a good missions pastor
January 30th, 2007
Well I think we have a good missions pastor in Thomas Tan. He is a very giving person and he surprised our Yangon partner with a photo album of their recent wedding, several A4 enlarged photos, and even picture frames. Pastor John and his wife Rosie, were so happy to receive them.
He takes to Yangon like fish to water. Though his knowledge of Bama language is minute
he was game to use whatever he had with the taxi-driver, hawkers, waiters. I guess thats the best way to acquire a new language: just use it! He said he attended a course on linguistics that taught you how to acquire a new language in the mission field, and it had helped him to learn Pashtu while serving in Pakistan, and now the same principles are applied in Yangon! He bought a Lonely Planet Bama phrase handbook for just $1 (printed in India).!!
He has accumulated quite a good number of local contacts, and uses them to arrange for all the many mission exposure trips we have had to Myanmar. His years in Peshawar has given him a nose for discerning the local pastors and workers. He is cautious about the use of money as it can create an unhealthy dependency among the locals on foreigners. He would rather help sparingly with finance, and seek rather to help them trust God, and also develop self-supporting skills. For instance we buy them a piglet and they rear it to maturity to sell at a profit and buy another or two piglets and so on. Another example is we buy the bible school a candle making machine and they go out with the candles to sell to the residents, befriending them and creating opportunities for sharing the good news too.
We also met a number of individual missionaries and pastors to make arrangements
receive updates and encourage them, and even found time for Terence, a young man our youths bonded well with, as he needed specific encouragement. So we had dinner with him at a cultural show cum dinner buffet near the hotel. He is a young chap with great potential and seeking God’s best. We prayed and entrusted him and his future to the Lord.
Entry Filed under: Heroes
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