Sa wat dee kha from the team in Bangkok, Thailand!
We have been here for 3 weeks now and our time has been nothing short of struggles, encouragement, hot weather, and, of course, lots of Thai food. It has been so fulfilling to see God open our eyes more to His sovereignty and the way He is choosing to make us vessels for His righteousness.
Since we’ve gotten here, there have been many ways the enemy has threatened to rob us of our joy. One of these is the similarity we’ve found between Thai culture and our own in the U.S. It’s easy to be broken over injustice you hear about, but it’s harder when you realize it’s sin and it isn’t specific to certain cultures. It attacks and breaks and destroys people in every nation.
“As I looked down from the high floor of this fancy hotel, I saw a Buddhist temple to the left and some run down shacks that constituted as people’s home’s to the right. I saw before me almost every form of idolatry possible and I asked God why. How could he stand to look down and see all of this? So I asked to see it the way He does and I became incredibly sad. Imagine our Dad looking down and seeing his kids following a religion that ultimately tells them their goal is nothingness, void of emotion and personality, which totally goes against how we’re created. Imagine how sad God must be to watch his kids chase after all the shiny things in the world only to see the glimmer leave once the lights go out. Then, imagine his feelings towards his kids living in squalor and poverty. Lastly, as his kids prostitute themselves and His other children buy their bodies. Is not His depth of despair just as deep in each case? I look around and see people who are blind both to their own, our own, level of depravity and to the level of joy and life that is offered in the Gospel.”
In these hard times, God has been speaking so much spiritual truth to us and allowing us the blessing to grow in our Heavenly Father.
Pray for us to have opportunities to be a friend to the workers we meet in the bars.
Pray for God to move in a mighty way.
Pray for Jesus to shine in us and through us so that they may know the true, eternal hope and the reason for living.
Pray that their eyes would be open to the living and constant source of water.
-Natalie
We have been here for 3 weeks now and our time has been nothing short of struggles, encouragement, hot weather, and, of course, lots of Thai food. It has been so fulfilling to see God open our eyes more to His sovereignty and the way He is choosing to make us vessels for His righteousness.
Since we’ve gotten here, there have been many ways the enemy has threatened to rob us of our joy. One of these is the similarity we’ve found between Thai culture and our own in the U.S. It’s easy to be broken over injustice you hear about, but it’s harder when you realize it’s sin and it isn’t specific to certain cultures. It attacks and breaks and destroys people in every nation.
“As I looked down from the high floor of this fancy hotel, I saw a Buddhist temple to the left and some run down shacks that constituted as people’s home’s to the right. I saw before me almost every form of idolatry possible and I asked God why. How could he stand to look down and see all of this? So I asked to see it the way He does and I became incredibly sad. Imagine our Dad looking down and seeing his kids following a religion that ultimately tells them their goal is nothingness, void of emotion and personality, which totally goes against how we’re created. Imagine how sad God must be to watch his kids chase after all the shiny things in the world only to see the glimmer leave once the lights go out. Then, imagine his feelings towards his kids living in squalor and poverty. Lastly, as his kids prostitute themselves and His other children buy their bodies. Is not His depth of despair just as deep in each case? I look around and see people who are blind both to their own, our own, level of depravity and to the level of joy and life that is offered in the Gospel.”
In these hard times, God has been speaking so much spiritual truth to us and allowing us the blessing to grow in our Heavenly Father.
Pray for us to have opportunities to be a friend to the workers we meet in the bars.
Pray for God to move in a mighty way.
Pray for Jesus to shine in us and through us so that they may know the true, eternal hope and the reason for living.
Pray that their eyes would be open to the living and constant source of water.
-Natalie