I was clutching hands with one of the Thai girls wearing yellow cotton pajamas with little zebras. She was tiny and one I’ve grown attached to. She swung my arms grinning with joy while the older girls lead the campers in worship. We were jumping everywhere and punching the air in celebration while belting the words to the song. At least I always try also belting the Thai words but usually I’m just shouting noises that match the key. Or just shouting noises.
Then I saw a chair hit a kid’s back.
The atmosphere was calm before worship time at 7PM with distant orange flickers briefly appearing behind the clouds in the sky. Then suddenly in the middle of our singing to God, the wind started howling. The power of the wind sent a natural Kansan fear zinging through my bones that maybe a tornado was brewing. I don’t think they even have tornadoes in Thailand! The plastic blue chairs kept tipping over and bumping into kids. The Thai girl I was holding hands with that we call Little Nugget pounced on my bag, Bible, and jacket to keep them from blowing away.
The gusts of winds were a warning for what was to come. The rain didn’t come down straight but went wherever the wind blew it. It looked like a hurricane chose to pummel the giant pavilion that we were under. Thankfully, we had a lot of coverage because of the fiber glass roof.
The kids kept singing even louder in worship.
Then it went completely black.
Phones from my teammates were quickly held high with glowing lights and emergency flashlights flipped on from some of the Sending Hope staff. We all kept jumping and singing for at least a few more minutes before the rain got heavier and brutal.
There was slight chaos trying to figure out what to do because we were under this large awning not sure the danger level of the storm. In my mind, my gears started switching to crisis mode. I thought of the possibility of flying debris we couldn’t see in the darkness and had a growing urgency to get the kids to the cabins. Some ran to their cabin successfully but most huddled tighter and tighter in a circle.
I was frustrated because I wanted to see movement and hurrying, not kids clinging onto us and the staff. I didn’t want a circle, I wanted these kids in their cabins including myself. Then an annoying nudge from God made me realize what was happening.
The kids that are campers are given affection by staff mostly. Some don’t have parents, some have one parent in the village, and some have parents that don’t care about them. There’s a chance a few that come in just for camp from the villages have warm, loving families but I don’t know. You could see that the children wanted protection and a person to hold them tight in scary storms.
I stood there for a moment and had some of the girls around 8 bury their faces in my side and my shoulder. I spotted all my teammates and most of them had 1-6 kids snuggling close to them. Zach was a few steps beside me and at least six children were clutching onto him. It reminded me these kids don’t have many fathers that make them feel safe.
Ethan, another one of my teammates, started telling the kids that God has the power and ability to stop the rain. He answers bold prayers. Elijah, he said, prayed to God in 1 Kings 17 that there would be no more rain and it did not rain for 3 years.
After he finished, voices started praying out loud to God that He would stop the rain.
The girls hugging me went over to some other Thai girls and I was standing there alone in my soaked rain jacket and clothes. One of the boys around age 10 that I know for sure didn’t know Jesus scooched close to me. He was wearing a bright orange soccer jersey and his arms were crossed tight. Usually in worship settings he did not hug, pray, sing, or anything but he looked like he honestly wanted to be loved like the other kids. Having knowledge of Thai customs, I tapped my teammate Zach and pointed him out. Zach laid his hand gently on the boy’s shoulder and started praying for him.
The girls started singing alongside the sounds of guitar. The circle stayed like this for a while, praying and singing as the storm slowly started to fade away. God does answer prayers of His children.
I looked over and the boy in the orange soccer jersey was another one of the children huddled close to Zach. It looked to me like he finally let his guard down and admitted he wanted to have a part of whatever was happening.
The lights flashed back on.
As the storm was on its tail-end, we herded all the children back to their cabins to stay put for a bit. It was time to regroup and change clothes. My team headed back to the house and gathered in the living room. A lot of us didn’t have the words to describe what had just happened. It was such a touching moment and the Lord was so present that we were speechless.
If you read my last blog, I talked about how the focus of the camp was to lead children to Christ, share the gospel, and leadership training for their older girls. This is the heartbeat of the camp. So when the director Dave returned to the house, he was intent on continuing the night and sharing what he was going to share on the last night of camp. When we hustled back, kids were sweeping off the water and setting up stools to sit on instead of the floor.
I had this feeling kid’s hearts were moving and some kids were about to say that they did want Jesus and to be with Him. I don’t think it was just from that night but the entire week of camp we’ve been teaching in different ways about Jesus and who He is as well the other children already believers surrounded those that didn’t believe.
I don’t think statistics matter. I mean that I don’t think my purpose as a follower of Jesus is to count how many people I get to witness say ‘yes’ to Jesus. I don’t have an agenda. Loving and leading them as a human being is the real purpose. That’s what catches attention.
Gosh, I wanted to see that these kid’s hearts got brushed with the Holy Spirit though. I was confident they did but I started doubting as Dave was talking to the kids. He was creatively sharing the whole gospel just like the first night. And I said, “God, if not, it’s okay. At least the kids had an encounter with you. At least they will have something of you to take with them. I mean, this moment doesn’t determine success or failure of camp. I know I prayed for the kids to say yes but it’s fine. I know it won’t happen now.”
I didn’t want to be disappointed so I was convincing myself I was kidding myself thinking the kids would go from not saying anything the first night to saying something this night. I tried to keep my hopes low but I soon found I was being absolutely silly.
Dave said at the end of his talk that they have a choice, he couldn’t make it for them. He said to pray a prayer after him if they wanted to make the first move to walking alongside Jesus for the rest of their lives.
He started praying.
My heart clenched.
Then following his voice were multiple tiny, whispery voices. Little tiny voices telling Jesus they wanted to be with Him. It was one of the most beautiful sounds.
Dave asked the children come to the front and for the rest of us to surround them. We prayed over them all at once. The thing I loved most is you couldn’t tell who was new to Jesus and who was not because we were one mash of praying people.
The boy in the bright orange jersey chose Jesus last night among about 9 other kids. The children we knew came from the outside villages to camp all said yes to Christ last night.
I have mixed feelings about group things and accepting Jesus. This was different from say Souther Baptist altar calls because the kids didn’t have pressure – they didn’t have to stand, they didn’t have to walk to the front immediately, they just had to pray words in their seats and own space. They still had to be brave but they didn’t have to perform for anyone or their expectations.
These kids need prayer. In Thailand, the religion of about 94% of the country is Buddhist and 1% are Christian. It’s rough terrain being a Christian especially because there are few. There’s not outright persecution that I know of but these kids are surrounded by those that believe much differently and families that believer differently. As well, pray it wasn’t just an emotional response.
Chairs flew and people got soaked but our praises remained persistent.
