Teach All Nations has a longstanding relationship with the nation of Myanmar – formerly known as Burma. The history of our connection with the country includes a number of outstanding miraculous encounters.
When Delron was dean of Dr. Lester Sumrall’s World Harvest Bible College, a young man from Myanmar applied to study at the school. As part of the requirements for him to obtain a visa to come to the US to study, he had to have a guarantee of sponsorship to cover his expenses while he would be in the country.
Since the applicant had no one who could write this letter for him, he requested that the school provide it for him. Delron struggled with the decision for several days because the school didn’t have the resources to back up the guarantee and he didn’t want to make the school liable in case the applicant failed to come up the necessary funds. It happened that the deadline for submitting the letter coincided with Dr. Sumrall’s annual campmeeting. Because Delron had a number of responsibilities with those meetings, his attention was consumed every day from early morning until late each night; therefore, he went into the office around six o’clock one morning to pray about how to deal with the request for the guarantee letter. Feeling strongly that he should write the letter, he decided to personally guarantee the funds since he couldn’t commit the school for an obligation they couldn’t cover. The first guest speaker at the campmeeting on that particular day was Benny Hinn – one of the most popular evangelists in the world at that time. The crowds showed up hours before the session and flooded into the auditorium as soon as the doors were open. They filled every one of the three thousand seats and then overflowed all the smaller auditoriums where closed-circuit monitors had been set up. One of Delron’s responsibilities at that meeting was to receive a first offering which was to go to the Dr. Sumrall’s ministry; Dr. Sumrall would receive the second one which would go to Benny Hinn’s ministry. Just as Delron was taking the microphone to invite the audience give to the local ministry, Dr. Sumrall surprised him with the direction that he should ask the people to give to support the Bible college. This directive was especially shocking since it was the only time that Dr, Sumrall had ever designated an offering for the school; furthermore, it was the time when there was a recording-breaking attendance to give into the offering! The miracle of that offering was that it was exactly the amount that Delron had written into the sponsorship that he had just signed just a few hours earlier!
After that student graduated and went back to his Buddhist homeland, Delron and Peggy continued to work closely with him as he established his ministry which included a church and a Bible college. Teach All Nations raised funds for both buildings and also for a van to help transport the new converts to the services. One urgent request for funding came at time when the Teach All Nations’ resources were totally “tapped out” with a commitment for an upcoming mission to Africa. Delron had to reluctantly write back that the ministry had no funds at the moment but would trust God to provide. And provide He did – in a most unexpected way! The congregation where Delron was preaching in Africa gave him an honorarium – an essentially unheard-of gesture in a third-world country. And the offering was not simply a “token of their appreciation” or a “symbol of their love”; it was a substantial gift – in fact, the exact amount that was needed in Myanmar.
Over the years, Delron and Peggy have visited Myanmar numerous times to speak in the church, teach in the Bible college, hold women’s conference, and host pastors’ conferences. They have had some of their books translated into Burmese and the language of the ethnic group that constitutes the largest segment of the Christian population in the country. Teach All Nations also provided scholarships for the pastor’s children to attend college and be trained to take over the ministry after the pastor collapsed and died right in front of his congregation during a Sunday morning service. Working with the widow and the son who took over the ministry, Delron and Peggy have returned to Myanmar several times after the pastor’s death and had plans for conferences in two different regions in the country which had to be canceled when the COVID pandemic shut down all international travel and all public gatherings. They have, however, been able to continue to actively minister to the people of Myanmar through speaking at special services and Bible studies via ZOOM.
During their many years of ministry in Myanmar, Delron and Peggy have seen the country go through some significant changes. When they first visited Myanmar, the government only permitted forty-eight-hour visas, meaning that they had to get in, do their ministry, and be out of the country within just two days. Later, these visa restrictions were relaxed, allowing them to travel more freely about the country and host public meetings. However, there were still restrictions and deliberate intervention, such as delays in granting permits for the conferences. Usually, these permits were held up until the day the meetings were to begin – meaning that it was impossible to properly advertise and make all the necessary arrangements for meetings that might not actually happen. In addition, there was always surveillance. The window curtains were always drawn, and the pastor was reluctant to be seen with Westerners and would always enter the building where the meetings were to be held through a different door than the one Delron and Peggy used. Later, a democratic government replaced the military junta that had held the country under such suppressive rule, and the nation began to prosper. On recent trips to Myanmar, Delron and Peggy noted that the streets that were once easily navigated were now so choked with new Toyotas that it was almost impossible to get from the hotel to the meetings. But all that changed on February 1 – the day that the president and other officials were to be inaugurated – when the military took back control of the country and arrested all the democratic leaders after declaring that the most recent election was invalid. The citizens, already suffering from the pandemic, suddenly faced a new anguish – internet and mobile phone service were shut down to keep them from communicating with the outside world, their businesses were closed, curfews were imposed, and protesters were shot. During the pandemic and now that the people are suffering under the new regime, Teach All Nations – because of the generous support of our partners – is able to help the believers with food and money to pay their utility bills. A recent governmental crackdown has made even this simple act of humanitarian assistance more difficult in that it is unsafe for the pastor drive around the city to distribute the supplies; now, the people have to use public transportation to come to the church to pick up their food packages and then haul them home on the crowded buses.
We believe that God has more miracles in store for the believers in Myanmar. Please join us as we continue to pray for these suffering believers, for freedom to be restored to the nation, and for the Lord to use these tragic situations to bring many unbelievers to Himself.