Police reprisals, blocked email accounts, restrictions on churches, huge “closed to foreigners” regions. That was the Myanmar (aka Burma) I visited five years ago. The church was working hard, but the government was forcing them to drag a ball and chain around.

I met one Radstock partner on that trip, although I could not visit his home for fear of police reprisals. He told me of how he was training church planters in an informal school based in his home. It might have been informal, but it wasn’t benign. Grace Family Church Network was sending church planters to remote regions of the country to plant churches among the 50 unreached people groups of their nation. They’d go to a new village — and they’d often go hungry due to lack of finances. This church planter was cool with that. Jesus had not promised a literal or metaphorical picnic when it came to spreading the Gospel. Besides, pioneer missionary Adoniram Judson had lost a wife and children to disease in taking the Gospel to Burma. The DNA of willingness to suffer was clearly still strong. We’re thrilled that Grace Family is part of the Radstock network.  

In recent elections, longtime dissident Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party is replacing the military regime with a democratic parliament. It is a new day for 50 million people who have seen little peace since the end of World War II. New openness means new opportunities. I’m grateful we’re so well placed to act wisely and quickly due to deep roots, established church planting ministries, national leadership and local knowledge. But Grace Family needs our help.

Myanmar is a “Priority Project” for Radstock for the next year. We don’t know if this is a long-term or short-term open door for the free proclamation of the Gospel; we do know we’re not going to sit around wondering if we should walk through it.

WHAT YOU and YOUR CHURCH CAN DO TODAY FOR MYANMAR:

1. Tell this pastor that you prayed for him today: 
2.  Buy a church planter/pastor a motorcycle to get from village to village.
3.  Sponsor an orphan.
4.  Get in touch about sending a team to help: 
5.  Read this awesome John Piper sermon on how the Gospel first reached Myanmar.
6.  Sign up to MEET THIS PASTOR at the Radstock Round Table in Washington, DC (February 25-26, 2016). 

God probably isn’t asking us to “die so hard” as Judson did, but I do believe he’s asking many of us to be willing — now — while the opportunity is in front of us.

Are you in?