TAN Mission Report April 2026 – Thailand

When the world came to a screeching halt due to the pandemic in 2020, Teach All Nations had to cancel all our plans for the year, including a scheduled pastors’ conference in the nation of Myanmar – where we have had a strong presence for over three decades.  Once COVID travel restrictions were lifted, another turn of events prohibited us from rescheduling – a military coupe which took over the nation and the ensuing civil war that has taken over ninety thousand lives during the four years it has ravaged the country.  Although hostilities have not officially ended, the resistance forces have essentially surrendered the major cities, and fighting is currently confined to the rural areas of the country – giving a sense of normalcy in much of the country.  A recent election – though carefully controlled by the military junta – did tend to give the people of Myanmar and the international community some hope that the country may be on the verge of a turnaround.  Since travel permits are now being issued for citizens who have legitimate invitation letters from foreign organizations inviting them for work, education, or conferences, Teach All Nations realized that we could finally renew our ministry to the pastors and leaders of Myanmar by inviting them to a training conference in neighboring Thailand.  With fairly reasonable airfare between the countries, we offered to cover the delegates lodging, meals, and conference cost if they could purchase their tickets to Thailand.  The response was that sixty delegates, including some pastors who had relocated in Thailand, were registered while others had to be turned away due to limited space in the conference venue.  One exciting aspect of the response was that over half of the delegates were ladies – a direct result of Peggy’s ministry to the women in the country where, previous to her encouragement, women were given no voice in the leadership of the churches.

On the opening night of the conference, I shared the history of Teach All Nation’s connection with the country of Myanmar, beginning with the story of how a step of faith led to the miraculous provision that provided for a student from the country to attend World Harvest Bible College where I served as dean.  I gave a detailed account of how I had received an application that sat on my desk for several days because I felt that I should approve it and send in the paperwork for the applicant’s student visa, but I was not able to do so because there was no financial sponsor who could guarantee the student’s tuition, housing, and, living expenses while in the country.  I went on to recount how I was facing a deadline for approving the application so that the student could complete the visa application in time to come to the US for the upcoming school term.  Due to the annual convention at the church where the college was housed, I was working double duty with responsibilities at the convention and my ongoing duties at the college; so, I was coming into his office very early every morning in order to cover my college obligations before reporting to the church to take up my role with the convention.  Knowing that I had to finalize the paperwork on the student’s application and get it in the mail that day, I labored in prayer over what to do concerning the need for a sponsor.  Finally, I settled that I would – by faith – put my own name in the slot.  This was a huge step of faith since I was obligating myself for thousands of dollars each year – money I did not have.  After completing the application at about 6 AM, I dropped it on my secretary’s desk for her to mail out when she came in at 8 AM.  Then I made my way to the church sanctuary for an especially busy day because this particular day was one of the biggest events in the history of the church.  The guest speaker that day was to be the most popular Christian preacher at that time – Benny Hinn.  Even though he was not to preach until the evening service, every one of the three thousand seats in the main auditorium and the other two thousand seats in the overflow halls that were connected by close-circuit television was filled as soon as the doors were opened with people who wanted to ensure that they didn’t miss being in the night meeting.  As I took my seat next to Dr. Lester Sumrall, the pastor of the church and president of the Bible college, I was surprised when Dr. Sumrall told me that I was to receive the morning offering and that the proceeds would go to the college.  With the largest audience imaginable, I told the people that I was giving them an opportunity to invest in the lives of students from around the world who would come to the school to be trained and return to their homelands to make a nation-changing difference through preaching the gospel that they learn at the school.  The offering that came in that day fully covered the faith commitment I had made just a few hours before!

I went on to tell how that student – Dong Mang – showed up in Peggy’s Women for the Harvest class as the only male student.  When she told him that it was a class for women, he explained that he was going back to Myanmar where the majority of the believers are women.  After he rationalized that he needed to know how to motivate and equip them for ministry, Peggy agreed for him to take the course, leading to his translating the textbook into Burmese (the language of Myanmar) and having Peggy come to his country on several occasions to hold trainings for the women of the nation who had a desire to serve the Lord.

After Dong’s graduation, he returned to his homeland to open a church with the financial support from several of his classmates who, as I had with his application form, sensed that the Lord had special plans for him to impact his nation.  Later, Dong felt led to open a Bible college to train up a new generation of leaders with the same biblical insights and the same spiritual anointing he had received under the tutelage at World Harvest Bible College.  When he asked me to help finance the school, I confessed that I was totally behind his vision but simply didn’t have any extra money to give toward making it become a reality.  A few weeks later, I traveled to Africa to speak at a leadership conference, totally expecting that Teach All Nations would be expected to cover all my own expenses plus cover the costs of the conference – as is our general practice when ministering in developing nations.  To my total surprise – and, actually, shock – the church covered all my meals and hotel expenses and even handed me a several-thousand-dollar offering!  The unexpected generosity from a church on a mission field of Africa funded the opening of a Bible school in a mission field of Asia!

Over the years, both Peggy and I have made numerous trips to Myanmar to hold training conferences, both in his church and in other cities around the country.  On one occasion, I was privileged to be with Dong and his wife when they were facilitating the International Day of Prayer convocation at the largest church in the country.  I was pleasantly surprised to see Loon (Dong’s wife on stage and taking a fully active role in leading the convocation – a result of her having been encouraged through Peggy’s Women for the Harvest conferences in the country.  When Dong died – literally in the pulpit – several years later, Loon bravely stepped up to lead the church and Bible school.  When their son graduated from high school, Teach All Nations sponsored him to be trained in a Bible college to assist his mother in the work that his father had begun.  Teach All Nations regularly helps fund the church’s evangelistic outreaches, especially their Christmas campaigns – events that help the people by providing them with food packets and gospel messages.  As a result, they have evangelized many of the communities in and around Yangon.  Additionally, Teach All Nations has assisted the church’s humanitarian efforts after major typhoons and 7.6 earthquake in 2025.

The following two days of the conference were packed with teachings from me and Scott Swanson, a young pastor that have been mentoring, and the closing day was a time of impartation and prayer with laying on of hands for both healings and anointing.  As our parting comments, everyone asked us to come back to Thailand and even to Myanmar since the conditions seem to be improving to the point that public meeting will be permitted soon – and they even received a generous offering as “seed money” for the conferences.

In addition to the conference, I also had the privilege to minister in one of the Burnese churches in Thailand, sharing a message on the qualities that God saw in David when He insisted that the prophet Samuel stop looking at his outward appearance because the true nature of a man is what is inside rather than what shows outwardly.  These qualities are what have defined the leaders in Myanmar who have had to stand against the giants of the pandemic with the resulting losses due to the shutdown, the civil war with its insecurities, and the earthquake – all in rapid-fire succession.  Praise god, they are seeing Goliath fall while they are still standing!