Myanmar Gold
Spring 2024
What a treasure! Pastor M. A. Robinette has presented a wonderful account of the Reformed believers in the country of Myanmar. His book Myanmar Gold published in 2020 unfolds the ongoing struggle of the persecuted church in the land formerly known as “Burma.”
The famous American missionary Adoniram Judson preached the gospel and suffered persecution in Burma from the early to mid-nineteenth century. Thankfully, Judson was followed by a host of other missionaries, who extended the kingdom of grace across that fruitful field. They built churches and schools that continued the witness of Christ through the twentieth century.
Myanmar is a mountainous land of vast jungles filled with bears, tigers, spitting-cobras and other huge snakes. But greater dangers lurk in the form of wild men moved by their uncontrolled lusts for power, wealth, blood, and rapine. Those men serve the military junta which overpowered the Burmese government in 1962. Communist China supplies Marxist oppressors in carrying out their murderous campaigns aimed at the growing church. The Christians are the most viable threat to totalitarian tyranny. Awful destruction and death are taken into the villages and cities by ground troops and aircraft bombing. A small anti-Marxist force within the country provides some resistance and much humanitarian aid to the oppressed.
Myanmar Gold introduces a living hero of the faith, who is zealously moving forward in the service of Christ, despite all the persecution. Pastor Naing Thang travels over the hundreds of miles of primitive country preaching the gospel, gathering orphans into orphanages, and training men to preach Christ. The book is a collection of thrilling, biographical vignettes of Naing Thang’s godly life and ministry. The providence of God was so amazing in his birth and boyhood. He grew up amid perilous times, was converted to Christ, was called into the ministry, and was educated at a Burmese Presbyterian Bible College. The Lord gave to him a lovely, like-minded wife who labors with him in God’s work.
Many lives have already been graciously changed through their ministry. An interesting example is a man named Kyaw Soe. While Pastor Naing was preaching in a week-long crusade in the Rakhine state, his wife, May Swei, noticed a gang of little, hungry orphans moving about in the bushes behind the place where Naing was preaching. Gangs of young orphans inhabit the jungles and mountains of Myanmar. Rampant disease, as well as the mass murders committed by the Marxist army, leave behind large numbers of homeless orphans. The poor children exist like wild animals, fighting and roaming about in search of food. These children steal vegetables and fruit from gardens, climb the tall coconut trees to get the coconuts, and all animal pets are in danger of being consumed by them. Naing and May Swei have rescued several orphans, even adopting some to grow up with their own children.
Kyaw Soe was in that pack of wild children. May Swei put some food on a large leaf and placed it a safe distance from the congregation toward the bushes where the little orphans were hiding. Kyaw was brave enough to venture out to take and gobble up the food. May Swei placed more food there several times during the week. Finally, Kyaw was sure that she presented no danger. Thus, he became willing to take the food straight from her hand; he let her touch him, and then she embraced the poor, little child. They could not take Kyaw Soe out of Rakhine state to their home in Yangon; however, the Lord provided a place for Kyaw in a Christian orphanage right there in Rakhine. That was in 2008. Kyaw had a desire to get a good education. What blessings were in store for him at the orphanage! His school fees, books, uniforms and supplies were all provided for him. Now as a believer in his Lord and Savior Christ, Kyaw Soe desires to take the gospel of Christ into all the world. He is now in his fourth year as a student in Reformation Theological Seminary in Yangon. Similar golden treasures of God’s grace comprise this book.
(Editor: The author of this book went to be with the Lord on January 23, 2024, following a house fire. “He being dead yet speaketh.”)
Myanmar Gold is a hardback available for $21.99 from https://foundationsofgrace.org/products/myanmar-gold
Rev. Myron Mooney