Integricity Buys Land!

My dear friends, blog readers and Integricity family,

My wife, Grace (most photos were taken by her for a church-based project) and I have just returned from a 2 week hiatus in Myanmar. We went with 4 others as part of a church mission team. Our main purpose was to preach and disciple the Burmese there, and also teach the local pastors some skills. A secondary mission for 4 of us, was to shoot and produce a video on the call of God for the land of Myanmar.

The Burmese are really hospitable, despite living in very basic and simple conditions – for a good many of them, all they can hope for is to land themselves with a job. We spoke to many people on the street, from the trishaw men to the ladies in the market, to the hoteliers and interviewed some of them on video – for most, they have an extremely simple hope for the future – to earn enough for their families to eat. In fact, not a single one had aspirations to “climb the corporate ladder”, “buy a car” or “upgrade my mobile phone”.

Traveling through the country, we visited some really small homes (single bedroom, no kitchen) that also double up as churches. We also met generous Burmese who have not much in life, and yet they teach even poorer children how to read and write – some of them don’t even have money to buy pens and pencils! Some children begged me for food, money and PENS! Just imagine… how despondent they are, and how blessed we are.

At one of the smaller villages, I preached in a tiny house church in a remote village – approx 15′ x 20′ and it was so full of adults and children. We had to divide the group, so the children could go outside and have their activities while more adults filled the room. Seeing that it was already overflowing, the pastor of the church has been trying to raise funds to buy the lot next door. I asked him how much the land would cost and his reply was… a mere USD150. I was stunned – sometimes, we go out for a meal with friends and spend way beyond that!

Where the children are, in the photo below, that’s the land we’re buying. The existing house-church is just beyond the fence.

Teaching kids the macarena…

We could see that the church was impacted the community there and helping the villagers out. I pledged to raise funds so that they could purchase the land. Upon my return to Malaysia, I spoke with some friends and my fellow directors at Integricity to raise funds. Since we see the benefit of sowing into the village there, Integricity has donated to buy a chunk of Burmese soil! No doubt we will not want to see our logo there, but in our hearts we know we’ve given to a good cause. Here are some photos at the village…

Here are some of Grace’s photos over the two week period. The first photo is post-changing money from USD to their local kyat. The largest note of theirs is 1,000 kyat which is about RM2.50.

Beautiful scenery around Myanmar is easy to come by.

The local Burmese wear a skirt/kilt-like piece of apparel called a longyi. Here’s where I learnt how to tie one properly. Now I know what women feel, when they wear skirts… very AIRY!