A Life Poured Out

She lived only to the age of 27, but in her brief lifetime Vanlal Chin poured herself out for the unreached of her native Myanmar. A GFA Bible woman, Vanlal contracted malaria and went to be with the Lord on December 15, 2002.

"She had a great desire to serve the Lord among the most unreached people of Myanmar," wrote a GFA leader.

After completing her studies at a GFA Bible school in 1999, Vanlal gladly accepted a ministry assignment to a village where Christians previously had been driven away. Within seven months, she had led 22 people to Christ.

When local officials silenced her from openly speaking of Christ, she was undaunted. "The Lord,." she wrote, "has opened new ways for us to share the Gospel with the unsaved.." Once she prayed for a man who had malaria, and the Lord healed him. "It is not by might," she wrote of this incident, "but by the power of God.."

After three years in that place, Vanlal was asked to transfer to another part of Myanmar that desperately needed Gospel workers. Again she received this as an invitation from the Lord, knowing full well that malaria was prevalent there. "I don't know what tomorrow will bring,." she told her parents before leaving for her new mission field. "But I know the One who holds tomorrow. And I need more commitment…to win lost people before the Lord's coming or before I am going to Him.."

In her final report, written shortly before she became ill, Vanlal said she had given out 20 New Testaments, 400 Gospel tracts and 200 Gospel booklets. She was working among the Arakanese people group, whom she described as open to hearing the Gospel but unwilling to personally receive the Lord. She asked for prayer to "win many lost souls."—the calling she lived and died for.

"We as the family of Gospel for Asia Myanmar," wrote a GFA leader, "are so regretful for her homegoing, but we give great honor to her commitment to the lost people.."

But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. —Acts 20:24