Our month in Thailand has been one of my favorites so far, and I’m incredibly excited to share with you a few stories from our time here along with some lessons I’ve learned through it all. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that the adventures we got to have, including scuba diving and island hopping, may have helped to sway my decision…but all of that was just icing on the cake of an amazing month filled with crazy God moments and miraculous encounters.
One of the coolest experiences that I’ve had so far on this journey was the night my team and I decided to go out on Bangla Road to hold signs offering ‘’Free prayer’’ and encouraging people to share their stories with us. Thailand is known for their thriving red light districts, one of the more famous ones being Bangla Road on the island of Phuket, and we had walked it up and down many times before that night, praying over it and asking God to show up and shine His light into places of extreme darkness. I wasn’t really sure what to expect or even really how to pray for random strangers, but God sent people to us almost instantly, asking what we were giving for free or even wanting to know what prayer was. One of my favorite moments was when a group of young men who said they’d never prayed or been prayed for before asked us to pray for them during their flight school training. I jumped at the opportunity, and after I finished praying, one of the guys named Nick said, ‘’Wow, I’ve never felt that before. That was really incredible. It feels like someone actually cares about me!” I told him, “YES! Someone does…and His name is Jesus!” I felt goose bumps come over me and a rush of adrenaline as we spoke a bit more about who God is and how He loves them. The night continued with more prayers and conversations as people continued to come over and ask about what we were doing or if we could pray for them. I could not stop smiling and felt the true joy of the Lord as I watched my team have conversations about Jesus and pray over people to receive His love and the gift of eternal life. It was a night that I hope we can repeat again and again in other cities that we visit around the world.
Another one of my most favorite moments this year is the story of our friend, William. One of my teammates, Taryn, met William in Penang, Malaysia and befriended him while we were staying there. He quickly fit in with our group as he was up for any adventure and always willing to go wherever we invited him. William is from Kuala Lumpur and admitted that he was in Penang to have some time to himself to reflect on his life and find some answers about what he believed. He grew up in a home that worshipped the Chinese gods, but he wanted to find out for himself what his own beliefs were. He was very open to the conversations we would have with him about Jesus but didn’t really believe in Him the way we explained to him we do. Never-the-less he continued to join us whenever we invited him to different worship nights or testimony talks, and ended up following us from Malaysia to Thailand so that we could continue to hang out together. I don’t know why but I just knew that we had to get him to join us for debrief in Pattaya for our last week in Thailand to help celebrate Taryn’s birthday. I kept telling her that he was our birthday present to her, so we were able to convince him to join us there.
On Taryn’s birthday, we had a worship night as a squad where we could sing or dance or pray or draw or do whatever we felt called to do to express our love for God. Most of the night I sat in prayer soaking in the Lord’s presence and eventually got up to write in my journal toward the end of the night. I saw one of my squad mates talking to William at the communion station, so I said some prayers for God to soften his heart and speak to him about Jesus’ love for him. After getting a few sentences down in my journal, I heard a commotion and someone say, “Do you want to come watch William take communion? He just accepted Christ!” OH MY GOODNESS! I could hardly believe what I’d heard!! I ran over to see him reading over the last supper and taking communion as he cried tears of joy in his new found faith. Tears streamed down my face as I watched our dear new friend accept Christ as his Saviour and dedicate his life to following Him. It all made sense now, why God wanted William with us…and Taryn got one of the best birthday gifts of all…a new brother in Christ! It only got better from there as William decided he wanted to be baptized two nights later, so we joined him on the beach and heard him profess his faith in Christ in front of more than 60 people. At the age of only 18, his diligence to find the truth and boldness to proclaim the name of Jesus for all to hear has been truly inspirational and amazing. Please pray that William continues to seek the Lord and that he can find a community of believers who will encourage and support him and walk with him in his new-found faith.
William, my Asian twin! It’s hard to tell in the photo but our hair is “same same” 🙂
William’s baptism – the second baptism for Daniel to do this year!
The greatest lesson that God has taught me through these experiences, along with many others, is that He has a perfect plan and timing for my life. I have been able to catch glimpses of why I’m on this exact trip with these exact people at this exact time. I have had moments with squad mates that have been so inspired by God because of the ways we can relate to one another or encourage each other in some of our greatest struggles. I have seen God use us to pray with people in some of their most difficult moments or to walk along-side someone to share the hope of the gospel with him and welcome him into the kingdom of God. My team and I did a study through the book of Esther, and verse 14 from chapter 4 has stuck with me for the past few weeks, which says…”who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this.” God has designed specific appointments for us at specific times, and it’s been my greatest prayer that I am attentive to His voice and obedient to His calling so that I do not miss the opportunities that He’s placed in front of me each day. In Acts 17:26-27 we read that “From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us.” I have truly seen those verses play out this month in Thailand and I cannot tell you how amazing it is to see God’s word fulfilled in such a real way.
As we move into Cambodia for the month of June, your prayers for our safety, opportunities to share the gospel, and open doors to serve people with the love of Christ would be much appreciated! As always, THANK YOU for all of the love and support you continue to lavish on me.
