*disclaimer for my mom (and anyone else who tends to worry about my safety): don’t be too alarmed by what you’re about to read…I’m safe and doing great!
So I think God had a few lessons to teach me about Him being the Great Provider…read on for snapshots of each lesson!
1. An amazing retrest into nature!
Last week Monday and Tuesday my team had the opportunity to go to a national park here in Thailand that is “close” to where we’re staying. I absolutely love camping and nature and such things, and often have awesome talks with God amidst His creation. So we got to see some wildlife (gibbons – like monkeys, barking deer, and tons of different butterflies…sadly, the elephants, tigers, and cobras remained elusive and we couldn’t find them). We also saw some of the gorgeousness of God’s creation (lush green fields Monday night while we were hiking, mist over a mountain, the sunrise Tuesday morning, a really pretty waterfall, lots of nature, and some gorgeous clouds on the way back…don’t worry, I took tons of pictures!) And I had some amazing God-time…more about that later!
2. People to talk to at just the right time
Not only have I been in dire need of some natural peace and quiet (which was still hard to get because people like to talk even while hiking), I’ve also been needing to share some stuff with one of my teammates, and as we hiked along on Tuesday we had an awesome opportunity to just chat about life and struggles and joys, and it came at just the right time…and showed me once again that God is my Provider and He will give me whatever I ask for (even if I don’t verbalize my requests, He can still hear them!)
3. Angels with rides and directions
As we hiked along yesterday we kept getting directions from random people along the way…including a Thai man on a moped that told us we could go down a road that looked like it was closed because there was a barricade across it, and a running (read: exercising…the first Thai I`ve seen exercising) Thai man that gave us directions to the campground. We also got help once we found the campground from another very nice Thai man who showed us the best place to set up our tents (under a pavillion – yes, cheesy, but in case it rained we wouldn’t have wet tents to roll up and we didn’t have to pick thistles out of the tents in the morning…and we had a fence almost all the way around us to ward off the gibbons and deer.) So we had a very enjoyable night, and then got up early to hike to a waterfall. We started down the road and got probably about 2 km out of the 6 1/2 we would have gone on the road when we were offered a free ride…so of course we took it! And we got to the waterfall about 2 hours before we thought we were going to, and it was very exciting and amazing and beautiful.
4. Quiet time near the waterfall
Renee and I sat down to have some quiet time while the rest of the girls trekked up along the stream a little bit, and God showed me an amazing verse…
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26
This verse spoke volumes to me about some stuff I’ve been struggling with lately, and God gave it to me at just the right time, and it kept playing through my head the rest of the day as well.
5. Getting un-lost in the jungle
Yes, you read that headline right – we got lost in the jungle and God got us un-lost. So we decided it would be smart to try and hike an 8.4 km trail from the Haew Suwat waterfall back to the visitor center through the middle of the jungle…without a compass or emergency phone or much extra food or really knowing what we were getting in to. It was a grand adventure at first, as we walked along and could hear the river and saw a trail marker about a km in so we knew we were on the right path still, and then after probably another 1/2 hour we hadn’t seen any more trail markers and were feeling a bit lost…so we turned around, and stopped and prayed, and asked God to please guide us out of the jungle without getting killed or lost…and He totally provided by giving us direction and allowing us to see parts of the path we remembered and carrying us safely back before a thunderstorm rolled in (which I don’t think it ever really stormed…just dark clouds and some low thunder rumbles) and getting us back to the waterfall after a sweaty two-hour hike through the dense jungle/foresty area. So we learned not to go in the woods unprepared, to pray before we go, and to depend on God to provide completely for our needs. So it might not have been a smart move (sorry, mom!) but God definitely protected us and used it to teach us a few great lessons.
6. Free rides & cheap rides
So not only did God get us back to the parking lot by the waterfall, He also provided some nice rides for us. We met a very nice English and Thai speaking woman from Singapore who was with a group from her company (they sell candles to Pier One and Crate & Barrel!)…and their group took us (for free!) back down to the visitor center. Not only did we save 300 Baht getting down there that we would have normally had to pay for a ride, this nice lady also helped us get a ride from the visitor center (about 14 km into the park) all the way back to the train station in Pak Chong (about 30 km from the entrance of the park) for 100 baht each (a little over $3 – not too bad). Then, if that wasn’t enough, God also provided us train tickets for 40 baht each to get back to Buriram (instead of the 190 baht each we had paid to get down to Pak Chong…but keep in mind that this train was a bit slower and stopped at absolutely every little tiny train station there has ever been along the northeastern Thailand train line…but it was cheap and only took about a 1/2 hour longer than the other one). Yay for cheap rides…and for God to continue providing even after He showed us how awesome He is with the jungle incident.
7. Awesome ministry opportunities
We got to talk to a ton of people throughout our travels over the last two days, which helps plant seeds and is a pretty sweet way to do ministry. A few of the girls sat down in the train station with some Thai ladies who were pulling the stems off red peppers and worked with them for about an hour as we waited for the train, just blessing them with extra hands and trying to communicate in very broken Thai. Renee and I had a man sit down by us on the train who was traveling around, and we had a chance to talk to him for a while just about life, and before we knew it, he was about ready to get off the train (we had talked for probably 1 1/2 hours). The other girls had a chance to talk to people on the train as well…and God provided some pretty cool conversation for them as well.
So really I’ve learned a few lessons about God providing…it’s pretty stinking cool how God bombarded me with the same lesson throughout the whole day and I’m pretty excited about the ways in which God is going to continue showing me this lesson throughout the trip (and for the rest of my life!)
