As the plane landed at Yangon airport I felt a mixture of excitement and apprehension. This was my first trip outside Europe. I was excited by the adventure of visiting a foreign land and by the prospect of teaching in the Crosslinks School of Biblical Training (SBT) in Myanmar. I was apprehensive because this was my first experience of working in a different culture. 

It was a steep learning curve and I was grateful to be in the experienced company of Andy Lines and Gordon Fyles. This was my first experience of speaking with someone translating for me. It takes a while to get used to – particularly when a short sentence in English sometimes seems to take a long time to translate into Burmese! 

In my preparation, I had tried to avoid English colloquialisms and picked illustrations I thought would work across cultures. this was harder than I thought and some concepts do not easily transfer. I learned to keep things as simple as possible. 

We worked long days, teaching as much as we could in a week about basic principles of Bible exposition. Much was clearly new to many people and I would have loved to stay longer to help more, so they could put it into practice when they returned to their local churches. 

I found the whole experience hugely encouraging, challenging and uplifting. It was a privilege and joy to meet brothers and sisters in Christ for whom I had prayed for many years without knowing names or faces. I quickly fell in love with the country and the people. 

I left with real joy at seeing what God is doing through SBTs such as this. God’s provision and enabling for us was abundant. I had a great sense of gratitude for the privilege of being part of this and also for the faithful work and witness of BCMS missionaries who had gone before. I can’t wait for another opportunity to do it again! 

  Crosslinks magazine July 2006 index