A Very Full Day with Kachin, Karen, and Chin Brothers and Sisters.

Today I met up with some of other early arrivals for the Myanmar Mission  Discovery Team sponsored by ABC International Ministries.  I will be spending the next two weeks with this group attending the Myanmar Baptist Convention's Annual Meeting and Judson Centennial Celebration. Then, we will head out from Yangon to visit several significant sites related to the Judsons' mission work.  Several other members of the team will be arriving in the next twenty-four hours.

We joined several ABC/USA leaders today in making a series of visits.  We began the day at the Kachin Baptist Convention's annual meeting for the morning worship service.  The Kachin State is in the far north of Myanmar near the Chinese boarder.  It has been in the news recently because the Myanmar army has been waging a campaign in the Kachin State which has brought great suffering to the indigenous population.

This morning, it was a challenge just to enter the worship site as there were as many people outside the building as inside.  It was quite literally an overflow crowd!

The ABC contingent making its way through the throngs of Kachin
Baptists to the meeting hall.

Once inside the packed hall, ABC/USA General Secretary, Dr. Roy Medley, and other senior American Baptist leaders brought greetings.

Dr. Medley addresses the Kachin Baptist Convention.

Following morning worship with our Kachin Baptist brothers and sisters we drove across town to the Karen Baptist Convention's headquarters for a time of fellowship and a luncheon. American Baptist and Karen Baptist participants were introduced and several shared aspects of their various ministries.

American Baptist Home Mission Boards' Asian Strategist, Rev. Florence Li
shares the ABC Burma Refugee Taskforce video about American Baptists
welcoming refugees from Burma into their churches and communities.

The meal reminded me of a fellowship supper at Tabernacle with a variety of tasty Karen dishes and great conversations around the tables!  In fact, it was hard to pull ourselves away from these engaging conversations and get back in the van to go to our next stop. We next visited a Kachin fabric shop where women and men alike purchased colorful Kachin cloth --- some for personal use and some for Christmas presents. 

Considering Kachin fabric options.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon with representatives of the Chin Human Rights Organization learning about their efforts to promote human rights within the Chin State and to work with the Myanmar government to begin creating a more democratic, open, and responsive state. The Chin are an ethnic group living mostly in the Chin State near the Indian boarder.  As with many of Myanmar's ethnic minorities, there has been a long history of military conflict with the central government and military. There are now large communities of ethnic Chin living in the United States and other nations around the globe.  But, in the last couple of years Chin leaders have begun the long, slow process of negotiating with the national government for more just and peaceful future. The Kachin leaders spoke of the many small steps necessary to begin to establish trust on both sides after sixty years of conflict and distrust.  That these initial, small steps are being taken is a very hopeful sign!

Rev. Don Ng, Pastor of San Francisco's First Chinese Baptist Church,
listens as Chin leaders discuss the challenges and opportunities
facing the Chin people in Myanmar.

We concluded our day with a delicious dinner of Burmese cuisine with our Chin brothers and sisters at the House of Memories, a restaurant housed in a historic Yangon villa that served as General Aung San's (Aung San Suu Kyi's father) private office during World War II. 

General Aung San's office.

We have another long day planned tomorrow with many more visits. So, I will sign-off and hit the sack!

#MyanmarIM