Happiness Initiative helped sponsor a mission trip for Hannah to serve in Myanmar. Here’s her reflection of her mission trip!

With the support of Happiness Initiative, I was given the opportunity to join Cottonwood Church’s mission team to visit the orphanages in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma). Since 2012, I was running donation drives at North Torrance High School to collect clothing, sports equipment, school supplies, etc., to send to orphanages in Myanmar, and this year, I was able to meet the children there in person.

The mission trip was from December 15 ~ 27, 2016, and we spent our time in Yangon with the children at the orphanage home, “Love Children’s Home.” LCH is run by Peter and Rebecca Thang, a Christian couple who started their orphanage with just twenty-two orphans and a single bamboo hut. Now, their orphanage is a home to over two hundred children. At the orphanage, we spent time together with the children doing volunteer activities and gave them our full attention.

The children at LCH all carry different stories in how they came. Many of them were living in the streets because both parents passed away due to illness. The parents were too poor to afford healthcare. In another case, the child’s parent was murdered from a feud between tribes. Other children were thrown out by their own parent after remarriage because they did not want to take part in any of their past lives in their new marriage life.

Coming from a background of pain, hurt, and hardships, these children seriously lack the most crucial love that any human being needs in their life—parents’ love. Not knowing what it is to like to receive this filling, unconditional, and supportive parental love, these children wander searching for this love by their desire for skin ship, such as wanting to be hugged and carried all the time.   

Yet, despite their hardships, these children have shown me love like I’ve never experienced before.

From the moment we first stepped off the bus at the orphanage, children were grabbing my hands and arms and reaching out to at least be holding some part of me. They were constantly trying to help me with the volunteer work and would fill my water bottle when it got low. Every time I stepped out of the main house, my shoes would be lined up by the kids and they would be waiting for me right outside the door. These kids have such an enormous heart, and all they wanted to do was to serve us even though we went across the world to serve them. I often wondered how these children, who had no idea who I was, where I came from, how much money I made, etc. could show so much love to me, a stranger.

These children have revealed to me such a pure and unconditional love that I had never experienced before. Sometimes when it was too hot to be running around, I would just sit under a tree with a group of kids and hang out. There was a language barrier between us because they only spoke Burmese, but the children were somehow content with me just sitting with them as if my presence was simply enough.

During my time there, I developed a relationship with many of the kids at Love Children’s Home. One little boy even went around telling his friends that I was his mom. Leaving the orphanage was absolutely heartbreaking, but I am confident that I will meet them again in the future. This time was a time for me to consider how much strength these children had in their hearts. I was moved by their strength of living when their precious parents and siblings either passed away or left them. Their willingness to give to others and stay optimistic was inspiring.

My purpose to go on this mission trip was to volunteer and offer what I can, but instead, I was the one receiving and feeling love from them. I felt that from this give and receive relationship between the children, this invisible emotion, love, grew and multiplied, and I was left with the heart of wanting to love them more and strongly desiring them to be happy. I am grateful to Happiness Initiative for providing me this opportunity.