Summer Mission Trip Fort Worth: Let All the Earth Rejoice

This summer has been an experience of a lifetime. People have already begun to ask me what are some favorite things about this summer. Soon, I'll be answering all types of questions like this. This summer has flown by too fast and it's so hard to keep track of everything that's been happening. There is one aspect about this summer that'll never forget though. That is having the opportunity to visit different ethnic churches. I had the pleasure of being able to visit Korean, Nepali, 2 different Burmese, along with a few American churches as well. I have always wanted to be able to experience worshiping the same God with people of a different language and culture. I am very excited this dream came true for me this summer. Its awesome how people from all over the Earth worship the same God and rejoice for the same things.
Let all the Earth rejoice...
One particular church I had the pleasure of visiting was the Ebenezer Church for Chin-Burmese. I was invited here by a little girl, Rebecca, that I had befriended close to the beginning of the summer. I really have a heart for this girl and her family, they are just so sweet. Rebecca is 11 or 12 years old, she has an 8 year old brother,Moses, 17 year old brother, Samuel, and two older teenage sisters, Kim and Lun. Rebecca's family was a Match Grant client and finished their case after I had been here a while.

Rebecca and I

When I visited Rebecca and her family in their apartment on July 21st, I spent a long time getting to know them more. While I was there, they invited me to go to church with them the next day. 

Rebecca got to work the slides for the worship songs. 

Soon after arriving at the church, Rebecca and I sat together and were listening to English worship songs from the family cell phone. She also let me know that a guy that works at World Relief attends this church too, that would be the R&P caseworker Khai. That was a nice surprise to see him and his wife come in. Rebecca was asked to work the laptop that provides the lyrics for the worship service, so her and I left our spots to move to the front row. 

I was sort of surprised to see Khai go up to be a leader for the worship service. Also, Rebecca's older brother, Samuel, was the drummer for the worship band. 

 

I love seeing how people worship the Lord. Each and everyone has their own way of praise. With these Burmese people you can tell how broken they are by the way they worship. They close their eyes and praise him with all they've got. They overflow with joy. God has delivered them out of a broken land and into the USA where they can have a better life for themselves and even have a right to worship our God. 

Rebecca's mother, on the right in grey, praising the Lord.

One thing I've noticed in other cultures during church services is the prayers. Often times when they pray, they pray all together, out loud, at once. It sounds a little chaotic, but this way each person can pour out their heart to the Lord and make their prayers known to everyone. I have know idea what any of them are saying, but I can tell their gratefulness and brokenness all at the same time. The prayers from each person are loud and very sincere. I just know that they are sending up prayers about their broken homeland. It is a bittersweet feeling hearing all these prayers all at once.  

Rebecca's brother, Moses,
in the red and white striped shirt

 

After the service, they served a Burmese fish soup and the kids played games.

I'm very glad God gave me the opportunity to experience so many great things this summer. This family will always be in my heart and I love that the love the same God I do. We are still keeping in touch even though I am back home now. It breaks my heart that they say they miss me every day and wish I'd never left. I will make it a point to visit them as soon as I get a car.