By Daniel Murphree
A nice cool atmosphere and jet lag jolted me from my slumber at around 4:30. It was a busy day for us. I finished the sermon I was to preach that morning, and went downstairs. It was a cool morning, and I was the only one downstairs. Instant coffee, toast, and more of the scriptures awaited me. If the Lord’s expression of his care and concern for the orphan was a significant portion of what brought me downstairs that morning – the implications are massive. It means that every crossroad of my life, every crossroad of CFE’s existence, every “happenstance,” indeed – every “failure” was bringing me downstairs so that I would go, meet, encourage, and verbally and financially express God’s commitment to love and care for these seven orphans – AND invite the church into caring for even more than these.
What began last year, was finally coming to completion. Last year, I had set out from the US to go to China and then to Myanmar in order to visit a family of orphans that CFE was very interested in partnering with. However, while in Beijing, the Myanmar consulate would not give me access! How were we to meet this family and talk to them about our desired relationship and commitment to them? More immediately – what was I to do now with 2 more unplanned weeks in Beijing? God is good, and even through this weird transformation, what began as a CFE mission to meet these 7 children and their caretakers now had the flavor of ministering to a different kind of orphan. Orphans that have never known the love of Christ and the forgiveness of sins and the family that awaited them. Those two weeks turned into a time of working with the underground church there and seeing several new births. However, even here, God’s commitment was still to these seven children.
Today. Today was to be that day. What began almost a year ago, we were to see the children, the family, and the church leaders that we desired to commit to. It is amazing to think that even a “failure” in the mission was part of God’s wooing. During this time, the church that we were seeking to encourage to care for the poor, alien, the widow, and the orphan…well, they were not ready (and realistically, neither were we). During this time, the church had begun a study in the book of James. During this time, Saya (Pastor) Kham had been interjecting and discipling these leaders through small statements and conversations, all the way from Saint Louis. During that time, we were able to speak with the Burmese community here in Saint Louis. During that time, the appearances of a failed mission was a seed dying, spreading its roots, forging the earth – unseen, unheard. Today was to be that day where a plant broke forth from the slumber of the dark.
We arrived at the church and the children were already there. However, it had been a difficult journey for them as well. They had to rent a driver and a truck to take all nine (including Ester and John, their adopted mother and father) from their remote village town of Zome. Essentially, it was a glorified small bed pick-up with a roof over it! They had to drive 55 miles in this thing! Yeah, that’s right, 55 miles! Wow. That’s nothing, right? Except it took them over 5 hours, and they were completely covered in dust!
The church service began, and we were immediately impressed with a medley of Burmese, English, and Tedim songs sung by these little rascals. They were winsome, precious, and there were even a few instances of air guitar. It hasn’t been easy for the family. I’ll have to write more about John and Ester later, but even their call and concern for these little ones is an amazing work of God’s spirit to convict and compel. One thing I enjoyed most about talking with the children after the service was the realization: kids are kids. Everywhere. Kids are the same. They laugh at weird things. They had to be dragged inside from playing with the other children. They were sweaty and smelly. However – I could not help but to wonder how their smiles may have looked different and how their play would have been subdued had we not been able to help these two years.
