Sawat and Pe Leik
It baffles me how perfectly God orchestrates everything when I step down from trying to conduct the grand orchestra of life. I truly believe that God is the ultimate Conductor; however, it is not always in my timing which leads to the development of patience in my life. Throughout my life, my mom has always used the phrase “God speed,” so I have really asked for God’s timing in my life to prevail.
My longing for a bag of Cha-yen led into a wonderful friendship. Day after day, our team would visit Sawat. Some times we would buy milk tea; some times we would not. Every time we passed the house, we checked on 
our friend and found ourselves learning something new about her life. This became a constant during the two weeks we were in Srikhoraphume.
Across the street from Sawat, a Christian lady named Pe Leik owns a small restaurant/lives in the house, where entrees are no more than 75 cents. We became friends with her; however, we were unable to speak to her because her English seemed to contain two phrases: “Hello.” and “I love you.” Needless to say, our body language was our main means of communication.
One day, I was walking past Sawat’s house, when I notice Pe Leik and Sawat visiting with each other. Sawat had told me that Pe Leik talked to her about Jesus (during a few short visits), but I never knew to what extent. They motioned for me to come, and Sawat offered me her to chair and moved to a small stool. Soon enough, I found myself in the midst of a Christ centered conversation with Pe Leik, and Sawat was our translator. How amazing! Without me having to mention much, Sawat is translating a conversation about how Pe Leik feels 
that even though we cannot verbally communicate, she knows we are sisters in Christ, and we can allow the Holy Spirit to be our Communicator. At the end of the conversation, Sawat told me something I will never forget… “Jesus shines a light inside of you, my Buddha – no light.” What a revelation, my praise is to God!
The next day, Aaron and I walked over to Sawat’s house to interview her to make a short movie about her life. We began by asking some basic questions: What is your name? Where do you live? What did you go before you were in Srikhoraphume? Etc. Gradually the questions became a little deeper; we asked her: What was it like growing up Buddhist? What do you know about Christianity? What is the difference between Christianity and Buddhist?
Her answers to the hard questions showed she knew a little about the Christian faith, and she was open to learning more. From working in the US ARMY camp to the hotel in Bangkok, we saw how much God loved her and pursued her through others. An older man even left her a Bible with money in it; she is still looking for the man to give back the Baht he left inside the Bible. I told her that I’m sure he placed it in the Bible as way to show God’s blessing. And now we are honored, yet humbled, that God is using us to demonstrate His love for her!!
She explained to us that she believed the main difference between Christians and Buddhist is that when a Christian does something wrong God is not mad, but when a Buddhist does something wrong – the person must takes ownership and must balance what he/she did wrong with doing something good. What an eye-opener! This conversation lead into sharing the bridge model of evangelism, something I have never had the opportunity to share with anyone. We explained that God created us, but we, as humans, sinned and grew distant from Him, but this is not what our Creator desired. He wants to be in close connection with us, and He loved us so much He sent His one and only Son to teach us how to live. Christ lived a perfect life, died on a cross, and rose in three days, so that we may live in a deep relationship our Lord and Savior. We explained that the Holy Spirit allows us to talk directly to God, and we call Him our Father. Afterwards, we prayed with her; she was a little fearful because she thought God would be mad at her because she was Buddhist, and this meant she wasn’t able to talk to God. We assured her that God wanted to talk to her, and then she asked for a smaller book that explained what we talked about in Thai; the Bible was a bit overwhelming, which is completely understandable.
We had the opportunity to pray multiple times after. Occasionally, I would see Pe Leik and Sawat visiting with each other. Before our visit to Srikhoraphume, they had only visited a few short times, and now we were seeing a deeper friendship between neighbors form before our eyes.
The last morning we were there, our team continued to share within the Sunday service as before, but this Sunday was different. God had placed on our heart (all separate with little conversing between the team beforehand) to share about the desires of our heart and being obedient. About twenty minutes into Megan and Jeanette leading the women’s Bible study, Pe Leik and Sawat enter into the church – it was like the floodgates opened – our group grew from under ten to over fifteen. What an amazing feeling!! We saw God answering our prayers – again it’s one thing to pray but a complete blessing when you see your prayers being answered!! The two of them stayed through service, as Aaron helped with musical worship and shared a God story, Krystle shared part of her testimony, and I gave the message. God orchestrated this time – not in our timing, but HIS!!
I continue to pray for Sawat!! So many people are constantly in and out of her house…she has such a sweet aurora about her and has many people who look to her for various things. But overall, it’s about how much God loves and adores her. God is pursuing her, and I pray that Sawat will come to find what God has already planned in advance for her!! I ask for your prayers for Sawat and the relationship between two neighbors to continue to blossom!!
