God is REAL! The Holy Spirit is REAL! I have seen the Lord’s hand this day. What an incredible day as we behold the power of God as it has been revealed in the life of a man! This is no ordinary day! My heart is bursting with thankfulness and praise! It is worth all the sacrifice and missionary work for the past 10 years, just to see this day!
Here’s the story:
ChaPoe, is 62 years old. He lives in WaSuTa. We worked with him 9 years ago to stop smoking. Just one and a half years ago he left the Catholic church to be baptized into our Seventh-Day Adventist church!
During our revival meetings last November, he confessed to us that he was smoking again! We prayed with him and encouraged him again and he was able to stop smoking for good, and is a faithful member of our church now.
ChaPoe visited us yesterday, to say that his cousin’s husband in MooDooKey, (A distant village), wants us to come and have worship in his house, he wants to join our church! ChaPoe could not answer the man’s questions, but told him that he would bring some people who could teach him. What we found out the next day on our visit to MooDooKey is simply amazing – incredibly thrilling!
This man’s name is Bli. He is over 70 years old. He moved here from Burma 20 years ago. His parents are Buddhists, but he never took to that religion, he even worked with some monks for 2 years. He went through 6th grade in school, and during that time, learned to read and write Karen and Burmese. He joined with the Karen soldiers for a while, but later ran away. When he came to Thailand, he got baptized into the Baptist church in MooDooKey village. Most of the small churches in these little villages get organized by foreigners from Australia or America, but the leaders do not live with the people, they put someone in charge and only visit occasionally, so Bli was put in charge of the Baptist church. He was the only person who owned a Bible and was able to read it, so he led out in worship services and routine worships in people’s homes. He has been very popular and well respected among the people.
Bli told us that he has been thinking, thinking, thinking. As he read his Bible, he found out that the 10 commandments are very important, then he read in James 2:10 that if you keep all the commandments, but break one, you are guilty of breaking all of them. As kept reading the Bible he was convicted that he must keep the 7th day holy – not Sunday. He became afraid that he would die before obeying all 10 commandments. Because he is over 70 years old now, he decided that he better obey all God’s commands right away before he dies so he can be saved in heaven! The Holy Spirit is convicting him, as he reads his Bible and prays! He learned that it is wrong to eat pig and rat, so he does not eat those things! He said he does not drink or do opiuim, but he does smoke and will quite smoking now. He asked us many questions. We were so surprised at how much Bli understands about the Bible. We explained why he needs to get re-baptized into the SDA church.
Bli is not just a Baptist church member, he is the head elder and only leader in that church, in fact he has just completed building a Baptist church on the hill behind his house! He has done most all the building by himself. He used his own money from selling coffee beans to purchase the lumber. The Baptist organization only purchased the tin roof, but Bli is so motivated and consecrated to the truth that he wants to be free of the entire thing, so he will pay them for the roofing material also. He told us that the Baptist leaders can have it all – he is giving it all to them.
We stayed and talked to Bli all day long. His daughter cooked us a lovely meal.
In the afternoon some people came requesting him to come to their usual Bible study. Bli invited us to come with him. These people did not really know about Bri’s conviction to join the SDA church. They seemed shocked, because there we were with him as evidence of his change of religion. Bli told them that he would still do worships for them, but he would not join in their religion.
We told Bli that we would visit him on Sabbath afternoons for a worship service, as much as possible, because it is impossible for him to travel the distance to BYT for church. Please pray for this dear man, as we know the devil is angry to loose his subject.
Here is Bli, his younger daughter and his wife.
Bli with his baby grandson
Please pray for Bli’s wife because she is “heartbroken” about this change in his life. She has not gone along with it so far, but is very sad because all her family and friends are Baptists or Buddhist. They only have 2 daughters, they told us that their son at the age of 16 committed suicide. He went out and hung himself.
This is the following Sabbath afternoon when we visited Bli for Sabbath worship and Bible study! Bli is an eager learner. BletJhaw explained many things to him about the Bible.
Bli has no idea of the power of his witness in MooDooKey village and surrounding villages. Please pray that his convictions and the witness of his changed life will be a catalyst to bring many people to the truth in these last days!
I compare this experience to Phillip, who God sent to teach the Ethiopian, and I am so encouraged! Acts of the Apostles states:
“This Ethiopian represents a large class who need to be taught by such missionaries as Phillip. Men who will hear the voice of God and go where He sends them. There are many who are reading the scriptures who cannot understand their import. All over the world men and women are looking wistfully to heaven. …Many are on the verge of the kingdom, waiting only to be gathered in. An angel guided Phillip to the one who was seekng the light and who was ready to receive the gospel. And today, angels will guide the footsteps of those workers who will allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify their tongues and refine and noble their hearts. …Such work calls for laborious effort, but it brings a rich reward. Those who engage in it with sincerity of purpose will see souls won to the Saviour, for the influence that attends to the carrying out of the Divine commission is irresistible!”