Well we’re back in civilization after our time in Ban-Din. It was the third stop of our trip thru northern Thailand. I tell you, this village is out in the sticks. We barely made it because the road was so rutted up and muddy. It took some of the locals pushing our trucks to get us thru. In fact, this place is so remote that the only way these folks get electricity is from the sun. No kidding, they got these solar panels all over the village. Usually you get enough power each day to run ONE light at night for about 3 to 4 hours.
Now we’re on our way to the Burmese border and I got a limited amount of internet time so I wanted to share with everyone what’s been going on this past week.
Our main job while in Ban-Din was to get down and dirty and clear some land for the construction of a church. It was tough work, but we were blessed to have great weather. Cloud cover, no heat and the occasional rain made hoeing a breeze!
I also celebrated my 32nd birthday while out working in the dirt. However, that night my teammates threw me a little surprise party. We had cake, thank goodness for something sweet all this rice is killing me, I also got some roses and a sweet little baggie thingie!
We did get a chance to have a little fun as well. This weekend we went hiking thru the jungle to this cave by the river. The hike in was gorgeous, we cut thru the mountains and down into the rice fields. It really was amazing. I’m incredibly blessed to be getting to see so much of God’s beauty. It took nearly two hours to get down to the river. It was a tough hike!
The night before the hike Ray, our American contact, and I were talking. We had just finished reading Romans 8:1, which says, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” It’s a simple yet, powerful verse. Basically once we give our lives to Jesus and confess our need for Him our past sins are not counted against us. God’s not holding any grudges, He’s not looking to pay us back or punish us. He’s not saying, “Well Rusty I know you’re living for me now, but I’m gonna withhold my blessings from you for this certain amount of time because you were such a rotten person for many years.” It doesn’t work that way. Our heavenly Father loves us and because of what Jesus did back on that Friday many years ago we are free from that guilt and that burden of shame, those weights are lifted off us. Sometimes I forget that, sometimes I just find it hard to believe that I don’t have to carry that crap around. So anyway, Ray had asked me if I’d ever been baptized. I said yeah back in the fall of ’01 after I got sober. But even then when I thought I was turning it all over to God, I wasn’t. Fast forward to right now and I’m closer to God than ever and I feel like for the first time I’m being led by His spirit. Ray just put it to me like this, “It’s an outward showing of your commitment to God, it’s just getting clean with God, putting all that mess behind you, freeing yourself from those burdens” So I thought about it thru the night and the next day when we got to the river Ray and Scott baptized me. There are many things I’ve done in my life over the last six years I’m not proud of. This was a chance to wash those things away, to truly wash the old self from me and be raised in a new life, and what better a place for all that to happen than in a creek in Thailand! Just think right now the old Rusty is floating down some random river in Southeast Asia.
