The Lord wills it

Well, it has been a trip to really try and wrap your mind around. The craziness and peace of this trip is really incredible, and all glory to God for that.

Quick update for the craziness:
We had a leader change happen our 2nd week in Thailand. Prayers for our amazing original leader as he had to return home for some spiritual healing in his life.
Had a finger smashed with a hammer and was afraid of it being broken (all is good, healing fine)
We moved to another city where we were supposed to stay for 5 weeks or so, but got run out by some government officer wanting a bribe or he would cause problems in immigration for us. So we had to move back to our original ministry location, all in less than a week.
We are living in our original team house, with another World Race team of 13 people along with our group of 11.

Quick update of the peace:
Our new leader was living in Thailand and she has been a huge blessing because she knows the culture and can speak, write, and read Thai. And she is just amazing.
We have been having new opportunities show themeselves back in Mae Sot that we never had the chance of having done on our first 2 weeks of time here. Our team had grown so much more together in our time out of Mae Sot and so our team is so much stronger.
The house is a blast even with the craziness of so many people. The World Race teams have been great company and we have been getting poured into by them and sharing the greatness of our trip even with the twists and things that can be viewed as pitfalls.

Our team has really demonstrated the meaning of letting God’s will be done in our time in this trip. All our expectations are really changed, some for the better, some not. But we are all finding peace in our own ways with what God has called us into and the constant state of, “Ok God, what do you want to do?” This trip is no longer about what we are wanting to do with our time here, the places to go, ministry to work in, it is all God’s will making itself evident. And when those wills of God and the wills of my own plan align, that’s when some really awe inspiring God moments happen. And I am also learning what it means when God just takes control of a moment I am not expecting and the work He has for myself and our team to accomplish.

One of those moments was a few days ago. We had just planned for the morning to bike our way to the Border of Thailand and Myanmar to do a prayer walk. The border is an interesting place that needs much healing. About a mile stretch between each country is what is called “No man’s land”. Here, people from both countries flee to and live here if they are sought after by the government or police because no country claims this stretch and so there are no laws or risk of police. A lot of evil happens here for this reason. But on our prayer walk, a women carrying her baby came up and started talking to our contact and translator and she invited us to her village to meet her leader and also to come meet and pray for her husband who was shot in the leg by the Myanmar border police a year ago and he had some pain still. So we hiked about 15 mins through mud on a trail to meet their leader of a 60 home village. We took a tour from some Thai soldiers that escorted us around. That was a trek in and of itself. No one expected this kind of a hike through muddy slopes and bamboo forest thickets while most of the group was wearing sandals/flip flops. We had a few good laughs making it through the mud and such as a few falls were garunteed to happen. But then we made it to the women’s home, we managed to cram ourselves all into a hut tighter then some sardines in a can. But we prayed for them and then were welcomed back into a new village that our ministry had never made contact with before.

A couple things God has been changing in me on this trip have come in some tough ways, and in some eye opening truths just spoken into my life. One being that God is teaching me “To be quiet.” It has come in some hard ways and also in some places of peace. I had a hard time grasping this when it was first spoken into me from our original leader and it took most of this first month to work through what that has meant with plenty of time taken with the lord and asking questions of myself. I am not against Him bringing this topic up more in everyday life and in quiet times. It has brought some tough memories and realizations up about my life and some healing that I was in need of and awarness of how I am carrying myself in my life and the right way to be walking with Christ in the man He has called me to be.

I had a great talk with a World Race brother in Christ here one of the first nights here and I am thankful for the tough questions he asked in these things God has been trying to teach me. I am also blown away by the unknowing clarity God had this brother speak into my life about something I am needing to take to God in my own way and work on with Him. But it is incredible how God works in just a conversations about the way He calls us higher and moved in our lives with a friend.

I know some things about what I am in need of working on are hard to deal with or can be stressful. But God has called me higher in Him and the man He needs me to be. I may not know the reason right now, but I know He knows and that is my peace in this time. I am overjoyed and at peace with my team, my place, my ministry family, and most of all my God. Praise be to Him.