For two millennia, God has been guiding the ministry leadership of the church from one generation to the next. In the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul was accompanied by Silas, and later Timothy joined them. Two of Paul’s Epistles were addressed to “Timothy, my true child in the faith.” One of the crucial principles of church leadership is training young people in the faith to become the next leaders of the church.
When I travel among our pastors, I am thrilled to see that some of the pastors we are supporting now in church planting ministry are the sons, nephews, or young relatives of our pastors who were supported in previous decades.
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I want to share the incredible testimony of one of our newest pastors in Myanmar.
His name is Pastor Lun Htin, and he has a heartwarming story about how God called him into the pastoral ministry. Pastor Lun is the son of Tin Saw, and I remember preaching in Pastor Tin’s church when Lun was just a boy. The Church that Pastor Tin started with the support of White Fields is now self-sustaining and a strong, established church with a significant outreach ministry.
Pastor Lun shared that his father always taught him and his siblings about God, and as a result, he came to faith in Jesus Christ at a young age. Growing up, he helped his father with church planting ministry, further strengthening his faith. Eventually, he graduated from high school and attended Bible College.
Myanmar is in a civil war, and the military will often arrest any young men who are not military members, assuming they are participants with the rebels. As a result, Lun was arrested and held in jail for two weeks, tortured to get information about the rebels. Eventually, the military gave up and realized he was not participating with the rebel forces, releasing him.
During his imprisonment, God touched Lun’s heart and convinced him that many people in his country had not received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Although he was trained as a pastor, he had not utilized his abilities. While he reflected on this in jail, he decided to become a pastor and spread the gospel. Now, he is supported by White Fields to reach a mountain village in the hills of Chin State, where three families have already come to faith in Jesus. There are still seventy more families in need of the gospel.
Pastor Solomon is the pastor closest to Pastor Lun’s village.
He is also the son of a White Fields church planter who was previously supported. Solomon’s father, Pastor Tha Khup, planted two churches with White Fields’ support. Pastor Solomon actively trains his youth group to conduct evangelistic campaigns by sharing tracts from house to house. He also takes his youth to help Pastor Lun with gospel visitation in his village. Through the ministry of these two young men, God is bringing many people to faith in Jesus Christ.
In Uganda, Pastor Onesimus, our Field Director, is training his nephew, Pastor Bryan, to establish a church in Kikarara, a poverty-stricken village. When we first reached out to the village, the inhabitants were starving due to a drought-induced famine. No one was providing any aid. Our Rukungiri churches extended a helping hand, and through donations from White Fields partners, we provided the villagers with maize and beans while sharing the gospel with them. As a result, two essential churches have been created in the area. The region is remote and extremely challenging to access and minister. The construction of a permanent small duplex for the young pastors to live in convinced the people that they would remain faithful and stay in the village.
You can help these churches in a particular way.
All of them need some building enhancements. Pastor Lun and his family need to build a house where they can live. It would be a small wood shack like the other houses in his village. The cost is only about $5,000. We have already bought a small property in the village. The villagers will call this a “Christian House” because it will also be where the church gathers.
White Fields assisted Pastor Solomon in building a home for his family and a church for their congregation in the town where he resides. They now require a ceiling installed in the room where the church meets, ensuring a secure and enclosed meeting space.
The church members in Kikarara gathered wood to build a temporary structure, but termites and water are destroying the wood. Your donations can help us construct a permanent structure with concrete beams to support a metal roof. The church members have already started making clay bricks to fill in the walls between the beams. Your partnership tremendously encourages these young pastors as they continue to fulfill their ministry for the next generation.
