Our month in Mae Wang

Life in Mae Wang

Our life in Mae Wang has been a blessing in every way. We feel at home and comfortable here doing God’s work among the Lanna people. We feel as if it was an experience that we will never forget. A short excerpt from my journal day 16 “We anticipate the Lord’s work among these people. We know that His will, will be done in this place. Your face shine down like the stars so bright with so much light. Sing a new song in this place, sing with joy and happiness people of Mae Wang. For our God is the one and we will worship Him at all times, in the morning, at night Your name be praised. May it echo in the streets of this village. May the rocks cry out and sing your praise oh God if the people will not. May they see your majesty oh God.” That is our prayer for this village.
We have been preparing for this time in the village for about 6 months now and I feel that the Lord has used my life up to this point for preparation to do his work. I had very low expectations going in to our time here. I told myself that whatever it is it would be working for the Lord and not for myself or my own comforts. The food, the living conditions, the people, the ministry we had very low expectations from the beginning. I felt as if the food would not be eatable because it would be too hot. I felt as if we would be camping out every night, and I felt the people would be cold and we would not be able to communicate with them. I felt as if it would be hard and I went in hoping that my faith in the Lord would increase and that my relationship with Jordan would grow stronger. I also expected the Lord to have gone before us in the hearts and lives of the people here.
What happened in the village was very different than my expectations in many ways. First off the people of San Kanta and Don Pin were so welcoming and took us in as their children. Mae Sà and Pa Sin were so wonderful and treated us as if we were their own children. They have gone above and beyond what they should have done for us, but most of all, they loved us. The people were very shy at first not really opening up, the kids were our only friends the first two weeks, and then we saw God open the hearts of the village and the hearts of the people. After we danced with them, after we ate what they ate, after we had learned their language enough to talk to them, after we had taught their children, after we dressed like them, after many days of riding our 1970’s kirin standard edition bike we started to see a difference the last week and a half that we had not seen the first few days. We just smiled as big as we possibly could and hope that the light of God would reveal himself to the people. So much so that Jordan was placed in a place of honor with all the ladies during sports day, and I had a chance to walk in the parade with the elderly men. They have given us gifts and many people come to our house to talk to us in Thai. Their face lights up when you speak to them in their own language. They have even let us pray for a few of them.
I was not surprised to see how the Lord has been working here. During the middle of our time here I cried out to the Lord saying you have been doing work here, but where. The Lord is doing mighty things here through many people here in this village. Emily, Lydia, Quintin, & Kim have been scattering seed throughout. The joys of this time have come from the Lord and seeing his work here. The 11th day we were here we had a girl come up to us and say in perfect English “I love Jesus.” We didn’t know if she is a true believer or not. It took us quite a while to get to know her because she wouldn’t come to the house, because she lived far away. We finally got a chance to get to know her. She is a believer but her parents are not believers. What a gift from God. I feel as if every so often God gives us encouragement and shows us little victories that keep our faith strong. This was a victory. We went to the girl’s house the last week and we found out that there was a family of new believers of just 4 months. Wow, how much God has moved while we have been here. It took us 31 days to find a house church, but we found it and it was beautiful. The sweet spirit of the Lord was over the entire place. About 10 kids were their and they have come from Bankad because their parents do not believe. What faith these children must have to be set apart even from their parents. There were around 4 families their with the pastor, who preached from the word of God. He spoke English and said that they were new believers and that they were not baptized yet because they were still learning about their faith. What a joy to worship the Lord in Thai. The house that we were at is the house that is in the village. They told us their testimony about how their little girl heard about Jesus. Bop Bee became a Christian and led her parents to the Lord later. What a treat to see these new believers in Christ and seeing that it can be done here in this village and in Thailand.
The saddest thing that we see is the people don’t have knowledge. Ma Saa for instance is as sweet of lady as you will find and has a soft heart, but she cannot read. She for lack of knowledge does what everyone else does. She cannot find out for herself what to do because she must go on what people say to do. They do it because that is what they know. They don’t question why or what will happen someone told them at some point what to do and they do it. It is sad to see that even the monks say that the people worship in vain. I met a friend while we were visiting Doi Su Tep and I ask him who are the people praying to when they walk around, his reply was Buddha. I said, “but even bhudda himself said not to worship him, and he is only a man just like you and me.” His response was chilling almost frightening to hear. “Your right Buddha must not be worshiped they just don’t know any better.” The stark reality is that they just don’t know any better. For instance, at this house church we went to I recognized a lady who had just been next door about 2 hours ago with her 1year old baby inquiring of the spirits how to heal her baby because she cries all the time. I wondered why she would be going to church, and asked the pastor if she was a believer. The pastor said she is not a believer yet and she is a seeker. After the service they wanted us to pray for the little girl’s healing. We prayed and told the woman through the pastor who speaks English that her baby will be healed through Yesu and only Yesu. I told her that the reason that her baby was not healed already was because she was going to the spirit doctor and that she is not to go back and that her baby will be healed, for God wants the glory for Himself and He alone.
My heart is overjoyed when I see the Lord moving every day and when I am on the front line battling the enemy for territory that belongs to Him. He is evident and real in every day life. He has been our comfort when we are scared, He has been our rest when there is no rest. He has been our word when we cannot speak, He has been our light in a dark world. The Lord has been teaching us so many wonderful things about His love and His compassion on peoples that do not yet know Him. He has grown me and Jordan together and we are running after Him. She has been there to comfort and to calm, and it is something we as a family will tell our grandchildren about. He has shown me in Daniel how Daniel stood up and trusted the Lord God in a foreign land and his actions spoke to the people so much that they loved him. They came to know who his God was because of God revealing himself to them through his faithful people. We pray that God would reveal himself to the people of this land.

“A Short Expose on Reaching the Bhuddist World”

In Bhuddist thought, one can get to where he wants to go by searching for truth. Christ said, “I am the truth”, John 14:1. In Bhuddist thought one can get to the pinnacle of one spiritual journey by ending suffering. In 2 Tim 1:10, It says, “Jesus was the one who abolished death and brought life.” He suffered so that we would not have to suffer for eternity. The problem is not the theological aspect between Christianity and Bhuddism, the problem is people turning from their former ways and being saved through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit. The problem is not that it doesn’t make complete sense; the problem is the generations of culture worship. The generations that have not seen the great light….. yet. Isaiah 9:2 “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.” Buddhism is interwoven into the peoples everyday life and affects the people's outlook on philosophy, education, values, and all areas. Thus Buddhism and the culture are one in the same. The foundation of the people's identity is found in their Bhuddist culture. People are born into the Bhuddist mindset and therefore they are not made members by their personal choice or decision. The Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of the Bhuddists and all that we can do is share the message that gives Hope.

Culture Shock!

This week we started with shots and ended with the discussion of culture shock! Although we both knew that our culture is very different from the Thai culture, we realized there was a lot more to it than we thought. For instance, pointing at someone or something in the Thai culture is very offensive; you are not allowed to touch someone on the shoulders or the head; no physical touch between spouses in public; the left hand is unclean; dinner starts around 9; and many other differences that happen on a daily basis. We had lunch with our small group and got to talk with everyone about what we are most nervous about...I think overall learning the language was the biggest. Adressing culture shock was a great end to the week! Now we are in between games for the volleyball tournament this weekend...our team (PacRim) just won in the first round against the Middle America and the Caribbean team... GO PACRIM!!

Let us know what is going on with you!!!

My Testimony

It can only be two minutes..... Hey i am Rob, even when i was a little boy i knew what was wrong and what was right. I knew when my mother told me to do something i could choose whether to do it and obey or disobey and do what I wanted to do. Well as some of you may have guessed I chose the wrong way some of the time, I messed up i didn't obey my parents laws. I started looking at my surroundings and seeing the beautiful mountains and massive amounts of trees and the sky and said this couldn't have just been an accident; you see at a young age i realized that any painting had an artist, any book has an author, any building has an architect, and this world must have a creator. The childrens pastor at our church showed me out of God's holy book, the Bible, that i had broken God's holy law. I had just like adam and eve gone against the one true God and turned my own way. You see in the Garden of Eden the fellowship between God and Man had been broken,we were no longer able to walk talk and have a relationship with God because in God there is no sin. We rejected God, But a man told me that God loved me so much that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for my sin because He(Jesus) was perfect not deserving of death serving as the perfect sacrifice for our sin. John 1:12 says "But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God." Now I am a child of God are you?

Life in Richmond

Hello! Well life in Virginia has not slowed down since we arrived. Last week we learned about Church Doctrine and Church Planting Movements (CPM). On Saturday we were in an ESL class to get certified to teach overseas. We received word that we will be living on the third floor of the community center! That should make getting to work on time easy! This week we are focused on Anthropology and sharing our testimony. We have learned great ways to prepare a two minute testimony on incorporating how and when we became followers of Christ, how we began growing in faith, and then the here and now part. I would encourage everyone to know their story and be able to share it with those around as a witnessing tool. Also something neat we learned is that if someone asks you if you are a Christian, you should respond by asking them, "What do you mean by Christian?" So many people today have a skewed view of what true Christianity means and from that question you can help clarify the true message of the Gospel. Have a great week and keep seeking Him!

The Word

Hey guys! Well we feel so blessed to be here at training and we are both learning so much about God and our walk with Him. I wanted to share with you the way we have been taught to read through Scripture. While this is not the only way to do it, it is a very practical and insightful way to read a passage. With every passage or chapter you read ask and record the following insights:

SPECKA
S: Is there a sin to confess in this passage?
P: Is there a promise to claim in this passage?
E: Is there an example to follow in this passage?
C: Is there a command to obey in this passage?
K: Is there knowledge to observe in this passage?
A: Is there an application for my life?

One of our assignments is to read through a chapter of the book of Acts each day and use this SPECKA method. We would challenge you to do the same and post insight to what the Lord is showing you.