Dear Friends,

Please, please, please consider coming with me next December to Myanmar (Burma)! You will never be the same, as proven by the thirteen team members who joined me there a few weeks ago. Everyone kept busy every day doing ministry. Some served at nine different orphanages, distributing clothing, Frisbees, soccer balls, and money to help precious children who live in heart-breaking poverty but who are full of joy. Some took photos of hundreds of those orphans in hopes of finding monthly sponsors for them (see photos above). Others (including my wife Becky) prescribed reading glasses for two hundred pastors and missionaries who can now read their Bibles. They also were able to provide custom-made distance glasses for pastors whose faces lit up as they put them on for the first time. Still others had the joy of handing new bicycles to fifty missionaries and church planters to help them reach further with the gospel. (Some of those missionaries have spent time in prison for the sake of Jesus.) Some from our team preached in lively church services. Some taught puppetry skills at a children’s worker’s conference. I had the blessing of ministering each day to 450 hungry pastors from every denomination, a few of whom walked three days to join our conference (See some of their comments at the end of this newsletter). All of us were challenged by the devotion we witnessed among believers in Myanmar. I would love to have you join us next December! Anyone can do it!

Thanks to all our team members who made our time in Myanmar the most fruitful trip I’ve ever taken. And thanks to everyone who helped make it possible by their prayers and financial gifts. Through your generosity, we provided two significant books and two meals each day for every pastor at our conference, eye glasses for 250 of those pastors, bicycles for fifty church-planters and missionaries, puppets for children’s workers, and land for growing rice, oxen, simple buildings, toys and clothing for several orphanages. It was a miracle! Below are what pastors and missionaries look like the moment they received their new bicycles. (One 55-year-old pastor told me he traveled regularly on foot to 11 churches and 13 mission stations. Now he has a bike for the first time in his life!) To God be all the glory.

In 2004, we’ve had over 425,000 hits at shepherdserve.org from people in over ninety-five different nations. That’s about half of the countries in the world. We’ve just posted some new chapters there from The Disciple-Making Minister. New topics include (among others) “Confrontation, Forgiveness and Reconciliation,” “The Healing Ministry of Jesus,” and “The Rapture and End Times.” Check them out!

I’m leaving again in early January for Tanzania, East Africa, to minister to hundreds of pastors in five different conferences. We will be giving all of them a copy of The Great Gospel Deception in Swahili. Your prayers are certainly appreciated. Although we have been very blessed lately with designated gifts for various projects, our general operating income is in need of a boost. Moreover, I absolutely must hire my very qualified 22-year-old daughter, Charity, to help with all the administration that bogs me down day and night. It is not good when a guy who is called to teach the Bible has no time to even read the Bible! But it is difficult to get people excited about contributing to pay employee wages. Help! Thanks so very much. Your consistent monthly support is how God sustains us.

Have a wonderful 2005 in Christ,

David & Becky

Some comments from a few of the 450 pastors who attended our Myanmar conference, and to God be all the glory:

“Gangaw Baptist Association is compromises with 11 churches and 13 mission fields. And I am serving as a Secretary of Evangelism and Mission Department. I have to visit all the churches and mission fields whenever it needs to go. I used to go on foot to some churches and mission fields. I am 55 years old and difficult to walk on foot in the hot place of Gangaw Township. I really thank God for your gift of the bicycle because that is the most I need in my ministry.”

“I am very joyful in this seminar and encouraged as well. As you’ve taught us from the Word of God and His truth. I sometimes afraid to preach the truth directly to my church member because if I preach the real meaning of God’s Word, most of my members will go out of my church. But now, I’ve really come to know that we pastors are called and commanded to make the true disciples from your teaching. I really appreciate your teaching. All of your teaching touched my heart and now my heart is soft with the truth of our most high God. That’s why I promise to God whom I serve that from now on I’m going to preach the truth of God to my church no matter if they like it or not…” –pastor, Reformed Evangelical Church

“I am a Presbyterian Church deacon. I was very proud. I never humble. I never listen to the other pastors. I never agree with others. So I become to know myself as a proud person by your teaching. I become to know myself I am not worthy to make disciple. I become to know myself, that I am a carnal man. I spoke many time from pulpit a discourage and bad things. I become to understand true disciple, Christian life is to give others whatever we have. I will promise, I will pray for you to come back.”

“I am very glad to be here and listen your message. That really encourage me a lot. I was wake up by your teaching in spiritually. I become to know that way I lead the church was very wrong. I realize that I have to repent. Therefore, I am very thankful to the leaders who prepare for this seminar and sponsors.”

“As a pastor serving the Lord 30 years the blessings I received from this seminar: (1) Understanding of the sheeps and goats among the church members. (2) The most important responsibility of the church is to make disciples. (3) Obedience is the most important for the Lord’s servants. (4) The way of interpreting the Bible. (5) The messages of David Servant hurt my heart as a sharp knife. Therefore I thank the Lord and say thanks to him and his group.”