The Church Must Gather!

MYANMAR – Twice it’s happened, and all within a month! Our church has been prevented from gathering. 

First, it was our district leader who commanded we stop. The military had rolled in our village, and so for weeks, we were not allowed to gather to worship. My heart was burning for God! 

After 3 weeks, I called the church members and told them, “Let’s gather at church anyways and at least pray for this situation.” They came on a Friday, and we prayed together for this situation. God gave me a brave heart, and I decided to start Sunday worship service, no matter what. 

The morning I determined this, the military that was temporarily stationed near our church property rolled out of town! We were then able to gather together for the first time all month, all by the grace of God. 

The following week, however, it happened again—only this time, it was not the military or our district leader who tried to stop us. It was the leader of our fire department! For whatever reason, he hates us Christians, and after seeing that we had started our Sunday worship service again, he began to gather together a whole group of people—people that he had stirred up with the same kind of anger. They planned to interrupt and fight and destroy our church meeting the next Sunday. 

When I heard this news, my heart hurt within me. Will we never be free to come together as Christ’s church? The church must gather!

We prayed again, and of course, God heard our prayer. But he also answered them according to what we asked! He never denies our prayers. He is with us. God stands with his children! 

On Saturday, the day before he tried to destroy our church, the Fireman was called away from our village because of some family problem that we don’t even know about. On Sunday, we praised God together as a church—and in our church building!—that He helped us and provided for our church this way. We still praise Him.