School/Church Planting/Bible Institute
This part of the ministry draws from each of the three facets of our vision: Churches/Bible Schools, Publications, Radio.
We are so excited because God has prepared us for this teaching and preaching ministry. My wife and I both have teaching experience. I have had teaching experience as a professor, a Dean at the Crown College of the Bible and taught courses on Bible all over the country of Burma and in the US. We pray that God will use us. He doesn’t need our experience but we lay it at His feet and ask Him what He would have us do with what He has given us.
Teaching: Bible Schools/Church Planting/Ministry
PART 1: New Hope Children’s Foundation
We have finished all the legal documents and waiting for the final approval from the Thai Government for our Thai Charitable Children’s foundation called “New Hope Children’s Foundation”. God willing, it will be approved sometime this year. If not we go to plan B. So far it looks hopeful. We have passed all our visits and giving additional supporting material.
New Hope will have two ministries in Mae Sot Thailand under it near the Dan Singkhon border crossing with Burma and the fishing town of Khlong Won, which is about 2 hours South of Hua Hin Thailand. In Mae Sot will be “Hope Care Centre”, which is already in operation taking care of handicapped Burmese refugees children. The poor parents of these rejected children haven’t the time or money or expertise to take care of these children. We offer 24 hour care right now for 3 children and with hopes to help many more. The second in Mae Sot is “Charity Children’s Ministry” run by two missionaries associated with FBMI.
The third ministry which will be eventually under this foundation is New Hope Ministries the south. This will be a English/Bible teaching ministry in which we plan to teach the Burmese underclass adults English through the Bible. The English skills are in high demand. We will also offer day school for children teaching a number of skills, with a focus on biblical training. And in the summer, we plan to hold summer programs for teens. The town of Khlong Won is rife with drug addiction and teens need the Saviour to deal with these worldly temptations.
- BUILDING TRUST (James 1:27, Deu 6:7, Isa 54:13) Christ always took care of physical needs through healing (Matthew 11:4-5) and feeding (Matthew 14:16-21). But it was for the goal of feeding the spirit (John 6:35, John 4:10). From the Old to the New Testament, the Lord has set our task before, to take care of the widow and fatherless (Deuteronomy 24:19, James 1:27), especially our own brethren (Matthew 25: 35-46, 1 John 3:17). And Jesus had a special love for the young, the vulnerable (Matthew 18:4-6, 19:13-14).
- We have brought in 1,500 articles of clothing to the Prachuap Khiri Khan/Dan Singkhon location in the South, kindly donated by churches in the US and the ministry “Sewing for Souls”. This will help us to gain the trust of the locals in that area as there is no church, missionary or Christian presence within around 2 hours drive from there. Life for the poor Burmese and their children there on the border is difficult.
- SCHOOL: We have looked at a number of sites to rent to teach English through the Bible in separate classes for adults and for children. The goal is for this to develop into a full fledged school with a church on the grounds catering to the children, their families and anyone else who would attend. The country is ridden with idolatry and cults. In 2 Timothy 2:2 Paul directs us “and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” Our goal is to find and train faithful men to love their people and guide them in the Christian life. God willing, we will train them and then send to to train others.
For legal reasons we could not yet include the southern ministry as of yet on New Hope. But you can visit our new, under construction, bi-lingual website by clicking:
NEW HOPE CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION WEBSITE
Part 3: Training Teachers
Currently we have two projects related to this. First of all, we plan on partnering with our own radio and publications ministries, to develop courses to teach the precious doctrines of our faith. It is incredible how quickly false doctrines are spreading among Burmese Christians, even Baptists. Prosperity preaching, female pastors, contemporary charismatics, mormonism, jehovah’s witnesses. We are now completing the first course on The Deity of Christ. This is essential to shore up the faith so that they will “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints”.
We are currently mentoring a wonderful, godly Burmese pastor, who is working with our radio ministry. In fact, in return for the work he is doing for our radio ministry, we were able to get him a scholarship to a top Independent Baptist seminary in the United States to finish his online Masters of Ministry. In Burma, credentials are everything. We are praying that he will continue in the battle for fundamentalism in Burma and among the Burmese diaspora and be a powerful voice for truth.
We are also praying about where and how we will set up a Pastor college, to train the next generation of pastors in Burma. We envision teaching pastor training modules twice a year for week long modules with courses covering subjects such as:
1. Cults and False Doctrines
2. The Doctrines of Our Faith
3. The Diety of Christ
4. The Trinity
5. Church Planting
6. Church Administration
7. Old and New Testament Survey
8. Living the Christian Life