I have never been one to hang out at the mall, especially if it takes 2 hours to drive there! The pull of the AC, free internet, and other food choices is quite strong when you have been dripping of sweat for 3 months, away from family and friends for 5 months, and eating rice with almost every meal for the last month.
So here I am with 2 days left in Thailand sitting in a mall so I can write to all of you. As I reflect on this month I see a nation that has such a need for God it hurts. God is offering hope, waiting for us to cry out to Him, and cares about each of us more than we think possible. He loves and desires the people of Thailand and the world. This is why I am here, why I am not only giving this year of my life, but all my life to God.
This month we built a wall, taught English, did a Thai dance with a big group for the governor, and shared love and hope with as many as we could. It was good and I have confidence that the effect of what we started will ripple out to give a better life to this village.
We also made committees to get more done and use our time well. Jessica (from Team 7 that is with us this month) and I were in charge of prayer. Jessica put out a prayer request box and offered to pray for anyone’s needs. I decided to do a prayer bag, where I gave prayer ideas and if you decided to pick one you tried it that day or the next day (depending on the idea). I was inspired by something we did at my church at home. A couple years ago my church had “Dare” Boxes around the church as a part of giving ourselves away. If you picked one you had to do it (though picking was optional). They seemed to be all acts of kindness that hopefully got us out of our routine, expectations, and/or comfort zones. So, the Prayer Bag was to help open up some new ideas of prayer for the 11 of us serving together this month. Here were some of the ideas I placed in the bag:
-Spend 10 minutes or more just listening to God.
-Talk to God throughout the day like He is your best friend.
-Pray using scripture only, you can choose what you want and if your not sure the Psalms are a good place to start.
-Spend time in Prayer for everyone on the team and our contacts ( or your coworkers and family).
-Meditate on the many names of God and try to use a new one each time you pray the next couple days.
-Repetitive prayer: Choose a phrase and pray in 20 times or more in a row. Such as “Lord have mercy on me.” One I like to us is; More of you and less of me Lord.
– Chose a theme for the day and pray it often. Such as “Gratitude,” “Humility,” or “Gentleness” Let the the reason you chose the theme guide how you pray on it.
-Ask the Holy Spirit to tell you what to pray and wait & listen. You might want to have a person or situation in mind to pray for if you have never tried this before.
So, there were others I am not thinking of and the last two just came to me. I took the time to write these here to challenge all of you. Whatever you already think of prayer is fine, what I am asking is that you would be open to truly try one, two, or all of these to expand your idea of prayer. I hope this will encourage you to spend more time with God. Some of these might feel uncomfortable for you and I would say try those ones first.. try more than once to push through the discomfort and you will experience God in a fresh way. He is so much bigger than we know or understand yet He invites us in to much more of Himself than we venture to go. Don’t miss out on getting to know this wonderful loving, and available God more and more! These ideas won’t all be a challenge, and you won’t unlock all of God’s secrets but they are a great place to start or continue on in your journey towards God.
