I didn’t come here for comfort //
Myanmar. The hidden gem of The World Race.
Out of our 11 countries, this was the one I often would simply brush right over. As it approached closer to month 5, I had a feeling that this month would be a month of stretching. And boy has it met up to the expectations. Stretching is happening already in just my first week here.
The hidden gem. My new team and I have been placed in a village outside of Yangon, Myanmar for our month of ministry. We are living in a nice little home. We sleep on plywood beds with our sleeping pads. I have now resorted to the floor, and my teammate Krista and I set up her bug net in the hopes of getting even the slightest breeze from our non oscillating fan. Our bathrooms are squatty potties. Bucket showers are a regular and if we’re lucky it’ll rain that day and we get to shower under the gutters. The heat index reaches close to 110 degrees. Sweating is a constant thing here. We have small hand held fans that we carry around everywhere in the slightest attempt to cool off.
I have found myself getting more used to cockroaches and beetles flying around me at night. I still squirm at the sight of them but I’m really working on it. Day by day I will find these creatures a little more bearable.
We have a small charcoal grill to cook our food over this month. I tried to make our team hard boiled eggs the other morning and it took close to an hour to finally get the fire going. A friendly local boy came with some bamboo to assist us after painfully watching us try to do this on our own.
Our ministry is most definitely stretching me this month. I am teaching a college students English Bible School Class. Not my expertise but I do have my wonderful teammate Krista to take charge and I mostly sit and learn along with the kids. Many of the children we live in community with and teach here are orphans. We also have to do quite a bit of preaching which is also something I have been dreading to do this year. Not in my comfort zone, but then again I didn’t come on this journey to be comfortable.
I prayed that this month would require stretching, and The Lord has answered my prayers. Be careful what you pray for, seriously.
All in all, I am so grateful to have the incredible opportunity to be here this month. It’s been hard and I am tired from this heat all day long, but He is pushing me in a positive direction through this. My team and I have bonded quickly and have had to be vulnerable with one another. We will see each other in the good and the ugly, and encourage one another to keep pushing on.
Looking at the little we do have this month and realizing that even the slightest things we can be grateful for. Walking to the restaurant down the road to sit in an 8×15 plywood room with air conditioning after a day of teaching. The women at the market that gave us these hand held fans for free to cool us off in the heat of the day. Taking the bus into the city on the weekends to get WiFi and connect with friends and family.
One of our speakers at Awakening last month, Andrew, told us something that really stuck: Being here is not a sacrifice, it’s a privilege. I am so blessed to be here in Myanmar doing life for a month and learning all about the beautiful culture. Myanmar was a closed country up until just 7 Year’s ago so it is very new for them to see visitors. How blessed am I to have this opportunity for an entire month. Reminding myself daily on the more difficult months that this is a privilege.
I didn’t come here for comfort.
