This is the month. The phenomenal month that when you get home and people say tell me about your race, aka sum up the past year of your life, this is the month that you’d talk about. The month where you say God broke me this month. God showed how much He loves. And even more God showed me that His love has no bounds and that sometimes He’ll use me to be His love to others.
Coming into this month there was already an expectation that it was going to be different, set apart; a month on the race that alone could make this whole 11 months worth it. Little did I know that this month was going to make my life worth it, that for the next however many years I can say I do what I do because of two boys that changed my life in Thailand.
This month we got to work with an organization that works on the preventative side of sex trafficking. They go in and offer the family a place to live, go to school, learn a trade and be successful for the child so that they can be saved from the industry, so sweet ministry. I knew that I was going to love this ministry right off the bat just cause I’ve been longing for the chance to work at an orphanage or group home all race.
Two boys is all it took for my world to get wrecked. Sitting in Church Easter Sunday and these two boys came in their Thai outfits and sit right next to me, one on each side and from that moment on I was putty in their hands. I don’t know what happened that day, it was a normal Church service and a normal experience that kids sit with you on the race, but this was different these two boys had my heart.
Getting to hear their story was heart breaking. I knew that it would be just from the organization’s mission but somehow I wasn’t prepared for this. Gnot, 11, had parents who where alcoholics and didn’t have enough money to support their addiction and their family so they choose their addiction and Gnot was out on the street. But money was still not good enough for the family so they had to take out loans and there is a sure fire way to pay off loans and that is through your child and their purity. So Gnot went to live under his Aunt’s house that did not have enough money to support him, so he would live a mixture between under the house and in the jungle. Then came that life changing moment, an offer. His parents got an offer for Gnot. But praise God that there is this organization got wind of it and also offered his parents something, a better life for Gnot. The parents went with the later offer. Soon Gnot’s Aunt was offered a very similar offer for Mot, 8, but the organization got wind again and gave the same offer. So the boys ended up at this home, where I got to meet them.
Gnot and Mot are phenomenal boys. God used them to sow me that even though there is a language barrier, cultural barrier and just over all a barrier. Love is all it takes. It’s weird how just loving on two kids for one month can change you, but it has and I glad I got to meet these two future amazing on fire men of God. Through volleyball, wrestling and being a human jungle gym for these two boys I’ve grown to love them and have gotten to see God’s love for me in my love for them. I have loved Thailand and I have loved every moment that I have gotten to spend with these boys, future leaders.
To be honest with you, I have no clue what the post-race life will bring. I’m still called to Rome. And I’m still called to youth. This month was epic and I did ask God what He had for me in Thailand and it was pretty clearly said, “Don’t deviate from Rome.” I don’t know if I’ll ever get to see these boys again or if I’ll get to know what happens to them, but I do know whenever I huge a kid, give a student a high five, through a child in the air for fun or just love on somebody, it will be as if I am loving on Mot and Gnot. And thanks to these boys, I will always have a reminder of why I do ministry and how deeply God loves me.
