Visiting Dr. Ya Ha Lay Lay Lah's Village and Church

Bright and early Sunday morning (6:30 a.m.) Dr. Ya Ha Lay Lay Lah picked up Dr. Lennart Bostrom and me at the KBTS Guest House for the two hour drive to his home village and his "mother church."  His village was destroyed during the ethnic conflict in Burma during the late 1940's.  Everything in the village has been built since that time, including the village church which was constructed when Ya Ha's father was pastor.

Our Sunday morning was full of activity.  First, there was the Baptism of a young Roman Catholic man who later that morning would be united in marriage with one of the Karen Baptist young women from the village.  The Baptism was followed by the morning worship service at which I was the guest preacher.  I have preached three times since arriving in Myanmar. All three sermons have been from the Mark 6 account of the Feeding of the Multitude.  I will probably preach from this same text again when we visit Pathein this weekend!

Mark preaches and Dr. Ya Ha interprets.

Like many Karen Baptist congregations in Myanmar, Ya Ha's congregation sponsors an orphange/hostel that cares for girls who have either lost one or both parents, or whose parents are unable to care for them.  At the end of the worship service, the girls sang a song.  It is inspirational to see the way in which Karen Baptists seamlessly integrate the personal and social dimensions of the Gospel. Too often churches in the U.S. opt for one at the expense of the other.

Immediately following the worship service, the young man who was baptized earlier in the morning, made an appearance once again as the bridegroom.  I was asked to give a short meditation to the young bridal couple.  

The bride and groom.

After the wedding, we enjoyed the wedding feast with the villagers before hopping back into Dr. Ya Ha's Toyota SUV for the two hour journey back to Yangon.

At the wedding feast. Notice the two girls beside me. This is Karen air conditioning!
Two girls fanned me the entire time I was at the table.