One Heart, One Purpose

I know it has been awhile since my last post and I apologize. There has been much going on here in Thailand and not enough time in the day to write about it. In this last week alone, we have had a Chinese girl come to know Christ (Praise God!), played soccer with other churches in Bangkok, visited three different schools, celebrated a birthday, helped with English classes, fellowshipped with many Thai people, and many other things. It’s crazy how much we have been able to do in just a short amount of time!

                Well, we are at the halfway point of our stay in Thailand. I know I can speak for the whole team when I say this stinks. We have all fallen in love with Thailand and its people and are not ready to go home. Luckily, we still have three more weeks here. This trip has honestly been one of the best experiences of my life. I have learned so much in these past three weeks through missions training school and hanging out with the LifePoint BKK team and the other interns. God has truly blessed me by surrounding me with such amazing and God-fearing people. We seriously have the most awesome group of Christ followers here in Bangkok and it has been such an honor to serve alongside of them. Not only have I learned a lot from the Americans here, but our Thai friends have also taught me so much more than I could ever learn in the States. The Thai people who attend LifePoint and the ones who serve with our Thai partner church, New Vision Baptist Church, have had such an impact on my life. They seriously are the sweetest and most humble people I have ever met in my life. Their hearts for the Lord and for their people are so inspiring. These people are truly the hands and feet of God here in Thailand and they have touched my heart to the core. I cannot put into words how much love I have for these people and what they are doing for God’s Kingdom. They have made so many sacrifices (family, friends, job, etc.) because of their faith, and honestly we (as in American Christians) can learn a lot from these people about what it means to truly live for Christ.

                God has really been speaking to me this week about unity in the church. Several times during our morning devotional s and bible studies, we have discussed unity in the church and how it looked in the early church. Over and over again, the disciples stressed the importance of fellowship with other believers. In Acts 4:32, it says that all who believed in Christ were of one heart and soul…and they had everything in common. I never quite understood this verse until I came to Thailand. Thai culture is so different from American culture, even when it comes to Thai Christians and American Christians. As I mentioned earlier, we have a Thai partner church called New Vision and we have been doing a lot of things with them these past three weeks. We spent this last weekend with them in Amphawa, and on Friday night we had a meeting to debrief about the day. Every one of the interns talked about how it has been awesome serving with the New Vision team and how the unity between New Vision and LifePoint has been so great. One of the New Vision team members then expressed how God has given us the same heart as believers and, therefore, we have the same purpose in life, which is to bring God glory. Acts 4:32 finally clicked in my head after he said that. No matter how different our teams are, we all have the same heart and same mission in life—bring God glory and make disciples. It is truly a beautiful thing to share a heart’s calling with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and it is my prayer that the church as a whole will be like the first church in Acts—be of one heart and soul.

                We have three more weeks in Thailand and I cannot wait to see what else God is going to do in this place!! Please be praying for all of us here. Love you all!!

God bless,

Emily

Everything For His Glory

สวัสดี! (That's hi in Thai.) Now all of you can see just how difficult the Thai language is! Haha. Well, these past few days have been truly amazing. God has been fervently at work here in Bangkok. Sunday morning David preached about finding true joy and how pride can keep you from experiencing true joy. In the scripture, Paul said that true joy is only possible through true humility (Philippians 2:1-11). True humility can only be found in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we can conclude that true joy is only found in Jesus Christ. But if you are prideful, then there is no way you will ever experience true joy because you will only focus on yourself and not on what truly matters—Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. Pride is the first sin and the root of all sin because it tells us that we do not need God. It is a nasty sin that I had struggled with for a long time. It started in elementary school and stayed with me up until about the last year of high school. I thought of myself as better than everyone else because I was popular, made good grades, and had basically everything I wanted. It was not until I found Jesus that I realized that none of that mattered. Jesus wanted me not because I hung out with the popular crowd, but because He knew my heart and had a purpose for my life. I still find myself battling with pride at times and in those moments I remind myself that God does not need me. His Kingdom can and will advance without me. But He chose me to fight alongside Him in the war against the enemy and what an honor that is. We are not worthy of all that God has done for us and pride tells us that we are. Do not fall victim to pride because it will only lead you down a never-ending road of misery. Only when you humble yourself to the Lord will you receive true and eternal joy.

                After the service, everyone had lunch together and played games. Then all of us girls and two boys decided to go shopping at one of BKK’s many malls. Let me just say, America has nothing on Bangkok when it comes to shopping! The mall we went to had over 3,000 stores and all of us interns could not believe our eyes. While the shopping was awesome, we all had so much more fun just getting to know the Thai people that were with us. They truly are awesome and sweet people!

                Monday was such a great day. The lesson for MTS that day was about hermeneutics and it challenged every single one of us, especially me. The Bible has always been very difficult for me to grasp and understand, and I know it is because I have never really tried to study it. Bret told us that Bible study isn’t an intellectual exercise, but an interaction with the Holy Spirit, which is such a great point! Now the whole team is doing a Bible study through the book of Acts and I cannot wait to see what God is going to say and do through that! After MTS, we went with a church from the Baptist Student Center to Bang Yai, a really good Thai school. We led about 130 Thai high schoolers in fun dance and worship songs. It was hilarious watching the students doing some of the dances! Then we performed a skit about Saul’s transformation to Paul. It was a lot of fun doing these things, and the cultural exchange was incredible! We split up into small groups later and got to know the students, which was my absolute favorite part. They were so inquisitive about American culture and it was awesome when we bonded over things like One Direction and Robert Pattinson! (My group was mainly all girls if you couldn’t tell...haha). They were so funny and sweet. I talked with them about the Paul story and from that I was able to talk with them about Jesus, and sadly many of them had never even heard of Him. I could tell though that when I was talking to them about Jesus, they became much more attentive and I could see that God was doing something inside them. Please be praying for my group and the rest of Bang Yai in that they will start asking questions about Jesus and want to know more!

                MTS today was so powerful and impactful. We watched a Louie Giglio talk about grace and can I just say WOW! If you haven’t seen this talk, then please look it up (sorry I don’t know the name of it!). He talks about how God is always pursuing man and that if God never wanted to be seen, then He wouldn’t be! And that is so true! He later talked about how church is not about pleasing ourselves, but about pleasing God. Whenever we walk out of church/just get done worshipping, we should always ask God if He got a lot out of it because it is all for Him, not us! God’s grace is so amazing and we are so unworthy of it. Every day you need to thank God for His wonderful grace because without it, we would never be with God. Here’s a definition that Bret gave us for grace: God doing for you, what you cannot do for yourself. Pretty awesome, huh? We also learned about our personalities and how everyone’s personalities can work together to reach our common goal—bringing glory to God. It was really cool getting to know what everyone on our team is like and how different personalities work on the mission field.

                After MTS, we all just relaxed and did our own things for the rest of the day. I spent the rest of my day in reflection soaking in all that God has shown and taught me over this past week. It was so awesome and much needed. Morgan, Brianna, and Jessica went on a bar outreach with one of the ministries we are associated with. Bar outreach is going to the bars where all the sex trade is and talking with the girls who are working in them. They had a great time and really formed some awesome relationships there, so please be praying for those girls and relationships! Really be praying for the girls in the sex trade and also the men who are the customers because as much as we all want to hate them, those men are struggling with a terrible sin and need our love and prayers.

                Well, I have already talked too much so I will end this post now. Be looking for my next post in a couple of days! Keep all of us in your prayers!

God bless,

Emily

Hello from BKK

Hello from Bangkok!! Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a week, but I did warn you that I was lazy when it came to blogging! Haha. Honestly though, I am sorry. Well, it has almost been a week since I arrived in BKK and there is so much to already tell. This place is absolutely amazing and intriguing. The city is so big and so full of people that it is quite overwhelming at times. There is so much going on everywhere you turn with all the street vendors and crazy car and motorcycle drivers (Side note: In BKK, the sidewalk is not just for walking. It is also used as a parking lot for cars and a shortcut for motorcycles.). We have had some close encounters with both cars and motorcycles since we have been here (especially Brianna…haha). It’s amazing that with a city that has so much going on that the Thai people are so chill. They are seriously some of the nicest and sweetest people I have ever met, and they absolutely love Americans! Well, most of them at least. It has been so awesome getting to know a lot of them who go to LifePoint and I can already see lasting friendships forming. The sad thing about the Thai people is that many of them have this look of hopelessness and I know that is because they do not have Christ in their lives. The majority of Thais are Buddhist so there are spirit houses all around the city where they worship and give gifts to the spirits living inside. This sight is absolutely heartbreaking. These people are so lost and looking for direction and sadly they are going in the wrong direction to find it. Therefore, please pray for these people that they will be shown the light of Jesus Christ and that through Him, hope will be restored in their lives. Although this city is surrounded in darkness, it is so comforting to know that Christ’s light is powerful enough to shine through!

                These past few days have been utterly and completely awesome! God is doing so many things here in BKK through our church and other ministries, and all of us interns have been so blessed to witness it just in the past 5 days! The LifePoint BKK team has been so wonderful and they have already taught us so much about our faith. The missions training school put on by Bret, Brandon, and David has been so awesome and educational. It is seriously one of my most favorite things about being here because I am learning so much and loving every second of it! Along with that, we have also visited two ministries focused on helping girls in the sex industry. Both of those meetings were so amazing because you could just feel God’s presence as each woman spoke about the ministry and the women they have helped. Please pray for both of these ministries who I am leaving anonymous on purpose. Pray that God will continue to work through and in these ministries and also pray for these women that they are helping because most of them are in the industry because their families depend solely on them to live. We have also attended many gatherings at the church, such as English teaching classes, which have been so much fun. We have been able to meet a lot of wonderful people and talk with them about Christ. It has been so interesting talking with the Thai people, especially those who are Christians, because their personal stories and struggles are so inspiring and heartbreaking. I was able to talk with a guy name Chao during one of the English classes at the church about being a Christian. He expressed to me how difficult it is at times because no one understands him and no one really cares to. So please pray for Chao and the other Thai Christians.  Today we went to the beach with some of our Thai buddies and it was great! Nissa, a Thai woman that goes to LifePoint, took the next step in her faith and got baptized in the ocean, which is soooooo amazing! I’m telling you, God is showing up and showing out here in BKK!!! Praise God for this life transformation and pray for Nissa and her walk with Jesus Christ. Well, tomorrow we are going to our first church service and I am super excited about it! David is preaching an awesome word and I cannot wait to hear what God is going to say through him! Pray for David as he brings the word tomorrow to a room full of Americans and Thais!

                I apologize for this post being so long. There is just so much I want to share. God is working mightily here in BKK and in my life (I’m sure I speak for the other interns as well when I say this!). He has convicted me of my selfish desires for comfort and has pushed me to become the woman of Christ He designed me to be. He is teaching me so many new things about Him and myself and every day He is leaving me thirsty for more. I am just so excited about what God is doing in my life and in the lives around me!! Well, it is time for me to say good night, but first I want to leave you with this challenge that David gave all the interns yesterday. Here it is: Die to yourself. Find out what it is in your life that is keeping God from being your number one and die to it. Only once we are dead to our sin are we truly alive in Christ.

God bless,

Emily