Throughout our time in Thailand, we had an “ATL” month meaning we would “Ask The Lord” where we should go and who we should talk to. Part of our mission was to meet potential partners for the long-term team in Chiang Mai. As we went about our prayer walks we focused on different needs throughout the city, ultimately praying for both locals and tourists to know God. We walked 63.62 miles during our ATL days in Thailand and each step was worth the walk!
Our first official day we started our prayer walks we actually went no further than outside of our hostel and into the coffee shop downstairs called Bella Goose. We took a divine detour as God placed someone straight in our paths just as our team finished praying for Him to lead us throughout the city. The day before my teammate Victoria and I met a girl named Jordan who was also an American and when I looked up in that moment, I saw her poke her head out of Bella Goose. Turns out she had walked over an hour to get there just so she could check out the Christian coffee shop we told her about less than 24 hours ago. God’s intentionality blew my mind as I realized that He purposely planned an interaction between Victoria and an agnostic on Saturday so that she could tell me about it at a coffee shop on Sunday so that Jordan could overhear us and ask us about a church in Chiang Mai so that we could also tell her about a Christian coffee shop called Bella Goose. It felt like a crazy game of connect the dots! God has these dots already plotted out there for us and if we rely on Him to lead the next move He can reveal a beautiful image. It may be revealed over just a few days or it may take longer, but if we follow and trust in His path we will be able to look back and see the full picture someday.
God continued to connect dots through meeting Jordan and I’m sure He will continue to connect more. She joined us for church one Sunday and we were able to celebrate her birthday by planning a group dinner. This came after another day of ATL where we walked over five miles throughout Chiang Mai. Although I didn’t have any direct conversations with anyone, I was in constant conversation with the Lord as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 encourages us to “pray without ceasing”. It was a great realization that prayer walks allow for this and all of our steps in life can be a prayer walk. Whether we’re going to and from a train stop, school, work, or a coffee shop, miles will turn into moments with this mindset. It could have been easy to feel discouraged that day but I put my trust in the Lord thinking He may have had something else in store that evening. Sure enough as we were wrapping up Jordan’s birthday dinner that night, my squadmate Shiloh and I came across a hostel lobby next door where we stopped by to enjoy their hanging hammock chairs. Little did we know that as he asked the guy next to us about his beer that a three-hour-long conversation would spark and allow us to preach the gospel to him and his wife! It was one of the most fruitful conversations I’ve ever had about faith as we were able to answer deep questions they had along with another tourist who joined in. It is hard to put into words the adrenaline rush that the Holy Spirit stirred in me but I was grateful that God’s word came to life in that moment as 1 Peter 3:15 says “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect”.
At first, I somewhat shamefully admit, I had some skepticism about ATL. Sometimes I struggle to hear clearly from God as to who I am supposed to talk to and what I am supposed to say. This month shifted my perspective in being prayerful about continuing to grow in this area though. As I put my trust in Him while we were in Thailand, He reminded me that my friend Jenna was just in Chiang Mai over the summer on a mission trip with our church from Chicago. I felt encouraged to reach out to her to see if she had any contact information for connections in the city. She was able to put us in touch with Pondtip who worked with a college ministry through Jasper Kids Foundation. Our team met up with her for lunch one day and she was so generous to treat us and to give of her time by taking us to two more markets in town. She invited us to a Bible study with the college students that night and our teammate Savannah was able to prepare a story to share with them. Even though we had to rely on a translator and there was a language barrier during worship, love proved yet again to be a universal language. God’s love for us & our love for Him was evident among all of us, truly one of the most beautiful things on this journey. Once again, God’s intentionality blew me away as I realized that He purposely put my friend Jenna on my first mission trip team to Madrid so that we could become close friends and encouraging sisters in Christ. Then two and a half years later He sent her to Chiang Mai before calling me there so He could connect the dots through Pondtip. What a beautiful image He can create if we just “Ask The Lord” and allow Him to be the Artist.
