By Adam Hamerlinck (AKA Clay)

Hey, Friends!

We are currently somewhere over the Andaman Sea between Myanmar and Bangkok, on our first of three flights back to the US. As we wrap up our two-week trip with MyHope, there is so much to reflect on and process

It is a humbling feeling to be flying back to the United States in my comfortable plane, eating my tasty food, headed for my insulated, air-conditioned, and decorated home knowing that I just spent two weeks being taught so much about life and godliness from people who live in abject poverty. I assure you - I am so thankful for the many opportunities and gifts I have been given, yet there was something soul-wrenching and perspective-shifting about living with the beautiful people of Myanmar for this short time.

For those that can’t go to Myanmar and experience what our team had the honor of experiencing, I’d like to share five things I have learned from the Kuki Christians in Myanmar.

1. Wealth is Relative

This isn’t a mind-blowing observation, but the point can’t be overstated. I could’ve told you before we left for Myanmar that there is more to life than money and financial wealth. However, my limited perspective still wasn’t able to fully grasp the true richness these people possess.

In Myanmar I experienced joy, thankfulness, appreciation, and gratitude at levels that are hard to express with words. As embarrassing as it is to admit, it can be hard for my first-world mind to comprehend how someone can be so happy when they lack most of the things that bring me happiness. We spent a lot of time at Hope Boarding School, which houses 50 students from 5th-10th grade. None of those students have phones, video game systems, cool trendy clothes, or the newest back-to-school gear; however, the happiness and glee that permeated every pore of their bodies was clearly visible.

The things which they do have they are so thankful for, but they don’t attach value to them like we do with our material things. We were able to bring some gifts for the students and adults workers (sports equipment, shoulder purses, personal notebooks), snacks and candy, and the students were very excited. But I also saw students and adults offer to give their gift to someone else because they thought that person would like it more. Countless times we were invited into people’s homes, and these weren’t what many of us would consider a home. These are no-running-water, no-air-conditioning, holes-in-the-bamboo-walls-for-doors-and-windows, open-fire-for-a-stove kind of homes, yet the people welcome you and are honored to have you as a guest. In the US we often don’t want to have guests over until our floors are deep cleaned, windows spotless, and everything tidied up, and even then we feel “embarrassed” or insecure about our modest arrangements.

We spent time at the Kuki Christian Convention in the rural northwest of Myanmar, where the average monthly income is around $20. The people there sang, danced, and prayed to the Lord with a heart of joy that you could feel in your bones. The way they live in community and love their neighbor as themselves is beautiful. The Kuki Christians in Myanmar are some of the richest people I have ever known, and it had nothing to do with finances.

I learned that wealth is truly relative.

2. The Faith of a Child is Something to Behold

Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:16-17)

I’ve never been able to read passages like Luke 18 and fully grasp the picture Jesus was painting… until this trip. The students at Hope Boarding School and the kids in the northwest at the convention possess a boldness of faith that I lack. Below are pictures of them singing and praying, but the snapshot in time doesn’t do it justice. The humility, trust, and innocence that those kids bring to the foot of the cross is something I desire to see in myself.

Christian worship at the 2020 Kuki Christian Convention

I’m not much of a crier (i.e. I’m often an emotional wreck; I cry at Hallmark commercials), but I was so overcome with emotion watching those kids sing with everything they had and pray like they knew it was being heard. I’ve heard Chuck and MaryAnn say that when the HBS students pray for something be ready to see God move. I know that God works in ways that I can’t comprhend, but I can totally understand what Chuck and MaryAnn mean. These kids pray with the confidence that there is a God who knows them and is listening to them. Most Christians I am around, including myself, don’t possess that kind of confidence even though Scripture affirms to us that it is so.

I learned that the faith of a child is something to behold.

3. Worship is contagious

After being around me for more than ten minutes it becomes apparent that I’m not much of a singer and I dance as though I have two left feet. Despite my clear lack of talent, I dance and sing like I believe I’m the love child of John Travolta and Adam Levine. Although I like to make a fool of myself, there are some settings where I hold back those unbecoming qualities because of appropriateness and not wanting to embarrass myself in front of certain people. A church gathering is one of those settings.

Children taking a play break at the 2020 Kuki Christian Convention

However, I don’t care who you are or what talents you do or don’t possess, you can’t gather together with the Kuki Christians and not dance and sing with a heart of joy! The first night of our convention the choir and worship team were leading songs and various people would come up and sing a special song. I kept being distracted by the people who would come up front between the chairs and stage and dance freely as they sang. At first, I was super uncomfortable and couldn’t help but be turned-off, as I felt it was probably distracting to others at the convention like it was to me. Oh, how shallow is my perspective of worship.

More and more people would work their way forward to dance and sing as the weekend convention went on, and on the last night I was right up there with them dancing their traditional Kuki dance. Did I look absolutely ridiculous? For sure! Did I or anyone else care? Not at all! Their heart for worshiping the Lord was so pure and overflowing from their soul that it didn’t even matter that I couldn’t understand the words which they were praying and singing. The heart of worship transcends language barriers. I was far from my comfort zone, yet I couldn’t help but join in the communal worship happening around me.

I learned that worship is contagious.

4. The Church Was Given a Mission Not a Model

In the northwest we gathered at the convention with over 1,200 followers of Jesus from many different villages and at least 10 different church denominations. The boarding school was an equivalent representation of diversity. Not one time while we there did we meet inside a church building. In all of the times that we had sessions and Sunday services, we didn’t once take communion. (At least not as we see it in American Christian churches. More on this in the next thing I learned). We didn’t follow any kind of liturgy and there definitely wasn’t any value put on “production quality”. No fancy lights, only a sound system which we wouldn’t find suitable for our services.

Praying for and dedicating the newly constructed second floor at the New Pathway Home for Widows

Although much of what felt like “church”, as I knew it, wasn’t present, what was present was the gathering of believers, the intentional discipleship of the people, prayer for the nations, proclamation of the Gospel, and making a joyful noise to the Lord. Sometimes we confuse Church with the model of “church” that is familiar to us, but the living out of the Gospel that I have read and conversated about felt supernaturally real to me for the first time in Myanmar.

Jesus said to go and make disciples of all nations, and He also said that we had a new command to love one another in the same way that He loved us to the point of dying on the cross. This is our mission - tell the world about the Good News of Jesus Christ and, in doing so, love one another in a way that shocks those around us. I witnessed this lived out in Myanmar.

I learned that the Church can have a mission without a model.

5. Breaking Bread Breaks Barriers

The fifth thing I learned was by far the most unexpected and was also the perspective shift that I am still processing the most.

Those that know me well may or may not refer to me as a germaphobe (and by maybe, I mean they’d absolutely call me a germaphobe :-)). I’m not the kind of germaphobe that is constantly using hand sanitizer or avoiding public places, but I do avoid any kind of potluck, and I’m cognizant about the sanitation of anything I might touch or be near. I share this because I was nervous going into Myanmar due to the lack of FDA and health department standards, especially in the villages where I knew we’d be going. Remember, I’m the guy that doesn’t even eat food at large family gatherings, because I don’t know who made what. (It’s a problem, I know.) However, what I experienced as we ate meals together in Myanmar was the most spiritual part of the trip, in my opinion.

I remember studying table fellowship in seminary as we discussed the role of eating meals together in Scripture, like at the Last Supper (where communion has it’s biblical roots) and, while the idea was invigorating and inspiring, I couldn’t wrap my mind around how that translated to today. That changed in Myanmar.

The people there were the most hospitable I’ve ever met; they were constantly feeding us and bringing out fruit and nuts to snack on as we sat and talked. We would all sit around a big table and have life-giving conversations as though we had been close friends forever. Our cultural, spiritual, and personal backgrounds were all washed away as we ate meal after meal with each other. At the conference people from all the different villages would sit around during the breaks as they ate food and engaged with one another.

Yes, we sang, and we prayed, and we studied Scripture together, but there was something about sharing the table with one another that was so unifying and growth orienting. Although we didn’t take “communion” once in two weeks, we did commune together along with hundreds of others every day of the trip.

Jesus was at the center, His sacrifice was remembered, His kingdom was expanded, and His church was unified as we sat on plastic chairs around a table covered in fried rice and Shan noodles.

I learned for the first time that breaking bread breaks barriers.

You wouldn’t think that traveling halfway across the world to spend time with an impoverished people group would change much about your life in America. But, like me, you’d be wrong! In the villages of Myanmar I learned more about what it means to be human and what it means to love people like Jesus. I’ll never be able to see the world in the same way. Thank you, Kuki Christians, for that gift.

Will you join me in praying for the people of Myanmar? Pray that Jesus will be glorified and His name made great. Will you pray for Myanmar Hope Christian Mission, that the Spirit of God continues to open doors and show the leaders of MyHope where He is leading?

If you ever have a chance to go visit and be encouraged by the Kuki Christians in Myanmar then I strongly recommend you take that opportunity. If not, then here are a few more pictures that can give you a glimpse at these beautiful people.

All the love,

Adam Hamerlinck