Blog Series // Ministry Memories: Asia

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

In Asia, one of my favorite ministry memories was befriending Yamin! She was a student at the English club we taught at, and I connected with her and decided to try to build a relationship with her! 

The first time we hung out, she took me and my teammates to this huge golden pagoda. It’s a Buddhist temple made of a bunch of real gold. She even brought me a skirt that I could wear (you are required to wear a skirt into the temple).

Yamin believes in Buddhism and her family regularly practices its traditions. Even knowing this, I knew she was someone I wanted to be friends with. My goal isn’t to “convert” people but to love them like Jesus does, so that’s what I tried to do! We walked around the huge pagoda and she told us stories about Buddha and the history behind this temple. We asked her about prayer, worship and different Buddhist practices. 

As we walked around the temple I felt an unneasiness that’s hard to explain. It could have been a sort of spiritual discernment or just feeling out of place, but I always felt it when we went to Buddhist places of worship. It‘s hard seeing people bowing down and bringing flowers to an idol decorated in gold. But I knew it was important to Yamin, and I was interested to hear what she believed.

I looked back at my journal from this time and this is what I wrote after our trip to the pagoda:

To be honest, little feelings of doubt keep creeping up in my heart…actually not little. The “Do I have authority to tell millions of people they’re praying to someone who is not God and doesn’t control their lives at all?” and “If millions of people believe this…who says I’m right?” and “How trustworthy is faith? Because that’s all I have…” Those are pretty big hitters. 

Then I wrote down these scriptures:

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26) 

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9) 

OPENING THE DOOR 

On one of my last days in Myanmar, I messaged her to see if she could hang out that night and she never replied so I assumed she was busy. We were in the middle of a team time, and what do ya know – Yamin walks straight in the door and into the living room where we were sitting! We stop our team time and without missing a beat she says, “Are we still good to hang out?” In that moment I felt like Yamin wasn’t the only one opening a door (wink wink, it was God!).  

I had a strong feeling that God was pursuing her and really wanted me to share my heart with her. So we went to a mall and sat down for coffee, and we were just chatting for a while. She started talking about the pagoda and some of the questions I had asked her, so I asked if she would want to hear what I believed about God, and she said absolutely. 

So I told her about my relationship with Jesus. I told her how personal He is, how He knows me, how He speaks to me. We got into the heart of the gospel – broken people in need of redemption, a perfect Savior, and a choice. She listened so carefully and I felt this fullness in my heart. When I think about it I get so joyful because I was so sure of the Holy Spirit’s presence in that moment. 

I’ve shared this in a past blog, but it still rocks me. I asked her if she had any questions and the question she asked me was, ”Why does God extend his hand to us?” Her question exposed the doubt that she really had – does God actually love us? And why? I answered the best I could, but who really knows the answer to why God loves us? It doesn’t make sense. His love makes no sense at all. 

BUTTONS

We talked about it for a while and when it was getting late we headed home. Yamin never told me she wanted to know Jesus or that she wanted to become a Christian. I message her every once in a while and there’s no new revelations. But I am so sure in my heart that God is pursuing her and sees her and has a plan for her. Leaving that month, the highlight of my time was getting to know Yamin and knowing that God used me to guide her heart to Him.

Someone once shared the analogy of someone coming to know Jesus like buttoning up a shirt – you have to button one button at a time, and eventually you get to the top button (accepting Jesus). And although it is amazing to be there when someone buttons that top button, the others are just as important. So, I didn‘t get to see Yamin start a relationship with Jesus, but maybe I just helped button one button. And that feels like a huge privilege. 

I don’t know if I’ll ever see Yamin again, but I know God is continuing to work in her life. It‘s hard to leave people behind in each country we go to. We meet the sweetest people and have amazing conversations…and then we leave, even when it feels like there is more work to be done. But I’ve learned that God planned it that way all along. We have to choose to trust that God is always with the people we love, even when we aren’t. And when you really let that sink in, it’s more than enough! 

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Love y’all,
Em