Grab the opportunity before it becomes materially sophisticated.
MM is poor materially, but is rich spiritually.MM has lots of problems, but is full of undeniable potential for mission.
Grab the opportunity to build churches in MM!
Since MM opened to the world in 1996, the whole country has improved and changed slowly to the better. However, MM is improving slowly economically and is comparatively closed to the world. Since MM Christians lack material comforts, many of them focus on seeking to be satisfied spiritually. Many Christians are willing to serve the Lord. They are willing to even risk that they might not have any income if they do so.Due to climatic changes, many Chin Christians, who live in the northwest of MM, find it difficult to survive in their home hill areas by farming. They cannot find jobs there either. Many decide to go to other places to make their living. As they go, they share the gospel. As a result, they spread the good news to other parts of their country. Chin Christians are poor today; they cannot do overseas missions, but they have the potential to be cross-cultural missionaries.I reckon we should help MM people with material needs, education and church training during this transition time so that they can train leaders. I believe the training for church leaders will give MM and the world some hardy and knowledgeable leaders for worldwide missions in the future. We cannot wait and do nothing. MM is changing very slowly, but she will continue to change. If we invest our resources to train God's people for His kingdom in MM, we will have well-trained people of God in the future. We need to hurry up and grab the opportunity today; we have to support the church work there before MM becomes materially sophisticated. If we do not do so, I believe MM Christians will be taken care of by God, they will have other support for their vision and ministry, but we (Free Methodist Churches) will have missed the opportunity to be involved in building the MM church.
Some observations and understanding about MM
Inflation: the price for daily living expenses rises rapidly
The price for daily expenses rises 30-50% each year according to the travel book on MM published by Lonely Planet in 2002. The best place to check out the prices is the street coffee shop. If it was 40 kyats (MM currency), it will be 50 kyats in 2002, and it will be 70 kyats in 2004.In reality, prices may be going up more rapidly than what is mentioned in the book. A bowl of rice noodles was 300 kyats in October 2001, and it has become 800 kyats in April 2003. According to the price of the rice noodles, inflation is 63% each year. The price of daily expenses rises rapidly, but the traveling expenses have become lower down. This is due to competition between different travel agencies.
Teacher's salary and extra income
A teacher's regular salary for teaching in school is not sufficient for survival. They also have to offer tutoring after school. And the tuition fee for this is their major income. MM students can learn very little by attending regular school hours, and they have to pay the extra tuition fee in order to learn what they need to know for exams. Poor students, of course, cannot afford to take the extra classes.
E-mail
Worldwide Internet access is not available in MM at this point, but e-mail is available. However, it is quite a hassle to send and receive e-mail. When our main coordinator in Capital is going to send an e-mail, he needs to take a 1-1/2 hour bus ride to a computer shop in town. It costs him 600 kyats to rent a computer to write his letters. After he has finished the letters, he will spend another 400 kyats to send his e-mail. When he receives e-mail, the shop calls to tell him. Then he will take another 1-1/2 hour bus ride to get his messages.Burmese script and Chinese script for computers are not available in MM at this point.
Limited withdrawal from banks
In the past few months, people are allowed to withdraw only 100,000 kyats from the bank in any two week period. It is not difficult to reason that it is useless to keep the money in the bank. The limited withdrawal amount has raised the value of the kyats. When I had just arrived, one US dollar was worth 900 kyats, but it had fallen to 890 kyats by the time I left.
Restricted usage of houses
Houses must be used according to their designated usage. Religious meetings can be held in a house if it is registered for religious purposes. The meeting place for our Chinese church in Capital is not registered for religious purposes, so they are not supposed to have meetings there. However, they have reported to the head of that area, so they have unofficial permission for having meetings as long as they don't make a lot of noise and disturb the neighbors. The Chinese congregation shuts all the doors and windows when they meet.
Allocation of Chin pastors
The Chin Free Methodist churches are located in remote areas. When they come to Hakha, the capital city of Chin State and where the Free Methodist headquarters is, they have to hike for two to three days to Htantlang and take a bus to Hakha from there. The churches are half day hike apart. When they need to send messages to the churches, they need a person to take the message and hike to another church. The superintendent will need one to two months to visit all the churches, hiking from one church to the other.
Provision for ministers
When pastors don't get enough salary to cover their living expenses, they need to farm in order to get food. Christian do try their best to provide their pastor with food, but they themselves barely have enough for their own living. Chin people practice ¡§slash and burn¡¨ farming: they burn the fields after harvesting and change to another place for planting. The climate has been very unreliable. It rains when the field is going to be burned, and it does not rain when seeds are going to be planted. At times, they managed to plant the crops, but they can not get a good harvest because it rains at the wrong time. As a result, farmers cannot get enough food for their own consumption, not to mention to providing for the ministers' needs. Chin people suffer food shortages, and they cannot find jobs in their own state.Over 90% of the MM churches get support from outside the country, only a few denominations get support locally. Many mission organizations and churches have been very generous for the needs in MM. Some missions give a monthly salary which is 5 times more than what Chin Free Methodists get. Some pastors have asked the superintendent why they get so little for their salary. The superintendent replied that we ought to thank the Taiwan Annual Conference for whatever amount we get.
Kindergarten
Capital Chin Church has started a kindergarten for the community in February 2003. They have 22 children and 4 teachers. The children are Chin and Burmese ethnically. The teachers teach the children basic Burmese, Chin and English, as well as Christianity. This ministry has served the purpose to reach Burmese, who are usually Buddhists. The children are from poor families, they only have to pay 500 kyats for all the expenses each month. I don't know the details about how they get funds for running the childcare program; however, I know at least one teacher is doing it as a volunteer job. He worked in Malaysia for five years and had some money. He plans to return to work in Malaysia when he is running out of money again.
Theological training
The Chin seminary teaches in English. I was surprised that some seminary graduates are not very competent in conversing in English. I was wondering how much they can get from the course work conducted in English. I personally think it is better to use Chin to teach in the seminary. It is not a problem to use English books, but the subjects need to be explained in the language which they can understand the best.
License for Ministers
Every Chin minister has a license. It is given by the Chin Free Methodist Committee. When a person applies to be a minister in the Free Methodist Church, the application is reviewed by the committee. Once the application is approved, the person is given the license. And his/her personal information will be filed in the office. Whenever something happens to them, the police will have to contact the Free Methodist Church for their information. The license serves for the protection of the pastors. The major requirement for accepting ministers into the Chin Free Methodist Church is a desire to serve the Lord and faithfulness in past serving experience. The Chin Free Methodist Church will help the accepted ministers to get theological training.
Their needs
Training is needed for Chin pastors to train other Chin pastors. The educational background of the Chin pastors varies a lot. Some have many years of education, some did not have much opportunity for education.
Education Ministry
The kindergarten in Capital is a good way to reach out to people but the kindergarten needs financial support for the salary of the teachers. It will help to develop young people in the church to provide scholarships for university and high school students.
Income-generating programs
Many international organization are providing training and financial aid for income-generating projects. We could seek their advice on helping Chin people to have such programs. If it is possible, training for income-generating programs can be organized. Also we should provide initial funds for beginning the programs to help the Chin women to start some small businesses. They can raise domestic animals, such as chickens, pigs or cows.
Bible Translation and Literature publication
The Chin people have a Bible now, but the number of copies are far less than the number of Chin Christians. Chin believers cannot get Bibles even if they have the money to purchase one. Besides the shortage of Bibles, some Chin pastors and believers reckon they need another translation. We could find a publishing channel for Chin books.
(Grace Chou is a pastor of the Taiwan Free Methodist Church. Six years ago she was sent as a missionary to do Bible translation work with the Wycliffe Bible Translators.)
Long-term missionaries to MM
Wanted
If you are interested, please contact the Executive Director of APFMMA Rev. Polly Ho at
Creative Access Country MM
