Every month I look for a chance of one on one discipleship. The kind of stuff that needs a friendship. This past month in Myanmar we were told we that we would be living in a Guest House for the month which is essentially the same thing as a hostel, but it has a friendlier name. I knew that there would be no time for building relationships with anyone outside of ministry. Thankfully I was very wrong.
Living in a hostel is fabulous. Sure you may share your space with a bunch of strangers, but as a missionary, I thrive on it. “Please join me for dinner”, “of course you can borrow shampoo”, “do you want to play a game with us?” There is always someone new and exciting. Always a new story to hear about. And if you live in that city long enough you get to give advice about where and what to do.
We met a lot of interesting people this past month and had many opportunities to talk about Jesus, but my favorite story was not about one of the many interesting travelers. It was about a staff member (who’s name I’ll keep off my blog) lets call her Jane. Jane was a 20 year old Buddhist Burmese girl who spoke pretty good English, or at least enough to where if she didn’t understand me the first time I could reword myself and use some hand motions to get the point across. (Thank you Lord for these Hands and feet)
I learned her name early on and greeted her everyday, but in a way that actually showed care. I knew God wanted me to share the Jesus Film (a movie about Jesus you can find on YouTube in just about any language). Our friendship leans a lot on greetings, compliments, games, and Oreos. It’s pretty nice actually. All month there was never a good enough time to sit down and watch this hour movie. The night before we left I thought my chance was gone. God laid it on my heart to pray for her so I asked her on Messenger if I could.
Me: I believe in God and I am always praying. Is there anything you need prayer for?
Her: Sorry I don’t understand what do you mean.
Me: Do you need prayer? Can I *insert burmese word* for you?
Her: I don’t know Do you want to pray?
Me: I pray all the time. I would love to pray for you, to Jesus. What is one thing I could pray for?
Her: Where are you right now? Are you in your room?
Me: No, I am in front. (:
Her: Really? Ok I’ll come to infront. I’m in my room now.
When she came down, Mel and I tried to explain that we pray to Jesus and who he is, but it was still getting a bit lost in translation and I realized this was my chance for the Jesus Film!
Me: Are you busy right now?
Her: No
Me: Do you want to watch a movie?
Her: Yes!
I ran upstairs, grabbed my tablet, and prayed that the wifi would work well enough to stream this off YouTube. Let me tell you something, If God tells you to do something, He is going to be in control. We watched the whole movie with a few minor wifi pauses, but Jane was so into the movie that she got up and reset the router each time. We had so much distraction around us from people playing games to kids running around to my battery almost dying (we finished with 1% battery left). It was a little chaotic around, but Jane’s focus was all in the entire time. The best way to describe her at the end was, ‘shook’.
We talked a little bit about it afterwards and she said she had never seen or heard anything like that before about Jesus so she wanted to learn more before making a decision so I prayed over her, we laughed about a couple things and then she headed to bed.
Morals of the story:
Don’t think that God can’t use something ordinary and turn it into extraordinary (wise words from Mel)
Remember that everyone around you matters.
“Talk to strangers” (wise words from Teresa)
Fun Fact// Scorpion does not taste like chicken, neither does goat hoof.
Prayer Requests:
Jane to understand and have the faith she needs to claim Jesus as her Savior
My mothers fundraising (to join me in South Africa)
Safe Travel to A F R I C A (I am currently in line at the airport as I type this)
