Lincoln and Leah have been busy in Newcastle (Australia) over the past 10 days. They’ve been visiting churches and small groups, having lots of lunches and dinners with partners and also having a few days off to relax.
They’ve also had a interview on the Christian radio network Rhema FM. You can listen to that interview here:
Everything is gearing up for the big dinner on Sat 4th May.
If you haven’t RSVP’d, you can do it NOW!
Exciting news!!! Lincoln and Leah are going to visiting Australia in April/May. Wow! HMP is bringing them out to join us in fundraising for a new Christian College campus. This is a fantastic opportunity for you all to meet them (without having to spend thousands of dollars visiting Myanmar!)
They are going to be spending most of their time in Newcastle and Sydney, but if you’d like them to visit your town as well, please let us know.
Whilst they are here, they’ll be visiting churches (why not invite them to yours?), sharing meals with people, learning from us about our culture and teaching us about theirs! They will be giving us a first hand account of what it is like to be a Christian in Myanmar and what the future holds for HMP there.
But the main purpose is to tell us about progress with Vision 2020, and join us for a big fundraising dinner. They are already proceeding with the buildings (read about the plans here) for this project and trusting that God will provide the necessary funds. You are INVITED to come and join them for this unique event. More info about the fundraising dinner is on this page.
Please be praying for their visit, that:
I’m sure you all know about Vision 2020. One major step towards the vision was achieved a few years ago with the purchase of land. The next MASSIVE step is underway now, with the college officially moving to the new location.
But with every big step comes big challenges… The big challenge now is raising enough money to build some decent buildings on the land. It’s possible to build cheap, temporary buildings out of bamboo and thatch, but they don’t last long and of course they offer little protection from weather and noise. Our plan is to build some substantial buildings with brick and concrete, but this requires a lot more money.
So, we need to raise $180,000 for the buildings. Sounds impossible right? (Yep, that’s what we thought…) But our God is a MIGHTY God and if he wants this to happen, then the money will come. Perhaps God is going to use YOU to help provide it! 
To help raise the money for this exciting project, we are going to do something we’ve never done before. We are going to bring Lincoln and Leah to Australia to meet the parteners and tell you about the project! (Stay tuned for more information about their visit.) And while they are here, we will be holding a classy fundraising dinner in Newcastle. Its going to be a great night. Tentative date is 1 May, but we’ll confirm that soon.
Wow! It came and went so quickly, but the Pastors Conference was again a huge success! We sent Greg, a senior pastor from Newcastle Australia, for his second trip to Myanmar. Here’s what he had to say about the conference.
It was an almost overwhelming privilege to spend three days with 110 pastors walking our way through Hebrews.
Over nine sessions, we began at Hebrews 1:1 with God’s speaking in the past through his prophets and then explored the thirteen chapters, seeing the greatness of God’s revelation in Jesus. We aimed to locate the major points of each passage, how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament and then how to preach this passage today. At the end of the conference the pastors had at least ten outline sermons from Hebrews.The enthusiasm of the local pastors for God’s word really was infectious. They wrestled with the trickier passages. They probed and asked questions about how ideas and chapters fitted together. But their greatest desire was to submit to Jesus and then preach Him to Burma.
I had one particularly encouraging conversation over lunch on the last day (a really nice pork dish!). The pastor I was chatting with said that he had always chosen his passage from whatever had struck him in the Bible that week. Now he planned to work his way through a book of the Bible with his church. And he felt equipped to do it!
Overall it was a tremendously encouraging conference. As always I felt more blessed than a blessing!
Now I’m sure you are all wondering about Greg’s commitment to eating dog or rat if the money was raised. Well, we didn’t quite get to the ‘rat’ target, but Greg was true to his word about eating dog! Scroll down to see a quick video of him and his unusual meal.
Again, thank you all for your amazing support in getting the funds together (more than $8000!), for your prayers and for spreading the word about this ministry. This partnership would not work without you!!
Expected costs:
To get Greg there: $2000
For the conference [80 pastors (food/travel/accom), resources, building], faculty training, graduation: $10,000
How to donate:
1. Direct debit to:
BSB: 062831
Account No: 1023 1603
Account Name: Hope Myanmar Partnership Aust. Inc.
Reference: PASTORS CONFERENCE (or something like that)
2. Paypal:
This might be simpler and allows you to use a credit card, but note that PayPal do charge us a few percent in fees.
This will be the 5th annual pastors conference and will follow on from previous years. This year Greg, a pastor from Newcastle, will continue to teach how to apply the principal of biblical theology in studying Hebrews. (Read about last years conference here). Greg will also hold training for our Bible college faculty staff, and will attend the Bible School graduation ceremony.
We are expecting up to 80 people at the conference this year. This will be a fantastic event but we need your support to raise the money required to put it on. Have a look at this video and see above options for how to help financially.
If you can’t see the video, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpvTm1_U6EM
Natural disasters seem to have dominated the news headlines relentlessly for months now. In our age of technology, we are seeing graphic footage and hearing realtime accounts such that we are shocked more than ever before.
It’s only been recently that I’ve come across the term ‘compassion fatigue’. In our context, it is essentially where we grow so accustomed to seeing pain and suffering that we get tired of it and we stop caring and stop giving.
Whilst I’m sure there are legitimate medical explanations for compassion fatigue, I can’t help but see it as yet another outworking of our sinfulness. Most of us are so comfortable in our lives of wealth and achievement that we can’t maintain the strength to keep caring for others who do not have what we have. Our compassion muscle gets tired and so we stop. God have mercy on us sinners!
If anyone had a legitimate right to compassion fatigue, it was Jesus. Fortunately for us, he never stopped caring for us, and eventually gave everything he had for our sakes.
As for us, lets keep working and strengthening our compassion muscle. There are so many needs around the world in which each of us can truly help. Some of them are in the stories.
Also in these stories are a number of wonderful things to thank our God for.
Please, join me in thanks, praise and humble petition to the creator and sustainer of our world.
Ray Palmer
President, HMP Australia
Work has already started on the 3 acres of land purchased by HMP last year.College students and staff have begun clearing trees and building shelters with plans to start a Blossom-style community preschool there to build relationships and trust with the local community. Lincoln is hoping to have the preschool open in June this year and the college moved there in approximately 2 years.Lincoln would like to purchase a further 1.24 acres of adjacent land while it is still available to enable to college to grow rice and vegetables. Unfortunately (and as expected) land prices have risen and, while we thankfully purchased the 3 acres just in time, the extra land will cost a further US$25,000.Please prayerfully consider giving to this project, which will benefit generations in Myanmar.
Just in the last week, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the towns of Tachileik and Tali near the Thai and Laos boarders.
News reports have struggled to find out more but Lincoln told us recently that hundreds of people have died and many are missing.
Leah had friends attending a Bible conference in Tachileik where the church building collapsed, killing them all.
Please join us in prayer for survivors and the families and friends of those who have perished.
Thanks again to those who financially and prayerfully supported this event.
At last year’s conference, pastors were introduced to the concept that the Old Testament points to and is fulfilled in Jesus (Biblical Theology). This year David C, a pastor from Newcastle, taught 65 pastors, evangelists and Sunday school teachers how to apply this in reading Genesis. We had planned to hold the conference in Chin state where many more could have attended, but in frustrating Myanmar style all flights there were cancelled with no notice and we were forced to relocate to Yangon, postponing the conference one week to allow delegates to travel by boat and bus.
Feedback from the conference was positive and David also had the opportunity to challenge views about the role of men and women and what Genesis and Ephesians have to say about relationships.
This year for the first time we also allocated 3 days to teaching the Bible college faculty staff.
David covered the same topics but in greater detail and led workshop-style activities. Some staff reported that it had a great impact on their understanding of Genesis and would change the way they teach it.
HMP plans to include faculty training alongside the Pastors’ Conference each year.
Lincoln and college students were recently involved in teaching at a Youth Bible conference in Kalay, Chin state.Leah and Naomi also lead a women’s conference, teaching about ‘Living a Godly Life’ from Titus.