This four words were made famous on my last team in Malawi, Month 6. Our contact, Isaac, would introduce us to the village and would always preface our introduction with the words, “you may be wondering…†What usually followed this phrase was an explanation of why white people from America were in a tiny village. But, if you are reading this post, chances are you aren’t worried about the same things those villagers were. However there may be a few other questions on your mind.
You may have questions based on things you have heard me say over the past couple of weeks or seen on my Facebook or on my other website (mattmurray.theworldrace.org). So I am going to do my best to clear a few of those questions up for you.
Let’s start with Code Ministries. Some of you have probably heard of Code Ministries through me or a few of my friends over the past couple of weeks and have been wondering what it is. Code Ministries is a non-profit organization I started back in 2009. Due to other obligations I had not finished setting up the organization. However, I am in the final stages getting that done now. Code is an abbreviation of the words COmmunity DEvelopment and our mission is to combat social injustice and poverty through global outreach. In fulfilling this mission I will be moving to Chiang Mai, Thailand to partner with a ministry call the Free Burma Rangers (FBR). FBR partners with Burmese internationally displaced people’s(IDPs) in Thailand and provide aid to the ethnic people of Burma to help in their struggle for freedom and justice from the tyranny of the Myanmar government (which I will explain in more detail later). My hope is to also partner with some other organizations that are working to rescue men and women caught in the sex trade.
FBR is a mainly Christian pro-active, pro-democracy humanitarian group that works throughout Burma (also known as Myanmar) but mainly concentrates on the heavily forested border region, delivering emergency medical assistance to sick and injured IDPs; a consequence of the long running campaign of violence by the military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, against Burma’s ethnic minorities. FBR also trains teams of men and women in frontline medical treatment and reconnaissance techniques. In addition to delivering humanitarian relief, a secondary role of the teams is to obtain evidence of military violence and human rights abuse. This information is then published in the form of online reports and/or released to larger international human rights groups, inter-governmental organizations such as the UN, and news agencies.
With that being said, I will be starting off in their office doing working on publishing reports and other administrative work around the office. My hope is that in time I will be doing some chaplaincy work as well as some media/video/photography work. My plan is to work with them for at least one year myself and then partner with them indefinitely through Code Ministries until their mission is complete.
Finally, I hope is to also partner with some friends that I have in the area who are working in the Red Light District to rescue men and women from a life of slavery. I’m not 100% sure what this is going to look like yet, but I trust God to reveal His plans for me in time.
My goal is to fly out of the states for Thailand in the middle of October, get settled in and start working with FBR in early November. Only by the grace of God and the support of all of you, my friends and family back home and abroad, will I be able to make this dream a reality. There may still be a few things you may be wondering like: how is this going to all work out, and what can I do to help? Honestly, I don’t know yet. But what you can do is to keep me in your prayers daily and follow my new website for further details. codeministries.org