I have to say, thus far on the race, each month has been better than the last and Myanmar was no exception to that. While I realize that it’s been almost an entire month since I have left, I owe it to you all to tell you more about it.
During the end of month 4 debrief, we were not only rearranged and put into new teams, but my new team and I were also told we wouldn’t be staying in Thailand with the rest of our squad. It was surprising but we were all up for the challenge and adventure.
So we landed in Thailand, found the Myanmar embassy and after a couple of days, got our visas. Two night buses and taxi later and we found ourselves in the little mountain town of Pyin Oo Lwin (and yes, that is how you spell it).
A good portion of our days consisted of going to different houses belonging to friends and acquaintances of our ministry host who were open to hearing the gospel. Some didn’t know who Jesus was, some had heard of him but wanted to learn more, and some knew Jesus and had accepted him but the bonds of Buddhism still held them and they were trying to worship both.
We had the privilege and honor of sharing with each of them the love of the Father and what his Son did to reconcile the world back to himself. We spoke truth about God being the one true God. We spoke to them about the beauty of grace and how it has transformed each of our lives and how it has the power to transform theirs as well. We prayed with some to receive this gift of grace for the very first time. And we prayed for others that their eyes and hearts would soon be cleared to see the truth. Sometimes with tears and broken hearts, we prayed that the bonds of this false religion would fall away from the people of this country and God Almighty would reign in this nation.
One curveball of a day we found ourselves in the hospital waiting while our teammate Allie had emergency surgery on her appendix. Trusting the Lord with everything because that’s all we could do, knowing He is the only one in control. If that was the enemy’s attempt to stop us from being used anymore in Myanmar, it was a weak one at best.
Five days later, Allie was discharged to finish healing at our hotel while the rest of us planned and prepped a six-part teaching on growth in the Christian life. We were asked to teach at a training school full of people who had recently turned their lives back to the Lord (and some for the very first time) and were being trained to be sent back to their villages and live as missionaries there.
It was so cool to sit and listen as my teammates spoke on things like prayer, evangelism, obedience, and healthy Christian community. And despite my fear of speaking in front of a crowd of people over the age of seven, I was encouraged by my team, and quite enjoyed being able to teach on walking with the Holy Spirit.
Our month in Myanmar was full of a lot of laughter, quite a few challenges and a lot of growth. But most importantly a lot of learning how to rely on the Lord for our every need, shown to us first hand by our ministry hosts. Richard and Hannah, on top of everything else they do, run a home for orphaned children. Currently there are 60 or so of them, a lot were rescued out of monasteries. Without much money for basic necessities, we watched and participated in getting on our knees before the Lord everyday and asking for Him to provide everything; notebooks and pens for the upcoming school year, school uniforms, food, healing for Allie, land for them to expand, protection against spiritual warfare, salvation for their nation. And you know what, He provided. In abundance.
I will never forget my time in that beautiful country and I hope that more and more people get to go and experience it. One of the craziest things about it all is that God didn’t need my team and I there. He could have brought his message of salvation through the Christians already there.
But He invited us in and asked us to be apart of it;
To be a part of the wonder of seeing someone come to know Him. Of hearing His name for the first time and wondering at the beauty of grace, something that seems too good to be true.
I’m so glad and humbled to serve a God who invites us in. Who longs for us to get to know Him and wants us to be a part of His redeeming work. And let me let you in on a little secret: you don’t have to travel miles and miles across oceans to accept the invitation.
He wants me to be apart of His work just as much as He wants you to be, right where you’re at. I’m nothing special, I am invited to do the same thing you are everyday: to love God and love people. There’s nothing more magical about doing it halfway around the world. It’s all important, it’s all needed. And those people you pass by everyday, the people I pass by everyday, well, we may be the only representation of Jesus and His love that they see.
So I’ll leave you with this encouragement, accept the invitation. God wants you to be apart of it. He’s given each of us a unique piece of His character to reflect and the world needs to see it. They might not all realize it yet, but they need Him. And because He has asked us to be a part of redemption, they need you too.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
1 Corinthians 5:17-20
