“Ho, brother, nowhere. Just buying a few things, getting ready to go to Kamamaung. We Adventists are having a meeting there next week.”
“When are you going?”
“Tuesday.”
“Tuesday? What say I go too?”
“Sure, come along. Train starts at noon.”
“Good; I’ll be there!”
“Where did we meet before, brother?”—but he was gone, and Tha Myaing was looking after the rapidly retreating figure. “Who is that man? Where have I seen him? He seems to know me all right. Wonder if he really will come. Don’t suppose so! Guess it’s only talk.” And because he was an old man and very experienced, he forgot all about it, and finished making his preparation for the meeting.
Tuesday was a busy day. They had to come in nine miles with their baggage, to catch the train by noon; but, being used to traveling, they were at the station more than an hour before the train started. They had hardly put their bundles together when—
“Oh, here we are!”
“What! you have come?”
“Yes, didn’t you say Tuesday?”
“Sure, but where are you bound for?”
“Kamamaung meeting, didn’t you say?”
“Yes, but do you really mean it?”
“Surely.”
“Well, get your ticket.”
“Right!”
“Show me! Well, I declare. Say now, brother, what does all this mean? How does it come that you know me? Where have we met before?”
“Ah, now that is a story. You don’t know me; but you know Po Thein?”
“Yes.”
“Remember coming with him one time and staying in such and such a village?”
“Yes.”
“You stayed in my house! You had been studying with him for months, and you studied with him in my house that night till nearly midnight. I was a Buddhist, and I had no time for Christianity. I had spent all my life feeding priests, seeking merit, and counting beads. That was all I wanted. I couldn’t be bothered even listening to you, so I lay down to sleep. But sleep wouldn’t come. I couldn’t help it. I had to listen to your study. One hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, and then you slept. But I didn’t. Again and again I heard that name ‘Jesus’! It was too strange for me to understand, but I heard you talk of this meeting, and I determined I would come and see; so here we are!”
“Say, but brother, you can’t smoke up there at the meeting. Can you stand four days without a smoke?”—this from Tha Myaing’s wife.
“Well, I’ll try!” and, going over to the rail fence at the station, he stuck his pipe on a picket and emptied his tobacco at the foot. “There, I’ll start now!” he declared, and the snap of that jaw showed that there was a strong, determined man behind it.
A few more pleasant words of explanation and encouragement, and the train came. The next day came a boat ride up the river, and the following day the local meeting at Kamamaung opened.
Po Thein was there too, his friend, whose studies with Tha Myaing had first arrested his attention. They reveled in the studies, enjoyed meeting the various workers, and felt more and more convinced. Then came the Friday evening service, when the call was made to accept Christ.
“Say, Po Thein, aren’t you going to stand up?”
“Er—um—yes—but—you need to feel sure you can live up to it, you know.”
“Oh, a Christ who would die for me when I knew Him not, when I was still a sinner, will not fail me when He sees me trying to follow Him; I believe He’s calling me.” And so saying, he was the first to stand to his feet.
I visited him three months later. I didn’t have to ask. His face shone with his new-found joy, and his three children were with him.
“Was your pipe still on the station fence when you got back?” I asked him.
“I never went to see,” he said.
We kept him in the probationary class for a year, and then baptized him and his eldest daughter. We put a worker in his village, but after a whole year there seems to be no other responding heart.
Verily we cannot tell whence comes the Spirit, nor whither He goes, but we continue to plead His guidance that the one of a city and the two of a family may all be gathered out.
Cha Nyut and his three children. He and his eldest daughter were baptized after their conversion at the Kamamaung meeting.
