Southeast Asia – July 26, 2023

We rolled out of our hotel room for a 7:00am breakfast, followed by a 7:30 devo, then an 8:15 departure to our assigned area of home visits and Compassion Kit parties in some mountain villages about an hour and a half away. Since PBC is one of three churches participating in this STM trip, we needed to leave in 3 cars, each leaving a few minutes apart. We found out this was to avoid suspicion that surely would have aroused if we had crossed a guarded checkpoint together.

We arrived at a church, a block building perhaps big enough to seat 50 people, where we had a Compassion Kit party.  After the presentation, and with only one response to our offer of prayer, our translator turned to us and said that he sensed that instead of coaxing them more for people to come forward for prayer that we should pray for them. Little did we know this meant the three of us praying out loud at the same time! This was the first of such an experience on our trip!

We were introduced to the pastor and his wife, who shared with us that as a senior couple, they left a larger church in the city to come to this remote area to plant a church as they did not have a church at all. It had been a difficult transition, but you could hear a love of Jesus and a love for his people, even through a translator.

We moved on to another area to another Compassion Kit party where the building was larger, perhaps capable of seating 70. We met their pastor, a younger man, who also moved to the area to plant a church. Both congregations were only a few years old.

There were, of course, house visits. This is where we experienced much deeper connections and conversations with the people of the village. We were enthusiastically welcomed into the home of one of the members who lived next door. He was a former witch doctor, and he shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord. Now he tells his community about the gospel, and invites as many as he can to church. 

We even got to know this church’s pastor better, and the struggles he was going through was similar to the person who shared the testimony that day! And talking with the pastor, it was obvious that there was a burden for choosing to pursue treatment for his cerebral palsy daughter, which would require him to move to a city where the hospital was a few hours away or to stay at this church plant because there was no one who was mature enough in the faith to be able to take it over. As is often the case, the answers are not apparent, so we prayed with him to encourage him that the Lord can work in incredible ways and not always in the choices we think we have.

Another home visit included visiting a member of the special police, who has known the Lord for a number of years. He described how although it is legal for him to be a Christian, because of a routine training camp that is devoted to a particular Hindu god, special devotion to this god is expected while in the camp. As a Christian, he refuses that, and as a result, he experiences negative comments and behaviors.

We returned back to the hotel by 8:00 p.m. in the evening. A full day of ministry and culture learning for sure!

While a lot of the ministry here is about evangelism, so much of our ministry here has also been to support members of the local church, including the pastors, as it is not easy to be a Christian in a community that may have less than 1% of believers. As was noted, the Holy Spirit residing in us is the same Holy Spirit residing in them doing the same work that only He can do in unmistakable ways!