Next Stop --- Yangon

Last night I flew back to Bangkok from Chiang Rai.  Before leaving northern Thailand, the Foxes, another missionary family, and I enjoyed pizza and chicken wings at a Thai pizza restaurant chain. The pizza tasted just like Pizza Hut's. It turns out that the owner of the chain is a former Pizza Hut franchisee!

Mark with Chuck Fox's coffee bush!

After expressing my appreciation to Ruth and Chuck for their generous hospitality, I boarded Thai Airways' late flight from Chiang Rai to Bangkok.  I check-in at the Bangkok Christian Guest House around 11:00 p.m., picked up the laundry (freshly washed) and luggage I left on Thursday, plugged in various electronics to recharge, and hit the sack.  

I am currently back at the airport sitting near the gate for my flight to Yangon.  There are large street demonstrations in Bangkok today.  One of them, with thousands lining the street blow whistles at ear-splitting decibels, is one street from the Christian Guest House.  Hearing that Bankok traffic was snarled near the demonstrations, I decided to leave early for the airport.

Actually, there was no problem with traffic.  My taxi driver had me to the airport in 45 minutes (1 hour at mid-day is usual).  I quickly checked in and passed through security.  My flight boards at 5:30 p.m.  I arrived at 1:30 p.m.  I've never been one to cut it close! And, as I do not know how easily I will be able to connect to the internet in Myanmar, I decided to put the time to good use and bring my blog up-to-date.

Please hold me in your prayers during the next few weeks.  I've been a frequent visitor to Thailand over the last five years.  So, coming here is returning to the familiar.  For the next three weeks I will be stepping into the unfamiliar. I will be living at the Karen Baptist Seminary's guesthouse in Yangon, participating in classes, making visits to Karen Baptist Churches, celebrating the Judson Bicentennial with the Karen Baptist Churches of Myanmar, and hopefully having an immersive (good Baptist term) experience of Baptist life in Myanmar.  (My final two weeks in Myanmar will be spent with an American Baptist group in the country for the Myanmar Baptist Convention's Judson Bicentenary celebration.)

One of the rationales for this sabbatical is to be immersed in the culture and reality of Burma, in some small way reversing the process that refugees from Burma experience as they make a new life in the United States.  Pray with me that I will be open to how God will be at work in and through me during these few weeks.