I left Central America a changed man with blurry vision. Tears will do that and yet that is not the only reason I had troubled vision. We ended our 3 months on an island off the coast of the Pacific Ocean. These last three days shook the firm stance I thought I had out from under me. People almost drowned, goodbyes were said and teams were changed. My new family was “ripped” from me and I was not happy. It had been a teeth and nails fight to get to a place where we could actually call ourselves family and then it was gone. It was an extremely hard transition for me that I was not ready for. At that time I was a man that felt like I needed to be ok, whether I was or not. So to sum it up, I was in an invisible prison of my own making unbeknownst to me. And to make it worse, I was on my way to four months in Asia that I was not ready for.
Days of travel and layovers in 5 airports later and we had made it to Bangkok, Thailand. Honestly, I am sitting here and I am trying to figure out how to spin this in a good light rather then something dark and dreary. I am learning that perception is key to your experience. One must choose to see the light in the situation because the enemy is waiting to overwhelm you with a plethora of darkness and discouragement. The truth? The kingdom never stops moving forward and never stops growing! Thailand is one of the darkest places in the world and yet God is moving! He is using Thailand as a staging ground to infect the rest of Asia and of course Jesus would choose to start in one of the darkest places.
We partnered with YWAM and their contacts. My team took an twelve hour overnight bus to Chiang Rai where our contact, a pastor with a heart for discipleship, and his family lived. They invited us into their home and ministry with open arms. Sanguen and Ying had a little fireball of a five year old son that brought a need for patience to our team in quite a few ways. I will be honest, my team learned really quickly that a house divided will crumble. While we were going through turmoil amongst ourselves, Sanguen and Ying were showing us a true example of community. It is sort of ironic looking back at what Jesus was trying to show us and that I know that I at least did not see. I used to get annoyed by the saying, “hindsight is twenty-twenty”, but I see the value in reflection and learning from what He was trying to show me. Learning and seeing in the moment is something that I am praying He will help me with as I grow in Him.
Cambodia was one of the most bittersweet months on my race. We had our four month debrief in the city of Siem Reap. This is where Jesus broke my heart for those afflicted and oppressed by the sex trade. Cambodia is another place where I had to learn about perception. It came out of necessity, because the other option was feeling utterly overwhelmed by the darkness. The enemy has a major in theatricality and wants to throw it in your face. Yet again I found myself in utter darkness, crying out for truth and light. I found it! God is moving in Cambodia! The sex industry runs rampant, the stench of genocide still tries to loom and poverty has a choke hold on the country side. The Lord is staging revival in the midst of all of this. Why? Put simply they need Him more than anything else and so when He shows up with bread, His children feast.
Vietnam is much the same. I had many preconceived notions of what we were going to encounter there. We encountered Christians that were fed up with how it always had been and therefor were changing it. Communism and oppression from war cannot stop the Spirit of the Living God from reaching His own. In Malaysia I was yet again surrounded. We had taken a night train through the jungle to find ourselves in the middle of an Islamic state that would jail us just for evangelism, talk about gravity. Guess what? He is moving there too! He had sent one family in to spy out the land and break down the damn. And they are doing it. Revival has started and cannot be stopped. In each instance, there is a person or family that has seen enough lies and smoke screens and has decided to dedicate their lives to tearing the veil and opening eyes. Compelled by love, the world changers of Asia are only growing and inspiring along the way. Jesus loves to work in impossible situations because that’s when faith is activated. That’s when we must rely on Him the most. That’s when His people taste and see that He is good and begin to trust and revel in that Goodness!
Asia tried to kill me, yet all it did was open my eyes even more to the ultimate truth. Jesus won and the triumphantly redeemed are spreading. The Kingdom is always being furthered!
