The primary reason for our visit to Mawlamyine was to discover the sites related to the work of Adoniram Judson and the early Baptist m-workers from the USA. They arrived with the gospel in 1813, just a few months before Samuel Marsden landed in New Zealand, with the same good news.
The quality of the bus for the trip across from Yangon, on Christmas Day, was as good as I’ve experienced anywhere, with reclining, laz-e-boy seats. The Cinderella Hotel that greeted us in Mawlamyine sure knows how to welcome the tourist. It was great fun.
While the travel websites have little to say about the Christian significance of Mawlamyine, they do rave about the walk along the Strand, adjacent to the waterfront, at sunset.
So Barby and I set off from our Cinderella Hotel at 4.30pm, heading for the top of the Strand, with the goal of walking along the sunset, ending up at the Night Market when it was – well, nightime.
In my lifetime, photos of sunsets have always been associated with talks from m-workers and so it seemed the appropriate thing to do. Plus while so much changes over the decades, sunsets remain the same and so it was kinda cool to think of the Judsons seeing what we saw from their home just below this map.
It was fun to watch the fishing boats skim by, the seagulls enjoying their ample buffet and hordes of people taking photos.
We found our way back among the silvery ferns…
With the Night Market now in sight, it was time to say ‘goodnight’ to the sun.
At the Night Market a young lad was wearing just the right shirt for his choice of cuisine…
… and for an even younger lad, the array of items on the pavement was simply irresistible, as I watched his mother pull him away not once, but three times, in the space of five minutes.
Remarkably, in God’s providence and sovereignty, the sun rose again the very next morning, like a pumpkin in the east, ready to do it all again. Here is the view from the verandah attached to our room at the Cinderella.
nice chatting
Paul
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| On the bus to Mawlamyine on Christmas Day |
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| Christmas Day drinks, with brother-in-law, Jim: avocado shakes |
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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