His Glory Shines.: May 2013

So after Cambodia, our team went to THAILAND for about a week and a half to help with the Bangkok International (Rugby) Tournament. This tournament hosts teams from all over the place; we had lots of people from the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and a few locals. The tournament is put on to raise money for a Christian organization called ARK (At Risk Kids). It’s incredible what they do – taking kids off the streets in the slums and teaching them life skill, English and sport (Rugby) which helps them grow into adults with purpose. So we helped facilitate this tournament and saw over $3,000 come in, which is awesome!

After a great time in the scorching heat of Thailand, we headed out for our last leg in another part of Southeast Asia (which I can’t say the name of for security reasons) to FINISH UP OUR OUTREACH.

We arrived in the morning, only to be led by foot through a long path with all of our luggage to the underground sub station. We were excited to be in cold weather, as it was around 50 degrees Fahrenheit . It took about an hour and then some on this subway, and we made friends quickly as we were shoved up next to foreign strangers until we got off – it was a battle to keep all our things together as people were still getting on and off and things were flying every which way. Finally we arrived and had to lug our things once again up to the place we were staying. “Finally….!” We all thought. We were pooped out. Because our team was such a large group of foreigners, we had to split our team up. This made it look less like we were a group on a mission- So I took 6 and Luke took 5 and headed out to a different city. My team stayed in the city we flew into and did ministry there for the final 3 weeks. Our ministry consisted of lots of prayer walks where we would go to a specific location of the city and just really pray over the things that we felt God was leading us to pray. This was cool to be a part of as we recognized hopelessness being a huge weight there. We just really prayed for God to keep bringing hope in and light to be shone.

AN ATHEIST NATION: The main “religion” of this country is actually atheism, so there are a lot of unbelievers. The thing is - a lot of these people don’t even know why they don’t believe in God. They have just been brought up that way, and have not really considered the reality of God’s existence, much less heard the good news about Jesus. Well, let me tell you, as we took time to get to know some of these people, we saw 3 of them get saved! How amazing! One of them is an incredible story. This girl called Sarah was walking near my teammates Amber and Emma to meet her friend. She was introduced to my friends and Sarah noticed that Emma was wearing a cross necklace. She said “I’ve seen that before… I know a lot about Christianity” She was very good at English. She went on to tell that her English teacher was a Christian and he has had her and her classmates over for dinner before and has shared a lot with them about Christianity. This was cool because not a lot of people in this country are taught anything about Jesus, but this girl had some previous knowledge of God from other Christians. Emma and Amber got the chance to talk about their own relationships with God and then asked Sarah if she wanted to have relationship with God as well. And she said yes. It was that easy! So they led her in prayer and she received Jesus that day. They also shared with her about how you need to turn away from sin to really be connected with God because God is holy. She was so excited. The next day, I went with Emma while Amber met another girl that she saw get saved about a week before that. Sarah and Emma and I went out for lunch and Sarah had so many questions. It was really cool. We brought her a bible and told her to start in Matthew in the New Testament because it would be easier for her to understand the bible as a whole once she knows the gospels. I also told her about the book of Esther and how she was a very brave Jew who stood up to the King and saved her people because she obeyed God. She was fascinated! She also could not grasp the fact that God really loved her. It blew her mind! We also shared with her about how we can talk to God and pray and she said she didn’t really know how to pray but she prayed the night before and said that she tried to think about it like talking to her friend. I told her about hearing God’s voice (not audible but in the word and through different senses). She couldn’t believe it when we said that God can speak to her, just like He can speak to me. We sat down on a park bench and I asked if we could all pray together and see if God would tell us anything. And she said “Ok.” A little apprehensive, she closed her eyes, and Emma started to pray. She asked the Lord to come and show us each something. I felt like God was just affirming who Sarah was and that she was a real light to the people around her. Emma got an encouraging scripture for Sarah. Sarah said, she didn’t hear Him say anything, but she just felt warmth inside her heart, and we said “that’s the Holy Spirit” and then she went on to say “I’m not sure, but I feel like God is saying we should hug”. If you know me well, you’d know that I’m not big on hugs – only if I’m really close to someone, so you could imagine how I normally would react if someone suggested such a thing. But for her, my heart was so big I would have probably kissed her. All three of us sat on that bench and hugged and it was one of the most precious moments I’ve ever been a part of. We spent the rest of the afternoon at her university looking at her dorm room, just walking around and it was so much fun. It was our last day to see her, so and it was really sad to say goodbye. I thought to myself later that day, what a privilege. This girl had just gotten saved the day before and I felt like I was learning from her faith.

My favorite part in this location we spent working at an orphanage (welfare center) where we’d focus on the people with special needs, and little babies with clef pallets who have been left abandoned with no one to take care of them. I wish I could post pictures cause these babies were precious. Straight away on the first day we could recognize the atmosphere here was pretty depressing and sad. It seemed like there was not a lot of hope. I was really out of my comfort zone already working with people with special needs (some with down syndrome, some with cerebral palsy, some just badly emotionally wounded) as I’d never had experience before. And the fact that I also did not speak the same language made it more challenging, plus this place is not a Christian orphanage, nor do they really want us coming in here to share the gospel either. In the beginning of the week I personally found myself asking God the question “Why am I here? Why in the world am I here to work with these people who I can’t even connect with? And I knew my heart wasn’t in the right place. I had the wrong attitude. I was looking at God and saying where is your goodness in all of this? Where is your justice and love here with these people who have no one and nothing? These people are so hopeless and I can’t do anything for them and I’m not going to be able to change anything for them.” I was challenged! But I felt like there was an answer. The next morning we had a time of worship and prayer, and one of the girls who helped lead us there was praying about God’s mercy and goodness and justice, and all of a sudden BAM! She said it. “Oh Lord, it IS your justice that you would hand choose your people from all around the world and fly them to be here at this very place and time to meet and love these people. It IS your goodness that you’ve done that. It IS your mercy that you’ve done that.” And I physically felt a shift inside my heart as she prayed that prayer. It was like everything made sense, and I had the reality check I needed- realizing that God cares so much about these people that he asked me to come and be a part of their lives. And that I’m here to do something so much greater than what I could think up myself! It blew me away and I got excited again. I wasn’t gonna let anyone else tell me that this week would be hard. After this day, things just started to change. The fact that we weren’t allowed to sing or talk about Jesus didn’t stop us from bringing a guitar and playing worship songs. Every morning after that we would pray and ask God to give us ideas of things to do with these people and ended up with quite the plethora of activities; Foot washing (this was symbolic), nail painting, putting makeup on the women, making cookie necklaces, and coloring to name a few. Our other assignment was to paint a mural down the hallway of this place – the mural was beautiful. It was a make up of different colored people doing a different action. Each one said something different, like “I am useful!” or “I make a difference!” And it was for these precious ones to walk by and read these sayings and agree with as the truth. One of the words we felt came through for the week was from Jeremiah 29:11 “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’.” And we spent a lot of time praying that they would feel special and valued this week. The workers don’t really treat them well. So I could tell it meant a lot to them that we were there. I got to share with a woman that God loves her (I had to be careful doing this). I told her about what Jesus did for her and how much He wants to have a relationship with her. She seemed really happy when I told her this. I underestimated God and His power for sure this week because you could literally feel the difference by the end of the week when you walked in there. It was like color and life had entered back into this place. I was sad to leave, but I found out another team would be coming the following week to do something similar as us and so I trusted God that He’d finish the work He had started in this place. If you ever think of this orphanage, please pray for them, as they need so much hope and healing.

Incredible, hey? The last thing I learned over my time away was simple but so true. “I am capable”. I am. I have often been in positions of leadership in the past, but never pegged myself as one. I don’t have a loud booming voice and I’m quite content chillin’ in the background not being front and center. I’ve been seeking to figure out how I function as a leader, and I’ve been seeing more and more that I am gifted to lead, and fully capable. It’s my humility to be myself, and to let God take control. And it’s a learning curve for sure, but I was surprised how great things ended up turning out, especially in the last location where I was leading alone. God is so good and so faithful to show up exactly when you need Him. I can testify to so many things that I’ve seen Him do over this last period of time. It’s been an honor and a privilege to get to serve God in the nations. And you’ve had your hand in making this happen!!

Your support has been such a key in allowing God to do all that He’s done.

This is what you’ve supported and been a part of through your prayers, encouragements and financial contributions:

In Cambodia:

-Teaching kids of all ages how to speak English

-Fixing up a school that needed some work done

-Preaching the gospel to people who haven’t heard

-Educating young adults and kids about how to follow Jesus

-Loving the unloved and disabled children

-Mercy ministries

-Embracing the orphans and showing compassion

-Reaching out into the community and making friends, and praying for them!