1993
Burma was one of the few countries in the world where we were required to take a tour in order to get an entrance visa. However, ours was a two-person tour, Denise, my wife and I. Burma was in civil war and political chaos during our visit. Democratic expression is prohibited by a strong-armed military rule.
It took an awesome miracle to confound the minds of airport officials to get us in the country. We were under constant surveillance by internal security. Our guide and interpreter had a van and they took us to out of the way places so I could carry the cross, not where there were crowds. Yet the witness and the cross walk got through.
One hard working man in a yard pulled a cross from under his shirt, and with a big smile, he said he loved Jesus but rushed away when other people came near.
I was talking to a man when our guide, Bo, interpreted. The man was transfixed with tears in his eyes as he looked at me. After I explained to him about Jesus loving him he said, “If God is with me, I won’t be afraid to die!” I made the sign of the cross and he did also. We spent hours with Bo talking about Jesus, the Bible, and how he could go to heaven forever when he died. He was happy to know about Jesus and this good news but said when I asked him to pray. “I’m not ready to go directly to heaven when I die”. I asked my new Buddhist friend why and he explained, “I haven’t had such a good life this time but I’m trying hard, I want to be reincarnated, come back a rich man so I can go to America!”
At the airport as we were checking in the cross, the head of the airline there came up and spoke to us. The official, who was from India, said he had read of us in the newspapers and had asked God that should we come to Burma he wanted to meet us and shake our hands.
Our guide spoke up and said that I was a great man. These words of wisdom from the airline official will live in my heart. He replied, “Only God knows who is great!” I thought how often we use such words. In the Bible people never used such terms toward others, yet how common it is in back slapping religion. After talking a while the man took me aside and said, “I can’t
say whether or not you are great but I can say God must really like you. God is good to you to give you one of the most beautiful women in the world with such love for you”. I answered, “You are a wise and perceptive man.”
Pilgrim followers of Jesus,
Arthur and Denise Blessitt
Luke 18:1