Hey everyone,
Quick up date, I am currently in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My whole squad is here and we are just finishing up our few days of debrief from our month in the Philippines. We will all be staying in Chiang Mai for our whole month of ministry working to help prevent and get women out of the sex trade here in the country. So far Thailand has been a very interesting and exciting country with a rich history and culture that I am just starting to learn about.
To back track a little there was something I experienced in Philippines that I really wanted to share. If you didn’t already know I was working and living in the mountains of Pintong Bukawe, Philippines at a boys camp/ church/ sustainable farm. When we first arrived we were given a list of things around camp that needed to get done during our month. One of those tasks was building a new chicken coop. I was asked to lead this project and I accepted thinking this would be a fairly simple project. This turned out to be a very wrong assumption.
The first thing that made this project unique and difficult was the location. The chicken pin was located on a very steep hill and the chicken coop needed to go inside the pin up agents a already existing brick wall. The second thing that made this project extra hard were the supplies and tools. This is a very poor part of the country and world and we were working for a very small ministry with a small budget that was all ready stretched thin. People use what they already have or what the can harvest from the surrounding jungle they also use use old, broken and dull tools because they cant afford new ones. At my disposal I had a hammer and some rusty nails, a few dull hand saws, some old dented up shovels, a little bit of lumber and a few sheets of tin of the roof.
To give you a little background on me I learned what little I know about construction and being handy from my Dad who is extremely gifted with building or fixing anything. So anytime I had to make something in the past I had my dad there to help me with the perfect tool for the job.
Needless to say I was completely out of my comfort zone. After cutting down a tree and a lot of bamboo, bending a few too many nails, almost falling down the hill, and a lot of hard work we were able to build a fully functional and sturdy chicken coop. After it had been done a few days and I got to thinking about it this experience showed me so much about how God feels about everyone and how He is using me and my team on the World Race.
We are not perfect and we never will be, we will never be completely sinless like we feel that we need to be to serve Him. But just like we didn’t have the perfect tool for the job we were still able to get the job done. He can use you just the way you are and he is using me right now even though I’m still dealing will all the messy stuff of my past life. All He needs is you to be willing to be used when He calls you.
When I looked back at that chicken coop after we finished it I didn’t see the crooked support beams, the jagged edges, the mismatched paint or the bent over nails. I looked at it and was proud because it was serving its purpose and we fought through trials and got it done. This is exactly how God sees us but even greater. He looks at us and is proud and loves us because He made us and we are perfect in that fact and that fact only and He wants us to serve the purpose He intended for us.
Thanks for reading and supporting me! Keep praying for me and Team Boundless while we serve in Thailand.
