His parents raised him to be a Christian, and he’d been attending church faithfully for 36 years. He sensed, however, a spiritual void in his life, and something told him that what he needed could be found in the Bible. So That Nuai took his Bible and journeyed deep into the neighboring jungle where nothing could distract him. For seven days he read God’s Word, and the “jungle book” did its work in him. When he emerged a week later, he was a changed man, a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, born again by the Holy Spirit. That was 50 years ago, and it was the beginning of That Nuai’s incredible journey.
Born in 1926 and raised in the remote Chin hills of northwest Myanmar, That Nuai grew up in an underdeveloped region of a backward nation. In the 1950s, telegraphs were still in use in Myanmar, and That Nuai was employed as a telegraph operator. By tapping his finger, he sent Morse code messages all over Myanmar.
After his jungle rebirth, however, That Nuai had a burden to share one message in particular, the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He proclaimed the good news anywhere a door opened—in public places, homes and churches—and he began to gain a reputation as a powerful evangelist. Just as Peter and John left their fishing nets behind to become fishers of men, That Nuai eventually left his position as a telegraph operator to devote his full time to delivering God’s message to the villages, towns and cities of Myanmar.
Revival fires burned wherever he preached. In Hakha, Chin State’s capital, he once preached for 90 consecutive nights, moving from church to church. In spite of much opposition from the city’s liberal pastors, more than 1,000 nominal Christians repented and gave their lives to Jesus. The city was changed. Similar moves of God followed in the cities of Falam, Kanpetlet, Kalaymyo, Mandalay, and even Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.
Today, at age 85, That Nuai is still going strong. A few years ago he received a Chin translation of David Servant’s book, The Disciple-Making Minister. Seeing the value of its biblical content, he began distributing copies—including Burmese and Mizo translations—to friends and fellow ministers all over Myanmar. He has given away so many of those books that he’s lost track, but estimates that he has distributed at least 2,000 copies so far.
It doesn’t seem like That Nuai has any plans of slowing down in the near future. A widower who remarried at age 80, That Nuai has two children, ages 2 and 4!
