Well folks, this month in Thailand I've been blessed with a computer at our home, so that means I'm going to be hopefully writing a bunch this month. I've genuinely missed having something to write on. Slowly but surely I'm getting used to blogging o my phone. This month we are with Lighthouse ministries in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It's a pretty touristy city with lots to do. Lighthouse ministries consists of a coffee house ministry, a bar ministry and one another that escapes my mind at the moment.
So this is just a general update on where I'm at on the race and what all has happened in the past few months. To save all of us some time and effort all just put it in list form.
- I've read 5 books so far: Fathered by God, Irresistible Revolution, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Kingdom Journeys, and Surfer's Code… that one is just for fun!
- I've been caving and learned that guys my size are best left above ground
- Heard witch doctors chanting and drumming at night in the mountains of Swaziland. Kyle Stinnett and I both prayed and worshiped through the night that night.
- Team Lead for the month of August for Manistry month! (one of many highlights on my race, I learned so much about leading following, and relationships
- Had an awesome debrief in Koh Change, Thailand
- I've had God call me out in several different ways
- Found a vintage springboks jersey in a second hand store in Cape Town, South Africa
- Made friends with orphans, poor folks, hungry folks, drug dealers, gangsters, and possibly killers
You get the idea. I've had a lot happen and, really, I haven't blogged much about it at all. There's so many things to tell. Ill start with a blind woman I saw in mozambique. So Meredith and I were walking to Internet one day in Dondo and we this lady on the side of the road begging for change. Her eyes were glazed over almost totally white. Really the site of her was kind of scary. You here a lot about possessions in Mozambique so I automatically assumed, out loud by the way, “Oh man, that's a demon possession.” I asked Mer if we should go over there. But we both thought it better to not get into anything we didn't know much about, i.e. spiritual warfare.
A few days later we had church with one of the local pastors and I figured I might ask him to come with me to pray for this woman seeing as how he had some authority in the area. So the pastor, some of the contacts joey, and myself head over to the lady to pray for her. Before anything I ask her if she knew who Jesus Christ was. Immediately she answers me, “My Lord and Savior.” Automatically I got jacked up and excited. That was a victory in and of itself. We praid for her eyes and headed home. I don't know If God healed her eyes or not. She might still be sitting at thast corner with her shaker begging for change, but the victory was in what she said. Often times when you go to small villages in Mozambique and you ask if folks know Jesus Christ, they answer, “Yes, I go to church.” So many are under the lie that the building you visit determines your salvation. Often times we had to clarify and ask, “No, do you know Jesus Christ as your lord and Savior?” Thankfully we were blessed with a lady that new what Christianity was all about. It's funny how it's the broken and down trodden that seem to get it write. Sometimes I feel like the man living on the street warming his hands with the fire from an oil drum has better theology than some of the folks that stand behind pulpits.
This idea really struck me when I was talking to another racers the other day. He uses folks like the blind woman to minister to others. God used her to minister to me. He uses a generation of broken folks like world racers to minister to the world. Tonight when we worshiped on the roof of a Thai coffee shop I was looking at my team and the two other teams and the thought of Rudolph and the misfit toys came to mind. I forgot how th end of that movie goes but maybe it was something like the toys each got kids to play with them or something. The bottom line is God uses us broken folks and makes us whole through His son Jesus Christ.
