Sunday January 1, 2006

Happy New Year! I hope everyone rang in the new year with a bang, I however didn't make it to midnight and fell asleep shortly after 11pm. The night of the 30th I didn't sleep well and had to wake up at 4am to head to the Bangkok airport. I then flew to Tokyo, Chicago, then Des Moines creating a grand total of 17 1/2 hours of flying and arriving in Des Moines at 6pm local time (6am on the 1st - Bangkok Time). By the time I went to bed I had been up for 31 hours (although through all the flights I managed to get about 4 hours of sleep) and had no food in my body after feeling sick all day.

The trip to Myanmar was amazing and I hope to return in a few years. We spent about 13 days in country and 5 days traveling (14-17 to get there, and 30 and 31 to get back). The experience was life changing and will not be forgotten. In an attempt to capture the entire experience I snapped nearly 1,000 pictures and wrote in a journal everyday so as to not forget any details. I look forward to sharing every detail about the trip with everyone, and will give you a glimpse below.

We spent most of our time in four main cities: Yangon (Rangoon), Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin (May Myo), and Lashio.

Yangon

Yangon is the capital of Myanmar and is the most (if only) modernized city. Electricity is more common in the city and roads and vehicles resemble that of most cities in the world. The city is beautiful and full of palm trees, other tropical plants, and the world's largest pagoda, the Shwedagon Pagoda (a pagoda is a Buddhist temple). Yangon is the only point of entry into Myanmar by plane, so we spent a day here on the way in and a day on the way out. The weather in Yangon was beautiful in the 80's during the day.

both these pictures are of the Shwedagon Pagoda

Mandalay

Mandalay is a city of a few hundred thousand people and is a fairly big tourist attraction (at least for Europeans who frequent the country as tourists). Mandalay is quite different from Yangon in that electricity is less common, especially among residential housing (our hotel had a gas powered generator for power in front of the building). Roads in Mandalay are not marked with lanes and are full of trucks, cars, motor bikes, bicycles, and people all of which going their own speed and honking their horn. Honking your horn is not considered an act of aggression like in the States, but more of an act of courtesy to let the vehicle in front of you know that you are passing. Mandalay is also scattered with pagodas, mosques, churches, and a few Hindu temples. In the few blocks around our hotel there was a mosque, pagoda, and two churches. We spent one day in Mandalay on the way into the country and about 3 days on the way out. The weather in Mandalay was also beautiful in the 70's and 80's during the day.

these three pictures were taken from the roof of our hotel and shows the area around our hotel

Pyin Oo Lwin

Pyin Oo Lwin (also known as May Myo) is about an hour to hour and a half drive from Mandalay and is a few thousand feet above sea level in the mountains. The city is much like Mandalay although a lot smaller and is home to three military academies and a large number of military cadets who are seen around the city. Pyin Oo Lwin is also where one of the orphanages that is supported through the Myanmar Partnership is located. The orphanage was my favorite part of the trip and I really didn't want to leave and I still want to go back. Playing with the kids and spending time with the amazing people who serve the church and orphanage made a big impression on me and I will not forget them. The night before we left the city we were invited to listen to a rehearsal for some songs that some of the orphans were going to sing on Christmas. All four of us commented that we all almost cried like babies listening to them sing, especially when they sang the song "Heart of Worship". We spent about 3 to 4 days in Pyin Oo Lwin and learned a new game called Chinlon (a cross between hack y sack and volleyball) which caused me to buy two Chinlon Balls so we could bring the game to the US. We also played some soccer (football for EVERYONE outside the US) and Tim, Chris, and I led a bible study with some other people our age (some worked in the church or orphanage and some were members of the church). The weather in Pyin Oo Lwin was beautiful and in the 60's to 80's everyday.

looking out a window of the orphanage

three orphan girls (Ja Dim, Seng Ja Nou, Arie Piet) - cutest ever

Chris being dragged around by three boys

kids playing football

one of our football games

Chris and Tim preparing for one of our bible studies

children rehearsing for Christmas service

Lashio

Lashio is about a 5 hour drive from Pyin Oo Lwin which involves at least an hour descent and ascent into a mountain valley via a very windy and dangerous looking road. The road, much like the rest of the roads, is not marked with lanes and is also full of trucks, cars, motor bikes, bikes,and people which makes for a very slow pace and crowded roads (at times). Lashio is set in the middle of some mountains and is very beautiful. The city is much like Pyin Oo Lwin and is about the population size of Ames. We spent about 5 days in Lashio and participated in the 75th Jubilee Festival Anniversary of the local church which ended on Christmas Day. Much of our time was spent in ceremonies and festivals most of which were in Kachin (which none of us speak) so we did a lot of reading unless we had someone translating for us (which wasn't very often). Christmas day we spent on the church compound with about 10,000 other people and witnessed 235 people baptized. The church in Lashio is in the process of reaching out and evangelizing to the surrounding villages and China (Lashio sits about 30 miles from the Chinese boarder) and has seen many people come to Christ. One gentleman I had the pleasure of meeting was a Buddhist Monk and started to seek out the truth on his own; he researched and tried Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and decided in the end that Christianity had the right answers and was truth. During our time here we also visited the market, marched in a parade, and received presents on Christmas day. The weather in Lashio was cold (50's), rainy, and muddy everyday except the morning of Christmas and I wore basically the same clothes everyday for we didn't foresee if being that cold.

sun rising over the mountains

monks walking down the street

Steve giving a speech at the dedication of a new building on the church compound

view of most of the church compound

main road in downtown

under the tent during a ceremony

baptismal pool during baptisms on Christmas day

many people watching the baptisms

Food in Myanmar

Food in Myanmar is basically the same as in China consisting of rice, noodles, stir fry-type meat and vegetables, and lots of tea and coffee. The water in Myanmar is not the most sanitary and even most locals drink only bottled water. After returning home it was nice to be able to brush my teeth without having to use a bottle of water. They have Coca-Cola in Myanmar, which is brought in from Thailand and has a Thai label on it, and they also have their own sodas called Star Cola and Max Cola. Western restaurants are few and far between (the only one I remember seeing was an European restaurant called Triple 'B'), and cities and roadsides are full of family owned restaurants (some of which were kept fairly clean and others were less than par - to our standards). On our way home we spent a day in Bangkok and were once again reunited with western restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King. We also ate a few meals at people's houses which was very delicious and house warming. By the end of the trip I became quite capable with chop sticks and actually preferred them over silverware when it came to eating rice and noodles.

family owned restaurant in Pyin Oo Lwin

Myanmar Beer sign

roadside restaurant owned by a Chinese Christian family

bowl of noodles from breakfast

in Lashio they had to feed the 10,000 people lunch - it took over a 1,000 chickens, 31 pigs, a ton of rice, and about 40 people more than 12 hours to prepare the food costing $1 (American) per person - seen here is part of the 1,000 chickens

eating breakfast in Lashio at Mr. Fat's restaurant

snack at La Seng's in Lashio - absolutely delicious

Chris offering me some Max Cola

eating at a Chinese restaurant in Yangon

What we did while we were there

As I have mentioned before our trip was not a traditional missions trip in that we weren't evangelizing the people, at least it wasn't the intent of our trip. If we tried street evangelism we probably would have been jailed or kicked out of the city or country (one gentleman we met does a lot of evangelism in Pyin Oo Lwin and has been jailed three times for disturbing the Buddhist monks). The local churches do most of the evangelism as they know the culture and people and can better relate to them. Instead we were mainly involved in training church leaders so that their churches will have leaders established in the scriptures to organize their churches and people as God intended. We worked mainly with the Kachin Baptist Convention in Myanmar (Kachin is one of the major indigenous tribes).

Pyin Oo Lwin
In Pyin Oo Lwin Tim, Chris, and myself led a bible study with about 10 to 15 people aged 16 to 28. The first day we went through Ephesians 2 and the second day Ephesians 4. At first it was a little slow going as we started to adjust to being leaders of the discussion instead of participants (as we're normally used to) and to speaking through a translator. I also met a gentleman named Zaul Dan who is interested in studying computer science one day and opening a computer center at the orphanage to train the orphans so that they will be computer savvy upon leaving the orphanage. I made a deal with him that I would start sending some books back with Steve so that he can begin his training while he's still working at the orphanage. Zaul Dan is a really amazing person and I can't wait to get to know him better.

our bible study in Pyin Oo Lwin

Lashio
We were in Lashio for about 5 days participating in the 75th Jubilee Festival. There were a lot of ceremonies all of which were in Kachin or Burmese (neither of which we speak) so it made for some good time for catching up on reading or trying to learn a new language. During our time here we celebrated Christmas on Christmas day with 10,000 people and were given presents in front of everyone. It was definitely a Christmas I will not forget. I also had the opportunity to work on La Seng's laptop computer at which time I learned a valuable lesson: Don't attempt to take apart and reconstruct a computer at night in Myanmar. After the computer was in pieces the power went out, and I had to put it back together by candle and flash light.

ordination of La Seng

Mandalay
In Mandalay we were involved with Steve and the leaders of three or four churches who met for two days for some training. The training was mainly about church-based leadership training in which church leaders would be trained in the church rather than away from the church in seminaries. They also discussed administrative issues such as raising money and money allocation to where the money is needed most. It was really beneficial to take part in the leadership training as we were able to witness what Steve does when he makes these trips. In Mandalay I was also given the opportunity to do some computer training. I met with 6 or 7 people from the church here who are interested in computer training in one level or another. There was one boy aged about 13 and 5 or 6 girls between the ages of 16 and 23. Some were interested in learning more about internet and e-mail while others were interested in web page development and application programming. We basically had a Q&A session in which they asked me questions about computers in general, what I do at work, and about the US. Afterwards we went to their computer center (consisted of about 15 computers) and they had me work on one of their computers, which I was able to fix. I also brought back to the US one of the pastor's laptops to get the monitor repaired and for Steve to bring back with him when he returns in February.

leaders discussing different issues

One of the main events we were invited to participate in was the Jubilee Festival in Lashio. Because a large amount of our time was spent in Lashio we weren't able to be involved in as much training as I was hoping, but I learned a lot about the people and their culture while at the celebration. In a year or two I hope to return to Myanmar to help with computer training and leadership training.

Reflections and Final Thoughts

As mentioned before, the trip was life shaping and will not be forgotten. During our trip I repeatedly found myself thinking of the verse:

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

Luke 12:48

Which led me to ask whether or not I have been living up what is expected of me in relation to the gifts God has given me. The answer is probably not. God has blessed me with a wonderful job, family, friends, and education and looking back I don't feel I've been using these gifts fully for God purposes. In response I've decided to start giving more and more regularly to church and the Myanmar Partnership and dedicating a large portion of my work vacation to God's purposes in the church abroad.

I would also like to deeply thank everyone who donated money to my trip and I hope it pleases you to know that it was the greatest gift you could have given me as it changed me more than anything else could. I also want you to know that your money went to a good cause and was greatly appreciated. I only wish you could have joined me and experienced it for yourself. I would also like to encourage anyone interested in giving to the Myanmar Partnership or the orphanges in Myanmar. If you're interested in finding out more you can contact me or BILD International for more information. Thank You.

---

Here's some more pictures:

If you're interested in seeing more pictures from the trip Conact Me and I'll show you more.