I’ve said it
before. “If we’ve learned one thing on this journey it’s this: nothing is set
in stone until after it happens. God likes to keep us on our toes.”
We have now
been on the field in the ever-changing world of overseas ministry for two
months. Yesterday was our fourth English teaching session at the village
school, and might I say the most successful thus far. It was successful largely
because we have learned enough Thai vocabulary (complete with tones) to begin
to throw some of them into the teaching mix. Conveniently; we’re now teaching
the words for the very same items to the kids that we are learning the words
for in our classes. We have both a formal language teacher and a less formal
language tutor. But the ages of our village students continue to descend.
Yesterday was fourth grade, next week is third grade. Maybe they’re trying to
find a class that we are smarter than…
A stateside
friend of mine asked recently how we knew that coming to Thailand was really a
call from God and not just (apologies to Charles Dickens) “an undigested bit of
beef”. I’m going to repackage below what I wrote in response. More than
anything; for us, it’s a matter of faith.
Do we ever
doubt? Sure, but not the call. We doubt our ability to fulfill it, we question
our sanity in coming here, but we don’t doubt that God has put us here for a
specific purpose. We might wonder occasionally what that will turn out to be,
but we don’t doubt that there is a purpose. It’s like being in love. There is
no specific list of symptoms, you just know. But then, it’s also become more of
a journey than a destination. This all started when we thought God was leading
us one place. He was, but what we thought was the endpoint was just a milepost.
Our job has changed even since we arrived. For us, the call has very seldom
turned out to be to anything specific. It’s more a journey of being exactly in
the place where God wants us. And yeah, that’s scary. It’s frightening, but
it’s also freeing.
What we’ve
learned over time is this: If it’s supposed to happen, it probably will. If
it’s not supposed to happen, it probably won’t. But… just because it does or
doesn’t is not supposed to mean that God isn’t using it or directing it. If it
doesn’t, don’t give up because it simply means that God has something else. And
if it does… be aware that it might be nothing more than a springboard to
something else. It’s a bit like Cirque de Soleil meets Night at the
Improv. You plan and practice and choreograph your moves, all so that you
can change and adapt without a net in the middle of the trapeze act. Maybe it’s
God checking if you’re really sincere in wanting it. And it’s when we are our
weakest that God is strongest. It’s when we realize that we simply can’t do it
that God steps in and shows us tools we didn’t know we had.
We’re happy
to be finally learning the language, and receive the gratification that people
seem to understand the limited words we use. We’re happy that God has chosen to
serve a portion of the world through us. And we’re happy that there are still
folks stateside who believe in our call and in the God who issued it.
No comments:
Post a Comment