Dear Friends Aug 17, 2013
This year marks the bi-centennial of the establishment of the Myanmar church when Adoniram Judson (17881850) brought the gospel to Myanmar (former Burma). After leaving America at age 25, Adoniram Judson endured indescribable suffering in order to evangelize this Buddhist nation. He lost his first wife and child to unknown endemic diseases. Though he remarried and had eight children, he buried three of these children in Myanmar for the same cause. Judson’s second-wife breathed her last in the boat in which she was traveling to receive medical attention. Persecuted, interrogated, imprisoned, disease-stricken and malnourished, Adoniram pressed on to evangelize Myanmar.
At the onset of his ministry in Myanmar, his goal was to translate the Bible into Burmese and to build a church of 100 people. According to a Wikipedia article, at the time of Adomiram’s death, he left as his legacy the Burmese Bible, 100 churches and 8,000 Christians. In addition, he made a huge contribution to the public education of Myanmar by publishing the first Burmese grammar book and Burmese-English dictionary. In order to celebrate Adoniram’s contribution in transforming a nation with the gospel, the Baptists of Myanmar founded Judson College in 1920. Now with a new name, Yangon University is known as the best educational institution in Myanmar.
In spite of Adoniram Judson’s sacrificial service, only 6% of the 50 million people of Myanmar know the Lord. Furthermore, of the 136 people groups that make up this great nation, less than 0.2% of the Burmese people, the leading people group, know Jesus. Against this dark spiritual backdrop, more than 120 churches of Yangon, the largest city of Myanmar, united to send me an invitation to come preach the gospel. They wanted to hold an unprecedented scale evangelistic outreach in the heart of this Buddhist nation. Our goal is to mobilize all the churches of Yangon to pray together for spiritual revival and to win the city for Christ through evangelism and discipleship. As a result of our endeavor, we pray that the churches of Yangon will be strengthened with an influx of new believers and through the process of developing them as disciples. It is our dream also that the Lord will speak to the hearts of thousands of young people in order that they will accept the Lord at our festival, be developed as leaders and then transform Myanmar 10-20 years later in every arena of society including government, business, education, science & technology, military, and mass media.
History shows that wherever there was a spiritual revival, people were transformed and so were societies and nations. I do not believe that it was by pure accident that this invitation came to me in the year of the Myanmar church’s bi-centennial. I sense that the Lord is calling you also for Myanmar. I would love to work together with you. Would you hold my hand? Would you play a significant role in making a meaningful contribution to the history of Myanmar through praying and giving? I truly believe that this is a God-given opportunity for you to invest your resources in something in which you will take a lot of pride later because you helped fulfill the Great Commission in our generation (Matt 28:19-20).
Before we tell the people of Yangon about God, would you tell God about the people of Yangon?
It will cost us $100,000 to reap the scale of spiritual harvest we are envisioning in Myanmar during the Oct 23-25 festival. Of this amount, the Lord has already provided $50,000, but we are still $50,000 short. I received an email from an influential Myanmar church leader today saying 120 church leaders joined their third round of pre-crusade training conferences today. Many people are excited about the upcoming gospel festival and they want to run two more pre-crusade training conferences to train counselors and disciple makers before the festival starts. He said, “To carry on the next steps we need some funds within next week. In Him, we are confident that many lost souls will come to Christ during this gospel festival. Praying for you and the role you are playing in this upcoming Yangon Crusade.” My reply to this leader had to be, “I am sorry. We do not have sufficient funds for even the festival, let alone evangelism and follow up training conferences.
Would you pray with me for the Lord’s provision? As you pray, if the Lord lays a burden upon your heart, would you give to help transform the most influential city of Myanmar with the gospel? Your taxdeductable donation can be sent to:
David Chung Ministries International P.O. Box 4161 Federal Way, WA 98063-4161
We are determined to faithfully carry out our duties before the Lord as we prepare for this unprecedented spiritual harvest in Yangon. Please pray that the churches and churches leaders of Yangon will be united under one purpose which is to build God’s kingdom in Myanmar. Please bind the work of Satan though your prayers also because he comes to steal, kill, and destroy the work of God in Myanmar (John 10:10).
Prayerfully Yours,
David & Kay