Last week we spent some time in our tents on the mountains of Maehungsun, Thailand. I had feared this very moment for a year. And let me tell you, it's not a big deal anymore. In just a month and a half I've already slept in so many strange places, that a tent feels like nothing new. In fact, it's luxury in comparison to the 19 hour train ride to Harbin. I don't imagine anything could be worse. Please God, let nothing be worse!
We were visiting a kid's camp to see if we could meet with some of the leaders of the churches represented from various tribes. We met a young man of 22 named Dol, and he translated for us. He had been leading the camp. We told them why we were there and that we hoped to build relationships with them and to see how we could help support them in the future. It was Dol's first time translating and he was very nervous.
I had already been observing Dol with the kids the day prior to and we had some conversations when he wasn't either leading worship or a game, teaching Bible stories or planning with the other leaders his age. I know I couldn't understand any words spoken during the camp.
But there was plenty I understood.
I understood that God's presence was very real in these mountains.
I understood that 20 year olds are the ones that love on children in the churches and lead them, not just the parents.
I understood that though the Thai people are very timid and passive, they love deeply when they learn to trust you.
I understood that God's calling on Dol was very real and powerful because I could sense it.
So when the leaders all agreed that Dol should be the one to lead a group from Adventures in Missions in the future, I knew why we had come.
There was this look on Dol's face. It was both fear and complete joy. When he started to realize what it could mean in the future for spreading the gospel in his home village, he already started brainstorming. He asked, "If I have my own ideas about how I can lead a team, can I share them?"
There is something completely exciting about watching someone so young catch an expectancy of what God can do with their life that blessed me. It's God who births hope and expectancy in the heart of one so talented and one so clearly following His heart.
It blesses me that this type of ministry is not for me, even though I end up feeling like it is and I reap it's benefits to the full.
I only had a few days to spend with these lovely people before we took off to make other contacts, but Dol told me as we got ready to drive away in our truck with 11 people and 15 backpacks, a uke and a guitar, that he feels in his heart that he is missing me.
I haven't had the experience of falling in love with these people here because we are bouncing all over, but it is not my experience that defines my God. It is the Word of God that defines who He is.
But even still, I am grateful for my experience of meeting my brother Dol, my unsung hero.
Here is my prayer over Dol.
Colossians 1:3-14
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant,[c] who is a faithful minister of Christ on our[d] behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,[e] 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[f] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
