Welp, It’s October 19th and we leave Thailand on the 21st… as always, I’m really on top of this blogging thing.
This month I have been living in Mae Sot, Thailand. This particular part of Thailand is located on the Burma border, so while the rest of the squad is learning Thai we are learning Burmese. We are working with an organization called Outpour Movement. They do a lot, too much to even write out, but here is the link to their website that explains their ministry: http://www.outpourmovement.com/
This past week we went into Burma, a country that has been war torn for the past 65 years and is the second largest opium producing country in the world. We came to prayer walk and share the gospel with who ever the spirit led us to speak too. As we arrived we split into teams. My group partnered with a local Burmese man named Myo.
As we began walking and praying I found myself in step with him, walking by his side. (*disclaimer about myself, I am not typically a person who can think of more than two questions off the top of my head to people I first meet. So, As I sit here and think back on this day I can’t help but see the Lord’s movement in and through me.) As I walked next to this man, watching our steps align questions began to flood my mind. I had the sudden urge to learn as much about Him in the couple hours we had together as I could.
We walked through the streets of Burma. We prayed for freedom and unity from this war that has divided the country and left many of its own people refugees. Myo guided us through the streets, showing us the the movement of His life, bringing us to the places he once knew as home. His passion burned bright and flooded into the darkened areas. He brought love to the places that are too “messy” to love.
As we walked along side Myo he told us his story. He spoke of a love that changed everything, a love I have experience, but a love that was really put into perspective through watching and talking to Him. Myo met love from a mundane, average tap on the shoulder. He saw with his eyes flesh but experienced a supernatural love, the purest of love. Myo’s life was changed in an instant by someone taking the time to care, to walk in the overflow of the Father’s love.
Myo, from that day forward walked in love. He pursed people with love. He knew that love could conquer all and he lived as an example to that, because he had been a testimony to that perfect love. As I walked beside him and heard of all the times he has been thrown in jail from wanting justice and seeing him truly live as an example of walking in the Father’s love I couldn’t help but think of Paul.
12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
Philippians 1:12-18
In that pain and suffering he found joy. He sought hard to send love out no matter the cost. As I stood at the end of the day, in awe of his passion and his great love I couldn’t help but think about the amount of people he was going to impact in the future.
We left Burma encouraged and dreaming big of the justice that would soon shake the bounds that contain that country. We left praying hard for Myo and all that the Lord had in store for his life… What we didn’t leave Burma expecting was that the future was brief.
On Saturday morning we were given the heart breaking news that Myo had passed away. How could a future for him I believe so strongly could fade as quickly as the wind does? I sat in the busyness of my day, my life trying to figure out what everything meant. As I sat there looking back on the one day I spent with this man i wondered to myself that maybe the future of his sharing love and impacting many was actually for me and my team.
Myo showed me the deepness of love. He showed me that the simplest of loves can change worlds and move mountains. He showed a glimpse of what the smallest form of love can do to the deepest forms of darkness.
Love transforms lives. Love renews brokenness. Love shatters walls. Love overcomes everything. Jesus is love.
We are never promised more than the day we have. Walk out each day in a overflow of love. Don’t get dragged down by the simplicity of it all, love has power no matter the form.
