A Quick Post From a Tired TREKer

Well, life keeps trucking on here in Thailand, and it seems like every day we become more and more busy. Don't get me wrong, my life is full, but I LOVE IT, however it can start to wear on you. Fortunately Jesus is about rest and refreshment, and even when it feels like I have nothing left to give, God meets me in that place, and gives me the strength to keep going.

One day I had a to do list as long as my arm (well, not really, but it was substantial) and I was almost at my breaking point. Our team had things to do and places to be, and one of our host missionaries, Ricky, came up to myself and another girl on my team, Fauna, and asked us to spend about an hour entertaining a man from Miami he had met at a pastor's conference who was just in Thailand for the afternoon. Well, my initial response was that I had a thousand and one things to get done, and I didn't have time, but because TREK sends us out on assignment to "learn and serve", I figured the appropriate response to say out loud was "of course we'll do that, we'd love to." So, a few minutes later we were at a coffee shop, talking with a man from Miami who we had never met before in our lives. I left the coffee shop about an hour later ready to take on anything. This man spent the time listening to our stories, and sharing his own, asking us what God was teaching us, and really listening and getting excited with us. This man, who I had never met before and will probably never meet again, showed me Jesus love in such a real way. He reminded me that I serve a God who is interested in what I think, and cares how I feel, and wants to meet me where I am at. Cop Coon Prajow (Thank you God)!!

Then another week or so passed, and yesterday arrived. Yesterday was our first day of teaching English in a formal setting. We went to an elementary school in a city called Ang Sila (where Michelle and Diana live). We will spend a few hours there every Tuesday teaching grade five and six students English, and the principal has requested we teach him as well. The principal is a lovely man, and we really enjoyed meeting with him. Please pray that as we teach both him and his students and build relationships that we will have the opportunity to invite him to church where somebody who speaks his language can share the gospel with him, and that as we get to know him, we will be able to share the gospel with him through how we treat him, his students and each other. (The picture above is a few of the students from the school!)

After our English classes there, I once again was stressing, because that evening I was teaching an adult English class that still needed a bit more prep, and then the next day I had two more English classes, one with youth, one with adults that still needed prep, and we had a scheduled worship time with Team 2000, and I had a meeting about Youth English to prep for. I had already missed my Thai lesson in the morning and there just didn't seem like there could ever be enough hours in the day to get everything done.

So we headed off to our worship time, and it was exactly what I needed. Andy (one of our host missionaries) read to us from 2 Timothy 2:8-13 (I would encourage you all to spend some time meditating on it), and asked us to think about the first three words "Remember Jesus Christ" and then asked the simple question, why would Paul need to remind Timothy, a pastor, to remember Jesus. That hit me, you see, I find it so easy to get caught up in planning a good English class, or a good kids club, or even a good bible study, and I find it so easy to loose sight of Jesus in all of that. The purpose of everything I'm doing here is ultimately to introduce people to the God that gives abundant life. Such a simple lesson, but I feel like I need to learn it over and over.

Later in our worship time we wrote acrostic poems about life with Jesus. I'm a little embarrassed to do this, but I'm going to share mine with you...please be gracious and remember that poetry is not my area of expertise.

C- Completion (he who has begun a good work in you will carry it through to completion- God is not done with you yet, no matter where you are at!)
H- Healer (Jesus is a physical healer, spiritual healer, emotional healer, healer of relationships, and the list goes on and on. I've really learned this lesson since TREK started in September, and God keeps showing me more and more aspects of life in which he heals)
R- Rock (Jesus never changes, even when I'm across the world in a different culture, he is the same yesterday, today and forever.)
I- Immeasurable greatness of his power (see Ephesians 1:19- we have access in Jesus to the power that raised him from the dead...all I can say is WOW)
S- Solid (going along with the Rock theme, God doesn't shift, we can completely trust him, and build our lives around him, because he's not going to change, that is an incredibly freeing truth for me)
T- Terrific :) (because life with Jesus is Terrific!!!!)

Everybody in the room came up with different words, but they all contained so much truth. It was cool to be reminded that Jesus meets us where we are at, and that there are so many aspects to his character that become especially significant to us at different points in our lives. Try it out- write an a little acrostic poem about what Jesus is teaching you, or what is significant to you about his character right now, and then share it with somebody (for example, ME) and encourage them!!!

I love you all...