Fact: I know i said i'd be more faithful in updating this, but i've failed in that already and I apologize. there has been so many wonderful things that i didn't want to miss out on so i haven't been on the computer much at all. but, let me briefly update you on a few of the great things God has been doing in thailand --
1. we gained a brother in Christ last week at BJD!! He is one of the precious boys that live in the house, and he finally couldn't resist our wonderful Jesus anymore! Yay God!
2. Jo, Rach, and I met two girls, Aung and Sun, on campus about 2 weeks ago, and they have been back to the coffee shop every day since! they are adorable girls and they really seem to love BJD, so be praying for them
3. rach and I went to the red light district in downtown bangkok and got to see and pray over that -- pray for freedom for the girls trafficked and that God would transform the hearts and lives of everyone involved in that industry. pray that God would completely abolish it.
4. we went to a beautiful beach on an island off the coast of thailand last weekend and it was gorgeous -- such a wonderful blessing.
so lately i've been reading a book called "Just Enough Light for the Step I'm On" by Stormie Omartian, and she makes a lot of good points, but i've really been focusing on one lately: the wilderness. So often I feel like people want to go from Egypt into the Promised Land, but don't want to go through the wilderness first, but actually that is one of the most critical places in our lives. The wilderness is where God trims away all the things we don't need -- often He takes away all of our comforts and makes it so all of our old tricks won't work where we are going -- so that we only rely on Him. We can either embrace this or reject it. Throughout most of this trip, although God has been with me through every step of it, He has definitely taken away every single comfort that I've had, and until I decided to embrace it, it was very hard. Not saying that there still aren't days when it's hard to not be able to call home, or get in my car and drive to relieve frustration, but because I can't do those things, it has been absolutely essential to learn to press into God and have Him be my comfort, rather than anything else I've ever depended on. Also, it is absolutely key that we stay exactly in the light that God has given for us. Often, He doesn't give us much light, but because He lives in us, He gives us the exact amount of life we need to be where we are at, and that creates us to rely more on Him, rather than our finances, our five-year plan, or any other sort of plan that we put our hope in. I feel like I learn that the hard way over and over again. By nature, I am a planner. I like to know what I have to do and what it looks like, and I've clung to that. But I now have been clinging to God, and because He is so much more stable than any plan I could make for sure, there is an overwhelming peace in me that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. But anyway, like I was saying, it is absolutely key that we stay exactly in the amount of light He gives us, not trying to run ahead, or lag behind, or striving to go somewhere else apart from Him. The author gives this piece of advice, "If God leads you into some kind of wilderness, forget your Egypt as quickly as you can. The comforts you once knew won't be there, so don't expect them. Don't be upset about what you think you're missing or lacking -- let go of those griefs so you can enjoy the journey. Be happy where God has you. No one ever gets out of the wilderness as soon as they'd like to, so refuse to feel deprived."
that's my prayer - to feel at home wherever God has me, whether that's in Morton, California, Thailand, or anywhere on earth. and as a challenge to you, reflect on times that God may have called you to a season of being in the wilderness, what was your attitude about it? did you depend on God with a grateful heart or did you try to reject it as much as you could?
thank you so much for all of your prayers and support -- keep them coming. i'll try to update one more time before we leave for Vietnam, but we do leave in a week so I'm not making any promises! :)
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Thailand!
hello all from Bangkok! gosh it's crazy to think that i'm finally here! this week has gone by so fast, as i'm sure the rest of our outreach will.
let me fill you in on a few of the things we've done so far ..
we flew out last thursday and after a 14 hour flight followed by a 6 hour flight, we landed in Bangkok minutes before the clock officially struck midnight to bring in the new year -- what a way to start off 2011! the next day we recovered from jet lag and explored our new location!
everything is so different here, but i love it. we ventured out and discovered the market that is a couple blocks away from us, and that is where we eat every night. i was only here about 10 hours before jo tricked me into eating mashed up cockroach .. it was an experience for sure. but they have the best fruit smoothies here and its always an adventure stepping outside our front door.
sunday we went into inner city Bangkok and toured a lot of the Buddhist temples and religious sites. although there is an obvious hurt for the people here who don't know any better, I was more broken hearted for the Christians. Let me explain, Lydia and I were chatting and she said how she doesn't understand how people can have such an empty religion, where they pray to their gods and never get a response or see miracles happen or anything along those lines. they also live in constant fear that what they are doing isn't enough to save them from their hells -- but how many Christians, especially in America, live in that same fear? I know that a lot of my life was lived that way -- I was completely unaware of how awesome the God I served is, how much He loves me, and how He speaks to me all of the time. How often did I do the right things or say the right things in hopes that I was doing enough to earn enough grace so that Jesus would take mercy on me? But that isn't the way that it is supposed to be at all. So my heart ached for those who live like I used to, those who are "saved" but don't live in a relationship with the living God at all. Because there is so much more in living a "Christian" life that isn't just going to church on Sundays and Wednesdays, it's about a life of freedom. It's about a life dedicated to being like Jesus and serving Him because of His goodness and the love that He has already given to us although we are so undeserving of it, and no matter how hard we try to earn grace, there is nothing we can do to make this wonderful God love us any more or any less.
That's just been a lot of my thoughts this week, I apologize if there is any confusion for you because a lot of what i'm thinking is still being processed in my own head. In fact, I am right now apologizing for any odd statements I may make on this due to lack of processing, there is a lot that God is revealing to me about Himself, myself, and what that means in my heart attitude and actions.
Anyway, back to what the team has been doing this week ..
We are staying right across from one of the universities in Bangkok, and we are apart of an organization called BJD (I'm not quite sure how to spell the real Thai words, but in Thai, it means "House of One Heart"). BJD was formed 15 years ago through YWAM and it provides inexpensive housing for college students. We try to build relationships with students on campus and then by loving them, ultimately show them Christ's love. Currently, BJD has about 30 students living in their housing, all of them fairly new Christians. Pretty much everyone who gets involved in BJD ends up loving Jesus. So, that's what we do. We love people and pray that the Holy Spirit moves in their lives so they will choose to love Jesus. Since we are living in the same place that the students are, it is really easy for us to minister to them and to serve them in everyday living type things. Then, almost every night there is some sort of activity that we get involved in on the base, whether it be worship services, game nights, playing soccer, or sitting there playing cards and giggling with each other about language barriers for 4 hours straight, it is all about relationship, discipleship, and learning together through love.
But please keep on praying, there have been a few setbacks. Sweet Mike is in the hospital for the second night tonight fighting pneumonia that he hasn't been able to kick for the entire week, and Steven got into a fight with an escalator at the hospital and lost, resulting in stitches for his big toe. Other than that, there has been several different lingering sicknesses and things of that nature for a few of the students the past couple weeks, so be praying! Thankfully, I have not been one of those students, but please be praying that God eliminates sickness from our group.
I'll try to update as much as possible until we go to Vietnam! Thank you for all your prayers and know that we are also praying for you!
let me fill you in on a few of the things we've done so far ..
we flew out last thursday and after a 14 hour flight followed by a 6 hour flight, we landed in Bangkok minutes before the clock officially struck midnight to bring in the new year -- what a way to start off 2011! the next day we recovered from jet lag and explored our new location!
everything is so different here, but i love it. we ventured out and discovered the market that is a couple blocks away from us, and that is where we eat every night. i was only here about 10 hours before jo tricked me into eating mashed up cockroach .. it was an experience for sure. but they have the best fruit smoothies here and its always an adventure stepping outside our front door.
sunday we went into inner city Bangkok and toured a lot of the Buddhist temples and religious sites. although there is an obvious hurt for the people here who don't know any better, I was more broken hearted for the Christians. Let me explain, Lydia and I were chatting and she said how she doesn't understand how people can have such an empty religion, where they pray to their gods and never get a response or see miracles happen or anything along those lines. they also live in constant fear that what they are doing isn't enough to save them from their hells -- but how many Christians, especially in America, live in that same fear? I know that a lot of my life was lived that way -- I was completely unaware of how awesome the God I served is, how much He loves me, and how He speaks to me all of the time. How often did I do the right things or say the right things in hopes that I was doing enough to earn enough grace so that Jesus would take mercy on me? But that isn't the way that it is supposed to be at all. So my heart ached for those who live like I used to, those who are "saved" but don't live in a relationship with the living God at all. Because there is so much more in living a "Christian" life that isn't just going to church on Sundays and Wednesdays, it's about a life of freedom. It's about a life dedicated to being like Jesus and serving Him because of His goodness and the love that He has already given to us although we are so undeserving of it, and no matter how hard we try to earn grace, there is nothing we can do to make this wonderful God love us any more or any less.
That's just been a lot of my thoughts this week, I apologize if there is any confusion for you because a lot of what i'm thinking is still being processed in my own head. In fact, I am right now apologizing for any odd statements I may make on this due to lack of processing, there is a lot that God is revealing to me about Himself, myself, and what that means in my heart attitude and actions.
Anyway, back to what the team has been doing this week ..
We are staying right across from one of the universities in Bangkok, and we are apart of an organization called BJD (I'm not quite sure how to spell the real Thai words, but in Thai, it means "House of One Heart"). BJD was formed 15 years ago through YWAM and it provides inexpensive housing for college students. We try to build relationships with students on campus and then by loving them, ultimately show them Christ's love. Currently, BJD has about 30 students living in their housing, all of them fairly new Christians. Pretty much everyone who gets involved in BJD ends up loving Jesus. So, that's what we do. We love people and pray that the Holy Spirit moves in their lives so they will choose to love Jesus. Since we are living in the same place that the students are, it is really easy for us to minister to them and to serve them in everyday living type things. Then, almost every night there is some sort of activity that we get involved in on the base, whether it be worship services, game nights, playing soccer, or sitting there playing cards and giggling with each other about language barriers for 4 hours straight, it is all about relationship, discipleship, and learning together through love.
But please keep on praying, there have been a few setbacks. Sweet Mike is in the hospital for the second night tonight fighting pneumonia that he hasn't been able to kick for the entire week, and Steven got into a fight with an escalator at the hospital and lost, resulting in stitches for his big toe. Other than that, there has been several different lingering sicknesses and things of that nature for a few of the students the past couple weeks, so be praying! Thankfully, I have not been one of those students, but please be praying that God eliminates sickness from our group.
I'll try to update as much as possible until we go to Vietnam! Thank you for all your prayers and know that we are also praying for you!
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