Multiply India Visit Day Ten, 12 Sept

Summit day: everything the planning and preparation's been building up to, and there's enough problems to put me off for ever.  I sat out on the balcony and prayed.  Butch is irrepressible - even a night on the airport bench and three days without food because he had no spending money, hasn't deflated him.  I packed my whole hand luggage bag with notes and techie stuff, in case John - who'd gone over to the venue at 7.00am - was stuck.  There were fried eggs at the breakfast buffet!

The taxi took us past several ornate golden temples, and Buddhist monks in their plum-coloured robes.  Yangon Education Centre for the Blind, Baho Road, is a classic example of Yangon's decadence.  When first set up - I believe by American mission money - it must have been a hugely impressive place.  It remains the only Christian school that the Government allow, and is open to all faiths.  Now it's large complex is musty, stained, creaking and lacking any sign of modernisation.  It was heaving with young people.  The lessons are all done by voice; our entire time was parallel tracked with PA from the classrooms as teacher and pupils recited their lessons.  It 'got to' Steve.

John had arranged a breakfast for the early arrivals among the delegates.  This seemed to be everybody!  We went to the first floor main hall where noisy fans attempted to battle the hot and humid day.  We only had four power-outs, and the projector survived.  John had also got a special songbook made up, with half and half English and Burmese songs.  His entire stock of 133 soon disappeared, so we must have been 150 attending.

We were underway by 9.15am.  By the end of just
one song, John's shirt was soaking wet.  Now he was going to have to interpret for me as I slowly went through our 'official' Multiply presentation.  With a break, and questions, we reached 12.30pm lunchtime.  More rice!  But the fried vegetables and mild chicken curry were very tasty, and we're acquiring a taste for the traditional Burmese soup.

If these were majority Baptists but hadn't received the Holy Spirit, I'd decided, the only course was a head-on teaching on New Testament baptism in water, Fire and the Body.  Butch later pointed out that they looked less than thrilled when I announced the afternoon's main topic.  By the end, 4.30pm, Steve had them on their feet praying and strongly engaged.  In Thrissur, he'd had the delegates identify the old Adamic characteristics that block new life.  After a lot of evasion, they'd come up with some accurate assessment, and joined Steve in breaking the obstacles.

Steve repeated the invitation here. "What do the sins of Myanmar look like?"  "Murder", was the first response!  High in the list came disrespect between generations (I wondered if this was a bit of cultural conditioning - but no matter, they were getting the hang of it.)  After more contributions, we all stood and prayed in faith.  We stayed around for the after-session rice.  The tight finances meant that waiting til the evening and paying for a meal at the hotel would be rash.

Once returned, Steve engaged in conversation with a group of five obviously-English folks sitting sipping their orange juices.  They were from a church in Southampton, and had come for three weeks, to teach at local bibles colleges.  I commented that there seems to be a pattern of western Christians adding their support in whatever way they can to the fledgling church here.  It's also the case in Nepal. 

It took two hours to coax the wifi to resend the budget email to Colney.  Meanwhile, Steve was working on today's sessions.  I found some blueberry boiled sweets, and Steve some pistachio nuts.  And so, with a complimentary cuppa from the hotel tea-set, we gratefully headed for an early bed.  From the morning's experience, the wireless signal is better before 7.30am, and I planned to get online and post some of the six waiting blogs!