Good evening. I'm just going to stand down here because very soon I'm going to, uh, start the computer and the pictures, but I do want to read a couple verses to you. Before I do that, first of all, thank you for your kindness to us as a family. Originally, we planned to be, um, in, we were going to go to Hong Kong, and then to Thailand, and then to Burma, and then to Beijing, and then back into Guangzhou, and then into Hong Kong, and then home. And, uh, we'd like to do that in about seventeen days. Um, and I think we can do it, but we were going to bring a, a medical doctor with us, and, um, the place where she works said no, she couldn't get off. So after we made all those arrangements and planned to do a, a conference in both Burma and in China, we had to rearrange everything. Sometimes that's a little discouraging, but then we saw the news with, um, India and Pakistan and the threat of war, and no doubt it could have, it could have interfered with some of the, the travel plans we had, and so we trust God's timing. So now we'll move our trip to July the seventh is when we'll begin. But the other thing nice about moving that is that made it so that we didn't have anything scheduled for these weeks or for these days, and so here we are in Spanish Wells, and so, uh, I'm thinking the Lord for several reasons. I'm thinking that the atomic bombs didn't go, nuclear bombs didn't go off over there. You can still make the trip, and then for these days that we can, uh, be down here. I- I've got to tell you that, that there are so many things that have happened since nine one one. Oh, I'd like to talk about prophecy, but you know I can't do that in forty five minutes. And so we're going to do missions instead. Um, we just finished a series on current events, and then another one taking Daniel chapter by chapter on Monday nights, and uh, and so I'll be happy to answer questions later privately, but I think we'll, we'll just save this hour for missions. I've been thinking a lot about how do we, how do we encourage people, especially young people, to be involved in missions? And not just young people, but how can we all be a part of missions? I really think that that's God's plan, is that every single person who's a believer win others to Christ. And after all, isn't that the challenge he made to his disciples, go ye into all the world? He didn't say that for, he didn't say missionaries, go ye into all, but but he talked to all of us, didn't he? And so how can we, every one of us, how can we be involved in missions? And so I want to talk a little bit about that tonight, and and I want to read four passages, and then then we'll look at the the pictures that we have, but go with me, first of all, to Matthew chapter ten. Matthew chapter 10, and and my hope is that when we leave tonight, you'll say, you know what? I I can be a missionary. I can be a missionary to anywhere in the world. There's a very special way that God can equip us for exactly that work. Matthew chapter ten, and look, if you will, at at verse forty. Matthew ten verse forty, He that receives you receives me, and he that receives me receives him that sent me. He that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. Boy, is- isn't that a wonderful way to get a prophet's reward? How you treat a prophet, well, you get his reward. Next, look at this. He that receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. That- that's wonderful, isn't it? And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. That says this, that God is looking after every single detail that we do for the work of the Lord. Th- there's no, there's no task too small, and there's no task unnoticed in the eyes of God. That's encouraging, isn't it? Because I think sometimes we say, well, well, what can I do? And it seems like that sometimes the task looks so big that we say, how can, how can what I do amount to anything? What if we did have a box of clothes, or what if we did have food? It it would only last for several people. It would only last for one meal. Ha. You know what? God's job is to worry about that. Our job is, is to do what God would have us to do. So keep that in mind. No task is too simple, and no task is too small to be seen of God and to be approved of God. And then go with me to, to just three passages. You'll, you'll be familiar with each one of those, but the first one is in Samuel, First Samuel chapter three. First Samuel chapter three. It's a story that, that I'm sure every single Sunday school child would know. Verse four, And the Lord called unto Samuel, and he said, Here am I. Isn't that a, a good thing to answer to the Lord when he calls you? The Lord called unto Samuel, and he answered, Here am I. And he ran into Eli and said, Here am I, for thou callest me. And he said, I called not, lie down again. And he went and laid down again. And the Lord called yet again Samuel, and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou dost call me. And he answered and said, I called not, my son, lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he rose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived the Lord had called the child. Look at verse ten. And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, speak for thy servant hears. And then look at another one. This one is in, is in the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter three. Exodus chapter three and verse two. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in the flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush was burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. Recognize the answer? It's, it's like saying I'm available. I, I have three points tonight on how every one of us can be used as missionaries, and the first one is this, be available. I mean, are you available to carry the gospel to all the world? I know what you're thinking, wow, yeah, but who's, who's going to run my boat? You know, who's going to take care of my kids? Who's going to cook the, who's going to clean the house? Yeah, those are problems, and you know what? We can address those, but I think here's the first thing is be available. So Samuel, when God calls him, he said, Samuel, Samuel, he said, here am I. That that's like saying, I'm available. Is that how you would answer God? Now, what if God said South Korea tonight, North Korea, China? Now, if if the Lord calls me for Spanish wells, here am I, here, you know, I can enjoy fishing pretty well. But boy, it's another thing when, when some of these other... How would you like to go to, to Turkey? Or to Afghanistan? You know, Samuel says, here am I. So I think the first thing is to be available. And then here is Moses, and, and, and the Lord says, Moses, Moses. And Moses says, here am I. Now, now notice what he says in verse eleven. And Moses said unto God, who am I? Do you see how he changed it? You see, when, when God started talking to Moses, he says, Moses, Moses, and Moses said, here am I. He said, Moses, I want you to go back into Egypt. Oh, Moses said, wow, they, they want me for murder in Egypt. Remember, Moses had murdered an Egyptian, trying to accomplish the will of God and the plan of God. He knew that, that the Israelites were to be delivered out of Egypt. So he thought, I'll do it one by one. So he killed an Egyptian, and when he found out that people knew, he ran. He accomplished one two millionth of what God wanted. God didn't want one Egyptian dead, he wanted all of Israel out of Egypt. So Moses runs to the desert, and when God calls him and says, here am I, and he says, all right, you go back. I want you to go right back to Pharaoh. He says, no, who, who am I? He said, I, I know you misunderstood me. You thought I said here am I, but I was saying who, who am I? I had something in my throat, Lord, really. Who am I? God says, Moses, no, I'll take your first answer. And remember, he sent Moses back. Look at another one. We, we, we want to come back to these guys in, in just a minute. Genesis chapter twenty two. Genesis twenty two, a very familiar chapter. Verse one, And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt, or test, we would say, Abraham, and he said to him, Abraham. And he said, behold, here am I. And he said, now take thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering. Wow, i- isn't that something? Verse eleven, And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. Notice that? He says, Samuel, Samuel, Moses, Moses, Abraham, Abraham. And here's what he says, here am I available. Boy, it was a hard task. He was asking to be available to sacrifice up his only son. When I look at Samuel, I think of someone who's young. Isn't it one, you know, we encourage our kids to, to train to do all kinds of things, don't we? I've got a five-year-old grandson. We, you know, he's got a, a coach for a father. So he's playing t-ball. These kids are so little, they can't even pitch the ball to each other. They put it on a stick, and then they whack it. And i- it's ridiculous. They got thirty five fielders, and the ball can go through thirty two of their legs, and they call it baseball. Why would you put a kid four years old out whacking a ball? Oh, we want them to play baseball. And, and we train them to read, we train them to write, we train them to stand on their heads, we train them to do basketball, baseball. Let's send some of these, let's train them to be missionaries. W- wouldn't it be exciting to say, wow, you know what my ambition for you is? You carry the gospel to all the world. Here's Samuel, just a little kid. Here am I. You know what? I- it's refreshing back home in the school. You talk to the, to the older kids' chapel, and they want to be engineers and doctors and lawyers and lawyers and lawyers, and... ah, that's good. But you talk to the little kids' chapel and, and you go through that list and you come to missionary, wow, they want to be a missionary. One of my grandsons, they dressed up for career day. He wore a vest where he could hide Bibles in his pockets, and, and he was going to be a missionary to China, so he put tracts and Bibles in his pocket, and I said, well, what were some of the other kids? He said, oh, they were boring things. Yeah, you know, let's, let's encourage him. Samuel, Samuel, he's just a little kid. Here am I. You know what? That's, that's when they can be called of God to be a missionary. And then I come to Moses. You know what Moses was? Moses was talented and gifted. You read the account of, of Moses in the book of Acts. Wow, that's quite a testimony in Acts concerning Moses. He was bright. You read secular history, you know what? He won the Battle of Ethiopia. He, he won every medal in the War of Ethiopia. He was the champion of Egypt, as a Jew, the champion of Egypt. He was trained in Pharaoh's court. Hm. I don't care how talented you are and how gifted you are, there's nothing better than saying, here am I. And then, if Samuel was when he was young and Moses was when he was in his prime, here's Abraham, and he's a little bit older. Okay, he's ninety nine And he's still saying, here am I. There's no age limit on serving the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? That's kind of encouraging. Again, the little kids at school, after one of the chapels, one little girl came up to me, she says, you sure speak good for an old person. Hmm. You know, I was going to thank her for the compliment, and then I decided she, she hit me up pretty good. Aren't you glad there's no limit on serving God? So the first point in serving God is be available. Are you available? You, you can't be too young. And you can't be too talented, and you can't be too gifted, and you can't be too smart. And you can't be too old. Here's the question, are you available? Guess what my second point is? Be available again. This is pretty complicated, isn't it? You know what? I, I think sometimes people say, yeah, but I served the Lord once. Yeah, but I, but, you know, I went to Russia. Yeah, but I, but okay, that's right, be available again. Now, God may use you more than once. That's, that's exciting, isn't it? You know what? I had a really nice meal yesterday, but I ate again today. I eat, and then I eat again. You can tell that, can't you? Now, my first point is be available. My second one's be available again. What do you think my third point is? Come on, Chris. What? No, I fooled you. Be determined. I knew you'd say again and again. Be determined. You know what? W- you- you've got to be determined. I'm teasing you. It really could be, be available again and again and again. Be determined. I'll just tell you two stories real quick. One, Ravi Zacharias. Some of you might hear him. He's on the radio. He's got a ministry called Let My People Think. And it's a, it's an incredible teaching ministry. And he was in Vietnam just before the, the war broke out, and he was there with, with two other missionaries, and they were there encouraging the underground church, and as you know, there was tremendous persecution in Vietnam. And so the, the underground church, as, as things were getting, uh, tighter and worse and worse, they, they wanted to, to bring, uh, Ravi and these two missionaries to a dinner, and they said, no, no, no, we, and they said, no, we want to go, we w- want to take you to a restaurant. So they went to a restaurant, and they sat down with, with some of the people from the, the house church, and they were having this meal, and as Ravi put his fork into his bowl, he shuddered, and he nudged the other, the other missionary says, he says, don't touch it, he says, don't eat it. And the other missionary said, what's wrong? He says, look, and as he, as he moved his fork around, roaches were coming out of the rice and the meat. And, and Ravi said his throat closed up, and he was done. And he watched as the two missionaries put their fork in and ate their meal. And ate... And afterwards he, he quizzed them, and you know what he found out? These guys says, we don't mind eating that. We've already considered ourselves dead. And so Ravi left, and a month later, the United States government encouraged every single US citizen to evacuate Vietnam, and they sent helicopters to to pick up these two missionaries. And and as they came and begged them to leave the country, you know what they said? Give us two hours to decide. They said, OK, you've got only two hours. And in two hours, they they they began to pray. They came back and said, you know what? If we've got to choose between being evacuated and winning one more soul to Christ, we'll stay and we'll try to win one more soul to Christ. And they stayed there and were executed. You know what I call that? Being determined. Tonight, as we look at Burma, one of the first, matter of fact, the first US missionary ever is Adoniram Judson. He's not as well known as as some of the, the great names in American history, but I'll tell you what, he's known in, in heaven's book. And Adonaran Judson, at the age of twenty two years old, and his wife Anne at twenty, left America, sailed, they were going to be missionaries to India. When they got to India, the door was closed, and so they had to move to another country, and after three countries, they were in Burma. And there he began to, the language was not even written at that time, and he began to learn the language, and be- and they began to write the language down, hoping eventually to get a translation of the Bible, and and he served the Lord there twenty seven years. In the first eighteen years that he was there, he saw a total of ten converts to the Lord, that's all, ten. And in that period of time of twenty seven years, his wife Anne bore a child, and the child died. Bore a second child, bore a third child, and child number two and child number three died, and then Anne died. What would you say? And when the first three children died and Anne died, no converts to Christ yet. What would you say? Thank God, he said, I'm determined. He married, uh, another missionary widow. They had six children, and the next few years, three of those children also died, and then his second wife died. Six children, Two wives, and he stayed there serving the Lord, in prison a good portion of the time. And when in in prison, he said, we were infested with rats, we were infested with mosquitoes, we were infested with with beatings. At night, they would they would they would handcuff his his hands together and his feet together, and they put him on a pole, and he would hang there all night, upside down, like that. In the morning, they would let him loose, and his body literally would fling to the floor, and he said it sometimes it would be an hour or two before he could actually move. That's how out of joint his, his bones were, and he stayed there determined to learn the language and to translate the Bible into Burmese. Be available. Be available again, and then be determined. You see, listen, if this book tells a person how to escape hell and go to heaven, isn't it worth it? It's so valuable that Jesus came to give us the message, and he died. How could Jesus come, and how could he, how could he sit at a table with Judas, and how could he go through all... You want to know why? He considered himself dead already, that's how come. He knew what he was going to do. He was going to die that Linstead might go to heaven. No, I don't deserve it, but I thank God for salvation. And I begin to see these, these men that count themselves dead already. Are you going to scare them with a few roaches in your meat? Are you going to scare them with, with a few beatings and hanging them upside down? Tonight I'll show you a picture of Brother Lee, arrested fifteen times in one year. They took his Bible away again about two weeks ago. You know what he told me? He through through Brian Ford, he said, I guess it's God's way of getting Bibles into the police. When he goes to Bible study, he has a bag and a Bible. He takes his bag because he figures he's going to be arrested every time he goes. You, you know what? They're not about to stop him preaching. He told him, he said, if you think you're going to stop me preaching by dragging me to prison, he says, you're wrong. To stop me, he says, you're going to have to kill me. He's not afraid of death. He's already dead. He's died to himself. Be available. Be available again. Be determined. And so now let's, let's look at some pictures, and, and tonight we're going to visit several countries, and um... but we're going to spend most of our time in, in Burma, or its new name is Myanmar, and I'll be calling it Burma, and, and as we do so, I'm going to pass a book down on each side because I want you to see the, the writing, the Burmese writing, um, and, and you'll, you'll just see how strange the letters are. It's, it's not just like, uh, like Russian, where it might be rearranging some of our letters, but it's, it's completely different, um, letter styles and so on. And keep that in mind because, um, the translation that, uh, Mr. Judson translated, that's still the translation that, that we're using today. And, um, and so I think that might help us as we, uh, think of some of these things. Now we're going to take just a moment to boot up the computer, and, uh, if you're a person of prayer, you might pray that this comes on. Now you can breathe. Okay. Burma. Here we are. We're gonna, we're gonna take a little trip tonight, and um, and as we do, let's, let's just, uh, think about this, and, and let's just say that the whole world was a hundred people. In other words, all of the world was represented by a hundred people, and that's about how many we have here tonight. So you represent the entire world. And, and if that was true, in other words, it's like saying percentages. The, the world really is a little different than, than how we picture it. If that were true, then here's what we'd find. We'd find that, that fifty seven of the world would be Asian. In other words, that would be China and India particularly. So fifty seven out of the hundred would be Asian, Twenty one would be European, only fourteen would be from the Western Hemisphere, so that would include North America, South America, the Bahamas, Central America, and uh, eight would be from Africa, so that would be the population distribution. Next, fifty two would be female, forty eight would be males, Seventy would be non-white, thirty would be white, Seventy would be non-Christian, thirty would call themselves Christians. That includes Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists, everything, everything that, I mean, isn't that incredible? So you see what a minority we really are in the whole worldwide scene. Next, six people out of the hundred would, would possess fifty-nine percent of all the world's wealth. Seventy would not be able to read. Fifty, half of us, would suffer from malnutrition. One would be near death, one would be pregnant, only one would have a college education, and only one would own a computer. When I show this to kids, they can't believe it. I mean, they think everyone in the world has a computer. Matter of fact, you know that in Burma, if they catch you with a computer, it's an automatic six-year prison sentence right there. If you have a fax modem, automatic six-year prison sentence right there. If you have a cell phone that's not one registered by the government, automatic one thousand dollar fine because they want to control and listen to every single conversation, every single fax, every single email, every bit of that's going to be controlled by the Burmese government. And, and yet, I think in our society, w- kids say, well, no, everyone in the world's got to com- no. If we were to be a typical world village, one person would have a computer, Ninety nine would not have such a luxury. If you live in a good home, if you have plenty to eat, if you can read, you're a member of a very select group. If you have a good house, food, can read, and own a computer, you're among the, the elite of the world. Um, I hit the wrong button here. Look at, look at this one. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, or if you have spare change in a dish somewhere in your house, you're among the top eight percent of the world's wealthiest people. You see, we don't think like that, do we? We begin to think everyone ought to live like us, and everyone must be living like... No. If you have spare change, you're among the eight percent richest people in the world, so we have a lot to be thankful for. As a matter of fact, if you can just read that, then you're also among the elite because there's two billion people in the world that cannot read any language at all. Think about the job of reaching them with the gospel. We'll talk about some of those groups a little later. So let's visit Burma, I'll call Myanmar. It's called the the Golden Land. Now, that's quite a name, and the reason I say it's quite a name is because, you see, when the government names it the Golden Land, you just know that the government somehow or another has their finger on the gold and, and not the people. So let's take a visit. Outside the window, this is, I'm taking this from the hotel. Outside, this is an open-air restaurant, and right over here is an open-air restroom. And so when you go to Burma, one of the first rules is this: you never eat or drink anything on the street. Never. And you'll see why again in just a moment. Take a look at the city. Here it is. Kind of makes you want to move there, doesn't it? I mean, is- and that's how they live, packed in there. I thought this was quite unique. Here's a computer store, and and and look at the, look at the neighborhood around it. So just a kind of a typical housing situation in Burma. And yet here's the entrance to the hotel. Now, notice the, I thought it was makeup, but I've been informed that it really is like a deodorant because it's so humid and, and, and the people sweat there so much that they put that on there. It smells good, and, and uh, they think it looks pretty attractive. I don't know if it's going to catch on in America or not, but that's the entrance into the hotel. And so it's quite a contrast as you walk out the hotel. By the way, that's a four-star hotel. It's not the fanciest ones, but but it just gives you a contrast of how businessmen, international businessmen might live versus how the people actually live. Now let's visit the streets, and here you'll notice that one of the Buddhist priests, and then you'll see how the other people are, and and see this guy, he's dressed in a typical array. That thing that he's wearing is a sack. It it looks like a gunny sack. And so you s- the men step into this thing, and then you you do a little knot there on the side, and you walk down the street with your legs in that sack. It's dangerous. If someone gave that a tug, that knot would come down. Oh, it'd be it. They tried to give me one of those, and I didn't think it'd fit my body shape, but but they they think they're great. One size, I think, fits all. You just have a bigger knot or a smaller knot, but I I never could get the hang of that deal, so, um, I didn't wear that very often. Here's here's, um, some more of the street action, and this is how they they sell their wares. They they simply spread a a canvas or a tarp out, and then they begin to put things out on the street, and uh and a lot of the, the goods are sold right on the street in that fashion, with people walking, with people walking right by. You can see all the other products there that are, that are hanging. There's a big demand for, for jeans and clothing there on the street. This is public transportation. I, I never saw any buses that were not full, but it always seemed like there was room for one more. And again, you notice the bus and, and how full that bus is. And then, uh, here's a game that the the guys play. It's a it's a ball that they they kick up, and see they got to hold their little skirts up. I think if I could get them to wear pants, they'd they'd play that game better, but that's another story. And the streets are pathetic. I mean, they're they were never smooth, even the sideway. You had to be looking down most of the time because, uh, there were holes. And this guy, I think, was working for the Colonel, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and we followed him, and this, this poor chicken was beating its beak on the, on the pavement the whole way. Uh, and uh, it made me glad I wasn't eating on the street that particular day because those, those boys had been dead, and it was, it was, it was a nice warm temperature. Remember I told you not to eat on the street? Now take a look at this vermin right here. Do you notice that? It's got a long nose, it's gray, got a tail off there to the side, and a stick there sticking through the back of it. That's a good rat. And you stick that rat in that boiling oil, and after you cooked him to to whatever degree of done you want, then you stick him in the barbecue sauce. I can't tell you if those were good or not. They always seem to be sold out when I got there. I that that just doesn't even appeal to me, really. Uh, but there it is on the street. And this guy, uh, this in the basket didn't look so bad, but I was, I was afraid of that. I was afraid it was used motor oil or something. It was dark, but he was cooking in that thing. And this is how you, this is how you preserve your food. You go to the ice man, he breaks off a hunk of ice, and you take that up to your apartment, and and that's how you keep your stuff cool. I mean, it's just very primitive, would be a good way to describe it. Uh, this is a restaurant. We're gonna have some pictures I'm gonna speed by. Uh, one pot feeds all, rice, some eggs, and the vegetables, and um, and that was, that was the dish that a a restaurant served, was uh that conglomeration. Some fruit on the street, it looked good. Again, we, we resisted temptation. A lot of people travel on bikes, a lot walk, a lot travel on bikes, but this is really what I took the picture for. This is a, uh, a little box where you can light a candle and, and do a, an offering to Buddha. And, uh, in one of my cab rides, I found this pretty, this is a, this is their stereo system. There's an oil can, there's the speaker, it's tied on with a rag. Quite a, quite a stereo system there. I, I'll just tell you this, that pretty well summarizes the country. Really, it's, it's just held together with, with, with the most unusual supply of, of stuff you've ever seen. Back on the streets, you'll notice the priests walking the people. This is uh, Chawan Dagon Temple. Uh, they're Buddhist, and isn't it something, look how poor the people are, and then look at all the gold. And that's not fake gold. Look at the gold in that temple. Second largest Buddhist temple, six entrances. So what you're seeing is one of six magnificent enter- entrances. I think that may be why it's called the Golden Country, because it's not the people. Again, these are the little, uh, boxes to offer, uh, worship to to Buddha. A lot of people walking down the the streets carrying stuff on their heads. And, uh, again, uh, here's a a lady carrying the bananas there, and another one with her here, and you'll notice the the deodorant or the makeup on the side. I should mention that whenever they see a military person, it's a military state. If a military person comes up to you, if if you've got anything on you that they want, it's theirs. And so when they see a military person walking to them, they they scatter, they spread away. They they'll even go to the other side of the street if they can get away from them. That's how afraid they are of the government and the military. And um, and of course, that just that just rubs me the wrong way, and I decided when I saw a military, I was going to walk straight for him. But the people are just, uh, really, uh, in subjection to their government because of how cruel and brutal it is. And you'll notice the, the, uh, the deodorant or the makeup on the, on the people. This is Timothy and his wife. Uh, Timothy is a believer and an evangelist, and uh, and when I was there, really through some connections of printing literature and through, uh, Voice of, of Martyrs, um, because there's, there's a number of Christians who have been persecuted and are being persecuted right now in Burma, as you might guess, and I won't make a lot of comments about that because of some political overtones, but, but I met Timothy, and Timothy, uh, began to talk to me about an orphanage that he and some of the, uh, brethren there had, had started, and, and it really picked up my interest. And so, uh, he has a literature center there, and, um, uh, and, and, uh, before we head out to the orphanage, this man, his name is, uh, Brother Ronnie, and this is, uh, Roy Gustafson, and he had, he had really encouraged some of the Christians there. But this compound in Rangoon is very unique because a medical doctor a number of years ago, there was a, a missionary medical doctor, treated the emperor of Burma. And as a reward, they, they offered this compound as a place where you could do Bible studies. And so now, a typical Sunday, you may find as many as a thousand people packed there for Bible studies. That's the interest in the Bible. And we would meet there on several afternoons, and we would pray, and s- and, uh, people would come in from around Burma, around the Orient, and, uh, express some of the needs, and then, uh, then the prayer meetings would be several hours long. People would be on their knees, and they would come and go. But it was a very encouraging time to see, uh, really the gospel go out, uh, literature going out to every part of, of Burma, and, and the, the government may be cruel, but you know what? That only makes the gospel more precious. Now, in one of the, the Bible studies that we had, these are some of the people that attended, and these kids right here are among those who are at the orphanage. Indeed, these are, these are orphans in the true sense of the word. And when I met them, I was so impressed because, first of all, they got up at five thirty in the morning to, to get to the Bible study by ten. They, they, they get up, they do their own laundry, uh, they, they have their chores, they have their homework, and uh, they, they go to the Bible study. It's a great sacrifice for them, and there they were taking notes. Every word spoken, they were taking notes, and some of them didn't miss a, a single day of it. And so after I, I met some of these kids, and I said, boy, I'd love to go out and see the orphanage. So here we are, we're going out to the countryside. We want to visit the orphanage, and here it is. This is where they live. Forty four kids at the time I met them. You can see the fact that it's a thatched roof, it's thatched sides. I got to remember there's a monsoon season there, and so that's why they have these bags up, because when the rain comes, it just pours into the, to the building. And this is, this is, uh, dirt or mud, and, uh, it's, it's, as you can imagine, it's a mess. This is the laundromat for the entire orphanage. And uh, this is the garden, uh, in a tractor. In fact, when I was there, they had to keep the tractor running twenty four hours a day because they couldn't get it started again, so it ran all the time. That's the water supply. I, I, I don't even know how you could drink stagnant water, but they, they did. Uh, there's the playground. There's the, the dryer, there are the restrooms. Kind of makes you want to go there, doesn't it? Yeah. Be available, be available again, and be determined. There's the kitchen. That's the sum total of all the pots and pans. That's the sum total of the kitchen right there. Think about fixing dinner for forty four kids plus workers, and um, and I'll tell you what, as I, as I saw that for the first time, I, I said, wow, I, I don't, I don't know anyone living any cruder than this. There's the bedrooms. Now, remember I told you about the monsoon season. See the, the plastic bags that try to hold the water out, but the kids sleep on these mats. All their belongings, all their worldly goods are right there. They use it for the pillow, and they, they uh, have it in that little, that little bag. Here are some of the kids. And I'll tell you what, about now I was saying, you know what, I'm going to take every one of these kids back to America. I mean, any kid that interested in, in Bible study, taking notes, getting up at five thirty in the morning, willing to do their own laundry. Wow. And then, as we did some of the prayer meetings, you know what these little kids pray every morning? Lord, let us be the ones that win Burma to Christ. Now, how can you take them to America and ruin them in America when they want to be evangelists to their own country? And so then I began to say, I, I can't, I can't ruin these kids. I got a little picture of this little boy because as I began taking pictures, he started to cry because I was taking pictures straight on, and he was sitting off to the side, and he said, no one in America will ever see me. And I said, well, I'll tell you what, every time I show slides in Burma, I'll show people, a little boy. And then this girl, when they found out I was going to show these slides in America, she said, I'm going to wear my good dress. So, so she's changing. See her little back there? She's going to get her, and here's her good dress. And of course, they've got their hair cut. Uh, it's easier to take care of when it's that short. Here are some of the kids. They're, they're collecting bricks. As they find bricks, they bring them in because that makes it so the floor's not so muddy. And, and you know, never any complaints. Now, you're going to see this picture a couple times, but this, this is one of the boys because the government tore down their building. The government demanded from, from this orphanage and from this school, they, they wanted bribes and taxes. And when they, when they couldn't pay, they tore the building down, that, that pathetic looking building, they tore it down. And so these kids moved from that thatch building into, into a tent, into, uh, uh, really a canvas just over their head, and being exposed, uh, this, this boy died. uh Eleven others went to the hospital in, in critical condition, and it was a, a sad testimony, uh, of the cruelty of that government. Uh, this is one of the boys, one of the older boys there, Noah. These are some of the other children. These two are actually workers, uh, there. Uh, the ladies take, uh, turn a month at a time. They go out and they, they cook for the orphanage, and while someone else takes care of their kids, and, and they do a month rotation. These are twins, and, um, I have twins nephews, and so I had them stand up and took their picture. And again, some of the girls, I'd take every one of those little girls. And I'll just, I'll just go through some of these. Um, now I'm, uh, one of our plans, when we began to see the brightness of these kids and how they were determined to learn the scriptures and, and so on, we decided, what if we started a school there? Let, let's not bring them to America, let's, let's start a school there. And so it's called Sunrise Rangoon Academy. And uh, and so here are five teachers, and uh, you can see there's a PE uniform from our school in in Wichita. But we we hired the teachers, we brought over a Christian curriculum, and we're translating that into Burmese, and so these kids learn both English and Burmese. And uh, here are some of the the kids in the orphanage again at the meeting. I told you we'd see some of these twice, so I'll go through those quickly. Now, some of you have been with me on missions trips, you know, we, we go into to Romania. It's so discouraging because you, you see we bring clothes into these kids. I, I, in some of the places I go, I don't see them hang up one single item we bring. Here's a different thing. We, we bring them shirts, PE clothes, anything. They appreciate anything. Next, they they they learn how to fold it and take care of it. Every kid is responsible. See how they got their clothes folded? I tell you, it's a testimony to those that are involved in the orphanage there. And now they're they're writing their name and their ages so that we know the name and the age of every one of the the the kids there. And here again, some of the teachers, uh, we brought them, uh, they had no soccer equipment, they had they had no basket. Matter of fact, uh, when you see the basketball rim, they mounted it over twelve feet tall. They had no idea how tall to, to put it. Uh, these, now you notice the brightness of the clothes. These are clothes when Pam and Stacy, another one of the teachers, went over, they brought curriculum, and then they bought each child, uh, into town to buy them a, a set of clothes, and so you notice the colorful clothes. But these are all, uh, these are brothers and, and, uh, a brother and, and s- two s- two girls and a boy, and they were, they were kidnapped. And so be praying for them. It's, it's quite a story, but uh, perhaps uh, people trying to get a ransom from, from other people. These are the little twins. Don't they look different with colorful clothes and so on? And uh, some of the older fellas. Now this is lunchtime. Uh, they eat rice three times a day. You can tell that this is the noon meal because the only, the only utensils they use, there's a, a ladle there, that's pureated fish, raw fish, blended. And you take a scoop of that, you can slurp it f- from the ladle, and then you put some on your rice at noon, and then you use your hands to eat. That, that's the style. Uh, also they share a bench. Sit back to back. No complaints. Uh, they brought the baby carriage in. This is actually the, the baby for the, the lady who was working there at that time. And uh, this is after one of the rain showers. You can imagine what the inside of a house would look like. Notice the difference in the clothes and the, and the bracelet, the gospel bracelet. Uh, the girls did Bible lessons like a, a Bible school with them. And look at the smile on their faces and the, with the balloons and the small toys, and, and I, I personally think that the children have a beautiful smile and a, and a glow in their countenance. It was just an unusual array of kids. Well, they get up early, do their laundry. This is on field day, and you see this little boy kind of tuckered out after getting on up early, and so there he is. Now, uh, during the course of the stay, the, the girls decided to buy every, every child a metal box, put their English name on it. They put a little design on it, and with that metal box, now if they did get their, their stuff wet, but they can put books in there, pencils, papers, their Bible, uh, their clothes, and so it, it just made a whole new world for them. But once they got the metal box, they, they did, I think, uh, fifty of them. You'll notice that from that time on, every kid's by his metal box. They were so proud of those metal boxes because they had a trunk that they could keep their stuff dry and secure in. So there they are by their their metal boxes, and uh, um, one of the teachers and and my secretary back home, and these are the three little girl, uh, three little children in that family that were, they were kidnapped prior to them getting their new clothes, by the way. Again, this is the, the building. This is the orphanage when, uh, Pam and Stacy went there to bring the, the schoolwork. This is the classroom. Uh, this is the, the food supply, all rice. Uh, these are the books that were brought in. We're restricted to only forty pounds as we go in, so we have a, a way to, to ship stuff in. Matter of fact, right now, every time we send something airmail, they they've never checked an airmail package. And so the Bible Society, we bought every Bible they had in the Burmese language and, and airmailed it in. And yeah, it's expensive, but, but think about how precious Bibles are. And so right now, that's one of the tricks we're using to get literature inside. But this is all school material, and um, one of the things that we're trying to bring as we go back, they they now want grades seven through ten. We brought up through grade six, and they want seven through ten. These are, again, some of the children and the orphanage there, and the workers. Uh, they're going to go on a field trip. They're going to go to the zoo. Now, remember how many I said there were? forty four plus workers. They'll all fit in that truck. Yeah. And here they go. All all of them went in one truck. And there they are at the zoo. Wonderful day. Tremendous outing. First time for some of them to ever get to do anything like this at all. The equipment that, that was given to them. There's the basketball goal, twelve foot high. Even Sha could have trouble on that one. They had no idea how to play basketball, by the way. Uh, we brought jump ropes, and uh, Stacy's a tall girl. She's about five eleven. and they're, they're, uh, none of them, I, I don't think any of them are over five, five seven or five eight. and, um, so it's quite a contrast. Little kids playing with some of their gifts. Now, remember what I told you about computers? In some of our buildings, there's a false ceiling, and up above that false ceiling, we, we have computers, and we're translating, uh, Bible books as, as quickly and rapidly as we can. And there's the, the future book that's, that was being translated into Burmese, The Power of the Cross, being translated. Uh, this man is a military man that came to know the Lord and is, is doing the translation. This is Timothy and his wife again. Pray for them, pray for their safety. If they were to catch Timothy with the computers that he's got and the work he's doing with the orphanage and, and the uh they he just recently went on a three-week evangelistic tour across the country with with dozens of people coming to Christ, there there's no doubt they would execute him. And so pray for his safety. He's he's taken a tremendous risk. Uh, this again is a a picture of the orphanage and and the kids playing. Uh, actually another building had to be built because um the number of kids uh is just a lot of them. This is what the government did to their building. I mean, the kids that have so little, can you imagine the government so cruel? Now, in March, uh, a year ago in March, when I talked to them, we we talked about we we really do need to build a different facility, and so this is the start of that. And as we as we go to this other little subroutine, I want to switch and take you into some countries that we're now in, all these countries we visited in the last couple years. I'll show you the conclusion of that. I, I don't have the two presentations combined together, but, but remember I told you about Donaram Judson, the first missionary out of America ever into, to Romania. Here's how we can be missionaries. Many dedicated believers will never be able to reach the mission field with their own feet, but can reach them on their knees. I tell you what, we have seen the power of prayer. If, if you, that's missionary work. When you pray for missionaries specifically for their needs, specifically by name, don't think for one minute that that's not missionary work. And, and that's what we need more of. We, we need, we need, uh, prayer. If I could have just a few lights, I'm gonna ch- uh, switch to this other routine. Oh, this is loading up the the other slides, if I were to show you a picture of a shark, of a hippopotamus, an alligator, what animal do you think kills more people in a year than any other animal on the face of the earth? Well, the answer is a mosquito. Yeah, a mosquito is the most deadly animal. More people die. Matter of fact, I think the number is, is it three million? Three million people a year die as a result of mosquitoes. It far outstrips every other, uh, animal. Oh boy. And so, we want to take a real fast tour around the world, and um, this is in Romania recently, uh, the last year or so we went there, we went to three different cities. This particular one, we were actually in a, I'm going to go back to that one, we were in a gypsy village. No one goes to the gypsy villages because they're, they're kind of the, the outcast of Romania, and so we, we set up a tent, hadn't rained for several weeks. Of course, we got monsoon rains while we're there. The, the tent was full every night, and in three nights, over two hundred and fifty people professed to accept Christ as their savior. And so someone says, do you really think that many came? I don't know. The Lord knows. But I know this, if one accepted Christ, it would be worth it, wouldn't it? And so it was, it was just, uh, wonderful to go to Romania, and uh, and some of the, the kids that are there, yeah, they're, uh, these are some that are out of the orphanages there, and uh, I'll tell you what, Romania has so many needs. It's, it's incredible what the government is doing. There's millions of kids on the street and millions of kids in orphanages. It's, it's a tragedy. This is one of the girls at school, and she was there visiting some of the kids. Another girl from the academy holding a little girl. I think this little girl was actually born in the sewers there. Uh, that's, uh, let me go back here. This is set on a timer, so if I talk too long, it changes pictures. Uh, that's some of the kids in there. Look at the clothes. Isn't that pathetic? And, uh, I'll just tell you this, there there's a thousand kids that we have access to that we need to provide clothing for and food for, and, uh, and we're scratching the surface only. My big, my big concern right now, we just made an offer on some property that would allow us one hundred and forty five acres, a school. We could, we could build a bakery. You know how much bread we buy? If there's cattle barns and hog barns, we need to teach them a vocation, because right now these kids, we put them in the orphanages, they come out, they can't read or write, they can't hold a job, the cycle starts again, they they turn out to be pickpockets, prostitutes, on drugs. It's one of the most shameful things ever occurring, and so pray for us as we, as we look for a way to stop that cycle and present Christ to them. Here we are, we're going down in the sewer because these kids actually live down in the sewer, and you can go down there and see where they live. This is another place where we did a crusade, and this is one of the Romanian brothers came to know the Lord as he was translating for another brother. Here we are again at one of the parks in a different city, girls from the school, uh, surrounded by kids. Here's Pam with, with puppets. That's Robin Horner, some of you would know. And again, a girl from the school as we go to the public parks. Great response to the gospel, and uh, I think we were able to give out about eighteen thousand pieces of literature, uh, in just uh, about a, a twelve-day time. That's one of the orphanages there. Uh, you could go city after city, you can always find an orphanage. This guy, his name was Little Flea, I think he was twelve years old or something like that, and uh, using the puppets, these kids will stand there and listen to a gospel message, and you give them candy and some clothes and, and uh, try to make their, their life a little brighter for a few minutes, but most of all, these kids need Christ because they have no hope but Christ. Their, their government has stripped away every single thing that they they've got, and they need Christ. But remember what the Lord said? Even a cup of cold water to these, he he'll count it as, as a blessing. Then into Africa, some of the kids went there in the last year to, to distribute Bibles and medicine. You talk about a, a, a country that's, that's needy, Africa, with the AIDS problem, with the medical problems, with the starvation problems, it's incredible. Honduras, another place, and after some of the, the disasters with the hurricanes and, and flooding and so on, and, and these kids are always anxious to receive gospel booklets. Th- there's no end. As a matter of fact, one of the things in Honduras, we, we brought a sawmill in because so many trees were, were down. Oops, sorry. So many trees were down that, that we brought a sawmill in, and we could cut up those trees and make it into to lumber so they can build their houses back. And uh, uh, then uh, items, I think these are some of the kids at school packing items to go to to different missions, um, all together with Star Ministries out of Tennessee and Milk and Honey, one hundred and fourteen containers have been shipped worldwide. We have a dentist office in in China and and other pla- I got to stop this thing. I don't know if I can do it. Yeah, I'm going to back up just for a minute. Um, but medicine, food, uh, wheelchair, crutches, bicycles, computers, printing presses, coffee machines, uh, whatever whatever missionaries think they might be able to use, it's, it's a joy to ship it. And, um, uh, yeah, it's, it's a big job, and from time to time, my wife looks at the, the stage at school and it's filled with this stuff, and she says, why are we collecting junk? And then we see how it's used on the mission field, and we thank God for every single piece of clothes that people are willing to send over. Then let's take a trip to, to the jungle, to, to the Amazon, and wow, there's, there's no place in the world that that compares to this. You land on a grass strip runway, and uh, these are the Marudu people that we're going to see, and I'm going to hold you there just for a moment. Uh, you notice the uh, their wealth is in their, oh boy, if I could run this, I'd be dangerous. Uh, their their wealth is in their beads. I don't need, I have no idea which way this is going to go. It stopped. I'm, I'm relieved. Um, and see this little girl, she's trying to sell me a, a little rat, but they, those are snail shells, and they string them on a string, they run them through their nose. Uh, but this, these are the marubus. Now I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to hold this still just for a second. I hope it works. No, it's not. Oh, let's, maybe it'll stay there for a minute. Uh, the marubus. Uh, about a hundred of them have come to know the Lord. They now have a, a, a written language, and uh, the Gospel of John, uh, most of it is done. The book of Romans is done. The first twelve chapters of Genesis, the first twelve chapters of Acts. And among the hundred believers, they're now taking some of them, and they're going to go up north of them. There's, there's There's four tribes, and they're called the Wild. They're savages, and they're going to try, their, their language is not written yet, never a stroke of it written. And so the next experiment is to go up there. We've had the, the joy of building four buildings there. We have two schools going on, on among the Marubus, and uh, it's wonderful. So as you think of the Marubus, pray for them, pray for the four Wild Indian tribes, and then pray for the Makas. In our language, we have five vowels, A, E, I, O, and U. The Makas have twenty eight vowels. Okay. So far, it's, it's, it's not been written. They, they've been among the, the Makas for thirty years. They had two converts. They were both wives of one man, and he killed both of his wives so the gospel wouldn't spread. Four, four sets of missionaries have gone there. Three of them have terminal illnesses in one of the spouses and have died. And the last family back there right now, they've been there fifteen years. He hasn't seen one person saved. He doesn't speak English. I, I was speaking to him through an interpreter when we were there at a, a missions house, and he was weeping. He says, he said, why doesn't God kill me? He said, how can you be a missionary for fifteen years and have no converts? I said, well, God calls you to faithfulness, not to results. But that man, I'll tell you what, he he's he's a discouraged man, and and and I'll tell you, the Makas are cruel people, and this man is there to learn their language and to present Christ to them. And so pray for the Makas and the Marubus and then the Wild Indians. And by the way, this is, uh, this is the place where Pam got malaria and, uh, and almost met her, her death. This is one of our schools in the jungle. Uh, you can see the uniforms, and this is one of the ladies that, with her husband, walked in thirty eight years ago. And then, uh, exchange students. This is Eugene, lived in our home. He's a Russian. Uh, this is, uh, this is Por. She's from Thailand. We'll visit her. She's a Buddhist, never came to Christ. Eugene did come to the Lord. This is one of our exchange students from Japan. And, uh, so that's another way to have uh, gospel. Here's China. This is one of the rural house churches in China. Take a look at this. How would you like to, to go to your prayer meeting in those kind of conditions? Now, if I can stop it, this is um... Oh my, oh my, what am I doing? I'll sneak up on it. Okay, there's Brother Lee. Uh, a little while back we took four. uh, oh boy. We took four parents and a teenage child to smuggle Bibles in, and we brought them to Brother Lee. Now here's Brother Lee in a Bible study. I'm going to try to go back here for a minute. Okay, see this building? Look at the size of this Bible study. This, this is out kind of in the countryside, to be honest, and uh, but that's a typical beginning of the Bible. I mean, people are everywhere. There's even people shouting back here to to others who can't hear so well, and uh, but notice this building, look at the pillars and so on. So, when they learned of the Bible study, they they came to arrest him. They, oh boy. Please forgive me for this. This is this is absolutely terrible. My my family will probably sneak out the side door. Oh my, what's going on? There. Oh. Computers are tools of the devil. You do know that, don't you? Now, there he is being arrested. That film, there we have eight pictures of him being, the building being torn down, arrested, and they threw the camera up on the roof. It actually went over the roof, and one of our friends caught it, smuggled it out. Now we're going back into Burma. We- we better end this before we all walk out. There- there's some of the kids. I know you've seen these before. I've got a reason for showing this. There's my little girl. Kidnapped kids. There's the building torn down. Th- there's the new building. Look at that. The government tore the building down. We decided, you know what, the best thing to do, let's- let's build back a building. That building's one hundred and thirty five feet long, twenty five feet wide, two stories high. It even has bathrooms in it. And now, you know what, the, the community, they, they weren't sure about having these orphans around. Now, when they see everything that the orphans are learning, they, they, they want to send their kids to the school. And so we think in another year we'll, we'll be able to open the school up to other people in the community and um, and have them come in. Well, I've taken more of your time than I should have. I apologize for the, the slides going back and forth. You're probably dizzy. And, uh, but, but you know what? We, we can all be missionaries. Here's how. Be available. Be available again and be determined. And we can at least pray, can't we? Each one of us can do something, even if it's a cup of cold water, even if it's a single piece of clothing, somehow or another, we can be available to bring the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. Pray for us as as we go in July, particularly as we go to Burma and try to encourage some of the Christians there. They're they're undergoing tremendous persecution. And pray for those in China, Brother Lee particularly, and others that will be visiting in both Beijing and and Guangzhou. Father, we thank you for the greatness of the gospel, for the power of the gospel. It's not our words, but it's the words of God. And Father, we pray that even in these last days that we will see many come to Christ. Father, thank you for, for those here that have been so faithful to write to missionaries and to encourage them, encourage even the children of missionaries. And Father, what a reward will be theirs. If you keep track of a cup of cold water, I can only imagine what you'll keep track of for those who pray regularly for them. So, Father, continue to exercise our hearts for the gospel as it goes forth around the world. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.