An Update

I've just returned from Pathein, capital of Myanmar's Irrawaddy Division. It is located about four hours by car west of Yangon at the northern edge of the Irrawaddy River delta. It is also home to about 200,000 residents and three former Baptist mission compounds that are now Sgaw Karen, Pwo Karen, and Burmese congregations. While in Pathein we (Dr. Lennart and Eva Bostrom, and I) visited the Pathein Karen Baptist Association (equivalent to a region in American Baptist life) which claims about 300 church and 50,000 baptized members.  This morning I had the honor of preaching at the Ko Tha Byu Baptist Church which was packed.  I think it is the biggest congregation I have ever preached to - I estimate about 1000 worshipers were present.

I am currently back at the KBTS guest house preparing to hit the sack (its about 10:30 p.m. here). Tomorrow the Bostroms and I will be getting up very early for a 6:00 a.m. flight to Bagan for a quick two day visit.  Bagan is a World Heritage Site and an ancient capital of Myanmar that boasts hundreds of pagodas.  I hope to find some time and greater bandwidth when I return to post a more complete description of the past weekend and the Bagan trip.