Than Tun comes from a village in the Rakkhine State called Min Puar. Being raised as a Buddhist he had no idea about the Gospel of Jesus but as he said, ‘Whenever I saw a church and a cross, I would feel something’.
In December 2012, until 2014, he went to Malaysia to work. Many Myanmar people do this and many get classified as refugees so they can wait for repatriation into a third, usually Western, nation.
While in Malaysia some friends took Than Tun to a Christian meeting conducted by a Chin Refugee group. Here he heard the Gospel preached. He did not respond to an altar call but that night, July 27th, 2013, he secretly believed and trusted in Jesus. Due to the distance between his work camp and the church, and his work commitments, he could not regularly attend services.
Early in 2014 Than Tun had a vivid vision of himself preaching to others in the Rakkhine State. He emphasised that it was not a dream, as he was wide awake at the time. This really caught his attention and he knew that God had called him.
On July 7th, 2014 Than Tun followed the Lord in obedience and was baptised by Ps. Tun Lin Oo, a fellow Asho Chin. One week later he felt the Presence of Jesus in his room and clearly heard His voice say to him, ‘God has a plan for you. You have to go to Bible school’. He had no doubt that it was Jesus speaking to him. So he had Ps. Tun Lin Oo fill in the forms and recommend him to the Baptist Bible School in Pyay.
He worked for three months to save for his fare and in October, 2014, returned back home. When he arrived in his village, Olivia, our former Academic Dean and her father That Gyi, were preaching there. Each tried to convince him to come to their Bible school – Olivia for K.M.T.C. and That Gyi for Rhema, his school in Yangon. However, Than Tun had his mind set on Pyay. Over the next few days though, he could not get Kingdom Mission out of his mind and knew that God was sending him here.
Than Tun is now in his fourth year at K.M.T.C. and is also one of our best students. He is inquisitive and dedicated to the Lord and his studies. He badgers lecturers with more questions than anyone else and is very reliable in every way. He says he has read just about every book in our library. We are privileged to have this young man of God as our student and look forward to him working with us for the salvation of Myanmar.
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