Grace Is Sufficient'His grace is sufficient'
Orphanage leader relies on divine provision
YANGON, Myanmar -- In May 2003, Uk and his parents sat in a bamboo hut on a bare patch of land here on the city's northern outskirts.
They had no food. They had no firewood. There was no permanent building to call home.
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Dr. Sann Mang of The Asia Compassion Project
does a checkup on Dawt Hlei Thang, 14, at Grace Children's Home on the outskirts of
Yangon. The three-year-old ministry started with three children,
increased to 12 the next year and now has 22 under its care.
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So there they sat, waiting for a miracle. But they were used to that.
- 1979: Uk's father, a schoolmaster at the time, nearly died from third-degree burns suffered in a forest fire. The family prayed, and he lived.
- 2001: Uk's father yearned to minister to children with an orphanage. But he and Uk's mother couldn't do it alone. So he invited a friend to pray with him: "Lord, if you want me to start this orphanage, put the same desire in Uk's heart."
- 2003: God answered that prayer. Without any pressure from his parents, Uk (then 24) told his dad he wanted to start an orphanage with him. Father and son prayed and fasted for several days about how to start the ministry. The solution came when Uk requested and received a one-year advance on his salary from the orphanage where he taught school.
All of those blessings led to this moment: The three of them waiting in a bamboo hut for God to provide the first meal at their new home, the future site of Grace Children's Home. A couple of hours later, out of the blue, the director of another local orphanage arrived with a bag of rice and a load of firewood.
"My mom was crying on the bag of rice," Uk, now 27, says. "She said, 'Lord, thank you for this. Thank you for your miracle.' That's how we started this. We just put our trust in God, and we started. His grace is sufficient."
They took in three children that first year. Today, Grace has 22 children under its care and is one of the almost 170 orphanages supported by The Asia Compassion Project (see
main story). Uk says it is his dream to increase the number of children living at Grace every year and raise them prepared to be pastors, missionaries, engineers -- wherever God leads them.
"We just help the orphans to forget that they are orphans while they are here," Uk says. "And when they leave here, they will be men and women of God."
© 2006 Called and Sent Magazine. All rights reserved.
