If you would have asked me a year
ago…where I would be today…I don’t think in a million years I
would have ever guessed that I would be in the remote deep jungle of
Malaysia. I surely would have never thought that I would be taking
baths in a leach infested river…doing my laundry on a bamboo floor
with a bucket… living in a tent hiding from the huge “Hand sized”
creepy spiders that lurk here…running away from a bear chasing us
out of a bamboo hut!…eating my least favorite food all the time for
every meal…for breakfast we have…rice…for lunch we have
…Rice…and oh yeah for dinner we have…RICE!!!…and we eat it
with our bare hands…no forks or spoons, just use your hand as a
shovel…and using a hole dug in the ground as a toilet or should I
say “squatty potty”…
Somehow…through the growing and
stretching and breaking and abandonment God has been taking me
through. These things are not that bad to me now…Not like they
would have been a year ago for me. Plus all the positives and
adventures way out weigh any ideas of feeling sorry for my living
conditions. Instead I rejoice! And I choice to praise God that he has
allowed me an opportunity…a chance to see his love and his grace
and his power in new ways…without distraction!
This last week I would have never
thought I would experience or do some of the things I have done
either…like…teach kids in the jungle English, Math, Colors, and
Shapes,…Praying for the sick and seeing God Heal them!…working on
farms in the jungles with locals form the village… and finding a
best friend in a boy names Sudoui that can only say my name in
english but still shows me an amazing amount of unconditional love
and respect and looks after me in the Jungle.
I love that everyday of this trip…of
this journey…is an adventure with God to see him in new ways…not
that he is different around the world…but that he reveals himself
to me in new ways through my surroundings to show me more and more of
him and who he is. What I love the most…is that no matter where I
am in the world…no matter what my circumstances…poor or
rich…healthy or poor…sad or happy…our God is the same…Our God
is the same god around the world to all people, nations, and
tongues…and he loves us all so much!
So yes…I never thought I would be
where I am today…But Thank GOD! That my plans were changed and
wrecked for Gods…because his have turned out to be amazing and full
of majesty!
Puju Tuhann!
(Praise the Lord in Malay)
Love
Ryan
