So for a lot of us on this trip, this season in our lives is a season of training and focusing on God and what He has in store for us. In the bible in 2 Corinthians 4:7-11 it refers to us as an earthen vessel. An “earthen vessel” is another name for a clay jar that was used to hold oil and grain. Before the clay could be shaped by a potter, stones and other large objects had to be removed. After the objects were removed the potter could start shaping and molding the clay. Once the clay was shaped it could either be sun dried or stuck in a kiln. If the jar was sun dried it could...

It’s about doggone time I made an update. I have an anecdote to recount along with the update. The first — the anecdote — is something of a flashback to our return to Mae Sot a week or so ago. It was a powerful moment that I have, until now, kept to myself out of a certain awe. Our very first morning in Mae Sot involved a brief stint of helping out the Outpour staff, while the remainder of the day was a time for rest (a very tiresome, boring one, as it turned out to be). We were assisting Outpour staff in cleaning out a warehouse-type building. It was once host to a...

We joke that those words are our team motto: “I wasn’t prepared for this”. We speak those words when we prepare to teach a three hour class to English majors, and then show up at the university and have to throw out our plans and wing a 3 hour class about sports to Physical Education majors. “I wasn’t prepared for this”. Those are the words that are spoken through nervous laughs when we are randomly called on to share a testimony at church or bible study. “I wasn’t prepared for this”! We laugh and shiver as most of our team continues to...

We joke that those words are our team motto: “I wasn’t prepared for this”. We speak those words when we prepare to teach a three hour class to English majors, and then show up at the university and have to throw out our plans and wing a 3 hour class about sports to Physical Education majors. “I wasn’t prepared for this”. Those are the words that are spoken through nervous laughs when we are randomly called on to share a testimony at church or bible study. “I wasn’t prepared for this”! We laugh and shiver as most of our team continues to...

Our team has kept talking about God having returned us to Mae Sot so we can go through doors previously closed to us. Normally, at least in my experience, words such as those don’t necessarily come true in the moment. They are merely a balm on a wound until much later when they do come to fruition. It’s almost never an immediate truth… unless you are our team right now, in which case it is. It’s exactly as we have been saying: we saw and sometimes knocked on so many doors that we never got to go through, and now we are reopening those doors and encountering new ones...

Our team has kept talking about God having returned us to Mae Sot so we can go through doors previously closed to us. Normally, at least in my experience, words such as those don’t necessarily come true in the moment. They are merely a balm on a wound until much later when they do come to fruition. It’s almost never an immediate truth… unless you are our team right now, in which case it is. It’s exactly as we have been saying: we saw and sometimes knocked on so many doors that we never got to go through, and now we are reopening those doors and encountering new ones...