A
heart can never quite beat the same way again after offering God the
opportunity to liken it's rhythm a little more to His. My wish would
be to transmit to you every last drop of Gods good glory that
transpired throughout our journey in Thailand, though I know that to
be an impossible task. And so my intention is to share some small
fragment of what we were privileged to experience.
Our
journey began like any other ordinary season of life; sprinkled with
a good degree of challenge and seasoned with excitement and
anticipation of the road ahead. The context of our trip was also
quite average; a missions team sent out into the developing world of
the 10/40
window, consisting of eight students, five staff and two kids. We
(the fam) would join the team for the first five weeks in North East
Thailand at Elisha
Children Home. At this location our objective as a team would be
to come alongside the children's home and local church (located on
the same property) and serve the surrounding community. As staff of
the Discipleship Training School, the primary objective of this
outreach would be to help the eight individual students navigate
their field experience as they put “theory into practice” from
their 12 week lecture period.
This
trip was not over planned by any means nor did it appear that it
would fall apart at the seams - it was simply ordinary; five willing
staff hoping to be used by God and longing to see freedom settle into
the lives of eight students. If there were ever a time I've been
thankful to be so strikingly ordinary it was outreach, for it left no
room to claim any part in the transformations that began to emerge
among some of the students. As staff our hearts were willing (to the
best of our ability), prayerful (at times), sacrificial (somewhat),
servant hearted (with effort), and exemplars of grace (when we
remembered). God asked us to journey with Him and take His hand –
for it is by His strength alone we would make any mark for His
kingdom. So yes we gave it our best shot, but God gets the glory
here and it was Him alone who put to work His transforming power! We
saw students start living out the gospel, dying to self and serving
each other, laying down desires and wants, even needs, coming last
instead of first, acting honourably, with noble and pure intentions -
all in submission to Jesus, whose example they followed. Those five
weeks we witnessed a brief glimpse into the fresh journey for these
few students. There was no state of perfection that had finally been
attained or some level in which they were now deemed better people,
but there was light, the light of Christ shining through their words
and deeds.
And
this is what we have felt so called to - the part we signed up for –
to see hearts radically transformed by Gods grace - because we
believe God is worth rewriting your life for.
This
being my first time as a staff on a missions outreach has taught me
more than I can even process. But for right now I'm being impressed
upon to remember that God values the person and the heart and the
relationship – the journey - above any product or achievement or
standard of excellence. I saw this lived out so clearly as we served
and witnessed members of our team touched by the heart-transforming
power of Jesus Christ. I hope to cling to what God has taught me –
care for His people just as He cares for me – just as He died for
my life because He loves me! Jesus sought to meet the woman
at the well, to call
Zecchaeus down from the tree, to teach His young disciples the
way. He longs to have our hearts, not the product of our hands, and
in the midst of our day in day out ordinary walking with Christ God
showed up on our outreach in Thailand. Five weeks in rural Thailand
lends a lot of time to think about what we could have/should have
done differently, how could the trip have been better; what could we
do to improve. The fact of the matter is we did what we could and GOD
SHOWED UP – regardless of our skills or talents or preparations –
He came and the fruits of transformation is the story I share and the
hope that I offer! Christ has the power to change your heart, give
hope to your future and to re-write your life for eternity!
Philemon
1:6 I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you
will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.
Hewbrews
5:5 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with
our weaknesses, but we have one who has been temped in every way,
just as we are...Let us then approach the throne of grace with
confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in
our time of need.
Jenny
