Robin

In the next room I can hear guitar strumming along with drums keeping a loose rhythm. The voice on the microphone is singing "how great is our God." It's the voice of Robin, one of the students who has come here for 3 months to learn all kinds of things, but mostly how to produce media and do it well so that he can go back to his native Myanmar and spread The Word more effectively.

It's not like he's new at spreading The Word. He's had the police come in to his church services and bust the place up and scatter everyone out like they were rats in the pantry. He just opens again somewhere else, 10 people at a time. So far he has planted churches in 4 different parts of Myanmar and wants to do so much more. Each time, the police show up once the church starts growing enough to catch their eye. Each time, he starts it up again.

Currently, they're meeting in the 3rd floor of a building that is a group of empty classrooms. There are already enough people to bring on the police, but since they're meeting in a room with no electricity, no fans, and no open windows lest they catch the attention of the authorities with their songs, no one has caught on yet. No one except the people he's leading to lasting freedom and eternal life. They know all about it and they clamor to get into the frequent services, even though they know that not everyone can be in there at once.

Today though, Robin is singing as loud as he can. Right now, it's "Lord of Heaven of Earth." He's yelling into the microphone with abandonment, knowing that no one is going to shut him down today.

These are the kinds of students that we're teaching here at the inaugural class of Media Light. I'm proud to be associated with Beyond Borders as we do what we've always done by joining with others to achieve their goals in ministry.

We're always looking for people to join us on these trips. To join with us by donating to the kinds of ministries that bear uncountable fruit. More than anything, we're looking for people to keep praying for us as we do these things in increasing fashion.

Today, I'm sending the students into the market and into the streets to do some video shooting for a couple of projects that they're doing as their "exams." I'm gonna seriously make them sweat today and this weekend. I'll probably put up a few blogs this weekend as the pics start rolling in.

From my cellphone, which doesn't work here except as a lousy camera, here's a shot of some of the class from my perch at the front.

That's Robin with the fire extinguisher right behind his head.

Flying in to Bangkok

Almost anywhere you fly, you pop into the landscape through the clouds over the rows of houses and buildings that all seem familiar, even 12 thousand miles from your home. The roofs are all shaped alike. The grass is green, the dirt is brown, the water glistens and the cars roll over the grey roads with black tires. A voice breaks over the intercom in some language you can't understand but you know what it's saying: "fasten your seat belt, get ready to land."

But this is Southern Asia and it's not the same. Most of these people have never heard the name of Jesus. They don't know about his sacrifice and resurrection. They don't know that God is their heavenly father.

I interviewed a young Chinese seminary student, Lai En, about a decade ago. His father is a Chinese evangelist who was locked away and beaten on a regular basis back when the fires of the gospel were first being fanned in China. Lai said to me "The Chinese people are smart, they are hard working, but they are empty." He looked down a little and repeated that softly. "Empty."

As I was meandering through the poorly conceived labyrinth that is the Bangkok airport, with its endless areas of transition connected by the veins of moving walkways, I took some time to look in the eyes of people who were passing by on the opposite walkway and thought of that interview with Lai En.

I don't think it was cultural what I was witnessing. Although I was jetlagged like some coldwar depravation experiment, I'm pretty sure I could sense that emptiness of a people who basically have a limited vision of life. Born, work, die.

This is the mindset that we're working to change and it will have to be the work of the Holy Spirit. We can tell them what we think and how we believe and how great it is to have hope, but the faith to believe the message comes from one source. They have to hear it first though and that is why I've come here for these few weeks: to train this select group of Asians who have been called apart to tell the story. I don't think they even know how critical their mission is, but if I have my way, they will.

On the way here I spent a day and a night in San Francisco and saw some old friends, one of whom is Dr. Gary Moncher, the ever youthful president of Patten University in Oakland. We're talking about Beyond Borders teaming up with them on a few projects that are pretty exciting. We'll tell you more when we know more.

Here's a shot of Chinatown in San Fran that I took with my cellphone.








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