Shifting Seasons

Tonight was the last time I will ever lead small groups at UMW. I know there's a lot of finality and certainty to that statement but in my heart, I know it to be true. Even writing these words right now makes it even more final.

Yes, I am sad. Also, I am surprised that I did not cry tonight (tears will come soon and have already been shed over this transition.) I have lived in Fredericksburg for almost five years now. Spotswood has been my home for over two years. I know I say this all the time but Spotswood is the church that taught me what it means to be the church and to love the church because it is the body of Christ.

Since Spotswood is the church that is sending Liz and I to Thailand, we will not be a severed hand cut off from fellowship. We are merely a hand that is on the other side of the world. I am thankful for the universal church, i.e. local bodies that love and serve Christ in every part of the world that has been evangelized. I look forward to how I can be used there and be a witness to the work God is doing in Bangkok. We worship the same God, read the same Bible, sometimes sing the same worship songs (ahem, Chris Tomlin). It will be different but God's diverse creation--diversity in the church--is pleasing to him. It glorifies him.

Though this season here in Fredericksburg is drawing to a close, I can't wallow in sadness like I'm tempted to do. Sadness is an appropriate, condoned emotion but dwelling in it is unhealthy.

Rather, this transition is cause for celebration! "There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours." (Psalm 86:8) God prepared this journey for me before he brought me to Spotswood, before I came to Mary Washington, before I was born. He prepared me to go to bring glory to himself. If I go in state of sadness, I am not glorifying God, I am indulging in my circumstances.

Later, in the months to come, I may need reminding that "extreme homesickness" is just a way I am indulging my sinful desires. My home is with Christ and my church home is his body in every part of the earth. I am very forgetful.

I'll be on that plane June 11th!

What Missions is Not

A Sunday afternoon reflection:

"It is not comfortable or easy.  It is not always explainable or relatable.  It is not self OR Church promoting.  It is not branding.  It is not exploiting the poor or rescuing the helpless.  It is not newsletters and updates of individual OR team works.  It is not about compromises and agendas.  It is not about reaching the lost, unreached people groups or saving the wretched.  It is not about judgements and condemnations.  It is not about religion, rules and regulations.  It is not about choice of clothing, what someone drinks or how many tatoos one wears.  It is not about strategy, planning and numbers.  MISSIONS IS NOT ABOUT CONVERSIONS.  It is not for the called, the holy, the obedient or righteous.  Missions is not about the elite, clean, or humble.  Missions is not free from messy, bondage, fear and persecution.  It is not about flow charts, titles or agendas.  It is not corporate.  Missions is not about perfection or execution (as in works).  It's not about villages, people groups and cities.

What IS missions?  A VERB.  In the most simplest form, missions is an action.  Going, doing, being, seeing, loving, serving, helping, communicating, accepting, embracing.  It is about giving, going, sending (both locally and abroad).  It is a life choice-an action to obedience-.   It is for everyone and about everyone.  It is about truth.  It is love.   It is a path emulated by Christ. It is the gospel."

(Excerpt from Blog Post by Thailand Missionary Beth Clark)

ACTS

You've probably heard of this outline before: ACTS. Adoration. Confession. Thanksgiving. Supplication. It's a simple way to approach the God of the Universe that we used for devotions this morning at the Encounter Leaders Retreat in Richmond. I must admit that I've been so busy with the confession/supplication portion of the prayer that it felt strange just to tell God how awesome He is and thank Him for all of His gifts. Really, I've just been busy with being busy. I feel like I'm working two jobs right now with my normal 40-hour work week at the eye doctor and my second job which is getting ready to leave the country in seven weeks. I want to take a moment to jot down a few of the things for which I am grateful...

• The overflowing outpouring of support that has been coming in. The Italian dinner (see Liz's blog post about it here) represented to me how much my church really does care about this call that God has given to Liz and I. It is their heart for missions that is sending us to Thailand. I am confident that God will complete the work that He has begun according to His own time table.
• God gathering all the pieces together for our Thailand preparation. Our background checks came back from Richmond ridiculously fast so Liz and I will be making another trip to D.C. to get our work visas (pray that God uses us as witnesses towards the embassy employees!)
• The willingness I've seen from the Encounter folks to help with all these fundraisers that are helping to ease any stress I may be experiencing about getting support for an entire year. God must be doing a mighty work to bring so many volunteers to each event (Natalie Grant concert, Italian dinner, upcoming yard-sale). Praise God for His church!
• Thank you God for how every other piece has fit so perfectly--my apartment lease is up May 30th, I resign from my job June 5th, TESOL training is finished, opportunities to get plugged into a solid ministries in Bangkok....the list goes on and on and on. 

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

    for his name alone is exalted;

     his majesty is above earth and heaven.

 He has raised up a horn for his people,

     praise for all his saints,

    for the people of Israel who are near to him.

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 148:13-14 ESV

Supot Part II

Tonight in our weekly Thai tutoring session with Supot, Liz and I learned a very important distinction--the difference between "close the door" and "close the fish."

Close the door: "bit p/blaa d/thow"

Close the fish: "bit p/blaa d/thoo"

Yes, it's that easy to sound like an idiot in Thai.

Really the two most important things we need to remember how to say are:

"Pud ee krung dai mais?" Can you say that again?

"Nii gai?" Is this chicken?

Sacrificial Lamb Syndrome

Tonight I had the privilege of listening to the founder of a non-profit organization called Urban Light share about the work that she is doing in Thailand with boys victimized by the sex-trafficking industry. When Alezandra Russell first learned about the problem of human trafficking, she was told that

"Slavery is not legal anywhere but happens everywhere"

That is a hard truth to learn. It compelled her to act, to help, to try to protect one person who was preyed on by sexual predators. Her list of things that she is up against are many (after all, many people are shareholders in this billion dollar industry)--they include the Thai mafia, affluent men from powerful countries, gangs, pimps, etc. These perpetrators don't fear the law because the countries that are supposed to be upholding these laws that prohibit prostitution are invested in the financial stability of their countries and if sex tourism is what is propping up their economies, rule of law goes out the window.

Three years ago, Alezandra visited Thailand and was shocked, angered and disgusted by the blatancy of prostitution. In taking a shortcut through a section of the Red Light District in Chiang Mai, she encountered the place where "the boys" work. She asked the person escorting her why she had never seen this aspect of the sex-trafficking trade before and why no resources were being spent on helping them. Her escort told her that "all those boys are going to get HIV and die anyways so it's a waste of NGO resources." Translation: "those boys are worthless."

Though Alezandra never professed to be a Christian, there's something to be said about how the work she is doing parallels the work of Christ. Jesus' fundamental mission on earth was to seek and save the lost. She certainly has sought out this discarded group but apart from English lessons, self-esteem seminars and condoms, she has no ability to save them.

A lot of the boys who work in the bars are "Akah"--or ethnic Thai (from tribes around cities) and are discriminated against because of their darker skin. That means that with their broken English, their job opportunities are limited to hotels, restaurants, other tourist venues and prostitution. A lot of the boys come from small villages in northern Thailand and in an effort to provide for their parents, they leave their villages to go into the cities to sell their bodies for money. They sacrifice themselves in order to bring money and status to the families they left behind. Alezandra called it "sacrificial lamb syndrome." They enter cities like Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket and are indeed slaughtered, their innocence stripped away.

What these boys really need is hope--awareness that Christ, the Lamb of God, shed His blood in their place. We, the Church, need to be the light for these victims of an industry that displays the perversion of the world. I don't know exactly how God is going to use me in my time in Thailand but I pray that He gives me a supernatural awareness of the needs that manifest themselves so when I can encounter boys who are dressed like women, young girls wearing fishnet stockings and dark red lipstick, women who left their villages looking for hope in the cities, I can be a vessel through which that hope shines, shines brighter than any weak flame our earthly abilities can ignite.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome. John 1:5

TESOL Certified!!

Elevate 2012

It was such a privilege to hang out with six eighth-grade girls and Hallie, my co-leader, for an entire weekend at the middle-school retreat, Elevate. This was my second time leading at Elevate and the one-year anniversary of my involvement in the Middle School Ministry (MSM).

Wow. What an awesome God I serve who has placed me in a church whose heart is so centered on HIM.

The theme of this year's Elevate was how obeying and submitting to your parents is a way in which we obey and submit to God, our heavenly Father. The middle schoolers' parents were all invited to a conference Saturday afternoon during which I took a break from Elevate Olympics to talk to the parents about what Liz and I are going to be doing in Thailand and why we're going.

I tried to communicate to them how they are participating in my work in Thailand just by being part of the sending church body. It started with Kairos and the tutoring program with the refugees in Fredericksburg; expanded in the work we did in Philadelphia; expanded further when we went to Thailand the first time. The heart that God gave Spotswood to impact the world with the gospel can't be contained because the gospel can't be contained.

This retreat was also an excellent reminder of the role that my own parents have in sending me to Thailand. I am often asked what my parents think about me going so very far away. I respond by nonchalantly saying how they expected that I would go after the initial trip in August. What I don't say is how grateful I am that God ordained that I would be brought up in that particular household with those particular parents. I take my parents' support for granted. They are helping as much as they can financially, pointing me towards their friends who can help, and lifting me up in prayer all the time.

Wow. What an awesome God I serve to display His love towards me through my parents. He didn't have to do that but He did.

Thanks Mom and Dad!