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
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