News from Yangon.

Hello to all our friends and family! It’s still so amazing that we are here and we’re already half way through our time. The time really is going by so fast! Although I miss home, family and friends it’s hard to think about leaving here. As I think about the last 6 weeks and the time we have left, a question we discussed in one of our school staff meetings comes to mind, a story really about perspective:

A man is walking one day and passes a construction site. He asks one worker, “What are you doing?” The man replies, “I’m laying bricks.” He continued on his way and came to another worker, “What are you doing?” he asked again. This man replied, “I’m building a wall.” Still he continued on and stopped to ask one more worker, “What are you doing?” This worker replied “I’m building a cathedral!”.

Each one was doing the same thing, yet each had a different response. The question we pondered is which worker are you? I wanted to say of course, I’m building the cathedral! Yet is that really my perspective? Honestly, no. I see His kingdom as the end result and sometimes at the end of the day I can stand back and say, yes Lord, I can see this is a wall. Most days, I do my best to lay bricks, living in the here and now as this is where He has called me and equipped me for today!

So each day I ask Him to make me the best English teacher I can be. We have so many opportunities to speak love and encouragement into our students lives, something they don’t often experience in the sphere of education here. Lord, keep our hearts and eyes open to the opportunities! Almost half of our students are Buddhist! Join us in praying for them. Pray for us, that we would become more like Jesus with every brick we lay so that all of our students will experience Him.

The end of this week brings many celebrations to Yangon. Friday is Union Day and a Buddhist holiday, new moon I think. Saturday is a revered general’s birthday, Sunday is the Chinese New Year and of course, Valentines Day! The city has come alive with mini carnivals, and migrant merchants setting up booths all along the road side. The “grocery store” is full of special foods for the New Year and they even have Valentines gifts. We’ve received several invites to parties!

We pray that as the world celebrates this season of love, you will know the greatest love of all. Thank you all for your prayers and love for us. We love and miss you.

Carol and Fred