The past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind of activities, planning, last minute opportunities, and God evidently moving. This post will be split into 2 sections: Godsends and Spaces. ‘Godsends’ are moments that are truly sent by God. These are instances that remind me that the Holy Spirit is active and how God is listening to our hearts and needs; each of these have been such a blessing. ‘Spaces’ is where I will describe all the areas we’ve been working. I plan to update you on what work we’re doing, along with how God’s moving, in each of these spaces as time passes.
Before I dive in, I want to say thank you again for your support, love, and prayers. In all honesty, there have been hard, slow days along with wonderful, exciting ones. I’m learning more about myself than I ever have and it’s been a humbling process. But God continues to be faithful and reminds me that I am being renewed (Romans 12:1-2).
Godsends:
After the field trip with the Hosea Center, our team went to the Duke’s for dinner (it’s an American-style restaurant that’s more expensive by Thai standards), an American man walked up to our table. After explaining our work here with Cru, he said the group he was with were attending a pastors conference in the city. After chatting with him and some members of his group, a man gifted us 3,000 baht (about $90) to pay for our dinner. I can’t explain the overwhelming gratitude we all felt in that moment and the rest of the evening.
I recently started choosing a Bible verse to memorize each week. I was working on Isaiah 41:10 last week and of course, it was the verse that opened our church service that week!
“You can have 5 minutes to talk about Jesus?”- We’ve gotten asked that question twice by teacher Sand, who we are working with at Hang Dong High School. Maja was able to share her testimony with a class one week, and we shared the gospel yesterday using The 4 (symbols that aid in presenting the gospel). Several students wrote the symbols and notes in their notebooks and we got to teach the word “sacrifice” to them.
We met with a long-term missionary from the UK to discuss joining outreaches his team does and ended up walking away with so much clarity about our team’s purpose and mission here. He started off by saying “I feel like the Holy Spirit is telling me to just listen,” and instead of launching into the details of what his group does (which was his plan), he asked us questions and provided tremendous insight and wisdom to what we should be prioritizing. He emphasized: it’s less about what we fill our schedule with, and more about how we are pursuing Christ and naturally portraying God’s love to those around us.
We attended a Maynmar young adults discipleship meeting this past weekend. I walked away feeling refreshed and reminded of the importance of prayer by. I got a glimpse of heaven in that room- with people of different languages and nations praising God together (Revelation 7:9-10).
Spaces:
North Chiang Mai University: Several nights a week we find ourselves in the gym playing volleyball with Univeristy staff and students! Additionally, we’ve started working with AIA (Athletes in Action) to bring a sport called Longball to the campus. Earlier this week we met a large group of students from Myanmar and were able to meet up with them a few times to play card games and get to know them better.
School of Promise: We join Gary (our Cru staff contact here) in teaching his Bible class on Fridays. Kamise and Megan were able to share their testimonies in class last week. After school we join Awana, an optional youth group for middle and high school students. They’ve been studying Luke which is what our team Bible study has been focused on! We got to attend the school’s 15 year anniversary banquet which featured performances from every grade and gave us many opportunities to cheer on the kids we’re getting to know.
Hang Dong High School: Every Wednesday we join Teacher Sand in his English classes. We help students with their writing and conversational skills. Sand is Buddhist but extremely open to what we share about Jesus and Christianity. He’s asked us to share with himself and the class about our beliefs- and through that we’ve met some students who are Christian. It’s our hope and prayer that we can help equip those students to impact their school long after we’re gone. We also attended a sports day last week- imagine Hogwarts houses (they had 4 teams by color)- where students competed in soccer, volleyball, basketball, badminton, and other unique sports.
The Hosea Center: Every Saturday we’re blessed to teach here. Some of the kids attend School of Promise so we’ve gotten to build some beautiful friendships. After students lead worship in Thai we split off and teach the older kids and younger kids separately about the Bible. This past week Kamise and I taught the littles about the parable of the lost sheep. They had a blast coloring and glueing “sheep” (cotton balls) to their creations. I was honored to receive several paper hearts and creative masterpieces as gifts from some of them. We also got to go on a field trip with the older kids two weeks ago to Sticky Falls. That was such a cool day because nothing bonds people like an hour and a half car ride into the mountains ;) And then we got to climb up and down the waterfall- splashing around and having so much fun.
Prayer Requests:
For seeds to be planted in the students we share the gospel to
Deep relationships with students on North Chiang Mai University and opportunities to have spiritual conversations
For leaders to arrive at Hang Dong High School
Health and safety for our team
Financial provision for Thai Cru Staff
Teacher Sand!
Contentment and joy in all situations
That we may be led by the Spirit and grow in our reliance on the Lord through prayer
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