Leah has been incredibly busy since returning to Myanmar from Australia. She has been visiting Chaing Mai in Thailand to provide training and see her children who are studying there, providing training in Yangon and Mandalay and upgrading Blossom Preschool. Below are some excerpts from her recent emails:
Blossom
We have 27 students for Blossom this year and it has been very exciting for me to share all the new ideas I learnt from my trip in Australia! I’ve shared it among my co-workers and teachers. We’ve divided the children into 2 different groups and have been able to set up learning corners according to their age. I am very happy and grateful to have had experience of these from Australia… We also have been able to renovate (our premises).
Training in Mandalay
I also went to Mandalay to give training from July 19th-22nd along with my daughters Lydia and Ruth. The training “Simply telling the Bible story”, was about trying to make the bible into an easier language story-form because a lot of them were pure Burmese newly Christians. They have a very hard time understanding the bible when they read it. However, this training helps them to be encouraged in their Christian life and the Bible by simply making it easier for them to understand the true meaning.
One of our former RBI students, Henry travels to Dala,which is on the other side of Yangon to help with a Bible study every Wednesday. He also leads a Children’s Bible lesson on Saturdays.
Training in Chaing Mai, Thailand
In June I provided 10 days of training for 19 people at Grace Church in Chaingmai. It was amazing how God used me to help others. All the prayers have definitely helped and also have blessed me to bless others. God gave me the opportunity to meet up with the Burmese (mainly Kachin) people here in Chiangmai and I was very encouraged by them as well. We had all our trainees from 7 different churches. Most of them are Kachin, lahhu, akha, Burmese and lisu.There were 3 courses to the training, and I taught the first course for nearly 2 weeks. This part was about child psychology, child development and observation and the importance of (child centred) learning corners. We would always start our training with morning devotions everyday. One Sunday I preached on Matthew 1-42 at 3 services. It was Children’s Day and I felt like God really used me to encourage all the people, especially the parents. I also got encouraged from it.Radio RFA also interviewed me about my training and I got to share about Hope Myanmar Partnership.One of the churches in Chaing Mai that I gave training to will also be starting a child care program in September. It will be beneficial for the mothers since they can leave their children at the center and go out to work. I am still helping them set up the place and get it done by September. There are also a lot of Myanmar workers here in Chiangmai at a Construction site near Payap University (Mary’s Uni). I met up with one of the Burmese Pastors and went to the site and shared about the Gospel. God touched four of the worker’s lives and they decided to be baptized tomorrow and commit themselves to God. PRAISE GOD!!
Mother-Daughter Time
We got to attend our daughter Ruth’s school gradation while in Chaing Mai in June. I am glad Ruth was able to live at one of the senior pastor’s houses there. Mary also had to have her appendix out and then commence her mid-term university exams immediately after discharge. It was a very stressful week but she is doing well now.
