The KhaiKam Church Project
Editor's Note: This is Kimpi's unedited letter and appeal for your generous support for building a church in KhaiKam
Hello dear brothers and sisters, I am writing this letter to share about a need that came up just in the past week. You might remember that back in summer of 2019 my team and I went to a town called KhaiKam, a town where there was not a bible preaching church, a town filled with different forms of cults and a few Roman Catholics households, it was and is also a town where most of the alcohol drinks in the region were manufactured so needless to say many of the their youth were slaves to alcohol. (I was in the States this past summer and presented to you about my ministries I mentioned a lot of things so you probably will have a hard time to pinpoint which ministry exactly I am talking about so these few pictures from our ministry in KhaiKam by in 2019 might help you recall.)
When summer was coming in 2019 I prayed that the Lord would show me where He wanted me to go, through much prayers He gave me the burden for this place called KhaiKam. We prayed hard and went there, knowing we would be treated unkindly and probably won’t be welcomed if we go there as a mission team so instead we advertised our going as to teach english (which we did) while sharing God's Love through daily one on one evangelism and providing meals.
We stayed there for 10 days teaching english in the morning and doing one on one personal evangelism in the afternoon. We also had a 7 nights open air Gospel presentations services during that period. As expected we came across some oppositions and some disruptions during our time there. Especially during our night services we had youth from the town heckling our meetings and members of the cult leaders there personally and physically pulling their followers out from the crowd to send them home. I remembered asking for security from the local author ity which they promised to give us but never really did but in short God protected us.
After the 10 day period my team and I left but one of my seminary alumni who was with me for much of my mission trips remained behind with his family (a wife and 2 very young daughters) to continue on discipleship and to start a local church there. Throughout the days and months that follow I always kept in touch with him (Pastor Son Thang), with the help I received from you folks I was able to help this pastor a few times example, they did not have running water, they had to go down the river everyday, so I was able to help him dug his backward for water and now not only does his family has enough water he is also able bless his neighbors with water as well! I tried to sent love gifts as often as I can and sometimes even secondhand clothes for his 2 daughters. All this to say that God was providing for them in their needs.
Spiritually God also grew the believers there and their number increased. Although there was no Christians there almost 2 years ago now there are 7 households meeting and worshiping God every Sunday! Praise be to God! They have been meeting every Sunday at Pastor Son's rented place but now they are outgrowing the place and are in need of getting a place of worship themselves. I have been talking to Pastor Son a few times on this matter, I have encouraged them to keep praying and waiting because I believe God will surely provide for this wonderful need! I know in some ways they are expecting me to help financially but as I myself am only at 65% of my support fund there is no way I could help them get place let alone a church building.
In the meantime government there had legally changed some of the farming land/fields to be sold at residential grounds. Each piece is 40ft x60ft and there prices are very reasonable yet they are being raised by the day. The church members see this as their prayers being answered and are really longing to be able to buy a few pieces of land there for the long term church building. When I first heard this news I was overjoyed myself but when the “reasonable” prices were not too reasonable for me, each piece was going for around 5,000USD- 7,000USD. Then something really amazing happened, one of the sellers of those land talked with pastor Son recently and promised that he would be able to give the church 5 pieces of land for just 15,000USD (3,000USD a piece!), which is equivalent to about 20million burmese ky ats. Right away this tiny new church members collected funds among themselves and were able to raise up to 1,000USD. I faith promised them that i would help with another 1,000USD. Yet we are still very far from the goal for 15,000USD. My prayer is that the church would be able to get at least enough fund to deposit a down payment for the land they needed before this coming monsoon season. The reason is many businesses are just buying off these lands left and right and they will resell those plots with a much higher price. So that is why I say this letter to be a very urgent prayer request. I know you have been a faithfully praying and supporting me and that is more than I can ask for. BUT if God is working in your heart to bless this church, the very fruit of my ministry, your ministry, our ministry, mostly God’s sovereign work back in 2019, with any amount of money, I can promise you it will go a long way in the advancement of the Gospel of Christ in the coming years and Lord willing generations and the reward everlasting!
Again thank you so much for your generosity and love for me and my people in Myanmar. God is still very much at work even in the midst of Covid19 truly a testament that even the gates of Hell can not prevail the outgoing of the Gospel to some of the darkest places on earth! All the glory be to our God.
Fellow Servant of Christ,
Kimpi
