Mission Trip Day 1: Mengalaba Myanmar

The faithful day came where I was brewing mixed feelings of anticipation and apprehension. It was like one of those war movies, where the hero struggled greater to overcome the difficulty of saying "goodbye" to loved ones more than the fear of imminent death at war ... such was the anguish which I wrestled with within my heart.

At the airport, I kissed my loved ones liked it would be my last before entering the embarkation gates. With the rush of a last call, we hurried through the checks and quickly boarded the plane.

Seriously, I thought that the budget flight experience was altogether quite pleasant with the drinks, meals, newspaper and all ... I enjoyed the 3.5 hours journey with the occasional chat with pastor sitting next to me.

I brought along my cheapo 128MB MP3 player filled to the brim with Pastor Benny Ho's messages, which served to be highly theraputic and was an excellent relaxant as I caught some forty winks with his message on Romans 1 to 8.

Myanmar was 1.5 hours behind Singapore's time zone, and I arrived at about 4:00pm at Yangon (5:30pm Singapore time). There was a little hiccup at the customs first with pastor's video cam and next my bag load of new sunglasses. Praise and glory to God, I was let off with a stern warning while pastor was retained for further questioning for almost an hour while we all waited (I was praying hard in my heart). Thank God, we eventualy left the airport at about 6:00pm and was pleasantly ushered to a nice and posh hotel, the Grand Plaza Park Royal Hotel.

Having prayed with Hong Jin to cleanse the room, I too had some physical cleansing with a good hot shower.

Reeling in freshness from the hot shower, I spent the rest of the early evening penning down the day's actions and my thoughts. I was also struggling to tackle the day's devotion, in preparation of sharing my devotion.

I actually wanted to learn about the Myanmar language very badly, and God was most gracious, having arranged me to sit beside the brother who drove us around. U Maung Maung Oo gave me the necessary basics of the language through the rest of dinner.

Dinner was pretty good but I wasn't paying as much attention to the food as I was to the new found joy and fascination of a language discovery. The Burmese language rocks big time man !!!

Back in the hotel, pastor gave a debrief and lead us in a short devotion in the night, which gave me encouragement to handle the next day's devotion sharing. Prior to the trip, I didn't know that I was to share before a group of 120 seminary students ??? *Gulp* After fnding out, boy was I completely perturbed, not kids we're talking here but 120 seminary students we're talking about ... and not IT but about God's Words ... mind blowing by my usual standards ... May God have mercy on me ...

But I was going to sleep and let God handle the next day, I have had an eventful day and was deeply thankful already. I could only say, mission trip ROCKS !!!

My Mission Trip to Myanmar

When pastor first gave the invitation for a mission trip yo Myanmar, the Spirit within me gave a leap. I started toying with the idea of going for the trip without really thinking much about it.

During one of the young adult sessions, I shared about this "absurb" idea of me going on the mission trip expecting sneers and sniggers, but instead, Joshua encouraged me and told me his plans to also go for the trip.

However, right smack in Feburary was a bad period because of our newly adjusted academic calender. I told pastor nohting short of a mircale would be needed in order for me to actualise this trip ... and the mircale happened ?!!

My boss actually released me but unfortunately the trip was being postponed till 13th Mar. I asked for a second miracle to be released for this new period and God was at work to again grant me the necessary release. With that, I became pretty assured that God had something intended for me. I obeyed.

The preparation for the trip was not good, as I explained to some of my cell members, "it's like getting a fatso to run a marathan without training". Even days before the trip, I couldn't get my act together to read His Word and pray daily.

But God is good, my extended family from Catherine's side gave me a mini pre-mission trip service complete with worship, exhortation and prayer, while my own siblings laid hands on me and commissioned me.

Sunday's message from Gen 12:2-3 once again reminded me of my calling to ACTS and served as an excellent encouragement for me in preparation for the trip. Up to this point, I hadn't the faintest idea what I would be doing on this trip, but I told myself that if God wanted me there, I would be certain that He had a reason, a good and perfect one if I may say ...