I’ve struggled long and hard with not
being able to see tangible results of our ministry. We haven’t seen a
huge revival, we haven’t prayed with crowds of people, we haven’t
removed a woman from the bars… part of me just wanted to SEE the
impact we’re having!
Our host, Emmi, told us a while back
that we were all pieces to the puzzle of the things going on in
Chiangmai. I first thought that she was merely spouting off a cliche,
and it certainly didn’t help me feel any better. But the idea kept
coming up in my mind over and over again.
What if it were true?
jumble of thoughts inside my head. Try to get your minds past the
cheesy cliche and see this for what it is. When you look at the
above picture, you can see the pile of pieces all mixed together.
Each individual piece doesn’t seem to be very significant, but look
at the edges of the puzzle. It’s very clear where pieces are missing.
Those pieces are essential to the picture being complete.
As I was putting this puzzle together
(yes, I did it just so I could take a picture for my blog!), some
pieces fit right away, some had to wait a bit, and some looked like
they were from a completely different puzzle. When I would find a
piece that fit right, it didn’t make it so that I could see the whole
picture.
Sometimes I feel like God put me in the
wrong puzzle box.
I get frustrated because I don’t seem
to match or fit with any of the pieces around me. Sometimes I can’t
see what good I’m doing, I feel so insignificant, I wonder how long
it will take for the puzzle to be complete, and I get impatient when
it’s not happening at my speed.
When we left Chiangmai. Beer was still
working at the bar. She still has to sell her body for money. At
first, I was asking God why He had us come. I couldn’t see any
difference that we’d made in her life. But you know something? Us
being there was but one piece to the puzzle of her life. Two other
World Race teams will be arriving there in a week, followed by more
WR teams, and more YWAM teams. Emmi asks each team to write their
stories in “the book” so that follow-up can happen. These teams
will read about Beer and the others and can add more pieces. Slowly
but surely, the puzzle is being completed, and I would give anything
to be around the day that happens!
As difficult as it is sometimes, I need
to trust that God can see the completed puzzle. The pieces I place
are just as important as those placed by others. Most people didn’t
come to love Jesus the very first time they heard about Him. Some it
was the third time, or the seventeenth time, or the sixtieth time. On
this journey over the next eight months, we might be the ones to
share that third, seventeenth, or sixtieth time, but we might also be
the first, or tenth, or fifty-ninth. Each time, each puzzle piece, is
equally important.
So pray for Chiangmai. Pray for Emmi,
for Beer, for the others that we met, for the teams that are yet to
come, for us as we move on from this place. The puzzle isn’t complete
yet.
Still interested? Click my
teammates’ names on the left to read more stories from our time here!
