The HMP Australia committee are thankful to the Lord for the generosity shown to the Myanmar people by you. This post has more details on the areas affected by the recent floods.  We thankyou for your prayers and support.

In Lincolns and Leah’s trip to Chin state after the floods, they sent back this report on the damage the farms in the area and the ongoing challenges to the people living there.

“‘ Many acres of the paddy fields have also been absolutely washed away by the flood, leaving only the dry barren and sand-filled fields. People who work on the fields usually take the harvest from one year to save for the next. All the reserve saved from the previous harvest has been consumed, there will be no harvest at all this year. Land remediation is required enable future harvests.

There was already the problem of poverty and lack of entrepreneurships in Chin state even before the flood. Due to the natural disaster and ruined farms, the residents have lost many of their sources of income. The flow of money in and out of the area is very little to none; this causes a major blow to the economics of the state. There needs to be an intervention to help reboot the economy of this place and to start the business regrowth.

Some churches believe that this disaster could be God’s judgment on people and many people would gather in huge crowds in a prayer service to ask God for forgiveness. Yet there are still the many who believes that God is taking care of them despite this being the worst natural disaster in Chin history. As we had the opportunity to sit and share with them, we shared and encouraged them that this is neither a judgment from God nor God forgetting them but rather, a transition for a new beginning in this land. We encouraged them that this will bring new perspective into a more meaningful relationship with our Creator ”   Lincoln Bill

Please pray

• For wisdom and assistance from an agriculture professional to remediate land to enable future harvests.
• A way forward to  improve the economy in the Chin State
• That people of Myamar will place their trust in Jesus.  That they would  have know and understand love he cares for them.

Many Thanks

HMP Committee

Lincoln and Leah and the HMP Australia committee are thankful to the Lord for the generosity shown to the Myanmar people by you, with your prayers and support.   The generous donations were  used to purchase food aid in the form of rice and oil.

Details on how  food has been distributed in given in an update from Lincoln below.

We donated rice bags and packages of cooking oil to four villages in Kalay Township, Sagaing Division. We were able to give them a total of 50 bags of rice and 20 packs (a dozen each) of cooking oil.  Three of these villages suffered severe damage to their paddy fields, our team chose the households who suffered the damage and distributed the food accordingly. The remaining village is an official Buddhist village consisting with a total of only 3 Christian households among more than 60 Buddhist households. The Christian families did not receive any help or the relief donations, so we focused on donating the goods to them in that village.

These two ladies pictured above are showing us what they have left to eat. There is nothing left for harvest

One morning we met up with those 3 households at a teashop to ask about their situation. They told us their stories of how even before there was a flood, they were being discriminated by neighbors. Till today, even with various flood relief teams, donors and government aids, they are still not receiving any help or form of relief from them. They have been praying for help for weeks and so when we met them, we provided them with rice bags and packs of cooking oil. They are close with us in prayers in our hearts and we hope to visit them again.

Kalay city. In the right, is Kalay city with more than 400,000 inhabitants and the left is paddy fields destroyed by landslide and flood 

Our third segment of the trip we travelled up to Falam and Hakha cities in Chin State. The trip to Falam from Kalaymyo is usually a 5 hour trip north , however due to landslides and demolished roads, we took an the detour took us a long 8 hour car ride to Falam.

The Ngawn Area, located in Falam Township, has 7 smaller villages and we donated 100 bags of rice and 30 packs of cooking oil in this area.  The residents of this area still face great danger in the possible collapsing of their houses with another heavy rainfall and major landslides. Some residents are now waiting on the permit from the government for them to move their village to another location. This Ngawn Area suffered damage to their small hydroelectric plant,  corn and potato plantations, destruction of a number of their water resources and severe damaged roads and bridges.

Falam is not considered a State of Emergency so flood relief teams and help were not sent there.   Many people from these areas face severe shortages of basic necessities like water and food “

Praise God that through donations that through donations of food packages the immediate needs for food were provided.  Please pray that Farms can be prepared for future harvests

Many Thanks and Blessings

HMP Committee

Our senior bible school staff received a technology boost when they were given iPads at the start of this term. These new tablet computers are extremely portable and are not susceptible to power failures like their old desktop computers.

Those of us with iPads will know that the opportunities with such devices are limitless, with an abundance of apps available, such as bibles, e-books, organisational software, teaching software and much more. What is also helpful is the increasing availability of the internet in Myanmar. There are more internet hotspots becoming available and mobile internet is becoming quite cost effective (though the speeds are still very slow). This will also hopefully provide an easier flow of news between Myanmar and overseas supporters!

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.

It has been a very fast 5 weeks in Australia!

Lincoln and Leah have been able to do so much there, they have learned a lot and have been extremely encouraged.

Here are some highlights:

• Visited Brisbane to catch up with long term friends, as well as an extended family member
• Visited 4 church congregations in Newcastle and 1 in Sydney
• Participated in elders and staff meetings at two churches in Newcastle
• Attended the HMP Australia AGM
• Visited bible colleges in Sydney: Moore College and SMBC
• Visited Melbourne to fellowship and encourage a Chin church there
• Visited Adelaide to fellowship and encourage a Chin church there.
• A 2 night ‘holiday’ at Port Stephens (their first holiday ever with just the two of them!)
• Kayaking on the Hawkesbury River
• A 30 minute flight lesson in a Cessna 152 (Lincoln’s childhood dream!)
• Lots of fellowshipping with partners and friends

And here are some photos…

The building work is underway!

So far, we have committed to building the first 2-storey building – that’s the main octagonal one in the middle – as well as the dormitories and kitchen/dining buildings. Once we have raised a bit more, we can build the other two 2-storey buildings.

The project budget is $200,000. Thanks be to God, we’ve raised around $121,000 already. Please pray that we’d be able to raise the remaining funds so that the buildings can be built before the construction costs go up too much.

Have a look at the model, plans and progress photos below. It’s progressing quickly!!

7th May:

17 May: