Paul and Lydia of the Khamti Shan

There are times in life which freshly set my heart ablaze and show me what a Mighty God I serve. I praise God for the people He places along my path to teach me and remind me of the truly important things in life. It strikes my heart as sad to think that so many of us live our lives in mediocrity, never looking nor expecting to see the God we serve do unimaginable things. I am ashamed as I pause and think how many times I live for myself and not the Greater Purpose, the purpose my Great God has given.

This weekend was one of those times. James and Shell Hla (an older Karen couple) invited Ashley and I up to Mae Sai, a border town of Burma and Thailand. There is a church there of mostly Karen-Burmese people which they helped to start years ago. We drove up Saturday through the mountains and arrived mid-afternoon.

On Sunday we worshipped with our Burmese/Karen brothers and sisters. While I couldn't understand the words they sang, tears came to my eyes as I felt the Holy Spirit there touching my heart despite the language barrier. They sang with such passion and soul! The Living God is truly with this congregation, and doing great things through them. I sang a song I wrote in English for them: the words go as this...

Will you go to the broken places?
Will you run through the fields of the lost?
Will you gaze at the lonely faces,
Waiting to be found?

Will you speak of your Savior Jesus?
Will you tell them of His great love?
Will you show them His endless forgiveness?
Will your life be an act of love?

CHORUS:
It's time to go, and find the broken people.
It's time to look and see beyond ourselves.
It's time to pray, for revival to be started.
It's time to be Jesus to the world.

Can you hear all the voices calling?
Can you see all the unwiped tears?
Don't you know that the world is dying?
Why do you live as if Hell's not real?

See the little girl who was raped by her father.
See the man addicted to child porn.
Both need Jesus and both are hurting.
Will you tell them salvation is here?

After singing, Ashley went up to tell the story of the pastor and his wife in California who were told they must have a permit to hold a Bible study in his own home. America, the 'Christian' nation. Bah, there is no such thing as a political Christian nation. After she shared this story I went up to give my testimony and James Hla translated.

What struck my heart especially this weekend were a niece and her uncle we sat next to during lunch. Paul and Lydia.

"Thank you for sharing your testimony," he said. "I, too, wanted to die at one time. I was a monk for five years because my father made me to be, but finally I decided I did not want to be one for any longer. My life felt meaningless. I left the monkhood against my father's wishes, and I was so depressed--but when I met Jesus Christ. I realized the purpose of life." Lydia is 27 and has not seen her own father in twenty years. His father and her mother divorced when she was two years old. Her father is a monk and doesn't know Lydia has become a Christian.

Lydia and Paul come from a tribe in Burma, a sect of the Shan tribe called the 'Kham Ti Shan' or 'Khamti Shan.' Kham Ti translates to "Golden Place." There are about 27,000 people who are part of this tribe, and only ten can read the scrolls of their people because their language is mainly spoken. They have written scrolls as already stated, but it is not an organized written language that people can learn. Learning to read the scrolls is near impossible. God is using Paul and Lydia to translate the Bible, but first they have the enormous task of organizing the language into a written one. They are working on a dictionary for their people.

What struck me about Lydia and her uncle Paul is their humility. "Thank you for taking such interest in our work, " they said... surprised that Ashley and I would be so interested in them, in their lives. Lydia told me that she once thought that because she was nothing special God couldn't use her, but then she learned that God uses the weak for important tasks to show His power. "I will bring the Gospel to my people," she said. I felt humbled in the presence of these two servants of God. The kind of work they are doing takes the utmost dedication and time, especially when they are only two of three Christians in their family. "My mom and brothers hated me at first when I became a Christian," Lydia told me. "But now they understand better." Paul's life has been threatened and people make fun of them. "People say 'how can you believe in a king who died in such a way! Some God you have for a king!"

Please pray for Lydia and Paul and their people the Kham Ti Shan.