From Drug Cultivation to Discipleship
Investing in a teenager = a cycle of discipling
Dear Family,
Fifteen-year-old Hesatin’s fate seemed sealed. He would spend the rest of his life working in the opium fields, just like his mother. There was no other work available in their remote village in Myanmar, especially without an education. And there was no way to obtain an education on the meager wages they made from working the fields. But then Hesatin’s life took an unexpected and dramatic turn.
A Christian missionary named Khamh Thang traveled to Hesatin’s village preaching Christ. Khamh challenged him to abandon his family’s animist beliefs and follow Jesus. Not only did Hesatin surrender his life to Christ, but he also felt the calling to leave the opium fields to harvest souls instead.
Hesatin left his remote village to travel to Khamh’s Bible school in one of the largest cities in Myanmar. Following a two-day hike and a long bus ride, Hesatin reached the boarding school, where he encountered modern infrastructure (including toilets) for the first time. The clash of lifestyles was as stark a contrast as the difference between his new Christian faith and his previously held animist beliefs. Despite the dizzying new experience, Hesatin was determined to get an education and become a faithful disciple of Jesus.
Hesatin is now 22, a boarding school graduate in his final year at Bible school, and ready to follow our Lord’s command to make disciples. He desires to reach native animists with the gospel, educate remote villages in improved hygiene, and promote crop farming as a substitute for opium.
Through Heaven’s Family’s Disciple Multiplication Ministry you are helping create legacies of discipleship. Just as Khamh discipled Hesatin, Hesatin will disciple others, and so on. On behalf of Hesatin and the generations of future disciple makers he will train, thank you!
Philip Rychcik
Director, Disciple Multiplication Ministry