Christians Show Unconditional Compassion

October 12, 2017 Churches Rebuild After Devastating Flood (Myanmar)
unconditional compassion

Many people in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar still live with many “tribal” culture traditions and divisions. And even in a tragedy like the Myanmar flooding of 2015, these divisions manifest themselves.

Many Christians Navigate Cultural Challenges

During that time we saw Buddhists in Myanmar often only helping other Buddhists. In traditional culture, this would mean Christians would be expected to only help other Christians… but we saw some Christians act differently.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

The flooding of 2015 proved to be an excellent time for some Christians in Myanmar to stand out in their culture as they gave unconditional compassion and help to everyone in need, even those outside their religion or cultural group.

Pastor Tsang, the leader of the church we’re calling “New Church Plant,” personally led the charge in giving to all as they had need. And it had a tremendous effect on some bystanders, he said.

We helped everyone in their village even though that spread the resources thin. It softened some people’s hearts toward the gospel, and others it did not, but either way the people in the village knew that the help was an expression of Christ’s love for them.

Expressing the Unconditional Compassion of Christ

Beyond the immediate physical relief, this particular church in Myanmar also reached out to the community in different ways following the Myanmar flooding. He and his wife also provided daycare (pictured above) for the children of families while the parents rebuilt their homes and agricultural livelihoods after the floods.

 

Here is a video of the kids singing a song about Jesus together! All but two of these children come from either Muslim or Buddhist homes. Praise God the kids were able to hear the gospel and learn a song of praise to the one true God!

Today, Pastor Tsang’s church has stepped out in faith and already built the foundation for the new church building. And they are trusting that God will provide the funding to finish the building, furnish it, and help them develop an agricultural initiative that will lead this church to be self-sustaining in the future.


About Churches Rebuild After Devastating Flood

In July 2015, there was a record rainfall during the annual monsoon in Myanmar (formerly Burma) that resulted in major floods that devastated much of the northwestern part of the country. Whole villages were washed away while others were leveled by landslides. Complicating the restoration of communities, the agricultural economy of the region was devastated in a country that is already one of the poorest in the world. The Evangelical Baptist Conference (EBC), a fellowship of churches in Myanmar, was one of the ones affected.

As part of the EBC's ongoing development and rebuilding effort, Live Global, in partnership with The Kaifa Group, has identified three churches that have rather unique circumstances and particular needs for the construction of new church buildings.

Two of these church building projects are in villages that have been relocated by the government. The displaced farmers in these villages have struggled to establish new livlihoods that would enable them to rebuild their churches. The third church building project is a 3-year-old church plant established by a Myanmar national missionary who is supported by EBC. The church has taken root follwoing the relief work that was done in a village that previously had no gospel witness.

While this overall project seeks to complete the construction of a church building in each of these three villages before the next monsoon season, the project also seeks to address the respective development needs so that these three congregations can become self-sustaining and continue to thrive and grow without reliance on continued foreign funding.