February 15, 2012 – 11am – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

DEAR DiARY,
we flew in last night from Yangon, Myanmar. We’re staying downtown at this Rainforest Guesthouse and it’s pretty cool. Kind of rustic, and a spacious public area on each floor, so it makes up for the rooms having less than one foot between the foot of our bed and the wall. Hahaha.

Where do I start when I begin to process the past two weeks in Myanmar?

Yangon was a great place to finish up our overseas ministry. China was wearing on me- it was cold and all our friends had left Guangzhou. I got sick in the last week and felt useless to the team. Malaysia was a good transition place, and I had really great quiet times. Then I kind of fell apart in Myanmar. We flew in on Tuesday, 31 Jan; were picked up at the airport by Veronica and Christine and ate at a nice Burmese style restaurant.
On Wednesday we had orientation with the staff of Every Nations Church Yangon (ENCY). The pastors go by the names Teacher John, Teacher Kap, and Teacher Mang. These men of faith walk in great humility and love to learn, even though they are each gifted instructors. We got to know one another over plates of sticky rice, and I mean every kind of sticky rice you could imagine: banana sticky rice, prawn sticky rice, coconut sticky rice; sticky rice with peanuts… it was delicious.

As we transitioned into logistics, our new friends continued to open their lives to us, thanking God that two teams had become one; working together for the Kingdom of Heaven. Each of us from YWAM Maui received a welcome brochure and a calendar of events, introducing us to Myanmar; informing us of the practices, goals, and ministries of their church; and phonetically listing numerous helpful phrases such as the cheerful Mingle-aba: Hello!

For the next two weeks we were catapulted into a community of believers who take seriously the Word of God and His desire to see people and nations transformed by the renewing of our minds. We saw them live to disciple new believers in the faith, constantly lowering themselves to be servants of one another, and remaining teachable at all times.

The ministries we were invited to be a part of were excellent and clearly designed by the Lord. I met with one young woman who described their church’s family tree in such a way that emphasized their roles are to walk and model leadership, while remaining anchored to Christ and their own mentor in the Church. That might sound really confusing, but their family is healthy, organized, and diligent. They have a growing desire to reach out to the community and do so by teaching English lessons once a week; centered around God and a lesson from the Bible.

When I arrived in Myanmar, I was exhausted, I did not know how I was going to serve the church. Their generous blessings and Spirit-filled encouragement is what got me through the journey. Our schedule was overwhelmingly full, so much so we took a picture of the calendar at the end of the trip, yet I have never been more refreshed than I was after our last prayer meeting and debrief time. Not by my might, nor by my own power, but by the Spirit of the Living God who continues to “give us today our daily… rice.”

Please continue to pray for Myanmar and Every Nations Church, Yangon!