“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.””
Revelation 7:9-10
In our room, written across a large banner, are the words “Making Jesus Known.” On one of our first days English classes a student saw the writing and asked Teacher Mang what “Jesus” meant. She had never heard the name before and thought it was the name of our team. On Sunday, after a few weeks of classes, I got to share the Gospel with her and the rest of our students when I told my testimony at our house church service.
Each Sunday, our ministry host, Teacher Mang, holds a free English class/church service. During that time, we worship in English, share testimonies, and Teacher Mang gives a message in English, translating it into Myanmar as he goes. Part of what I’ve been learning about recently is our place in the ministry of reconciliation, our role as ambassadors of Christ. One of the most powerful ways to walk in that role is through the sharing of testimonies. And this Sunday, it was my turn. It was the coolest thing to look at a room full of students that we’d been building relationships with over the past month, and have that relationship bear the fruit of getting to share the gospel in a personal way.
Ministry this month has been really relational. We teach English classes throughout the week. Usually the students have a lesson, then practice conversation with us, using the things they’ve learned. This has been one of my favorite ministries because students really do benefit from what we’re doing, but the whole time we’re also building relationships with them. We haven’t had the chance to share the gospel in our class, because it’s been out of place in a sense. We’ve been building relationship for the sake of relationship, not with the agenda of having something to bestow upon them. Through that relationship, however, I found myself in the place to share my testimony of the Lord’s goodness with the majority of our class.
This is what we’re doing in Myanmar. We’re teaching and sharing the Gospel with people who have literally never heard the name of Jesus.
ALSO. As an update to my previous blog:
In my last blog, I wrote about the questions I’ve been wrestling through. I don’t want this blog to be about those questions again, but I do feel the need to bring resolution to my last blog since it left my faith in a pretty vulnerable place. Since writing my previous blog, I have found answers to my questions. The Lord revealed some places in my faith and theology that were flawed at somewhat foundational levels. I don’t think we’re owed any answers, but the Lord gave me answers and that deserves praise. All that goes to say that I’m in a really good place with my faith and those questions I lifted to the Lord were answered in genuinely satisfying ways.
I’m reading the Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis and it’s given insight into the way and reason to ask questions:
“For me there is no such thing as a final answer. The free wind of inquiry must always continue to blow through the mind, must it not? Trove all things’ . . . to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.’
“If that were true, and known to be true, how could anyone travel hopefully? There would be nothing to hope for.”
There always are more questions to ask (and I am still asking them), but I don’t want to be in a place where traveling is better than arriving. Because then, “how could anyone travel hopefully? There would be nothing to hope for.” Ministry this month has been full of hope because of the destination we’re working towards.
