In Australia, we had an amazing contact named Roger, who really showed me what it meant to praise God in all circumstances. To continually depend upon the Lord, to praise Him in the good times and the bad, to trust He is working, even when we can’t see it. Our whole team (Komboa) got into the habit of saying, “Praise God” ALL the time. This habit pushed its way into my vocabulary and mindset–praise God for clean water, for western toilets, for electricity, for friendship, for Him as a savior, for the Holy Spirit to lead us, etc. Check out this blog for more on that. In the Philippines, life was pretty darn good. We were blessed beyond belief-life was awesome. Cambodia was a little rougher. God definitely started to break me of my sense of entitlement-that I deserved ANYTHING. Because of this, I learned to praise Him in the big and small things.
Praise God for beds, fans that run on batteries, mosquito nets, a safe place to lay our heads at night, a room with amazing air flow, and close to a….
western style toilet, and a shower!
We lived in a chalet, safely above the vermin and any potential flooding (though it was dry season…)
We basically stayed at a resort for the 16 days we were in Baray. We were blessed with an amazing contact, a beautiful place to live, toilets, fans, electricity for a few hours a night, plenty of delicious food, and so much more. We were blessed to meet beautiful people, all of whom God desires to see come into the kingdom. We showed God’s love to widows and youth, we encouraged young believers, we taught English to some of the most precious teenagers I’ve ever met, and God blessed us abundantly through it all. It took a significant attitude change for me to realize what was happening, and how GOOD God is, even when it is hot and life seems difficult. God is still good, and He still deserves our praise.
As our current team drove to our ministry site in Wangdarb, near Chantaburi, I got excited, because I saw power lines–wait, you mean, even in the jungle we get electricity? When we got there, and they had western style toilets and showers, I just stood there praising God. They had fans we could have on during the day as well as the night, and there was great airflow. On top of all that, we are living in a beautiful, beautiful place!! Praise God! My teammates kind of chuckled at my excitement about these things, but I know what it is like to have less now, and it is fairly likely that in Africa we will have even less, so I am blessed and thankful that God taught me the lesson to praise Him, from whom ALL BLESSINGS (AKA GOOD THINGS, like food, water, joy, electricity, Holy Spirit, salvation, grace, etc) flow. Amen? Amen.
