Victory Bible College / Rev Dr John Thoung, AO Coordinator

Victory Bible College was founded in 2008, and by God’s grace it has been 12 years now since we opened. I thank God for His faithfulness and leading us all these years. Though we faced many challenges, God was always with us. This year we celebrated our 11th graduation ceremony. Many of our former students have been touched and changed through this small Bible College and have been going out to reach the unreached.

The Vision from the Lord

I have been preaching the gospel since 1989 while I was a teacher at a government school in my village, but I became a full-time minister in 1994 after studying in a Bible College. I never imagined that I would be a Bible teacher. While praying one day, I felt the Lord speaking to me to start a Bible College but I was unsure at first, so I prayed seeking clarity as to whether this was His plan for me or was it my own desire. The Lord put a burden on my heart to reach out to the young people who were living without a purpose in life because in our country if you do not pass matriculation, there is no more hope for further education. The Lord put this vison in my heart time and time again and I knew it was His leading and plan for me to start the Bible College. I had no qualifications, no money, no house and I wondered how all this would happen. But I never gave up and told the Lord that He would have to help me and I would obey Him. I consulted with some friends but they were very negative and not encouraging at all. Instead they discouraged me saying that I did not have the money nor the qualifications and I had no experience in running a Bible College.

 Obeying the Lord

After praying and seeking the Lord, I was determined to obey the Lord and my first purchase for the Bible College was two cooking pots, one for rice and one for curry as I had to provide accommodation and meals for the students. At the beginning, it was very difficult for I had to share my home with the Bible students, living with me and my family, because the students were mostly from other states. I had no funds but the Lord provided for everything we needed and sent people to help me both in seeing to the expenses of the college and for teaching the students. I am truly grateful to the faculty staff who have been helping me since the early years to teach the students without receiving any payment. Now we can accommodate 30 students every year and train them for the ministry. I also thank my wife and family for sharing my vision and for all the sacrifices they made to fulfil this vision.

 Courses offered

We offer a 4-year course for Bachelor of Theology and a 2-year course for Diploma. Our motto is:

“To Prepare God’s People for the Works Service” (Ephesians 4:12).

 Accomplishments of the College

The students come from different parts of our country. So far, there have been 70 graduates and all of them have gone into ministry. Some of them are pastoring churches; some have become church planters and some lecturers in Bible College. Most of my lecturers are my former graduates. Ps Jolly Aung, my former student, is now Field Director for Missions and Ps Victor Lian is our Academic Dean of Victory Bible College. He and his wife also manage Shalom Home for abandoned children. Ps Soe Moe Naing is doing ministry at Kukosu village in the Delta area, where no one has heard the gospel before. Ps Nar Tawng is doing ministry in the Nangah area, a very undeveloped area which takes seven days to reach from Yangon. We are getting more students from that region now. We hope to train them so that they will return to share the gospel with their people. Ps Aye Taw Say is doing ministry along the Sami border of Rakhine and Chin where there is an ongoing civil war. Ps Aung Aung Win is doing ministry in Rakhine, another area where the war is ongoing. The situation for both these pastors is dangerous and challenging for them, as it has been for the people in these areas. The people there live in poverty and are suffering greatly as a result of the war. Sharing the gospel in these areas puts them at risk, so they have to be very cautious. Brother San Thang and Sister Cherry Pan Khine are doing ministry in U Chit Pin, border of Rakhine and Mangwe.

 There are many more cases I could share with you but due to space constraint I have just named a few. These young people serve the Lord through social work, through teaching students, church planting and house-to-house evangelism. Though this Bible College is small and seemingly insignificant, many souls have been added to the Kingdom of God due to the efforts of its students. We pray we are able to send out more young people to reach the unreached and to plant churches in the future.

Challenges and Difficulties

Our Bible College still lacks space for accommodation and study rooms and we are praying for God’s provision to extend our Bible College. The students are still staying with my family and there is no family time for us but my family does not complain for they understand the situation. The students are from remote villages and are too poor to pay the school fees, let alone accommodation and food costs. Pray with us that we will be able to find sponsors for our students. I simply cannot turn them away if they cannot afford to pay. After completing the course, some of the students are committed to doing church planting in their villages but the College is not able to support them. If any one of you is interested in getting involved in this area, please help them – for when you extend a helping hand, even though you yourselves cannot go to the mission fields, you are there with them.

 If you have the gift to teach and train, we would like to invite you to come and impart to these young people your knowledge by teaching them English and Bible Studies. You are indeed welcome to share your gifts to equip them for ministry. We need partners in the ministry, therefore, come and minister to us. We are co-workers in the Kingdom of God; let us join our hands together and serve the Lord.

Isaiah 6:8

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"