Myint Nyan in Myanmar was brought up in a Buddhist family and taught to practise Buddhist religious teachings from childhood. At the same time, he saw how God did miracles for his Christian neighbours. One day, the Christian family next door ran out of food. The family prayed all morning. In the afternoon, as the mother walked to church, she found some money along the road and was able to buy rice and curry. The family saw this as the Lord’s answer to their prayers, but, from Myint Nyan’s Buddhist perspective, Nyan believed that it was the result of good karma from good deeds.
When he turned 17, Nyan entered the monastery and was ordained as a novice monk. He stayed there for three years, obeying the rules, watching, and studying many religious books. “But all this labour produced no benefit to my soul,” Nyan remembers. He continued to feel the heavy burden of his sins and could not find any satisfaction. Finally, Nyan left the monastery and got married.
“I had Christian friends who were helpful and cared for us,” Nyan tells. “I attended their small groups and studied the Word of God.” The Lord spoke to Nyan through His Word and showed His love and goodness in many ways, but Nyan admits that he resisted God’s call as long as he could.
But finally God’s unconditional love broke through. Last October, Myint Nyan started noticing a health issue that persisted for the next three months. He met with Lwin Zaw, his Christian small group leader, and talked about his health concern. Zaw told him that God is alive, real, and can heal today. Zaw quoted to him Psalm 103:3 (“Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases”) and 1 Peter 2:24 (“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.”). “That moment, I decided to trust Jesus,” Nyan says. Zaw laid his hands on Nyan and prayed for healing. That evening, Nyan prayed and confessed his sins. The next day, he noticed immediately that his condition was gone. Nyan realized that the Lord had miraculously healed him.
Shortly afterward, Nyan was baptized. “Today, the Bible is my food and I cannot live without it,” he says. “I saw miracles after miracles, back-to-back, in my life. My Jesus handled everything in my life.”