At this moment I am perched on my bed at the beautiful hour of almost
To begin with, last week was the Songkran Festival! J It is a national holiday that has been happening for many years now and originated with people sprinkling water on each other around this time in April in order to bless one another. My understanding that over time it has now evolved into a full scale national water fight! It is one of the funnest (and yes, I know that is not a word yet it is a Melodyism that describes the week perfectly, its so hard to believe I’m college graduate sometimes) experiences you can ever have! I had the opportunity to travel up north with Bob, Chris, and Jason and my friend Kat came along too. We journeyed to visit Chey Kong and specifically to visit the Khmu people whom Bob and Chris will be working with in about a year. We visited the same 2 villages and the nursery school that my team had visited last summer. It was a bit of a surreal experience for me, not being there with my Action team but visiting the same places and even stayed in the same bamboo church! I loved it so much. I got to know one little girl in particular (who I realized later I had also connected with last summer), she was about 5 years old and one of the cutest girls I know. I started playing sticks with her-I had just been learning my numbers in Thai (I can count to 10!) and was practicing, making funny sounds and faces along the way. She just thought that was absolutely hilarious!! It made me laugh to see her get her huge smile and laugh. When she laughed her eyes got all twinkly, her mouth opened up huge-almost in a smile too big for her face and without her front teeth she would give me the biggest grin possible. After the initial “stick” time, we hung out and just sat together a lot, had piggy back rides or played ball. As I was sitting with her in church on Sunday, I realized that it just felt so right. It struck me that it felt like I was doing what God created me for.
Wow.
It still strikes me a bit speechless. So, lets just say I’m praying with how God wants me to respond to that. I’m also reading this incredible book by Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust, in it he talks a lot about radical trust with God. He gave an example of Mother Teresa. I have to share this with you because it convicted me so much:
“When the brilliant ethicist John Kavanaugh went to work for three months at ‘the house of the dying’ in
‘What do you want me to pray for?’ she asked. He voiced the request that he had borne thousands of milds from the
She said firmly, ‘No, I will not do that.’ When he asked her why, she said, ‘Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.’ When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, ‘I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.” (Ruthless Trust p. 5).
What do you think? It really convicted me because coming over, one of the things I was praying for was clarity—especially clarity for serving God in long term missions. However, perhaps the bigger thing to pray for is trust?
Anyways, the rest of the week was great! Lots of amazing experiences-and we even participated in the water fight. Bob has a blue “sang-taaw” (a truck with seats in the back and a cover, but only flaps that can be pulled down if cover is desired) and we purchased a big black garbage can, filled it with water, and proceeded to use our small buckets to sling water on the roadside people. However, numerous times they soaked us more than we got them partly due to Bob. J He would slow down right before the people allowing them to soak us before we could retaliate or even load with ammo. J Then he would come back and check on us with innocence dripping in his tone, “What-you’re wet? How did that happen?” J talk about making me laugh…. A lot. Anyways, it was great fun.
It was a good time to rest and just spend some good time hanging out with God. I’m learning to listen more…which is good. I also had some great talks with Kat which were….revealing in a lot of ways. So, hey-here’s to learning to trust God!
“The reality of naked trust is the life of a pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without any rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it his presence and his promise.”~Brennen Manning (Ruthless Trust p. 13)
1 comment:
You look like youre having fun!
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