So it’s now month 5 of the race, woah! When did that happen? My squad and I have left the Philippines and we landed in Bangkok, Thailand late Sunday night.
Month 4 of the Philippines ended at debrief where our leadership flew out and we where given space to process through what the Lord has been doing in our lives since month 1 debrief.
This debrief was special in it own way because we were given our new team assignments. You might notice on the left side of my blog page there are a different set of pictures, that’s my new team! You should check out their blogs, they are all pretty awesome people.
So what will my team and I be doing for this next month? Let me tell you, it’s pretty exciting:
As a team, we were asked if we would be willing to give up our month in Thailand to pursue a new ministry contact relationship that the World Race wants to build. There are no WR routes headed to this country anytime soon so they asked our Squad Mentor if she would send one on her teams there this month instead since we are “in the area.”
So here I am, 4 hours deep into a 17 hour bus ride to none other than (drumroll please..) MYANMAR! (formerly known as Burma). If you have no idea where it is on a map, here’s some reference:
Most people haven’t heard much about Myanmar because was a closed country until 2011. No foreigners were really allowed in without an escort and not more than a mile past the border up until it opened. It is a country that has been plagued with civil wars and just recently elected its first non-military president since 1962 when the army coup took power.
90% of the population are practicing Buddhists. Most have never heard of Jesus or the saving power of the gospel. And if they have heard of him, he is just a prophet or a good teacher, nothing more.
The ground is ripe for planting seeds and harvesting fruit. Another squad was here in February and one team saw 20 people come to know the Lord. They also planted two churches while they were here and left them in the capable hands of Burmese who are on fire for the Lord.
We don’t know exactly what these next three weeks will look like, but we are so excited! Just driving through the landscape for the past few hours, I can’t peel my eyes off the window. This blog is taking me forever to write because I keep getting distracted by the beauty that is outside my window.
It makes so much sense that a wonderful Creator made all that I am seeing, and my prayer is that the people we encounter will see the same.
AIM (Adventures in Missions) sells these rings called “Go” Rings. There are 11 thin bands on the main part of the ring to represent the 11 countries us racers go to. And there are 7 bands on the back that holds them all together to represent the approximate 7 people on each team.
Why am I telling you this? Well back at training camp I got one of these rings and what was odd about mine was there were 12 bands instead of 11. I thought it was interesting and in the back of my mind always wondered if that meant something.
Well, now I know, the Lord was preparing me. I was not at all surprised when I found out I was going to spend most of my month in Myanmar instead of Thailand; the twelfth country of my race.
We are all excited and we would all love your prayers! We are out here on our own far away from the rest of our squad. The Lord is with us and we are expectant. We know that when great things for the Kingdom are happening, the enemy pulls out all the stops to keep us from moving forward.
Would you pray for the people here, to have open hearts?
Would you pray for my team and I as we get to know one another better and operate in unity?
Your prayers back home mean just as much as me being physically in the country of Burma sharing with people. Would you get on your knees and fight for us in prayer as we head out and fight the spiritual battle here in this beautiful country?
