I want to know more!

​"I want to know more! What you told me last time made me feel good inside!" As Nang spoke, the excitement poured out of her face. She had been grinning from ear to ear from the time she saw us coming from across the street. We sat down to get pedicures, and she and three other women sat down with us. She repeated again and again how she wanted to know more, and one of the other ladies joined in, saying she had met some Christians and learned a little but she wanted to know more. Their faces shone with eagerness.

My teammate started sharing her testimony, and they all watched her so fixedly. Customers and other distractions made it a little difficult, but we were able to share none the less. 



The next afternoon we went back and shared again with Nang. We asked her about what she remembered from the first time we shared with her. She immediately told us how much she remembered from the story of creation to Christ but said she was confused about the story of the father with two sons. This time with a translator, we told about the prodigal son. She related before we even pointed out the application! She asked about sin and when sin is unintentional. She told us she wants to be able to forgive freely instead of holding grudges. 

We went back to share with her more one morning, going through scriptures with her. Our translator would read and show her in the Thai Bible, and then we would ask her the meaning of what we just read. Time and again, she told us exactly what the scripture meant. She understands that we are all sinners. She knows who Jesus is and that his death paid the price for our sin when he died on the cross. The only thing she is stuck on is grace. She does not understand that we do not "do good works for Jesus" to be saved. Her whole life she has been told she has to earn merit at the temple to make up for the bad she's done or try to earn better karma. She sees good works as the way to be saved, and she knows Christians do good things. She is struggling to understand salvation based on faith, not works.

When she was asking us about this, Ephesians 2:8-9 came to mind. We shared this scripture with her, and after we read it, she told us she wants a Bible: a Thai-English Bible. She wants to read and study the Bible! We are going to bring her one tomorrow and keep pouring into her. She is so close-if only she could see that our good works are as filthy rags before a perfect and holy God, but that when he looks at us he sees Jesus--not because we are perfect like Jesus or do enough good to look like him, but because Jesus took on our sins on the cross so we could be freely given salvation.

Please pray for Nang. She is so interested, so passionate about learning about Jesus and the Bible. She wants to understand, and the Holy Spirit is working in her heart. Please pray that the veil of Buddhism and works-based salvation will be removed and that she can see grace as a gift from God. Pray for the Spirit to speak to her as she reads the scriptures for herself. Pray for her to see love in us, and pray for it to be God speaking through us when we share with her. 

Nine more days to share. Nine days to pour out Christ's love in the bars and massage parlors and amongst the lostness. Nine days to see how The Lord will answer our prayers. Nine more days, expecting to see God move in awesome ways!

-Taylor

P.S. Talk about how awesome our God is, the day after Nang asked us for a Bible, we taught an English class with some short term volunteers. As they were leaving, one of the girls look at me and said, "By the way, would ya'll need any Thai bibles? I have some that a friend sent me to give away but we're leaving tomorrow." How incredibly sovereign is our Father in heaven!