| | Apparently, a couple of you think I should update. So I'll tell you about Thailand.
I keep being tempted to compare this year's Thailand trip to last year's Thailand trip. I want to say "Well, this was better last year, but that was better this year." What I realized, though, is that that's just setting myself up for disappointment in one way or another when everything doesn't line up. The trip this year was absolutely incredible. I can't say that I came home with any emotional highs or any stories that will make everyone cry, but what I have is so much more concrete than that. I was talking to Abby on the phone this weekend, and we came up with a brand new word to describe the trip: "spirinotemo." Meaning "spiritual not emotional." There are so many lessons to be learned from this year's trip, but not from a huge emotional high like the ones that come after many other trips. A lot of the time, the effects of our work were not terribly evident. Basically, what it came down to is us trusting that God will bring what those we were serving need out of what we gave during the conference.
A major lesson I saw played out over the course of the conference was that we cannot, of ourselves, make anything happen. We can plan and say "we are going to do this or that" but we can't actually *cause* any results. What we *can* do is remain obedient to God's call in our lives and know that God will bring about His planned results through our work and obedience.
Philippians 4:19 says, "My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." This was the verse that my seven year olds memorized during the conference. As I heard it over and over, it began to sink in. What we were doing at the conference was serving, obeying the call that God had placed in our hearts to go over to Thailand and minister to His workers there. When we do this, God meets the needs of His servants at the conference, and those who the people at the conference will minister to as they return to their homes, through our actions. That is a huge thing, an amazing calling, if rather humble and unglamorous. Many come home from their mission trips and have stories to tell about whatever work they did that people may look at and say, "Wow, they really did a lot for the Lord on that trip." And it's true, they did. When we come home and tell people about our childcare, it doesn't seem like such a big thing. But looking at the results of what we did (not, of course, the results we made happen ourselves, but the results God brings out of our work), it is clear that God uses even this work to further His kingdom. Seeing the number of children in just the 7-9 year olds on the last day of the conference raising their hands and praying to accept Christ, hearing the stories of families who came to the conference and were encouraged to go back to their work in Asia, opening up to share our lives with the families and being changed ourselves- this is only a glimpse of the amazing things that God made happen through what seems like just a humble task.
So now I'm back at home, hoping that my life will never return to normal- because I don't want normal; normal implies the normal American apathy, boredom, and lack of purpose. Normal doesn't involve a heart that breaks for people halfway around the world and a heart steadfastly focused on the Lord. I don't want normal again.
Change is a gradual thing. God doesn't usually instantly change people's hearts, though He has before. Instead, he works in people's hearts, preparing them for each step and conforming them more and more to His image. It's a beautiful thing to watch God work change in my heart and the hearts of all the people I came to know and love so much on this trip.
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| | Posted 2/20/2007 6:45 PM - 24 views - 20 comments
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