The country of Myanmar, unlike many other countries in the world, celebrates the Water Festival April 12-16 every year. I believe the country of Thailand does the same thing. This celebration is all across the country, even in the small villages, but not in the Christian states of Chin, Kachin, Karen, and Shan (some parts). Myanmar has celebrated the Water Festival since the country was formed. They traditionally celebrate the festival by splashing water and throwing powder at each other as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the previous year by the Buddhist god Thigermin, but if they don’t do this, their sins still exist in the human body and will transfer and spread to all, from generation to generation. The way Buddhist people believe is that life is reincarnated, and if they don’t take part in the pouring of the water in celebrating this festival, they are disobeying what their parents say and disobeying the monks also. That means they will not have a good life in the future when they are reincarnated. Instead, curse and purnishment will be upon them and their family and the next generation.
So I watched carefully during this festival and discussed it with two gentlemen in my neighborhood. It was with some doubt that I showed them the Bible and explained a very clear Gospel message about the way to Heaven. They said that this was a very easy way. To which I replied, “Yes, it is so easy; therefore, it is called salvation by grace through faith.” Finally, Brother San Naing (57 years old) received Jesus as his personal Saviour and Lord on April 15, 2018. I thank God for the opportunity to witness to the people. Our church people and the teenage group distributed a lot of Gospel tracts and New Testaments during this Water Festival time. Pray that our great God would touch the hearts of the people who read our Gospel tracts and New Testaments. Amen.
Another story is that our Vacation Bible School program was a fantastic program. We combined our church kids and the kids from our two children’s homes together and held a week of VBS. The children learned about true principles for their lives. We had a good time. I am confident that our VBS lessons of this year on music, moral character and behavior, memorizing Bible verses, and how to make good Christian friends in school and bring them to church were very beneficial to the teachers, who are my coworkers, and the children. I think they learned a lot of spiritual lessons. We are growing in the Lord and want to do more to accomplish the works of the Lord.
All these fruitful ministries are a result of your faithful support and prayers. Please continue to keep us in your prayers here. We keep going on to see souls saved, and we try our best for the cause of the Gospel. Amen.
In His blessed service in the vineyard, yours for His sake,
Dr. Paul T. Lung and Family
