Aching for Myanmar and China

One Jan term in college I decided I wanted to travel, so I went to Myanmar with a group from my college and spent a month there. I decided to go because Myanmar is the type of place it’s hard to travel to on your own. I came back having experienced God in a way that will never be replicated. There is a spiritual darkness that surrounds that country, and I could literally feel heaviness all the time, especially when I walked through temples and saw children mimicking their parents’ worship of gold-leafed statues. The faces of the Burmese are beautiful, but they are filled with desperation. God alone is powerful enough to penetrate Myanmar’s darkness, and the testimonies of believers I met in that country are evidence that He is already doing so.

It hurts my heart to see the photos and hear the stories coming out of Myanmar. The world is weeping along with the Burmese and the Chinese. I talk a lot about social justice and taking action, and I read a lot of books about it. I now find myself in one of those moments when no matter how loud I try to talk about social justice, my voice is drowned out by the overwhelming photos and statistics from the cyclone and China’s earthquake. It’s in these moments that the Lord challenges me with a “so act already.” I looked through my pictures last night, and wept over the faces of the people I met, knowing that most of them are suffering in ways I can’t fathom. I’d leave tomorrow for Myanmar if I could. And I’m thinking about it. In the meantime, I’m grateful for organizations like World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, the Red Cross and countless others who are quick to act and offer opportunities for us to act with them. I’m also grateful for the power of prayer on behalf of the people of these countries that you see on the news. Through the church’s global response, the power of Christ is infiltrating countries that have fought long and hard to keep Him away.

“For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children” (Romans 8:19-21).