A Beautiful Mother

I haven't had time to post more stories and pictures from our Thailand trip, but go read this moving story on Andy's blog.

Mercy

On one of the days of our trip our team visited a hill tribe village in Northern Thailand. We were quite close to the Burma border and this village was made up of Burmese refugees who have been living in Thailand for nearly 30 years. Like the vast majority of the hill tribes people in Thailand, these villagers do not have Thai citizenship which means they have little access to health care, quality education, or a means to move beyond their current level of poverty.

Many people were sick in this village and Charles, the missionary who was with us and our spur-of-the-moment divinely appointed prayer coach, felt a strong sense that that we needed to pray for everyone who was sick. So we gathered around the people, put our hands on them and prayed.

Of all the people in the village, one little boy captured our hearts the most. His name was Garrun, which we were told meant "mercy." He was about two years old, the age of my son, and his eyes were crossed. His father had abandoned him and his mother when she was 6 months pregnant with him. His face was so sweet and so serious.

A couple of the dads in our group spent time holding him and playing with him. We pulled out some bubbles and began blowing them to the kids. We held the wand in front of Garrun's mouth and he blew out a strong breath that puffed his cheeks out (the same way my son does). He blew bubbles over and over again, sometimes pinching the wand with his thumb and index finger. On three occasions when he blew a particularly large batch of bubbles, we cheered for him and he cracked the tiniest of smiles. I think one person caught his tiny smile on film. He was precious.

Later that night when our team met to debrief the day and pray, God spoke to our friend Steve and he said, "You guys, it just hit me...our team verse (that we all memorized before leaving)... Micah 6:8, 'What does the Lord require of you? To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.' We loved Mercy today."

It was a total God-moment.

A day or two later, God spoke to one of the teachers on our team whose own son had been born cross-eyed. She said God told her that she couldn't help everyone she met in Thailand, but she could help this little boy. So she and her family will be praying for and paying for a doctor to help this precious child.

God could heal this child instantly, but instead he chose to use this teacher and her family to heal and bless Garrun. I'm guessing there's going to be healing and blessing for her family too. What a God!

Back Home Safe and Ruined, I Hope

We returned safely from Thailand on July 4th. Adjusting to being back home has been hard. I haven't felt rested enough to write and in that small window of time when the kids are asleep and I'm also coherent, I've felt the need to pray and read scripture. It's amazing how much more challenging these two things are once you return home.

I'm excited to share the stories from our trip and to let God bring some things into focus for me as I ponder all the people, places, thoughts, and feelings of the trip.

Some of the themes of the trip that I plan to write about are:
clean hands and a pure heart
justice, mercy, humility
no worship without sacrifice
we're rich and we're poor
God blesses the last ones
revolution

A coworker told Andy that when he asked a friend of his how his mission trip was, the friend answered, "It ruined me." I think that's a great word choice. I hope that I was ruined by this trip. I hope that any chance of me going on with life as usual is ruined; I pray that any chance of me living with one eye closed to the pain and suffering of this world is ruined.

Much more to come.

A Glimpse of Jesus

On Memorial Day I had the blessing of meeting a man in whom Jesus is vividly visible. His name is Charles Harvey and he is an Irish missionary in Thailand who Andy met in January. We had the privilege of having him in town a few weeks before our team heads to his place in Thailand. He met and spoke with our Thailand team on Monday night and God's Spirit was palatable in his words, in his prayers, and in the way he interacted with us.

He stayed overnight in our home so I was able to spend a little one on one time with him as well as some time with just he and Andy (no kids, ie. Uninterrupted conversation!). I am not exaggerating when I say this: I feel like I have been with Jesus. He was so gracious, so generous in the things he said and the way he said them, so affirming, encouraging, and life-giving. I am more in love with Jesus after being with him. I feel compelled to spend more time with my Lord because of this glimpse I got of Him through this self-proclaimed ordinary Irish man.

I long to be like Charles - to be that intimate with Jesus, to bring that much glory to the Father, to have the constant Spirit-giving discernment and energy to minister to so many people. To say "yes" to something always requires that we say "no" to something else. So the question that naturally follows is: What am I willing to sacrifice, to say "no" to, in order to say "yes" to more of Jesus?