Helmsdale Rev's mission to Myanmar
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A SUTHERLAND minister is set to fly thousands of miles next week on a mission to support Christians in Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Helmsdale Free Church minister Rev Roddy Macrae will be accompanying Hugh Henderson, founder and director of Mission International, a Dundee based charity that aims to improve the material and spiritual lives of some of the poorest communities in the world.
The Helmsdale congregation held a fundraising Gospel music evening and meal and last Saturday and raised just over £1000 towards the pair’s £2800 joint travel costs.
The two men are set to leave next Thursday, March 12, and will spend just under a fortnight in the neighbouring countries before returning on Monday, March 23.
Rev Macrae, who has previously served with Mission International on projects in Kenya, said he was looking forward to the trip, despite the current hazard of coronovirus and the uncertain geo-political situation in the area.
The majority of the population in Myanmar is Buddhist, although there are significant Christian and Muslim minorities.
In 2017 a crackdown by the Myanmar Army on Rohingya muslims in the country led to the flight of hundreds of thousands of refugees to Bangladesh - an Islamic state.
The first leg of the journey sees the men fly from Edinburgh to Dhaka, capital city of Bangladesh, and then travel on to Banderban, a district in south eastern Bangladesh and part of the Chittagong division. Banderban is not far from Cox’s Bazar where many of the ousted Rohingya are living in one of the world’s largest refugee camps.
Mr Henderson, an elder in Dundee Free Church, said: “I have been in communication with a Christian pastor in Bangladesh for around a year, and since a trip had been arranged to visit Myanmar, I felt it was appropriate to try to add a Bangladesh leg in order that we might meet him and speak about the possibility of a partnership with him and his church network.
“We don’t know the full extent of what the Bangladesh trip might hold for us, but we do know that the pastor would like Mission International to help him fund the schooling of a number of local children, helping them find the basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing, accommodation and education.
“This might develop into something wider in the years to come, all we can do at this early stage is to wait and see.”
The Myanmar leg of the journey will see Mr Henderson and Rev Macrae centred in Yangon, the largest city in the country.
Mission International has been working in Myanmar for around four years now and has previously helped to build a new children’s home housing eight orphans,
The charity has also supported pastors of small churches to establish income generating projects including a water project and mushroom growing enterprise.
But on this occasion the men will be spending some four days teaching the Bible to a group of church leaders.
Mr Henderson told the Northern Times that it was at the request of a young local church pastor in Yangon who served a network of churches from his native Dai tribe from Chin State in the north west of the country.
“Rural pastors and church leaders are hungry for the word of God,” he said.
“Last time 30 were invited but 60 turned up, such is their eagerness to learn.”
