Welcoming New Students for the Upcoming School Year
Even though we were not able to begin classes as planned in August 2021, we began January 10, 2022 with eleven eager students. Eight of those are Burmese, two are African American, and one is a white American. One of the Burmese even moved from Milwaukee to Clarkston to attend class.
During the school year 2019 – 2020, we had a pastor who lived in Burma (Myanmar) come to the Clarkston area to attend Clarkston Bible Institute. He was very eager to learn, engaged and spoke good English. We were all excited to help him. He returned to Burma to set up small groups in his church. A few months ago, he sent me an E-mail to tell me that his uncle Samuel in Charlotte, who is a pastor, would be contacting me.
Samuel, called to tell me that he would like to start something like Clarkston Bible Institute in Charlotte. He said he would like to meet me and my wife and invited me to speak in his church. Sondra and I visited his church on May 22, and delivered the the Sunday sermon.
Samuel is theologically trained and has been a pastor in India and Tokyo, Japan before coming to Charlotte five years ago. At that time, he began Charlotte Chin Christian Church. There were about 200 people present, 100 of whom were youth. The music was great, and the church was full of enthusiasm and excitement. They even have their own building with exciting plans for expansion.
This is all very exciting to me because one of my dreams is to expand training like Clarkston Bible Institute to other refugee resettlement areas in the United States. Charlotte would be the first. I came away from our Charlotte visit very encouraged that Samuel is the kind of person who could begin Clarkston Bible Institute there after attending Clarkston Bible Institute himself during our next school year. We learned while there that there are 5,000 Burmese living in the Charlotte area, 3,000 of which are Chin (dialect). Samuel would have the advantage of being able to conduct the training in the Burmese language, which we can’t do yet.
During the last month, the Karenni (dialect) speaking Burmese had a big meeting in Des Moines, Iowa in which one representative from each Karenni church in the United States was invited. The purpose of the meeting was to find out how each church is progressing and make plans for helping the churches that need assistance. Two of the key speakers for that meeting are Clarkston Bible Institute graduates. One, Peter Na, graduated with David. The other, Hsaw Reh, graduated last June.
Six of our eight current Burmese students attended that meeting. Peter Na is pastor of the Karenni church in Warner Robins, and Hsaw Reh is the pastor of the Atlanta Karenni church.
In addition, Peter Na is currently in Thailand preparing for to move his family to there next summer to minister to Burmese refugees in Thailand. One of our current students, who is a leader in the church Peter pastors in Warner Robins, will become the new pastor to replace Peter in Warner Robins.
