History of Shan Churches in Burma 1861-2001 - Khamkoo

Twenty-first century Shan mission project 154
42 trainees attended.
Trainers: Rev. Takashi Yoshida, Rev. Jerry Yeoh
8 th Shan GCI, KengTung
February 2001
Report from Takashi
One week before I left for Myanmar there occurred a battle near the border between Myanmar
and Thailand and it was politically very unstable. Of course the land border gate was closed.
KengTung, the town where the GCI was held this time, is located several hours drive from the boarder
of China, Laos and Thailand. There was a small drawn out war in Maesai, Thailand. Maesai was hit
with numerous mortars and the border closed and the Thais shelled several Burmese outposts. Burmese
feuding with the Shan has made spillover likely along long stretches of the Thai border, mostly
occupied with the Ahka villages I work with, so the villages have lots of army in them, trucks, tanks,
mortars dug in and armored personnel carriers…. Of course it is the uncertainty about how much this
may escalate that is bothering most of the villages. Rev. Sai Stephen, an Asian Outreach East Shan
State Director, and I had a discussion last July to work out a strategy for his area and decided to have a
multinational GCI for the footsoldiers. Who could know that Stephen, a conspicuous leader with
tremendous passion for the souls, had to go to be with the Lord only two weeks after we made a plan?
He was still 47 years old. I get there via Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. I together with the new local
coordinator, Rev. Sai Philip, put this plan into practice in order to raise young evangelists and Church
planters in KengTung, Stephen’s hometown. However, on the very first GCI day, one and a half hours
after we started, we were stopped by the local government officers because of the boarder situation.
While our local coordinator tries to persuade the officers we prayed to God for His mercy and grace. He
answered our prayer immediately and the local government gave us permission to restart the GCI
training again. Praise the Lord! The Lord has protected us from every danger. This time we had 42
students from Wa tribe, Lahu tribe, Shan tribe and a couple more from different tribes. After I
ministered for five days there, pastor Jerry Yeoh from Malaysia arrived and I handed over the
responsibility to him. The GCI continued until March 1st. During my visit to KengTung, I had an
opportunity to go to a small Ahku village called WanKyaing, which was evangelized by a graduate of
GCI. There are 125 Ahku tribe people in 33 houses. All of them have come to the Lord, hallelujah!
On the way back to Japan, I had a meeting with some Baptist leaders in Yangon. After much
discussion, we decided to have a first GCI for Asho Chin tribe and Pwokayin tribe in October 2001.
Both tribes have not yet been evangelized much.
KengTung GCI 2001