By Canaan (Sisi)
Time just passed so fast, I can’t believe that we almost are to the end of this trip. We came back from the villages last Friday night, that was an amazing trip for all of us. I believe all the brothers and sisters have been touched and encouraged in different ways from that week, we are so thankful that we got to experience it all!
Saturday morning I gave my devotion, which turned out to be a divine arrangement of God. I had been preparing and changing subjects of what I was going to share, finally I chose the topic of “Do not love the world” from 1 John 2:15-17. To encourage all of us to think about how could we truly glorify God and to not waste our lives after ACTS. That morning the staff read Trae’s final Reading Reflection about the book “Don’t Waste Your Life” by John Piper to everyone, due to the fact that the 26th was the day Trae went to heaven with God one month ago. We were all encouraged by what Trae had to say about living his life to glorify God and don’t consider what we would sacrifice to serve the Lord. That is so true, if we consider sacrifices we might pay for serving Jesus, what about Jesus’ sacrifice? He died for us, shed his blood to just save us, the ones who really don’t deserve at all. For “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Psalms 8:4. Then later that day we went to the city, did our laundry from the village week. It was a great but also a hard day, because memories of Trae just come and go, thoughts of “Trae would love it here so much!” kept jumping into my mind, thank God that He is our comforter and He always put His arms around us!
So we went to church on Sunday, and got there earlier so that we could help to prepare for the feast after church. It was amazing to see how fast the work can be done when people work together. The sermon that morning was about waiting… God acts for those who wait patiently in Him, is our God a silent God? No, He is at work all the time. We do not think the way that God does, and even if we do, we wouldn’t really like to think like His ways, and we don’t want to wait…well, as Christians, we have a lot to wait, not to wait in frustration, but to wait in expectations! So we all should be excited and looking forward to see what God is going to do in our life next! After church, we joined the Thanksgiving Feast, I am pretty sure our stomachs were all very happy. We went to Chiang Mai Community Church for the afternoon service. The sermon was really encouraging to all of us too. The pastor said that the most important step in our journey of faith is THE VERY NEXT STEP. Well, I guess now it should be the combination of the morning service and the afternoon service, to not worry but WAIT patiently yet knowing that the most important step is the VERY NEXT STEP, whatever steps God leads us to will eventually be the experiences that help us grow in our faith. In the middle of the 26th and 28th, my mind was wandering back and forth around all different feelings and emotions, then I suddenly realized when I looked at the date of the bulletin, it was 27th and it was actually my birthday of my newborn life in Christ. Then I started to think about all my experiences for these 3 years after I became a Christian, God is good, all the time and all the time God is good! Praise the Lord for even giving us this chance to come to Thailand and help us to grow in Him!
On Monday we went to Connie’s Home, which is an orphanage run by a missionary named Connie, there are staff and volunteers to take care and love the kids. We went there and played with the kids- girls divided into different small groups to play with younger or older kids, and guys went there to help build a rabbit cage. Then we went back to the ranch and spent time with the Lord because we left very early that morning. The most encouraging thing today must be face timing with Mama Jane and Papa Kenny, it was Trae’s birthday, and we knew it would be a hard day for everybody and we are just so blessed to got to talk to them and encourage each other…It was such a blessing for all of us! Praise the Lord!
On Tuesday, we had a worship and prayer meeting and then had a time to practice Scripture since the final test was coming up. Then we went to the city and did what we normally do, divide into different groups and hang out with each other, we could have prayer walks or sitting in a coffee shop and talk to people or find opportunities to talk to people. It was a great afternoon, I had great conversations with Abby, and we encouraged each other by the conversations we had. Now as I am thinking back to all the conversations we had, either with brothers and sisters or with nonbelievers, they were all God’s divine appointments for us, it is easy to get a mindset that we have to go somewhere and to talk to certain people at certain time, and when we don’t do that, we feel bad because we think we are not doing the right thing here in Thailand, well then what is the right thing? Isn’t that serving the Lord? Well how? By loving people, by loving the Gospel, which includes believers and nonbelievers! We finished the day by performing our drama at Thapae gate. Many great conversations came out of that time, and God was glorified.
On Wednesday, we went to Connie’s Home again to meet with the kids and went to the Nursing Home where they have been going to sing songs to the elderly. We got to worship with the kids, sang several songs and even did hand motions with little kids, which was really exciting and amazing! I thought all of the elderly people there were Christians, but I was wrong and actually some of them don’t believe in God at all, which is really sad that they are reaching to the end of their life but they don’t have the peace and the hope for the life after death. I got a chance to talk with one guy who said he doesn’t believe in God, the Holy Spirit led our conversation and I got to share Trae’s story which made him really think about death and heaven. We went back and played with the kids a little bit and then headed back to the ranch for an afternoon of prayer, working on LIFE books, and having some free time together. It was amazing to just see how God has been using this time to help all of us grow through all the prayers and confessions. It was so encouraging and amazing! Thank God!
On Thursday, we had a normal morning and went to Maya mall in Chiang Mai. During dinner time, Matt and I got a chance to talk with a Chinese couple, the wife actually practices an evil religion which is illegal in China. I believe what God used us to say to them would eventually hit them sometime, and I have learned so much that sharing doesn’t mean convincing, we don’t have to convince anybody of our faith but we share with Jesus’ love with them. It’s all in God’s hands, in His timing. After dinner, we performed our drama again. God sent a lot of middle schoolers around the mall, and it was so amazing that how they responded to our performance. They were just so impressed by it. We all got divine appointments to share with the students and with other people in the audience. Matt talked with a couple for two hours who had a lot of questions about Christianity and seemed to desire a relationship with God. Thank God for all these opportunities and thank God that He wants to use us even He doesn’t need us!
Thank you all for reading, I will write no more so that your eyes can all get some rest… I will end with the verse I read this morning to express our hearts toward what we have been experienced here each and everyday. Psalms 40:5 You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.
