It’s been about a week since we arrived. The travel day from Thailand to Myanmar was rough. It was a 20 hour bus ride plus walking a few miles with our backpacks across the border. The day was stressful, exhausting, and very hot. But now we live in a hostel in the city of Yangon that has a population of over 5 million people and do ministry every weekday. We wake up before 6, I work out, we eat breakfast, and get on a bus for one to two hours to get to our ministry that’s in a village. We work at a children’s home that takes care of kids aged 6 to 15.
Our ministry host, VT Samuel, has four of his own kids and in the past four years he has taken in 15 additional kids that he feeds, takes to school, shares Jesus with and loves wholeheartedly. They are from broken homes or homes where the parents can’t provide for them. VT Samuel, his wife, and brother-in-law take care of the kids even though they do not have jobs or any income. All their money comes from donations from people in the Christian churches around Yangon. The kids don’t have much. They share wooden beds with each other and have very little clothing. But the kids have so much joy, are so well-behaved and respectful, are so willing to help out, can have fun with just each other, and have such a desire to learn. I have felt so much love and gratitude in the last week from them. It’s going to be tough to leave these kids in two weeks. Every day we teach them English and Bible stories and play games with them. They LOVE playing Telephone and Musical Chairs. Trying to pass just one English word from one child’s ear to the next while playing Telephone has been challenging, but the kids love every minute of it. The next two weeks are going to be a lot fun with them.
So let me tell you about Myanmar (Burma). It borders Bangladesh, China, Laos, and Thailand. It is a weird, smelly, dirty place. I don’t think I will ever come back here and don’t really understand why people come here to visit. But I love our ministry and our hostel is nice. Plus we found a healthy cafe that has tons of good food. We have been there every day in the last week! Myanmar is a mix of all cultures: Indian, Chinese, Thai, and pretty much every other Asian culture. There are so many different races here. The city that we are living in, Yangon, is very busy, crowded, hot, and interesting. There are food vendors everywhere you go, the sidewalks are very hard to walk on, there are always terrible smells, trash is everywhere, a lot of people stare at you, the food is unusual, and driving here is crazy. I would suggest visiting Thailand and Guatemala, but maybe not Myanmar:)
I also have some exciting news to share. I deferred going to UNC Wilmington last spring until the Fall of 2019 and a few days ago I officially told them that I was enrolling there. I’ll be a Seahawk in the fall! I know this is exactly where God wants me to go to college. If anyone is reading this blog and is going to UNCW next year, let me know!
Please pray for our ministry host to find a church partner so he can buy more land and have more money to take care of more kids!
Much love,
Nicole
