This month, team Radical was given the amazing opportunity to be the first ever World Race team to enter and stay the night in the country of Myanmar/Burma. Our purpose was to pioneer ministry opportunities there, for future missionary teams working with our ministry contact Ray and his organization called Outpour, based out of Mae Sot, Thailand.
Burma is a country that has been in a lot of turmoil the past few decades, with much human trafficking, poverty, government, and refugee problems. However, they are turning a new leaf and trying to improve their country. At the end of last year, Myanmar/Burma finally opened up its borders to allow foreigners to stay for longer than a day(previously, you could only get 1-day visas).
Presently, you can get a 28-day visa and tour some of the pristine, untouched beauty of this place.
Everything about this trip was new, adventurous, full of ‘firsts’ and we didn’t know what to expect next. We drove in on a new road that had only opened within the last year, and that was obvious…it was a very bumpy, rocky dirt road through the dense, lush green jungle. Luckily, our van had A/C, its like a sauna out here. On the way, we were even lucky enough to pass by a fella riding his elephant.
We arrive in the lovely city of Dawei that afternoon and look for a place to stay. It is against some city/government rules that you can’t sleep in peoples houses or the church, and camping on the beach could be dangerous at night due to locals who like to cause mischief. So we found the cheapest hotel, which was a lot nicer than some of the janky places for more expensive. We had WiFi, western toilets, hot showers(though you always take cold ones round here), air conditioning, and even a flat screen TV with channels in English! Who’d have guessed it?! And we were expecting to be “roughing it”! Right next to the hotel was this precious little coffee shop that we loved hanging out in. The young girls who worked in it hardly spoke English but they would play Taylor swift and giggle at us as we sang and danced. Even though we got to stay at these nice places, the rest of the city was like any other in southeastern Asia, with outdoor eateries, street food, motorbikes galore, poor narrow roads, and cute hut-style stilted jungle homes.
Ministry over our time there consisted of traveling to children’s homes, learning songs in their language and teaching them English songs, praying over future ministry locations, building relationships with pastors of a few churches there and the leaders of these children’s homes, and scoping out future ministries to be involved with, and how future teams can help. It was really fun and exciting!!
In Myanmar/Burma, we got to go see places that only a handful of westerners have probably ever been to. We got to swim on beaches with nobody else around but us. These beaches had soft, clean sand, not littered and nasty like the ones I’ve seen back home. The water was a clear dark blue, and it shimmered as if it had glitter in it. Harris, Hagen and Laura even taught me how to body surf!
Places like these, where the jungle meets the beach, are places that most people only dream about. I feel so special that God has brought us here and allowed us to experience such beauty of His. Not to mention that the Burmese people are some of the kindest, most warm and welcoming people that I have experienced so far. Everyone waves and smiles. Maybe it is because we are the first westerners many of them have seen, maybe its because us being here means that the changes in their country for the better are becoming a reality, or maybe its simply because wherever we go, we bring the holy spirit and all His goodness. Whatever it is, its hard not to fall in love with this beautifly untouched, wild and simple place. I wonder how long it will be this way before the world taints it for more tourism and trash.
It just feels like this whole month, especially our time in Burma, like I have been living out of the song Paradise by Coldplay. My whole life, I only dreamed of living this life, living out this kind of adventure. Sometimes I still have to pinch myself when I wake up, forgetting where I am…”Oh yeah, I’m in Myanmar.”…is this real life?!!
Read more about the details of our Burmese adventures by clicking on Laura Moody’s blog link to the left<< and read The Adventure Awaits.
We only got to stay in Myanmar/Burma for a week, and then we began another adventure back to Mae Sot, Thailand…
