We spent four days at a ywam base here in Thailand, in a beautiful home owned by Len. He is South African, and therefore has the coolest accent. I wish we were able to spend more time with him, because man, that man has many stories to tell and I canNOT wait to hear the rest when we meet again in heaven. I am not saying I shall never see him again on this earth; only that he will remember them a lot better once we get up there. And just think of the ample story-telling time we will have.
Len and his son went backpacking. Understatement of the year. Len and his son LIVED backpacking, because “how long” you may ask? TEN YEARS.
And every single day that God had granted them, they spent telling others of Jesus, and the gift of salvation He wants to lavish upon all!
He quickly went over a select few stories of the ten years worth that he has, but I was tearing up the entire time, because our God is SO good and CRAZY beautiful. I learned/ was a billion times more inspired by these than by any sermon, and Ive heard many inspiring talks.
After we left the base, we moved to a farm where we are now stationed. Pat’s farm. He became a Christian seven years ago, and lives with his wife, two daughters, and a handful of boys he took in from a nearby prison. Pat lives his life daily for Jesus. And he follows the Holy Spirit wherever.
I once heard a speaker talk about committing to a communal way of life.
Do you remember the show “Hey Arnold?” I don’t quite remember how exactly, but I do remember a Stoop Kid somewhere in there; whether it was a specific kid they referred to as such, or they called themselves “stoop kids,” I just remember at some point in the show, kids are hanging out on stoops.
I also do not remember if the speaker himself made this connection, or if my friend and I did: again, all I know is that in my mind communal living and being a stoop kid are connected.
So this speaker who spoke—don’t remember who it was—talked about how he has formed his life around Jesus, and therefore his living situation around loving others. He comes home everyday, not to hide the rest of the evening in his home, but to sit out on the “stoop”— the front yard, porch, street, or….actual stoop— and just be a good neighbor. Eating, talking, being together.
I was nineteen years old, and I all of a sudden had a wonderful picture of the future being one where I live in a house with a garden full of flowers, food, herbs, trees; and sharing this life with all the neighbors. In this dream, the whole street is ours. Never going indoors but to sleep, and sometimes not even then. All of us joyfully feasting together, love floating around, and Jesus always at the tip of our minds and circling our conversations. The knowledge of the forever presence of our God being awakened in our souls.
Put aside the house and the garden, who knows what that would look like, and I call this the Stoop Kid life.
I remember a crisis I went through one week…specifically one car ride, and Ive had many a crisis in my time [bless You Jesus for Your divine patience] [is that possible to ask Jesus to give blessings to Himself? I mean I know God can do all things….]
MY CRISIS: I was driving in the car with my mother [bless you, mother, for all the times you’ve had to bear all of my crises]
[ Lord grant her blessings—God only knows how much she deserves it]
I felt I was about to explode, while thinking on the strange concept that we were driving home in a fast moving car [not that fast] to go into our home barring us from the outside world, and possibly sit on the couch wasting our lives away. Okay my family is WAY more productive than that, but I was having a hysterical moment. I hated the mundane, habitual cage that most humans had placed around themselves, and I was terrified that I would have to follow that same path. Because if one could get off the beaten path, then wouldn’t everyone have tried and done it?? Maybe I was doomed!
All my life I have thought that I was born in the wrong era. This era of too much technology I do not understand, lazy inventions..and a culture that allow us to get too many things done in one day. I am not about that fast-paced life. And as a socially anxious person—living in a world with too much social access without being personal enough is detrimental to my soul [I am back in my hysterical memory] I like to understand people and have them semi-understand me…that’s hard to do when I make a billion acquaintances and keep them up on the computer when I cannot see them in person. My head fairly explodes in exasperation.
Tangents..or not?
Anyway, so the Stoop kid life is one in which you hang-out OUTSIDE the house, not inside.. and becoming best buds with everyone in that world. The outside one….and make personal relationships—fun ones..not shallow acquaintances you now stalk on social media
Alright I’ve circled back around finally. PAT is livin that stoop kid life. His farm, the three compound structures, the land, the pond….this is his stoop.
Pat’s farm is the stoop of Chiang Mai. The country village and then the city—existing right outside of this. Doors nonexistent as he lives his life right beside others, not apart. Always listening to God, never placing a time or a schedule on what He does for God, never limiting the work of the Spirit.
I wish I could give you a movie-length reel of “A Day in the Life of Pat”—lets see here: Pat emerges from the home he shares with his beautiful family. He has a quick boxing match with a banana tree in order to round out his knuckles….good for a fight. He then joins Ehg and Pong and company in uprooting some banana trees—feeding some to the giant muddy pigs living near the last compound at the end of the dirt road—and replanting the rest of the trees elsewhere, as he gets elbow deep in manure used for the planting.
He helps rebuild an ex-meth house, to help a man open up his business [not a drug one]. He is highly respected by the young men at the prison he visits twice a week. He offers them a better life, a life where they know they are loved, where they are drowning in grace and forgiveness, and future prospects that look lovely to someone so young who has been marred by such terrible acts like rape and murder, drug dealing and human trafficking.
Not only does Pat say, “God will take you in…and He welcomes you as a son.” He yells, “I will take you in, welcome home my son.”
Pat’s life is crazy, crazy for God
Most of us won’t even do one crazy thing for one crazy day. He doesn’t just accept crazy things into his life,
Pat lives in the crazy.
His home..the stoop of Chiang Mai
And being here in Thailand, God has kindled a fire in my heart that has somehow been a bit quenched [not by any one but my own distracted, and fearful self]
This is why I am here. Stories such as these. This is where it all began, not just my World Race journey, but also let us go back to the very beginning, because it was these very stories—stories of Jesus-lovers smuggling bibles across Chinese borders, or getting caught by police and God’s miraculous hand being the reason anyone was spared, stories of lavishing LOVE and COMPASSION upon the beautiful people of this world— that ignited something in me as a child.
God’s guidance, God’s sovereign hand in ALL things and shouting a vocal-chord-straining YES….this is why I am here. This is what it is all about.
I’m ready, I’m ready to be a stoop kid —inviting everyone into my life, and into Jesus’ love.
