Looks can be deceiving. The beautiful mountains, the smiling faces, the wonderful weather, everything in Thailand looks amazing. Looks is the keyword here. From an outsiders perspective, the people of Mae Ai look happy, and they are extremely kind and hospitable, and if I didn’t know any better, act like Christians do. Except they are lacking one thing that we as Christians have- Jesus.
Thailand is a lot different than anywhere else we’ve been. The village we are in practices a lot of witchcraft, and only a small handful know God. To be Thai is to be buddhist. I’m working at a buddhist school, there’s a temple on every corner, a majority of the students are buddhist, and to be honest it can be kind of discouraging. These people are wonderful, I’m not kidding, they’re some of the kindest people I’ve ever met. But they’re lacking the one thing that brings true joy and meaning to life- Jesus. It breaks my heart that they don’t know His love, and that they won’t spend eternity with Him. So what do we do? Pray.
I thought teaching English we wouldn’t have too much of an opportunity to evangelize, since we’re not allowed to talk about Jesus unless we’re directly asked. But God has been presenting opportunities all over the place! Last week, a group of students took us on bike rides to temples, and when we wouldn’t bow to Buddha, we were able to explain that we are Christians and believe in Jesus and the one true God. After class, a group of 8 girls stayed after to talk with Lindsey and I, and they asked what religion we are, and we were able to talk about Christianity and church. When we were asked to teach about the western holidays, we were able to teach about Easter and Christ’s resurrection, and about Christmas and the birth of Jesus. We were able to sing worship music for the group of teachers and students who wanted to hear Mel play guitar, and even though they don’t speak English and know what we’re saying, the Holy Spirit can transcend languages and speak to their souls. Now that I’m with the nursery this week, I get to pray for each student as they wait in line to play hand games with me, and I can pray for the child I’m playing with as I stare at the Buddha pendant around their necks. We get to hug and giggle with these children who don’t get that attention and love at home and love them like Jesus would, not worrying about the lice that they all have, but knowing that loving on them means so much more than the danger of getting lice ever would. We were able to spend time with teachers and ladyboys one night and sing worship songs and dance with them, and you could tangibly feel the joy of the Lord, whether they knew what it was or not.
There’s a lot of darkness here in Mae Ai; my spirit feels it and I’ve been struggling with night terrors and scary visions. It would be easy to submit and be scared of everything in the spiritual realm here, but our God is greater. Our God is stronger. And I refuse to let the enemy scare me into submission by not praying for the people here. By praying, we’re shedding light into the darkness here. We’re planting seeds that the Lord will one day harvest. We’re changing the atmosphere, whether the teachers and students know it or not. And that’s the power of prayer. I’m realizing more and more this year that prayer isn’t just something we can do, but it’s the best thing to do. Our prayers are powerful, and they really do change hearts. Please be praying for the people of Thailand, and that their eyes will be opened to the Truth!
Thank you all for the support and prayers you’ve been sending my way! The encouraging comments, emails, messages, and texts mean more to me than you’ll ever know. I’m still in need of around $3,600 by the end of this month to continue onto Laos with the rest of my squad, so if you feel led, any amount of financial support would be greatly appreciated! As Laos is a closed country where Christianly is outlawed, I cannot disclose where we will be or who we will be with, but I can tell you we’ll be teaching English again. I’m so excited to put into practice the lessons I’m learning here to change the atmosphere of a country and the hearts of the people in a place that knows Jesus even less than Thailand. Thank you again for the prayers and support!
God bless,
Jenna
