Pilgrimage Ponderings
The World in the Church
In light of all the conversation about the "worldwide church" and what that means for United Methodists, I have been struck by the current devastation in Myanmar.
One of our family jokes is that whenever we are in the car and one of the boys says, "Where are we going?" my husband often answers, "Burma." This started when the boys were much younger as a way of stopping their questions, since they had no idea where Burma was, only that it was very far away.
I had no idea where Burma was myself until hearing a Women's Division speaker talk about our church's ministry in the recently renamed Myanmar on a conference trip to New York and Washington several summers ago.
The speaker was sharing about the "Bible Women's Program," in which lay women are trained in Bible study and also in areas such as health and nutrition so that when they go back to their communities they can teach the Gospel--that Jesus loves all and wants all to have abundant life.
We learned that day that one woman in Myanmar had to travel on foot for 3 days to attend the 2-day training and that when she returned to her community she might be at risk from the government if she dared teach what she had learned. But she was full of faith and joy at being able to participate. Needless to say, that story stuck with me.
Fast forward now to the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry dinner at General Conference. We ate dinner with a Methodist college president from Myanmar. He did understand some English, I think, but spoke little during dinner. I'm not sure if the language was a barrier or if he just had difficulty getting a word in edgewise with our chatty bunch.
At any rate, when I heard of the cyclone earlier this week, I thought about him. I wondered where in Myanmar he lived and if he was able to return home. And as I read in the newspapers about the difficulty in getting aid to the country because of the military government's resistance, I wondered if our church would have any better luck.
So I was thrilled to discover last night that UMCOR is at work through Church World Service. And that there is already an UMCOR Advance set up: #3019674, Myanmar Emergency. You can even print out a church bulletin insert or make a contribution here: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/work/emergencies/ongoing/myanmar/.
I think it would be easy for us to be sorry that this happened to those folks and to pray for them and let it stop there. After all, they are on the other side of the world. Yes, they were hit as hard as Americans were by Katrina, but what can we do?
I give thanks that our worldwide United Methodist church is at work all the way in Burma. May we who have some idea what they are suffering be generous in our response.
