photo journal no. 3

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MYANMAR!!!

About a month and a half late, here’s a little bit about my time in Hakha, Myanmar(:

If you haven’t heard anything about our ridiculous travel week and half from Swaziland to Myanmar, I’ll give you a quick run down. Ten days. Three flights. Over forty hours on a bus. “Layovers’ in Chiang Mai and Mae Sod, Thailand. One boarder crossing on foot (miserable). Thanks to everyone who played a part in planning, we made it there safely, through all the hiccups. This picture was the first glance I had at our cutie mountain town in Chin State. Our setup was absolutely perfect, and it was so fun trying to navigate around a place where no one spoke any english! 

Squattie Potties! One of my biggest expectations that was completely crushed was that travel days were going to be easy because it’s pretty much a travelling organization. Boy was I wrong. Our logistics plan as we go, so none of our travel days have been easy per say. Myanmar was probably the hardest country that we traveled in because the bus stops were so rough. I seriously took Imodium so that I wouldn’t have to figure out how to go #2 in a squattie during our forty hours of busing. I’ll just say, if you haven’t experienced the squattie, you haven’t experienced true asia. This picture is at the nicest stop we had, and the worst was more like a shack with a bucket after walking through the woods at night. 

Our first Sunday at church, we found out that the school we were supposed to be teaching English at was going on Christmas break three days after we got there until after we left. Meaning! We had a total of three days, or six hours, of scheduled ministry for the entire month. At this point in the race, the only thing I could do was laugh. Of course we would drive 24 hours into the mountains for not even a week of ministry! That meant that the rest of our month would be ATL, ask the Lord ministry! I had secretly been hoping for one of these months, even though it’s not typically done on gap year. I just really wanted a chance to see the Lord move through us by doing just what He wanted that day.

I was paired up with one of my teammates, Lauren, and we were teaching third grade. The first day we got there was mostly trying to figure out where their english was, which was SO impressive. We played a lot of games and learned everyone’s names. We got to try out some of the burmese traditional makeup from the teachers. We talked about Christmas, and we played hide and seek on the side of the mountain (literally). Even though my time in the classroom was short, I enjoyed every second of loving on the kids and creating friendships. Teacher Kate misses you all!!

The last day at the school leadership on our squad had to have a call, so we switched up the classrooms a little bit. I was stuck with kindergarten – NOT my forte… We drew pictures and danced to Christmas music for a little bit and played some duck duck goose until! I turned around and my kids were climbing up the walls and out the windows!!! I tried and tried to get them off the walls, but as soon as one was off, another was up! It was their last day before break, so I just kind of let them play outside the rest of the time. One of the girls in particular kept jumping on my back and kissing me on the cheeks! It was absolutely the cutest thing ever. She didn’t want to play with any of the other kids or go on swings, she just wanted to chill on my back and laugh. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Hakha is such a beautiful city, but it’s all on a mountain, so it’s hard to see the whole thing. On the top of the mountain, there’s a viewpoint that we went to for Gracelyn’s birthday. It was the first surprise I’ve ever pulled off! Everything was decorated all cute for Christmas and we watched from there as the sun went down. We had cake and took pictures, and just loved her super well that day. Our ministry hosts were so kind as they tried to make the day so special for all of us! 

My roommate and I absolutely love Christmas and decorating for Christmas back at home, so we were out on the town trying to find a way to make our room look more homey. We finally found some tinsel and Christmas lights for $3, so we came home and celebrated with some Christmas tea she brought from home, some mini chocolate pies we found at a market, and decorating together. It wasn’t at all like home, but it made me feel like it was actually Christmas time. 

One of my favorite things that we did for ask the Lord ministry was being creative for the community around us! We made little artsy handouts in the Chin language and passed them out to people on the streets, servers at restaurants, and the employees at our hostel. We made all sorts of cute ones, but this is the only picture I have from it. This one says “You are worthy of love.” I never really realized the importance of encouraging believers until the race. It’s so easy to get in a little rut with the Lord when you feel like you can’t hear Him or when everything feels like it’s going wrong. It was so special to be a part of encouraging and loving the community around us.

After our “week” of ministry, we took a trip to the river! Our ministry hosts had the whole day planned for us with a picnic and hike. We went all the way down the mountains and down to where the rice patties are, which was such a BEAUTIFUL drive! While the chicken was cooking we worshiped with our feet in the freezing river and our hands raised in glory for Jesus. It was so fun to invite our host, who believes in God but doesn’t know Him as a friend or father, into praising Jesus with us! They cooked us soup and rice in river water (oops we didn’t know) and we feasted together in conversation. Afterwards they took us to get our favorite tea, and they just loved us so well. 

On Christmas Eve we all went to a carnival on the other side of the mountain! We walked there together with our ministry host and some friends we had made while staying there! It was so magical and it reminded me so much of fairs in the summer at home. We went on a super sketchy ride a few times for less than a dollar and played games with cotton candy in our hands. We even found coffee and sushi there! It was for sure a Christmas Eve to remember(: When we were walking back home, the streets were practically empty, so we sang and danced the whole way home down the middle of the road. 

Christmas Day 2019

We woke up and opened our stockings (envelopes we taped to the wall) together and opened our secret santa gifts. We had breakfast together and watched Polar the Express with some burmese tea. We talked to family back home and cried together when our calls ended. I’m not gonna lie, being away on Christmas sucked. It was so hard being away. It didn’t feel like Christmas at all. But! I’m glad that I experienced it. It made me so grateful for the people that give this up year after year to serve our country or to spread the gospel. 

The night of Christmas and the week following, 14/16 of the women I was living with got really really sick. I woke up three times in the middle of the night puking my guts out and spent the next week or so in bed. A lot of us went to the clinic and got take home IV’s that our ministry, who went to a year of nursing school, host tied above us on the bars behind our beds. The two girls who weren’t sick took such good care of us and loved us so well. 

This view became pretty comforting after a few days of nothing. The days that it rained were my favorite because I would just sit with my head out the window watching the storm clouds roll into the valley. The whole town looked like it disappeared those days. 

Going into the race I was convinced that I wasn’t going to get homesick at all. I figured since I had been out of the country and away from home before that I would just be used to it. Boy was I wrong. There were days that I sat in bed and cried because the only thing in the world I wanted was a hug from my mom. There were days that I literally only watched movies and questioned my entire life on the race. There were days that I questioned the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness because I wasn’t seeing the fruit of anything. There were days that the last thing I wanted to do was spend time with the Lord because I felt so unloved and alone. It was such a rough month.

Looking back on it now, I can see the beauty the Lord had for us and sometimes laugh about how sick we all were. It ended up being a super restful month, which is what my body needed. I can see the beauty in being an encouragement for the body of Christ, even when we don’t speak their language. Our ministry host was such a beautiful blessing to us this past month, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to pour into her along with my friends. I know Jesus was there with us. I saw Him in the white butterflies floating around in the forty degree weather and the cherry blossom trees. I saw Him in the way our kids brought us flowers at school and in the sweet kisses on my cheeks. So, as much as I can talk about how hard the last month was, the Lord was still in and through it all. He always is. He always will be.

I want to close out by saying I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not letting you in. You all deserve to be let in even when I feel like there’s nothing worth sharing. You deserve to know about everything Jesus has been doing. With that said, I hope to be more active on the blog these next few months. I hope that you all feel a little more let in. 

As always, please let me know if there’s any specific way I can be lifting you up in prayer. Please reach out with any questions or if you just want to hear more stories. Thanks for always making me feel so loved whenever I share. I’m super grateful for all of you. 

all my love, Kate