’ MAY/JUNE 2017 IAN JOHNSON UPDATE Christ is Risen! Hallelujah! And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Romans 8:11 Thank you for your prayers and acts of kindness. *Ian's cranium replacement surgery went very well although he was swollen for about 10 days. *Ian started back to school on Holy Wednesday, April 12. He is taking Spanish and History. *Formal rehab is done on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Shawnee, Oklahoma. *Informal rehab is done everyday - Mom does speech and Dad does physical conditioning. *Ian enjoys his youth group and going to the movies with his friends. Please continue to pray for Ian's right eye which was damaged when he fell onto a tractor. Please pray for Ian's left side - shoulder, elbow and hand that he continues to engage them. He will graduate with his 8th grade class and is scheduled to go to High School in August. Most of the summer will be spent on rehab and skill development. Thank you again for your gracious support. Grace and peace In Christ, Dr. Jeff Johnson PROJECT BARNABAS UPDATE Just an update on the Project Barnabas container that is in route to Burundi. It left Indianapolis, Indiana on March 16. It arrived in New York on March 21 and departed on March 25. It arrived in Salalah, Oman on April 13 and departed on April 24. It’s estimated arrival date in Tanzania is May 11. It will then travel approximately 400 miles to Burundi. We’ll continue to keep you updated until the container has arrived. Please continue praying for it’s voyage. MYANMAR’ UPDATES Dear Faithful prayers friends of Myanmar, Greetings from Myanmar. I would like to express our thanks to you for your prayers especially for our annual meeting as I requested last week. We flew about two hours to Kalamyo, which is on the western side of Myanmar from Yangon on March 8. The next day, we drove about twelve hours to Hakha, the capital of Chin State (120 miles) where we had our annual meeting. The annual meeting started on March 10th with about 50 people, including pastors, and lay leaders/church delegates. Our meeting went smoothly and we were encouraged by the pastors’ work reports. We are very excited to move forward with the strategic plan for the Myanmar ministry. We pledged to have at least five church plants each year. On Saturday we had the ordination service and leaders training and encouragement by Unau (brother) Eric and Don. Pastor Carol brought the message on Sunday. Our people were so happy and received blessings through their teaching and encouragement. Although we faced three days of unseasonal rain and cold, we warmed up during the meeting and training and activities of annual conference because they were so exciting. Everyone sits around a little charcoal burner to Unau Eric was checking to see if he wanted to ride keep warm in Pa Kep’s mother’s house. on top like the locals. ’ One of the stops for road “The long and winding road”. construction. We returnd to Kalamyo on March 13 with another 12+ hour drive. We flew back to Yangon. Don, Kathy, Eric and Virginia left the next day to go to Cambodia for the annual meeting. Pastor Carol will return to the States on March 20. We are thankful that she took the English minutes of the annual meeting for us again. Thank you so much again for your love and your faithful prayers for us. Praise points: 1) Praise the Lord that our annual meeting went smoothly. 2) Praise the Lord for the faithful missionaries God have provide us in Myanmar like Eric and Virginia Spangler, Don and Kathy Williams and Carol Stickney, our first full-time missionary. 3) Praise the Lord for the dedicated pastors and faithful lay leaders of Myanmar FMC and ministries—church plants, Bible college, boarding School and Children’s ministry and water projects, etc. 4) Praise the Lord for God providing faithful prayer friends like you. Prayer points: 1) Please pray for the FM Missionaries to Myanmar and around the world. 2) Please pray for the Leaders and FMC in Myanmar and around the world. 3) Please pray for Myanmar FM ministry budget (CPD—Church Planting and Development and EMP—Extra Mile Project), that more people will become involved in the Myanmar ministry with their prayers and their giving. 4) Please pray for the new Church plants in Myanmar. Thank you so much for your love and your support. Pa Kep ’ Bible College Boarding School - High School students New ministry in Shan State MYANMAR’ Dear Friends and Family, Let me tell you about the wonderful people I met on my trip to Shan State in February. We visited Lashio and met with the pastor and the convert, Su Pine, I told you about in the last letter. Pastor Sai practices “life style” discipleship. Su Pine went with us to visit another village where a young many, Naw Kham, age 24, is evangelizing his neighborhood (his family was all Buddhist and he was the last to accept the Lord) and wants to work with Pastor Sai to plant another church. We also met with Pastor David (Davud in Shan) who has a Shan Bible College. One of his students is a woman who is about 40. “Nancy” (that’s what her name sounds like to me) comes from another village where the people are both Buddhist and animist. They all refuse to listen to an evangelist who visited. However, Nancy was sick and could not work. The evangelist prayed for her and she was healed and she asked Jesus to be her Savior. She was kicked out of her village and went to Lashio and joined the Bible College. Now she feels that God wants her to go back to her village and tell them about her God and His love. Please pray for “Nancy” and her future ministry. Mahphyo is one of “In Better Hands” house mothers. She is expecting her first biological child, but it is easy to see that she and her husband, Thent Zaw Moe, love all of their children with God’s love and are dedicated to raising the children to know Jesus, as are all the house parents. Her husband is an evangelist. In Kyaing Tung, I met with the core members of Pastor Stephen’s church. I asked you to pray for him in my last letter. Because they have been renting places to have church, they have had to move many times when the Buddhist neighbors complained about their singing and praying during their worship services. Because of this, many of their congregation have started attending other churches that have a permanent building near to them. In the process, they have also lost several people who have good jobs and were faithful tithers. Their main prayer request is that they can buy land to build their own building. Because it is in the city, one lot is equivalent to $30,000. Please pray with them for God’s resources. In Tachileik, Pastor Pa Kep, Pastor Stephen, and a man who has a desire to go to a closed country nearby met with one of our FM missionaries living in Thailand who is a native of that country, but was kicked out and can no longer enter because of his efforts to tell his countrymen about Jesus. This Shan (Akha) man is also praying for resources, prayer and financial, to reach the lost people in that country. Will you please join us in praying for this effort. And finally, we met with two young men, Rah Mo and David, who have a desire to start FM churches, on in Tachileik and one in the surrounding area. Matthew 9:37-38 says, “Then He said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” - the scriptures say the workers are few, however here in Myanmar, I am seeing such a strong desire to share the gospel with other but not the resources to do it. In our country, our resources are plentiful. If you want to be part of these works, please pray about becoming part of the missionary team to “extend the kingdom of God” in Myanmar by becoming the “resource” in the partnership to win the lost to Christ. Because of Jesus, Carol MYANMAR’ Su Pine Pastor Sai Naw Kham Mahphyo Pastor Stephen (far left) and his core group. Nancy Rah Mo Pastor Davud, the principal of the Shan State Bible College, wants to partner with us for church planter training and to join our David denomination. Bringing a word of encouragement at the Shan Bible College. Hearts for Laos HISTORICAL’ Decision to Discipleship Decision to Discipleship Training Manual and Student Manual were under copyright and published by Light and Life Men International in 1977 and now available under license from Men’s Ministries International. It is a year-long experience in learning and practicing the life seen in Jesus Christ. Its six eight- week phases are designed to help you develop a Dynamic Christian Lifestyle. Read them here: http://fmcusa.org/historical/files/2016/06/Decision-to-Discipleship-Training-Manualpdf2.pdf http://fmcusa.org/historical/files/2017/02/Decision-to-Discipleship-Student-Manual3.pdf Timothy Lessons were designed by the former Department of Evangelism to help the caring church establish new beginners in the faith.