A Visa Run, With A Twist

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 4:19

I woke up this morning with that verse bouncing around in my brain, and I definitely experienced it today. As a matter of fact, our team’s whole visa run to Malaysia has been God showing us the truth in that verse.

It started a few days ago, on Saturday morning at about 3:00 am. We drove from Bang Saen (where I live) to Bangkok International Airport to fly into Malaysia. Our visa’s expired that day, so even though the Thai embassy in Malaysia isn’t open on weekends, we needed to be out of Thailand within the day. We arrived at the airport a couple of hours before our flight left, and checked in quickly, then we proceeded to customs. Here we saw the largest lines I’ve ever seen in an airport in my life, and a whole convention of monks showed up- probably close to 100 of them. Being a Buddhist country the monks were quickly moved to the front of the line. After being in line for about an hour and barely moving, we started to be a bit concerned. Time was ticking away and we started to count down the time until we had to be at our flight…45 minutes, 40, half an hour, 20 minutes… at this point we got anxious, we realized we weren’t going to make our flight. In desperation I whispered a prayer “Jesus, could you maybe delay our flight, so we can make it, either that or could you make this line disappear?” Well there were no vanishing people, but when Fauna went to ask a staff member to see if there was any way we could be moved forward in line so that we wouldn’t miss our flight she told us not to worry- our flight had been delayed. Thank you Jesus! From that point forward we felt confident we would make our flight, although we were unsure of how long the delay would be. Sure enough, a few minutes later another line opened up, and our team was through with passports stamped in fifteen minutes heading towards security (by heading I mean running- think The Amazing Race, in a super intense moment, that was our team). When we made it to security everybody was telling us to hurry up as the checked our bags. In one final sprint we made it to our gate and onto our plane. As soon as we were seated and buckled in, the plane took off.

At this point I thought that the stress was over. Our team successfully made it to the guest house where we were staying; spent a day at the beach where our biggest worry was a jellyfish sting to my foot; and had some sweet devotional times together.

However the stress began again on Monday morning, when our visas were back on our minds. We woke up early to be at the Thai embassy for opening, filled out our paperwork with no problem, got in line and handed them in to be processed and were told to come back the next day (today) at 2:00 to pick them up. Well, seems like it went pretty smoothly, except for the fact that we were scheduled to fly from Penang to Kuala Lampur at 12:20. We freaked out a bit. We asked if there was any way we could get them early and were told “No.” We asked if there was any way that we could check if they were ready early and were told “No.” We asked if we could come in the morning and just sit and wait incase they were possibly ready early. To this the man replied, “There is no way they will be ready, it is impossible, but you can come at 11:30 to check if you really want.” We thanked him and left.

At this point we thought it would probably be good to contact Dave, the missionary we report to in Thailand, and let him know what was going on, see if had any suggestions, and see if he could contact the individual who was supposed to pick up at the airport the following day, just incase we weren’t there. Well unfortunately none of our cell phones work outside of Thailand, and none of the payphones within a block radius of our place worked- go figure. So, we decided to try to use Skype. We packed up my laptop and headed to Starbucks where we knew they had wireless internet, and to be perfectly honest we were all needed coffee at this point. Well, we got there, turned on my computer, and realized it had absolutely no battery, and my power cord couldn’t plug into Malaysian outlets. Just when we were about to give up hope I realized a man sitting not far away from me was using the same laptop I have. After a little small talk and a quick request, my laptop was charging, and Diana was chatting with Dave about our situation.

So this morning we woke up early again. Immediately I had that verse, Philippians 4:19 running through my head over and over and over. We spent some time as a team praying, and headed to the embassy, with all our luggage, for opening, even though the man said it was impossible. The other three girls went in to check if our visas were ready, I waited on the sidewalk with a bunch of suitcases, and kept praying. A few minutes after the girls left I became aware that my prayers had gotten to the point where they sounded a bit like this “please, please, please, God we really need them, ppppplllllllleeeeeeaaaaaaaassssseeeeee give us our visas.” Well after I realized what I sounded like I heard God say to me “Jillian, come on, do you really think I don’t know what you need?” I realized that yes, God already knew exactly what I needed, and I realized I needed to trust that God was going to follow through and supply that need, so from that point forward I decided instead to spend my time praising God for being a God that sees our needs, who has the power to meet them. It was freeing, the worry melted away and was replaced with peace.

Good thing, because we didn’t get our visas right away. The team came back to let me know they told us we could check back again at 11:30. So we sat there, for hours, reading, listening to music, journaling, and talking to a Muslim man from Egypt named Muhammad who was also having visa problems. We realized that there was nothing that we could do. At 11:00 Diana went in again to check if our visas were ready, and the others of us prayed together one more time that God would give us our visas. A few minutes later we were wishing Muhammad the best, and piling into a cab on our way to the airport. I felt like my heart was going to explode I was so thankful and blown away at how God is looking after all the details of our lives. These last days really reminded me that God cares about our EVERY need. He cared enough to die on a cross and forgive our sins, so that we can have a relationship with him, and he cares enough to provide visas and flight connections for four girls all alone across the world. “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

Back to Life

Well, Christmas has come and gone, as has New Years. Both were full seasons for us here in Thailand, we had the opportunity to celebrate Jesus birth many times, with outreaches and parties both in the church and outside of it. Praise God, hundreds of people who had never heard the name of Jesus, were told about the God who came to earth in baby size skin, to grow up and die for their sins. Please pray that this truth will impact their lives.

This week we started up all of our regular ministries again, and life is back in full swing. On Thursday, as always Fauna and I had the opportunity to go with Louise to Bethel Church, one of our favorite ministries. This week came with a few twists. We headed out for the two hour drive in, unusually excited, because a friend from home had given Louise $50 (roughly 2000 baht) to purchase children’s tables for Bethel. Up until this point we have just been doing crafts and playing games on the floor with them. When we got to the store where we intended to purchase the tables, much to our disappointment we found the store closed. We headed across the street to try another store. Here’s where things get exciting. As they looked at the tables Louise and P’ Nat (a Thai lady who comes to Bethel each week also) were talking to the salesman, who actually just happened to be the owner of the store. Well, that man just happened to be a Christian, a pastor actually of a church, that just happened to be next door, that we were totally unaware was there. This man, Ajan Wichai was such an encouragement to us. He gave us seven tables for the price of four. We were so blessed. But he didn’t stop there, as we talked about cell group, that regularly has about four adults, he decided to donate 20 chairs, and told us to believe in faith that God would bring 20 people to cell group. We were so encouraged. Then, we were looking at new linoleum flooring for the church, since the old stuff was mismatched and torn. I’ve been praying since Christmas that God would provide a way to get flooring for Bethel. We didn’t have the funds to buy it, but there is a team coming next month that we thought might be able to put it in as a part of their ministry here. Well, God and Ajan Wichai had different plans. He told us he was going to donate the flooring also, and install it for us! (The Picture is P' Nat, Ajan Wichai, P' Bank his son and Louise)

I wish you could have seen the looks on the children’s faces as we unloaded the van. They were so excited. It was chaos. We unloaded, and immediately the children were sitting around the tables, colouring and playing games. They were so loud Fauna could hear them from two blocks away when she went to buy water for snack time. What a good God we love, a God who blesses us so beyond our expectations. A God who hears and answers our prayers. A God who allowed us to make a connection with another church in the area. I was blown away.

<- This picture is Fauna and I ripping up the old flooring!! We found a few poisonous creatures under it, a scorpion, and the biggest spider I've seen in my life.