I want to share with you a report in today from our one of our Valiant Warriors who is serving with M300 Ministries in Myanmar (Burma). This is his first report about a recent incident where he was thrown in jail for three days and beaten repeatedly. In his own words you will find how God made brother him fruitful in the land of his suffering. (According to his instructions we are using his first name only)

July 2010

Dear Faithful Praying M300 Ministries,

Greetings from the land of Myanmar!  It is our prayer that you all are in good health and enjoying the Lord’s blessings.  Thank you so much for your faithfulness in keeping us in your prayers and for your kindness in supporting us.  We are generally in good health and are very thankful that we are able to keep on in the ministry the Lord has entrusted to us here in Myanmar.

 Please allow me to share with you my experience in the ministry so that you can pray for us more effectively. I recently traveled to a province to visit one of my preachers who has been used mightily by the Lord to share the Gospel as a result one Church had been born in that province through our ministry. He has faithfully and without wavering of faith witnessed to the people. Lives are changing and believers are being edified and new believers have been added to the Church daily. The harvest is truly plentiful.

While visiting my preacher there I had been encountering with the attack of Satan greatly. I bought some hymn books and Burmese Bibles with me in my backpack for our Church in that province. But at one checkpoint the police began looking at my backpack and saw those song books and and Bibles. They kept asking me "Why did I bring those books with me?" I just told them, "They are for the use for our Church in this province and that I had bought them". They told me that it is illegal to bring those books into this place saying, "So you better throw these things away or else you won't be allowed to pass through this gate". So I kept not turning back but I kept moving forward with those books in my backpack until I reached the Church.

The leader of the police for this area told me, "Unless you leave or unless those books are thrown away you cannot pass through this gate with these Bibles". I told to the police, "Until you let me pass I will stay here".  And then another police came to me and said,  "You better go away before I arrest you". I said, "No! I won't go away!"

Then finally they arrested me when I preached the Gospel to the police station. I was put in jail for three days. I was beaten very strongly on three different occasions on my rear on the first day I enter inside the jail.

The pain was so much that I still can't even sit properly with this pain. But I am still happy and contented with my cup which is runneth over and which is much superior than theirs.

The Lord had been so good to me in giving me much more grace, which enabling and giving me such encouragement to communicate the jailers with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Before I entered inside the jail I was also able to share the Gospel to three soldiers on guard at that gate. This was possible because I was there waiting for four hours, staying in that place.

Praise the Lord, Five jailers responded very well and got saved by the preaching of the Gospel which made me such a special blessing. Although I was with so much pain in jail. At times we never fully understand or fully know God's will in our lives.  In the details we keep wondering, "Why it happened such thing like this?" We have a lot of questions until we really understand what God's will really is! God's will for my life in that moment is just to stay there for three days and to preach the good news of salvation to the jailers and as a result five souls got saved. If I were not there, no one on this planet would be able to go there and preach the gospel so that these five jailers would hear the message and be saved. That's what God planned in my life! God has a greater plan than we can imagine! Let us keep proclaiming God's greatest commandment(Matt 28:18-20). Let us remain faithful.   

Thank you so much for all you do to help us be able to continue serving the Lord as we serve the poor Burmese people.  We are so blessed for your trust in allowing us to be your representatives here in Myanmar.  We pray that the Lord will continue to bless you and enlarge you to be His channels of blessings to many more people. Please keep praying for us and the ministry and continue to financially support us. If it were not for your brotherly kindness...it is possible that we would actually starve.

Yours for Burmese souls,

Thaung and Family
 
We pray that brother Thuang will be made twice as fruitful in his land of suffering. We pray that those who serve with him and those who serve with us in these hardest to reach places on earth will be made twice as fruitful in their suffering. Brother Thaung has a plan in his heart to share the gospel with those guards who were charged with beating him while in prison. We ask that you begin to pray for this stirring of the Holy Spirit to testify of God's goodness to those who would inflict pain and harm upon him.

We pray for their families and we invite you to enter into regular fasting prayers with us. We enter fasting prayers often but as a preset time M300 Ministries around the world enters into fasting prayers on the first three days of each month. Consider joining us for fasting prayers monthly. See this video to learn more: INVITATION TO FASTING PRAYERS AT M300 MINISTRIES

Genesis 41:52

The second son he named Ephraim and said, "It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering."

My goodness do we see what Joseph was saying to God. Let's make it simple so that all can see... "God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering." Not that God has made me happy and given me all of life's comforts. Not that God answered my prayer for all of the things that I perhaps selfishly want, but that God made me fruitful. God made me bear fruit! 

Returning back to our text this is by the way the same Joseph who's brothers wanted to kill him. The same Joseph that was sold to the Ismaelites (Arabs) and then traded into slavery at Egypt. The same Joseph who was separated from his family. The same Joseph who's father thought he was dead. The same Joseph who was thrown into Pharoh's prison. The same Joseph who ran from the temptress. The same Joseph with the coat of man colors. The same Joseph that God had given a vision to for which his brothers sought to kill him. Did Joseph suffer? Of course he did. Do we suffer? Many of us do...but some of our brethern are hand chosen to suffer much for God's glorifcation. Brother Thaung was chosen in this instance to suffer much for our Lord in the country of Myanmar. We pray that Brother Thaung, those serving with him and others who serve with us will be made fruitful in the land of their suffering.

Let's look closer:

Genesis 41:51-53 (New International Version)

⁵¹ Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, "It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household." ⁵² The second son he named Ephraim and said, "It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering."

 ⁵³ The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end,

One of our Valiant Warriors serving in Bangladesh reports on suffering for the cause of Christ from his country of Bangladesh. My mind centered in for some reasons on a matter of fact portion of his report where he casually reported 2 incidents under the title of Persecution that led to God's blessings. Allow me to share a summary of each event with you. This may surprise you but God can make us twice as fruitful in the midst of our suffering.

#1 While working with community showing community development movies the mission team showed two movies and was going to wrap up with the Jesus Film. 2 Evils as they called them, stood up and protested that Jesus should not be shown. The workers responded that Jesus was about community and about serving others. The 2 Evils said, "We will bite you". Odd right? But then the 2 Evils left and the film was shown. On the way back to their own village after the film the Jesus Film workers were viciously attacked by a large group of radical Muslims who viciously bit them, scratched them and kicked them. Local police came to their aid when it was reported but they had to be hospitalized due to the viciousness of the bites and attack. Those involved said casually, "They persecuted us however they wanted to but God was glorified".

#2 A young man from a Muslim background became a Christian and he shared his faith with others. One person, a shop owner was upset when he found that this person had forsaken Islam for Christ. When the young man was walking alone on a street he was attacked by a group of radicals who hung him from an electric pole. For 2 hours no one came to help him. Then a ranking police official came and cut him down. He survived and the policeman said to him. "The work that you and your group are doing is too valuable. Every time that you go out come to the police station and we will assign a police escort to you. The reputation of good works from your group and you are well known."