Living in Myanmar has shown me how much I love routines. My team and I quickly realized once we started our first week of ministry that every single day here looks exactly the same. For some people, that can be really hard, it can get boring very quickly and it makes time go by very slow. For me, however, I have fallen in love with the simplicity and consistency of our day to day life. I love going to the same place for lunch everyday and building relationships with the workers. I love getting up at the same time every morning to spend my quiet time with the Lord before everyone else wakes up. And I love working out every afternoon the rooftop of our hostel looking out over the beautiful city of Mandalay.
For this weeks blog I just wanted to give you a quick snapshot of my daily routine and our ministry that has so quickly captured my heart.
7:00am: I wake up to the *very* beautiful sounds of the hundreds of stray dogs barking outside our hostel, and I get to spend the next 45 minutes or so with the Lord before the rest of Huzzah is up and ready to go.
7:45am: We go up to the roof of our hostel and eat breakfast together as a team, and plan our lessons for the day.
8:30am (or sometimes 8:45am if Soe Aye slept in): We get picked up by our amazing driver and English student Soe Aye, and he drives us about a half hour to the church we partner with.
9:30am: Our first small English class of about 5-10 adults starts. We spend the next hour and a half dancing to some pretty fun songs (the Cha Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle, and of course, the YMCA) singing, and teaching them the basics of English- such as the alphabet, animals, and easy action verbs.
11:00am: Soe Aye drives us back to our hostel, and we have a nice afternoon break. We swim, workout, have team time, and have little Bible studies together. We go to the same restaurant everyday for lunch, and the workers are always prepared for us, greeting us with the biggest smiles and lots of rice.
5:30pm: Soe Aye picks us back up and drives us to Moses’ house to teach our second English class.
6:00pm- Our second class begins. This class has about 15 people total- 5 teenagers who are currently in college so they know quite a bit of English, 5 younger kids, and 5 adults. The class as a whole is a little more advanced so we are able to go over harder concepts such as past and present tenses of verbs and lots of adjectives. We of course also include dancing in this class, and lots of fun games such as Simon Says and hangman.
8:30pm: We pick up our dinner from the same restaurant every night and Soe Aye drives us back to our hostel. We eat dinner as a team and end the night just hanging out and talking in our room.
While we do love it here, it has been hard at times that we can’t stay constantly busy here. We aren’t able to go outside after dark due to safety reasons, and there isn’t anything touristy near us. But I have been able to learn to slow down and enjoy the sweet little moments of life, such as eating a whole watermelon with my teammate Gracie while we looked out over the city and talked about life, or worshipping as a team on the roof of our hostel after ministry.
We have a little over a week and a half left here, and I am so excited to see how God continues to work through team Huzzah in our ministry. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers!
-Michelle
