Prisoners in chains at the Yayachu work camp in Myanmar

Dear Friends,

I’m currently traveling in Africa, visiting several prisons, and when I return I’ll have many stories to share in the coming weeks and months. But this month, I’d like to share with you the following story from my visit to Myanmar in 2005. -Bob

“Many men died there,” John Siam told me as he pointed out the bus window to a large rock quarry on the side of the hill. The gravel “highway” we were traveling on from the capital city of Yangon to Mandalay was crushed—by hand—from rocks that came from that quarry.

The labor came from one of many prison work camps in Myanmar. The prisoners who worked on the road I now traveled on have, I was told, this saying about their harsh labor: “If the corpses of prisoners who lost their lives working on the Yangon-to-Mandalay Express Highway were lined up it would be longer than the road.” So many lost their lives on the project that it became known as “The Road of No Return.”

Thanks to Heaven’s Family national missionaries John Siam and David Seth, however, some prisoners are now on the “road to life.” They regularly take the love of God to the Yayachu work camp near the city of Kalaymyo, where David Seth lives. Most of the prisoners there are nominal Buddhists, but their horrible living conditions make them very receptive to the gospel. So far, John and David have baptized 31 new believers in the prison.

John wrote in a recent email that the guards at Yayachu have given David Seth favor and he wants to begin Sunday services so he can disciple the new believers there. He needs a guitar and a motorbike to continue this ministry. The guitar [$50] will allow him to bring praise and worship into the prison, and the motorbike [$800] will allow him and his helper to travel the 106-mile roundtrip to the prison. Currently he has to rent a vehicle, and it uses a lot of fuel. If the Lord leads you to help meet these needs, please let me know.

Our Heavens Family national missionaries preaching the gospel and baptizing in Yayachu prison

Thanks in part to your obedient and faithful gifts to the Prison Ministry & Rehab Fund many souls are now on the road that takes them to the Kingdom of God, giving new and lasting hope to the prisoners in Yayachu work camp!

Thank you for your support to help “the least of these” in prison,

Bob Collins
Director, Prison Ministry & Rehab Fund