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
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