Generations Passing the Baton
For two millennia, God has been guiding the ministry leadership of the church from one generation to the next. In the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul was accompanied by Silas, and later Timothy joined them. Two of Paul’s Epistles were addressed to “Timothy, my true child in the faith.” One of the crucial principles of church leadership is training young people in the faith to become the next leaders of the church. When I travel among our pastors, I am thrilled to see that some of the pastors we are supporting now in church planting ministry are the sons, nephews, or young relatives of our pastors who were supported in previous decades. I want to share the incredible testimony of one of our newest pastors in Myanmar. His name is Pastor Lun Htin, and he has a heartwarming story about how God called him into the pastoral ministry. Pastor Lun is the son of Tin Saw, and I remember preaching in Pastor Tin’s church when Lun was just a boy. The Church that Pastor Tin started with the support of White Fields is now self-sustaining and a strong, established church with a significant outreach ministry. Pastor Lun shared that his father always taught him and his siblings about God, and as a result, he came to faith in Jesus Christ at a young age. Growing up, he helped his father with church planting ministry, further strengthening his faith. Eventually, he graduated from high school and attended Bible College. Myanmar is in a civil war, and the military will often arrest any young men who are not military members, assuming they are participants with the rebels. As a result, Lun was arrested and held in jail for two weeks, tortured to get information about the rebels. Eventually, the military gave up and realized he was not participating with the rebel forces, releasing him. During his imprisonment, God touched Lun’s heart and convinced him that many people in his country had not received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Although he was trained as a pastor, he had not utilized his abilities. While he reflected on this in jail, he decided to become a pastor and spread the gospel. Now, he is supported by White Fields to reach a mountain village in the hills of Chin State, where three families have already come to faith in Jesus. There are still seventy more families in need of the gospel. Pastor Solomon is the pastor closest to Pastor Lun’s village. He is also the son of a White Fields church planter who was previously supported. Solomon’s father, Pastor Tha Khup, planted two churches with White Fields’ support. Pastor Solomon actively trains his youth group to conduct evangelistic campaigns by sharing tracts from house to house. He also takes his youth to help Pastor Lun with gospel visitation in his village. Through the ministry of these two young men, God is bringing many people to faith in Jesus Christ. In Uganda, Pastor Onesimus, our Field Director, is training his nephew, Pastor Bryan, to establish a church in Kikarara, a poverty-stricken village. When we first reached out to the village,