Expect the unexpected

November 12, 2013

My heart goes out to those in the Philippines and to all those that have been affected by such a tragedy. It's so heart breaking to see such pain and destruction in a place that is already struggling from so much. I pray that this event will open the eyes of those who have yet not seen and change the hearts of those who have yet not believe to see the hope that The Lord our Savior has to offer. And for those that are concerned, at the moment the typhoon is not expected to hit Thailand.

Also I apologized  for being away for so long. I have been settling in and have been busy trying to get more involved within the church ministry here. I have found a place to stay that is right across the street from the church. It is a brand new apartment complex that was built only a few months before I arrived and it's within walking distance from church. So I have been busy moving into that place as well. Though the place I'm staying at is fairly safe with 24 security, please still pray for my safety cause I will still be staying by myself.

Another reason I haven't blogged recently is because I didn't know what to write about. I really didn't think I had anything to share about since the last time I wrote, but now I do. I wasn't sure how personal I would want this blog to get and not sure if I was willing to be vulnerable enough to let others know of my struggles. It's easy to let others share in your triumphs and highs, but it's a different story when it comes to sharing the hardships. But after talking to some people and really focusing my attention to God's voice in this matter, I realized that the hardships are what brings people together, it's in these times that countries come together and it's in these times when people start to pray.

In my first post I said that I didn't expect much from Thailand and a friend suggested that I expect more from this experience. Let me explain why I didn't expect anything much from Thailand. I came to Thailand on a leap of faith and a calling from God. Typically I plan everything up to the reason why I do anything I do. That was not God's plan for me. I want to expect that I will be changed from the inside out, I want to expect to be a better leader, I want to expect so much more from life than God's plan for me. But who am I to expected anything from The One who sent me, who am I to ask anything from The Almighty? I'm no one! I'm human! And most of all I'm a sinner! I don't expected any of these things from The Lord because of His love and mercy I already have all of these things, but it's all in the timing of The Lord. These are already planned for me and it's just a matter of when God wants to grant these things to me. So if you want to say I expect anything, I do, I expected a lot, but I don't expect any of it cause God already gave me everything I could ever ask for and so much more. I just need to be patient and keep my eyes and heart open to His plan.

I only came to realize this not to long ago. Since I landed here in Thailand all I did was expect God to change me, to show me His plan for me, to use me, and so on and so on. But I forgot to think that this is not my trip, it's His. Isaiah 55:8-9 says "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares The Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." God has a much bigger plan for me, a plan that I can't see YET! But I'm here faithfully and willing to serve. I am here to surrender my life and all my plans and expectations to Him. Even though I am weak, even though I miss home, or even when I'm being eaten alive by bugs I know that I will want to quite, but I trust that all that I am going through physically, mentally and spiritually is not done in vain. It is done to give me perseverance so I can continue the fight for His Kingdom that not only I may praise and glorify Him but so that everyone can.

So this is my confession, I'm surrendering all I have, all my thoughts and my soul to Christ so that He may use me to make disciples of all nations, to spread the good news, to be the salt and the light that shines for Him. And I am asking all of you to keep me accountable and to continue to encourage me through prayer and fellowship. It is the job that has been given to us as Christians so that all sinners can experience what the love of God feels like.

I almost died!!

November 4, 2013

Ok not really, I didn't almost die. But it felt like it haha....

First off my heart goes out to those who witnessed and those who were injured in the LAX shooting. I missed the shooting by a only about 48 hours. It's scary to think how close I was to seeing such a tragedy happen before my eyes. I PTL (Praise the Lord) that I was not there, but I am praying for the victims and the suspect who committed the crime.

So on to how I almost died...haha...The second full day I was here I got pretty ill. It kept me in bed for pretty much most of the day. I had a slight fever, headache, and was nauseous for most of the day. I could not speak clearly (I couldn't make full sentences) and was not able to eat anything for the whole day. (By this time I have only had 1 real meal since landing) And I know exactly why I felt this way. So here is some background, typically at home I'm an old grandma, I'm in bed by 10 pm and awake by 8am +/- about an hour or so. This has been my schedule since high school and when this schedule is thrown off my body reacts to the lack of rest I get. This has even happened to me while at home a couple of times when I stray away from my typical body clock for only a few hours over the course of several weeks. So you can imagine how my body would react when it is thrown off by a full 14 hours of change at the same time. It tried it kill me! Haha ok not really but it felt like it. Whenever this happens you will not see me get out of bed for at least a few days. But by God's grace and mercy I was almost at a 100% the very next day. I was able to attend church service and be present for all activities that day. I was able to eat again, I didn't eat much cause I was just getting my appetite back so it was a good thing. The only thing that was left over from the illness was the feeling of being tired which probably was a combination of illness and jet lag, so I tried not to move to fast or move around to much throughout the day. PTL I'm all better now and able to proceed with normal life here.

Today is a day off for everyone in the church so I am all alone today and able to chat and update throughout the day. 😊 like I said I am staying the church dormitory so I'm staying here at the church with some church members who live here year around. So I will write about church service that occurred on Sunday.

Church starts with prayer meeting in the morning. This means prayer! Not a bible study or a worship session. All there is to this time is a couple songs of worship and only a series of prayer sessions for the church, the members and anything else that needs prayer. Now let me talk about the style of praying. They do what my youth group calls "Korean style" prayer. (Nothing against Koreans, I think this is just the way one of them saw a Korean group pray and it just stuck ever since) To me personally I think this is one of the most annoying ways to pray, but this is just my opinion...hehe... So what exactly is "Korean style" praying? It is when everyone in the group prays out loud all at the same time. The leader will pray the loudest and when the leader is done everyone else should be finishing up their prayer. Why is this annoying to me? Well to me I can't focus on my own prayer, I only listen to the prayers of the people next to me or the the loudest person I can hear. But somehow this works for them. And they somehow are able to focus on their own prayer. I guess I will need to practice to focus more on my own prayer during this time, which in theory I should be doing anyways. 😛

Ok so next is Sunday school, they have a series throughout the church. Everyone breaks up into classes that is particular to where your spiritual maturity level is. Classes start from 101 up to 105. 101 is before baptism and learning what it means to be Christian. 102 is service and Discipleship. And I didn't quite get what the other 3 are...hehe sorry. I sat in the 101 class. Pastor Ohm lead this class and he was teaching about what it means to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. It was quite different hearing it explained in Thai.

After Sunday school was service. The sermon was about not giving up, which was really a message for me. I of course was not feeling well and already missing home, I wanted to go home already. I mean who wants to be sick in a foreign country? I certainly did not, but Pastor Ohm was speaking about the life of apostle Paul. Apostle Paul went through so much in his life, from disease, persecution, to ultimately his death. But throughout all of this Paul believed and he kept going for the sake of glorifying The Lord. So I thought who am I to give up now? I have not been stoned, I have not even heard a single word of persecution, nor have I died yet. I was just a little ill, what in that allows me to go home and give up? It doesn't!! So why the I heck was I even thinking of that?

Pastor Ohm continued and gave us a solution to the feeling of giving up. He told us that it just takes us to admit that we are mere mortals, that we are human and are not perfect. Not even close! Which hit me even more. I wouldn't say that I am a complete perfectionist but I'm pretty close. I definitely have a type A personality. In the sermon Pastor Ohm said that when we are able to admit that we are human and not perfect we are able to find more of a will to continue and not give up. Not to lower our standards or anything but that our will power, our hope and motivation to continue comes from The Lord Almighty. With Him on our side what can't we do? Absolutely nothing!!

After everyone eats lunch together which reminds me of my home church as we also eat lunch together. The difference is that a few women in the church cook every meal the church has every week they need it! That is commitment! Then after lunch everyone breaks off into small groups based one age to discuss the sermon and other spiritual related topics. I got placed in group 3G (gather, grow, go). This is a college group. This is quite and interesting bunch of personalities. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about this group...haha...

So that is a wrap of Saturday and Sunday. Interesting journey already no?

Arrived safely!

November 1, 2013

I have arrived safely in Thailand!!!! And I’m alive!!! It was about a 20-hour flight with an hour lay over in Seoul. The flight itself was not to bad as I slept through most of it as I do with any flight. I stayed the night at one of the missionary’s home in Bangkok, Pastor Glen and his wife, Bim. Pastor Glen is a missionary sent from his home church in Singapore however he is originally from Australia and his wife is originally from Bangkok but she moved to Singapore for Bible College. Now I am at the church that I will be working with, Streams of Blessings. I will be staying in the church dormitory until I find a place of my own to stay at. The church is a 3-story building and I am staying on the 3^rd floor. It used to be a school until they converted the place to a church a few years ago. I have already met a handful of people including the Senior Pastor, Pastor Ohm and his wife, Kae and some of the church members. I also met May, who is a missionary from Singapore as well; she and I will be the 2 English teachers here.

A new semester for the English school will start very soon and I will be able to sit in a few lessons to get familiar with the curriculum that the school here uses. Until then I will be trying to settle in and get used to area. Everyone went for dinner tonight at a church member’s house, however I was starting to feel the jetlag and decided to stay behind and get some rest. But first I will discuss my first impressions of Thailand and the people I have met so far.

First off Thailand is HOT and humid! It’s one of those places that you take a shower and feel like you need another shower right after. Second, they drive on the other side of the road! I always knew that they did, but its very different than what I imagined it to be like. This is probably the first thing that I need to get used to. And lastly, the people here are an interesting bunch of people, a great mix of personalities, at least from the people that I have met so far. The church members are very laid back and never seem in a rush to do anything. Everyone has a “go with the flow” mentality, which if you know me you know this is NOT my kind of mentality at all! Haha…something else to get used to. :P However, there is one person who does not have this mentality at all and that person is Pastor Ohm. He has a very intentional personality and he seems like a person who is very passionate about everything that he does and in particular the ministries within this church that he has been leading for about 5 years or so now. He was very excited to meet me and that I am here to join efforts in leading a few groups within the church. He is particularly excited because not only am I the first person to come from the States to serve as an English teacher, but I am the only to person to have came from anywhere around the world. CRAZY!! I know! But let me explain.

There are 3 full time missionaries within the church, 2 couples and 1 single woman. 2 missionaries are from Singapore and 1 couple are from Atlanta, Georgia and all three were sent from different ministries to help out with a different cause other than this church but somehow found this church and started to get involved with the church ministry while also helping out with other ministries. But I am the first person to come for the purpose of just serving this church. This church as never had an outside missionary specifically come with a purpose to serve just in the ministries of this church. This was quite shocking to me because this church was started over 20 years ago, but this tells me that this church is still has a lot of room to grow as with any church. From what I have learned about this church through conversation with Pastor Glen and Pastor Ohm, it seems that the congregation members lack committed to not only the church but also Christ Himself. This church is in country that is mainly Buddhist and most of the people here only know Buddhism so it is difficult to break the mold and not fall back into the social norm. But I can now see why Pastor Ohm was called to lead this church. He gets very excited about God and ministry and his excitement is very contagious. I believe that this will help the people here to start getting excited for Christ and His serving His Kingdom. As for me this is a lot of pressure knowing that this church has never had anyone like me before, but at the same time I am very excited to see what I can do with this type of role within the church.

I know that God has called me to Thailand and in particular this church for a reason. I hope that throughout this next year I will not only grow spiritually but help others grow spiritually as well. Being the planner that I am it’s terrifying not knowing what will happen next but I am trusting in the Lord to guide me through this journey and to give the wisdom to help guide others to Him as well. I came to Thailand not expecting much because being here is a blessing all in itself, but I look forward to the many blessings and lessons God has planned for me here. But for now it is time for me to sleep! I will try to update as much as I can. J Thank you for taking the time to read the first part of many parts to this once in a life time adventure.