Myanmar 2014

So I have been to Myanmar and back.

We watched from the sky as we landed and were fairly certain that we would be like the city mouse goes to the country. There were no tall buildings. Nothing to indicate that we were in a metropolitan area.  But once we got on the ground and entered the city the massive traffic jams cured us of any country expectations. 

We desended from the plane to the amazing view of Air Force One. It was just a plane. But a huge white mechanical genius with the big blue letters spelling THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA followed by the Red White and Blue. It was breath taking. Being the only American on the plane from China to Yangon I felt almost like royalty. Perhaps we would see Him. Of course we did not. In fact His presence in the city caused traffic to be blocked off and detoured in such a way that I actually began to feel embarrassed that such a fuss was being caused by my head of state. 

Saturday, the first full day in Myanmar was spent shopping. We trucked ourselves down to the gem market and some gems were purchased. We got to meet the seller who sells Eden many of their jewels. It was really cool. Of course every sapphire or ruby or fire opal that I asked to see were in the thousands of dollars. I consoled myself by congratulating myself that I have good taste.  We got to meet a monkey at one of the churches in downtown Yangon. 

Sunday, we had fellowship in the afternoon. It was a new place that has been gradually growing and was held in a small apartment. It was a very charismatic group that met with several healings as well as many words of wisdom spoken for many there.  

Monday, we began to teach Shine at 10am. We had expected to have 6 participants. Three women wanting to be trained as facilitators and three as participants. In the way that only Father can do things we arrived Monday morning to find 10 participants. Which was the exact number of gifts I had packed for each session. Hooray for His Plan. Some of the teaching we had to change due to cultural differences and or educational levels. 

Tuesday, two of the women who attended on Monday were ill. So from Tuesday on we had 8 women that we taught. We had four days to go through all eight sessions and we succeeded. Each session has a special gift at the end. On day's gift is usually a letter that tells them what potential we have seen shining from them. Because many of the women could not read we tried to give them tangible gifts that would have some significance to the sessions. So instead of writing them each a letter this time we painted them a picture with one word on it.  

Please lift these women up as they go forward in sharing what they learned from Shine with other women. 

P.M.-her favorite session was: My Potential is Limitless.

W.M.-her favorite session was: My Decisions determine my Destiny

D.D.-her favorite session was:My Life has a Purpose

L.S.-her favorite session was: My Life has a Purpose

T.T.-she didn't have a favorite session.

M.A.- her favorite session was: You are One of a Kind

S.T.-her favorite session was: My Decisions determine my Destiny

J.J.-her favorite session was:You are Valuable

There were 10 people groups represented at our Shine Graduation, including Kalinda, our Chinese helpers, and myself. 

Thank you for your petitions for me while I was there, I know that your faithfulness helped me greatly. I was seriously exhausted once returning home due to the intense ministry that was undertaken. I would be glad to share more details one on one in person via Skype or Face Time or via email. Your support and love is felt. Thank you!

Youth Group Talk

My life has been a huge whirlwind since being back here. 

I was able to have a junior high girl sleepover about a week after returning from the States. 

Talk about jumping right in!!

We have the Youth Group's annual fund raiser the last Saturday in November so we painted canvases for the event. I wasn't quite sure how it would all end up but it turns out that they were all hiding artists. I was really proud. 

In the process of being active at Youth Group again I volunteered to speak about how JC gives us a relationship with our Heavenly Father. Many of you know that our salvation isn't the only thing that dying on a cross accomplished for us. It is a reality that many of us take for granted. It was a good reminder for me. Preparing for it was exhilarating because I was reminded that in the beginning we were all created to be in relationship with Him. It is only due to our own sin and no longer being pure or holy that caused our own personal rift with the Father.  BUT because He loved us so much He sent His Son to repair that rift to pay the consequences of our sin so that we could be reconciled to Him. 

HIS LOVE.

It is a mighty thing. To be loved is precious. We asked the kids at Youth Group-Do you Love God? One of the junior high girls responded-"It would be weird to not love someone who loves you so much." I thought her comment was deeply profound. Do you know that He loves you? 

He does. 

I John 4:18 &19 says: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us."

As I attempt to share the love that He has given me with those around me I ask that the One who loves you would turn your head toward Himself today. Spend some time with One who deeply longs for you to be with Him. 

Official October Newsletter!!

Hi. 

I am excited to tell you that I have made it back to China safely and am looking forward to another eventful year. 

I am so very thankful for all your love and encouragement. I was able to see many of you while I was in the States these past few months. My time in the USA was very full. I was blessed to share this work with many new groups of people and re-connect with long time friends and supporters.

While there, I was able to touch base with old KM teammates who have big changes in their future and was able to properly give them encouragement as well as have good closure to our times together. This was really special to me and I was really glad to be able to be encouraged by them as well.

Thank you so very much to all of you who were able to make time in your life to meet with me. For those of you who were unable to see me due to my schedule or your schedule, I hope that next time I am on Home Assignment we can make a rendezvous happen.  

I was blessed by the many churches and individuals that I was able to meet with. This was one of my requests to Father before I came back to the States that He would bless me with meeting new people and making good connections.  So, Thank you. 

Worth the Wait

We found this stone with the saying: No Cross, No Crown inscribed on it.

 

Thank you to everyone who has been faithfully petitioning for my ministry.  I had some days of wondering if I would waste away as a correspondent between organizations. Forever doomed to try and coordinate the bosses schedules. But despite my occasional doubts I knew that Father had great things planned for this program that I am working on. Shine is a special program and the way we have melded it together with Wait Training really gets me excited to talk with teens. 

This now will be my report on how the trip went. Enjoy!

April 8-10, 2014 Shi Lin Number 4 Middle School Visit

Angela, Denise and Peter 

traveled to Shi Lin by a rented private car. In a local Shi Lin restaurant we met Mr. Cai (the vice principal) and two teachers. At this luncheon we explained the Shine School Program and discussed that our plan was to teach 45 minutes of the program regarding Worth, Choices, and Purpose. We notified them that we wanted to return to do the second 45 minute presentation on Healthy Relationships and Protecting Themselves. When they heard that there was two parts to the program and that the second part was regarding Healthy Relationships and how to protect themselves. They insisted on giving us adequate time to teach the whole program.

We were escorted to the school grounds and given one of the teacher’s old apartments to stay in during the duration of our time. The apartment had three bedrooms, a living room, a chinese style bathroom, and a kitchen. We were encouraged to stay on the grounds for our safety. We were invited to meet the two classes we would be teaching later Tuesday evening and so Peter went to one class and Denise went to the second class. For a half hour we introduced ourselves to these classes and then the classes as well as ourselves went to dinner at the school cafeteria. Then at 7:30-9pm we taught the entire Shine School program to these two classes-approximately 90-100 students. 

The next day, Wednesday, we ate breakfast and lunch at the school cafeteria and we taught 4 classes-two in the morning from 9-10:30am and two in the afternoon from 2:30-4pm. During one of these sessions the teachers did not stay for the whole program and afterward informed us that they left early because they were afraid the students would feel embarrassed to ask their questions if they were there. 

The atmosphere at this middle school was very welcoming but not overbearing. We never felt imposed or pressured to do or teach anything we didn’t want to do. The teachers and administration desired us to be there not to teach english but to help their students become all that they could be and help them realized the risks that the world has in it. They recognized the need as well as the importance of this program. The vice principal told us that he could see the immediate results of the program because when he had the students in his class after we had taught them the students in general were vastly more well behaved and kinder to one another. This gave us much pleasure. 

The administration took us out to dinner on Wednesday night and they were very polite and did not pressure us to drink too much. Our reserve seemed to effect the reserve of the administration. We were introduced to a principal and vice principal of a near by elementary school and then after dinner we proceeded to visit their school and see the campus. They invited us to come and teach their students. I told them that at this time we only had curriculum for middle school age.  But I said that we would love to return at some time in the future. Perhaps in conjunction with a teacher training via Dawen. We then returned back to the Number 4 Middle School campus for bed. 

Thursday, we taught two classes from 8:30-10am and then we had lunch with the vice principal’s family. In this situation there may be significant relationship building opportunity. Mr. Cai told Angela and Denise about how his daughter, age 21, returned from college suddenly and refusing to return due to reasons she wouldn’t share. Her personality seemed to be significantly changed and she began to buy dogs in the dozens. Her father was and is still very concerned for her but doesn’t know what to do. He would like it if we or some one from Dawen could come and help her.  

The other situation that Mr. Cai has asked for our help with is that they have a 15 year old young man who has been acting out in school, causing trouble and beating other students up and stealing their money. This young man’s father had died and his mother has remarried. The administration seems to believe that the home atmosphere is healthy but we were unable to talk to this young man because he did not come to school the next few days. 

We are trying to arrange for Trudy (from Dawen), Angela, and I returning to Shi Lin to spend some time with Mr and Mrs. Cai and helping them know how to help their daughter as well as teach some of the teachers on how to deal with unruly students and to spend some time with both this troubled boy and Mr. Cai’s daughter. 

All in all I feel greatly blessed by Father for his blessing with this school as well as for our contact in Mr. Li-who set all this up for us. 

We are awaiting Mr. Li’s return call to let us know if there is additional schools we could visit this month. We gave him dates for next week and the week after. Therefore, we will await his direction.