I really don’t know how I can cry leaving every. single. contact. Our hosts are always so incredibly wonderful and generous, opening their homes, sharing their lives, and investing in us as much as we invest in them and their ministries. I truly feel like I’ve left a piece of my heart with each friend I’ve made in the past five months.
I started January with a new team here in month five of the World Race, and it has been great getting to know some new people on the squad, seeing new perspectives and learning to work with different people.
We lived in the mountains of Northwest Thailand in a province called Kanchanaburi with a Thai family who works for YWAM. Most of their life involves farming, so we spent our month helping on their farm, installing sprinkler systems, planting seeds, and doing whatever else they needed us to do. We helped lead small groups three times a week with three different families in the village, and several afternoons each week, we played volleyball with some of the older kids at a nearby school.
I have never been one that struggles with not “seeing the fruit” of the work that we invest. I tend to think that where good is being done, God is there, and anything we do to help long-term missionaries in the time that we’re here can be a blessing.
However, there was one moment in small group last week that I’ll never forget. One of the young women there shared her testimony with us, and told us that her cup has felt dry for a long time, but our team being with them this month, sharing God’s Word with them, and simply just spending time with them has filled her heart and renewed her faith in a way that it hasn’t been for a while. We were able to pray for her and encourage her to continue to seek the Lord and spend time with our contacts. It was so cool to see how God could use us to bless her in the short time we were there.
Christian community is so important, and in a village where there are only three Christian families in the midst of Buddhist neighbors, I would imagine that it’s really hard to grow. The Christian families in Kanchanaburi stand firm in who they are in the Lord, but Buddhism has such a stronghold in this place, that other people aren’t very receptive of the Gospel.
Our contacts have lived in this area for ten years, and the only people who have come to know Christ are those three families. I would ask that you pray earnestly for our contacts and the other Christian families in Kanchanaburi, that their lives would be such amazing reflections of the Lord that the other people in the community can’t help but notice. That God would shake this place up in a way that is undeniable. That people would come to know Him, and that he would be glorified.
We have Debrief in Chiang Mai this week, and then our squad is heading to AFRICA!!!! We’ll be in South Africa in February and Swaziland in March, so continue to pray for safe travels and good health!
Thank you all so much for all the love, thoughts, support, and prayers!!
