Bible Training Week February 29 to March 4

Bible Teaching has continued all of this week with two American pastors, Jon Ulm and Paul Bergquam, doing the teaching.

Jon is the pastor of New Hope Christian Church in Manassas, Virginia. Paul is the pastor of Sanger Community Church in Sanger, California.  Both churches, on opposite ends of the United States, have supported the Barefoot Doctors program for many years.

Paul began his week teaching about the Parables of Jesus.  He wanted the students to see how powerful Jesus' lessons were when he used common, everyday illustrations of spiritual realities.  He taught the students how to get to the main spiritual lesson of each parable and how to make application of these lessons.

In the latter part of the week, Paul taught the students about the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah.  They explored the historical background to his life and ministry and saw how God kept him faithful to his calling, in spite of the fact that he faced much opposition during his entire ministry.  Through the study of Jeremiah, Paul also taught our Barefoot Doctors how to choose a Bible passage and then prepare a lesson from it so that their students could understand it and apply it.

Paul Burgquam with translator Ahtang

Paul preaching on February 28

Jon took the students through a verse-by-verse study of the book of 1 Peter.  He chose to teach this book of the Bible because Peter wrote this letter to Christians living in Asia Minor who were facing all kinds of opposition to their witness for Jesus Christ.  His advice and the Holy Spirit's counsel is valuable to anyone else facing hostility toward our faith in any generation.   Jon also presented the Apostle Paul's charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 and taught Jesus challenging words in Luke 9:23 about taking up our cross in order to follow Him.

In Burma/Myanmar, there is hostility toward the Gospel even though there is not a national law against sharing the Gospel.  Local areas sometimes have their own restrictions about this, however, and the predominantly Buddhist culture is opposed to evangelistic outreach by any other group.

Jon Ulm teaching in classroom

Jon giving wristbands to BFDs

Some of the Barefoot Doctors report they have made people angry when they tried to preach in their villages. One reported how a group threw stones at them until they stopped preaching.  Another said someone fired stones from a sling-shot at them until they quit. At the same time, many of them reported they are able to have special Christmas celebrations where the Gospel is preached, and that many of their Buddhist neighbors will come to these celebrations.   This same openness is not seen during the rest of the year.

All week long we encouraged the Barefoot Doctors to be strong and courageous.  We encouraged them to be strong in the Lord, not in themselves.  Please pray for them that they will have a bold witness for Jesus Christ in their various regions of Burma. Some of them are going back to war-torn areas where fighting is going on by 6 or 7 different armies, including the Burmese army.