible have an old testament and a new testament?” (I think he was suggesting that they contradict?) - I simply replied with, “because God wanted to do it that way.” Eventually, he invited me to come with him to talk more. No problem with me! He said he wanted me to meet one of his higher ups. He led my translator and I to the Pagoda and invited us in. I was praying, not knowing what to expect - but I was confident God was with us! We had to pay to get in, which we refused - so the monk said he would get his friend and met us outside. I refused to let the delay stop me from sharing the Gospel, so my translator and I started to distribute tracts (from a respectful distance from the Pagoda). The two monks soon came, and we head to the park to sit down and talk. The original monk was keen, but the new monk wasn’t willing to engage. I tried to goad him a little bit by saying: “I’m a simple man, are you afraid to talk with me?”. But it didn’t work and the left. I praise God for this opportunity. The original monk had accepted a Gospel booklet (that goes in depth). As always, I leave him in God’s hands. The Gospel is the power of God to salvation!
Please continue to pray for mission, we desperately need His power!
