They tell you coming into the race not to have any expectations of what a month will look like. They tell you to come in with a blank slate and an open heart. Back when I first signed up for the race, Thailand was one of those countries I was most thrilled for. Why? Because when you think of Thailand what is one of the first things that comes to mind for ministry?
Sex trafficking. Prostitution.
And although I thought I hadn’t created any expectations in my mind of what Thailand would look like, the fact of the matter is that’s exactly what I had done. I was expecting to be in or at least near one of the cities that is most prevalent with this problem. I was expecting to be doing at least something with bar ministry or sex trafficking. And when I got to Thailand, found I was not only doing nothing in sex trafficking, but I was also as far north… as far away from these big cities that have the ridiculously large Red Light Districts as possible, I was discouraged. I was frustrated. And it led to a lot of bitterness in my heart… Bitterness that, if I had let it, would destroy my joy each and every day this month.
Last Sunday, one of the missionaries we’ve met asked everyone a very simple question. “In the last two weeks what is one way you’ve seen God moving here in Thailand?” I was the last to share… not because I was saving the best for last, but because it literally took me that long to think of something to say. I’d spent the last two weeks so bitter that I had refused to see how God was working in and through us? How pathetic.
After that realization, I decided I would start praying for God to give me His eyes for the day. That I would see the school, the teachers and students, teaching English, and everything else we’re doing the way He sees it. So if someone would ask me “how have you seen God working?” I can immediately spout off countless stories… Because He’s moving each and every day, and I was choosing to be blind to it.
So here’s a few stories…
Last week, the girls, including myself, all had food poisoning. As a result, we were basically stuck to our beds for 3 days straight. During this time the guys on our team were at the school camping with the Boy Scouts. At the end of the Boy Scout camp there was a program the students were going to be putting on, and the teachers, last minute, asked the guys if we had something we wanted to do for the program that evening. So they called us and asked if we wanted to do Lifehouse’s “Everything” skit for the kids. Well, I still wasn’t feeling so great, I had never done the skit before, I didn’t feel like learning something on such short notice, I didn’t want to do it if we couldn’t do it well, and I just flat out didn’t feel like being at the school so late… However, I recognized the fact that this was an awesome opportunity. So we learned the skit an hour before the program started, performed it in front of the students and teachers, and the outcome was incredible. By the end of it, one of the students stated with excitement, “that’s Jesus!!!” The next day, several students were asking questions about it and wanted to know more. And in general, I feel like it’s made the students more at ease with asking us questions. So regardless of my sickness, our limited preparation, my exhaustion… God was still able to use the skit to impact the students and teachers in a way that only He was capable of.
Another story… (I’m changing the names to protect their story)
Each week, we have an English class with the teachers that our host, Sharon, leads. This week we were teaching on image and identity, using scripture to show them. As most of Thailand is Buddhist, most Thai people grow up believing they have no worth. No one has ever told them they are valued. We each partnered up with a teacher to have a one on one conversation with them during class. I was partnered with a teacher named Nathan. He’s an English teacher at the school, super comical, and loves to crack a good joke. Gong into this conversation, I was super nervous. I mean we’re talking on identity and image, how am I supposed to know what to say to him? I’ve never done this before. Right before we started our conversation I prayed for God to just guide our conversation, and for Him to give me the words to say. And that’s exactly what God did. By the end of the class we had 2 teachers yelling across the room to each other, ”I’M WONDERFUL!!” We found out one gym teacher was a Christian, and the other gym teacher, a Buddhist, wanted to know more about Jesus and what all this meant. And Nathan asked me about how I was before I found Jesus, how life is after you have a relationship with Him, and asked me so many questions about how Jesus is the only truly satisfying, ultimate healer, consistent comforter, and continuous giver of unconditional love. It was all God. I asked for Him to guide our conversations and He did. I asked for Him to give me the words and He did. I asked for Him to let me see and He did. Thank you, Jesus, for the opportunity to show these teachers their true value. That they’re made in the image of a Creator who loves them like they’ve never been loved before.
There are so many moments like these. So many stories to tell. So many moments of Him moving in each of our lives all around the world. My question to you is… are you choosing to be blind to them?
O… And you know how I originally said I wanted to be involved in sex trafficking when I was in Thailand? Well I am. Many of the students at Samaki school are the at risk children who find themselves caught in sex trafficking later in their lives. So it’s funny how God works sometimes. It’s not what I thought it would look like, but I’m still involved in it. Just making the choice to see it the way God sees it is what’s made the difference.
