It looked like this was going to be a month of ministry where we couldn’t talk about God. Missions work without preaching the Gospel? How was this going to work?
Our sixth month of ministry was Unsung Heroes in Myanmar. We were given the opportunity to enter a formerly closed country and seek out Kingdom-focused ministries for the World Race to partner with in the future. The task was pretty daunting, so I set my expectations pretty low.
Because Myanmar is a recently-opened country, we arrived with no idea of what the religious climate looked like. We wanted to protect our future contacts and AIM’s potential to enter this country with other racers.
But how do you avoid talking about the one thing, the one person who is central to your very being?
On the Race, how do you avoid talking about God?
During our previous five months, I was so used to sharing what we were doing with people we encountered. It looked a little like this:
“We’re on something called The World Race. It’s an 11-month Christian missions trip to 11 different countries. We travel with 45 other people to each country, and then split into our teams to go out and serve, sharing the love of Christ wherever we go.”
This was condensed to:
“We’re doing humanitarian work through an organization in the States.”
And it was hard. I kept telling myself that if we were careful now, this would help keep the door open for future racers to come into Myanmar. But I felt like I was hiding my faith.
I felt guilty.
I felt stifled.
I felt censored.
Heck, I didn’t even know if we could pray for our meals in public.
Fortunately, this didn’t last for too long. On our second full day in Yangon, we ended up walking beside a pastor on the street who was on his way to a Baptist convention. Some of my teammates followed him, and through the connections we made there, we had enough potential contacts (over 10) to last us the rest of the month. Without any research or legwork, God dropped answers to our prayers right on our lap.
It also turns out, in the southern region of Myanmar, there’s quite a bit of religious freedom. With this knowledge, we happily opened up and were able to share our faith and journey with everyone we met. Our team was super fortunate to cast off our censorship, but other areas of the nation are not so lucky. I can’t imagine.
It was so inspiring to meet all of our different contacts, knowing that before Myanmar opened up, they faced persecution and yet held onto their faith. It was convicting, and I asked myself if I would stand firm in the face of persecution, or start to censor myself. I would like to think my answer is yes, I would hold fast, but sometimes I’m not so sure.
At least for today I’m so thankful to have the freedom to serve God and journey all over the world with Him.
I am still in the process of raising funds for my trip. I have only $600 left to being fully funded. If you would like to give, click the “SUPPORT ME” tab on this page.
