When I signed up for The World Race, there was one country I had never heard of and didn’t know anything about.
That country was Burma – officially known as Myanmar.
Myanmar, recently a closed country until a few years ago, has been untouched by the western world. As this was my first time learning about this country, it was also very apparent that this was the first time that many Burmese people had ever seen foreigners. Everywhere we went, we got stares from the local people.
But despite the long gazes, there was still a sense of openness and warmth from everyone we met. I like to call it Myanmar hospitality.
This month, our team was blessed with the opportunity to look for Unsung Heroes. Similar to the month of ministry in Costa Rica, we were charged to identify people who are working to further God’s Kingdom and see if there is potential for these ministries to partner with The World Race in the future.
Going into the month I was a little nervous of how we would do and if the people would receive us – especially since we were foretold of how Christians are persecuted in some parts of Myanmar.
To combat this subtle anxiety, my team and I prayed before setting foot on the land – that God would open doors for us to walk into divine appointments. We had only one or two contacts that we knew we would call but the rest was up to God.
Before doing any research, my teammate Amanda, proposed that we take what's known as the circle train around the city. This way we could see the city AND circle it in prayer. It sounded like a WIN WIN.
So on our second day in Yangon, we walked to the train station but when we arrived it was too late to take the circle train. No big deal. We would come back the next day.
As we were walking back to our hostel, Amy starts talking to a gentleman walking next to her. After a brief exchange, she looks back at us and says, “Guys, this gentleman is a baptist pastor and he has invited us to walk with him to a baptist convention!”
What?! No way! We literally walked into a divine appointment! God is so amazing!
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Malachi 3:10
The pastor took us to the convention and introduced us to three more pastors, who gave us contact information for Saw Peter, the director of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Thailand. Saw Peter gave us contact information for an additional nine ministries which included, World Vision Myanmar, Every Nation Church and Ignite Harvest Church.
It was evident that God had gone before us, preparing the way for our team to meet these ministries. We didn’t have to do anything thing but show up.
What a mighty God we serve!
