In January a team of 5 of us headed to Myanmar. The primary purpose was to take Hunter Bible Church Senior Pastor, Greg Lee to preach at the annual preachers conference. Brooke, Dave, Jes, and I (Andrew) went to teach at RBI.
The preaching and teaching happened in the first week we were there. Greg taught how Jesus fits into the whole bible and from all reports the ministers found it so valuable. They said it was the first time they had seen Jesus in the old testament. About 65 ministers had come from all over Myanmar, which was more people than were invited but such was the reputation from last year, ministers decided to invite extras. One minister invited his Buddhist next door neighbour who seemed to become a Christian during the conference. All in all it was a really exciting conference.
At RBI, Brooke and Dave taught English, while Jess and I taught some ‘Tree of Life’ counselling skills and some basics about personality. Lincoln asked us to teach these things because knowing English helps people become more employable and knowing about psychology would help them broaden their horizons and understand and accept differences between different people. The students really enjoyed the lessons and so did we.In the second week we went for a trip to Bagan, which is a valley with around 2000 Buddhist temples in one valley. It was interesting because it was incredibly beautiful but terribly dark, spiritually. Lincoln came with us and it was a wonderful time to hear more about his and Leah’s plans for their ministries and Myanmar in general.
As a team we had a lot of fun. It sounds weird to say but we had a blast. As with most short term trips we probably benefited more than the Burmese people. But saying that, I think we made some useful contributions and have come back really pumped to keep supporting HMP because Lincoln and Leah have such a great, gospel based and effective vision for Myanmar.
Andrew Orenstein
HMP Trip Leader
