There were about 115 present for the conference - including, to our surprise, the dozen students from a small local Bible institute in its first year. This institute accepts even younger students who are not attending school but who want to learn God's Word, so we had one student present who was only twelve years old! We were pleased to see how serious he was about learning (along with all the others)!

The conference was supposed to be from Tuesday - Saturday, with Phil and me sharing thirty teaching hours (six hours per day for five days). We were prepared for teaching the "Biblical Stewardship" course they had requested. But they wanted also to have evening services each day, so I agreed to preach a series of four messages from the Psalms Monday - Thursday evenings, and Phil taught a seminar on Christian leadership Friday - Saturday evenings. Phil and I also sang a duet (in English) each of the six evenings!

The conference attendees really impressed us with their humility, their worshipful music, and their hunger to learn. We sensed the clear blessing of God on the conference. They were so appreciative of the teaching they received!

Phil and I each spoke Sunday in a couple of area churches. Each of us had special experiences that day: I was to speak Sunday evening at the graduation service for 26 adults graduating from the Rogma Bible Correspondence Course. Dr. Mang and I were both dressed in doctoral robes for the service, and I was pressed into service to help present the diplomas.

Module course at a Bible college in the outskirts of Yangon.

On Monday we flew back to Yangon, and from Tuesday - Saturday we taught the same "Biblical Stewardship" course in a Bible college. We taught about seventy-five 3rd and 4th year students, so it was a large lecture class. Again we had thirty hours to teach the class, but this time directly in English without translation. So we had more time to get through the class notes, but we had to use some of that extra time for giving and reviewing quizzes.

Four of our students were post-graduate students taking the course for master's degree credit, so we had to require something extra from them. We also had three teachers at the Bible college sitting in on the course. One of them was a bright, committed young lady who has taught the subject we were teaching, but without the advantage of extensive class notes. Informed that she will be expected to use our notes the next time she teaches the course, she came to class prepared to learn all she could. We honor her for her humble spirit and her eagerness to benefit to the maximum from the course.

Several observations: (1) Bible college students are looking younger and younger! (2) In a class of seventy-five students, there will be a few who are not as serious about learning as others! (3) Grading seventy-five quizzes each night takes some time!

One final Sunday in Yangon gave us last opportunities to speak in area churches before we left on Monday to fly home.

Additional comments about the trip:

Foreigners are not permitted to stay in private housing while in MYANMAR, so we had to stay in government-approved hotels the whole time we were in the country. Of course that means that a PEP trip to this country is always more expensive than other trips!

Between Phil and me, we spoke a total of 78 hours during the 16 days we were in MYANMAR.

God was clearly at work during this trip. To the best of our ability, we counted 148 specific decisions as God convicted people about their need to respond to specific issues discussed in the course of our preaching and teaching. We give God all the glory.