St. Francis of Assisi
This first month in Thailand I have been struck by the
call that God has sent me on. One
year ago I would never have guessed that I would be sitting here at an
orphanage in Buriram, Thailand writing to you. This month has had its challenges in terms of different
living conditions, learning to live in community, learning to serve
unreservedly, and sacrificing everything for the sake of the Gospel.
While
here I read a book about the last five years of Corrie ten Boom’s life and how
she had endured a series of strokes, which left her unable to speak. In that however,
she still shared the
love of God with those around her and had full confidence in Him and His will
for her life. Although she had
been through much in her life from living with the bare necessities while
rescuing Jews in occupied Holland in World War II, to surviving one of Hitler’s
most notorious concentration camps, Ravensbruck she always put the Lord first in
her life. Her testimony was almost
an afterthought, for she overflowed with Gospel grace and truth throughout
every aspect of her life.
This
is my goal: to overflow with Gospel grace and truth, to have the light of Jesus
Christ shine through me in the world as a ray of sun shine does through a
thunder storm. One of the biggest
challenges and also frustrations for me this month has been the language
barrier. I had envisioned in my
mind that preaching the Gospel to people would be easy, and that what I wanted to
say would somehow make sense. I
quickly learned that I was wrong and I realized while reading about Corrie that
the best way to preach the Gospel is through the testimony of our lives,
through self-sacrifice, through looking to the needs of others before myself,
and through loving people unconditionally.
It is in these things that the light of the Gospel of grace
shines much more clearly than it ever could in words. Words while useful in many instances, can never replace the
example our lives are to those around us.
Are we representing Christ for who He truly is? What are we saying to those on the
outside about the character and love of God in a world of unbelief?
Yesterday, our last day of
teaching I attempted to share the Gospel with a group of young Buddhist girls,
as the Lord emboldened me to try, regardless of the language barrier. In Buddhist belief, my students told
me, to be a “good Buddhist” you have to bring sacrifices of food and money to
the temple or Wat. I shared with
these girls that God requires nothing from us for salvation except belief in
His Son and that there is
nothing we could do apart from Jesus. I think it may have been the first time
that anyone had ever spoken to them about Jesus and I am sad that I cannot
share more with them. But I have
this hope, that the Gospel seeds were planted and that the Lord will work in
their hearts to reveal the truth of who He is and of who they are.
Please continue to pray for Thailand, and for our teams on
the race. That we would “Preach
the Gospel always” and “If necessary use words.” We leave Saturday morning for Cambodia to work with an
amazing ministry for homeless children called Bethlehem Night Shelter in Phenom Pehn. More blogs coming soon!!
