Fireballs to Flowers- A Miracle in Myanmar
Welcome to “Ron’s Adventures,” the podcast that highlights the experiences Ron Pearce has had in his 30-plus years following God around the world and, of course, the stories he’s collected along the way. With me in the studio today is Ron and Charis Pearce. Welcome back guys, great to have you.
Ron- We are going back to Burma one more time, and we’re going to be talking about something that even surprised me. Every once in a while you get a story that’s sort of like wow, that’s really something, well this is one of those wow stories. What it was is that they would use the Jesus film very effectively within Burma to go into villages and they would show the Jesus film at night, usually on a sheet in the middle of the village. Sometimes even Buddhists would want to see the Jesus film and they would invite the team into the monastery and they would show it in there. Well, on this occasion it was just in the village, huts around, village people all sitting there, several hundred of them. And they were showing the Jesus film this one evening. Well, there were a lot of sorcerers and magicians and witch doctors in the crowd that did not want this because they controlled this village. That, as well as this was a very, very strong Buddhist village, as well. Much history there and everything like that. So they go in and they show the village the film. At the end of the movie, the 25-year-old pastor goes up to the front and says would any of you like to accept Christ. Well, the whole village raises their hands and says they wanted to. And he backed up and says, “Are you sure?” And they said, “Yes, we want to be Christians.”
Joy- It’s not quite a common question for a pastor to verify if they’re sure.
Ron- Well, I know but sometimes you have to make absolutely sure, did they understand what was going on here? And they said yes, we want to be Christians. And then he asked, “Why, basically what happened?” And they said, “You didn’t notice this, you were all at the front looking at the Jesus film but all these witch doctors and sorcerers were at the back and they had made, or had conjured, fireballs and they were throwing these at you at the front sitting in the rows to try to destroy you, hurt you,” all those sorts of things, but basically disrupt this presentation of the Gospel. As they would throw these, the people sitting there would notice that halfway to their target, they would change from fireballs into flowers and they would fall to the ground, God did a miracle. So when the people saw this, they thought to themselves, okay, the Christian’s God is stronger than our gods, therefore, yes, we want to be Christians. And that’s why they did it. They explained it to the pastor, the pastor and the team that went in there to show it didn’t even see this, but that’s why it happened.
Joy- Okay, I really need to get this straight because I know I can’t be the only one hearing this and thinking it’s too incredible or too unbelievable. You’re saying that witch doctors somehow had fireballs in their hands and threw them, and this is not a Hollywood production, this is something that actually happened. And these fireballs turned into flowers.
Ron- Exactly, yes.
Joy- Okay, so my next question is, how are we to believe this? We haven’t been to Burma, and you’re asking listeners and myself to believe something so incredible that might have come from a movie.
Ron- Yeah, I understand fully, because we live in the West where a lot of times what happens in Christian circles, let’s just talk Christian circles, we’re not going to talk about the movie industry out of Hollywood, we hear some of these most incredible miracles happening in gatherings where you’ve got congregations together and these wild things happen. And everybody sort of looks up at the stars and says, oh boy, is this real, is this not real? Okay, sometimes in the West I have found, not always, but a lot of times, these are exaggerations. They are something that has been spun and looked at differently and a lot of times people want to defend the book of Acts, they want to defend miracles. Basically, they want to defend God, and, therefore, they will make up stories, or twist stories, or alter them to make them realistic. This is not what happens overseas.
Charis- Also, sometimes people are doing this for profit’s sake.
Ron- Oh yes, to sell a book, to make money, to attract people to a church service, to an event. Whatever the case may be. This is quite common and even I have to stand back many times and just not accept things at face value. But when I get overseas and we are dealing with a story like this, okay for instance, here it is, there is nothing to profit from this story. This young pastor, he’s 25 years old, told me this story, as well as his supervisor and the fellow that is in charge of the Jesus film project for Campus Crusade for Christ, told us this story and he is regarded as the little “Billy Graham of Burma.” This is a man of God that has walked with the Lord for years. Unquestionable integrity. Therefore, he confirmed it, the entire team of people confirmed it, and the whole village accepted Christ. Do you honestly think that a whole village that were strong Buddhists, steeped in this supernatural environment, would make up a story about their witch doctors throwing these balls of fire, which, they know the supernatural happens on the dark side, then turning to flowers. Do you think this village would give their lives over to Jesus, walk away from Buddhism, walk away from everything, just on a made-up myth, when you have witnesses there that are trustworthy telling you these things? No, this is a real-life occurrence that is provable with witnesses. Why it’s so tough with us is because we don’t see these things in such form here right now. And the times that somebody might come up with a story like that, many times they’re made up, they’re falsified, they’re twisted, they’re altered, whatever and it’s because we want to defend God. We want to defend the Bible and sort of try to prove to ourselves and everybody else that these things are happening today. Well, we don’t have to stretch and alter anything over here for God to prove His existence, His power, or His love. And therefore, this story that I’m telling you from what we heard overseas, I’ve checked it out, verified it, and everything like that, it’s true. But it happened over there where a lot of supernatural activity is just an everyday way of life, it’s normal. So for the witch doctors to be able to put curses on people and a lot of these miracles, manifestations, demonic activity to happen, it’s regular, it’s in their life. Over here it’s not quite that way.
Joy- So the idea of witch doctors having balls of fire in their hands probably wasn’t the most unusual thing to them, it was the fact that they were unable to throw them, that they turned to flowers. So the power was not in their hands, but God’s hands.
Ron- That’s it. Exactly. And it was a miracle, that’s it. A miracle happened in their midst and they were used to the supernatural. We are not used to the supernatural over here. We live in a more natural environment and, therefore, we don’t see these sorts of things. The odd time you will but over there it’s common. And that’s why when I tell you what is going on around the world today, this is like the Book of Acts around the world. That’s the difference.
Joy- So for the pastor when he asked if anyone wanted to give their life to the Lord, he probably was not expecting such a… he was maybe hoping for a few but the fact that the entire village {gave their lives over to Christ}, that’s what was such a surprise to him.
So the idea of witch doctors having balls of fire in their hands probably wasn’t the most unusual thing to them, it was the fact that they were unable to throw them, that they turned to flowers.
Ron- That’s exactly it, Joy. The thing is as well, when you go in, I’ve heard of whole villages a lot of times accepting the Lord. In fact, I think I’ve told about it in one of the stories I’ve told recently. I just saw this in Ethiopia where an entire village came to the Lord because the mayor and the witch doctor and the leader of the Mosque all had the same dream and vision one evening, and this was the same village that a young pastor was walking into the next morning to preach the Gospel in, and they went to this pastor and asked about this dream that each one had had separately but it was the same dream. When they did that, the pastor explained it, explained that they had to accept Jesus, they accepted the Lord. When the witch doctor and the head of the Mosque and the mayor are all standing up with this new guy in town, the pastor, talking about Jesus and saying we just accepted the Lord and all of you people should too. Well, that whole village accepted Christ. Why? Because you aren’t usually going to get your witch doctor and your head of the mosque and the mayor of the town agreeing with some stranger coming in and taking 30 or 40 years of religious belief and turning it over in an hour. That doesn’t happen unless there is a miracle involved. And that’s why a village would accept the Lord. This is a profound miracle.
Joy- Wow, I honestly don’t even know what to say and I don’t know how to end it because words don’t even describe the wonder that story holds for me, for sure.
Ron- Well, let me end it this way. You read in the Book of Matthew, of Mark, and Luke, and John the story of Jesus doing miracles all the time. It carried over into the book of Acts and the Book of Acts is a logbook of the activities of the Holy Spirit in the earliest days of the Church after Jesus left to heaven but sent the Holy Spirit back here. And the Holy Spirit resided, and indwelt, and anointed, and came upon people and they were able to do similar things to what Jesus did in the first four Gospels. The reason I am saying this is because today, that is the thing that God is doing in a lot of these areas of the world. The Book of Acts is coming alive over there as it did 2,000 years ago and the people are watching this in amazement and they are believing because they believe there is a God out there somewhere, they just don’t know who it is. And when a supernatural God reveals Himself in their world, they’ll jump all over this.
Joy- Especially one that has the power, the most power.
Ron- And is loving. Not a god that they are trying to ward off and give sacrifices to because it’s a mad, evil god that is going to get them unless they do these sacrifices. No, this is a loving God, who loves them and is coming and breaking through the barrier of natural and supernatural. He’s coming supernaturally down to earth to show his power and existence and His love. That’s why you’re going to get these miracles all over the place.
Joy- Okay, that is fantastic you guys! We’ve been listening to another episode of “Ron’s Adventures,” the podcast that, well, wow you guys, the podcast that reminds us that we serve a God that can turn fireballs into flowers, the God that has the most power.
