encouraged

It's a funny thing when you see God at work and you know you've had nothing to do with it. It's actually a very FREEING thing! The last two days I have seen God answer my complaints so obviously that I can't but praise Him for His goodness to me.
Monday evening the boys and I went outside to play. The children that I wrote about the other day are usually outside and that is usually who we spend our time with. I have complained in my heart against the lack of adults there are to converse with on our street. They are all so busy and not interested in being outside and most of them are older (not that I am against older people but they are a bit harder to talk to as far as the language barrier goes). Well, on Monday my Thai tutor and I made homemade bread and sticky buns and so after she left I went outside to take the neighbor kids some treats. As I gave the little girl her sticky bun she started telling me something and was really excited. She has a speech impediment and is also really hard to understand so I got from her excited chatter something about studying English at New Community (our team's ministry center that is just a few mins walk away from our home). I asked her "What?" to clarify the details and find out what she wanted to know from me and she ran home to get her mom! I ran inside the house to get a flyer that tells all about the English classes offered at New Community and wasn't sure how things would go. When I went back outside, her mom was there. She inquired about the English classes for her daughter but then she hung around and we talked for over an hour! I found out that she is from the north eastern part of Thailand, has lived on our soi for 10+ years and irons clothes for a living. As we walked and talked we met up with another woman (younger, mother of a four year old) who's mother lives three houses down from us. She was also interested in talking with me. The amazing part of this whole story is that for the first time since arriving in Thailand I was able to communicate WHY I am here. They asked me Why we are here. (For some reason they thought we worked at the airport...not sure why). I had to tell them no, we didn't work at the airport. Then they thought Paul was teaching English at the university...but I had to tell them no, he wasn't doing that either. So, I finally was able to answer. I said, in Thai (!) "We are here to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ!" The utterly amazing thing about this is that I had JUST studied how to answer this question with my language helper one hour earlier (or so) and I actually remembered how to say it! You may be thinking this isn't a huge deal but for me it was. I am just stunned at how God opened the door for me to share (nowbeit ever small) why we are here. (*Just to clarify I usually tell people when they ask that I am a missionary but that word is not very commonly understood and if it is it can sometimes have a bad connotation and I also tell them I am a Christian. The difference of course is on the fact of PROCLAIMING the GOOD NEWS of JESUS. )
Then last night, PJ, Calvin and I went to a local park to play. PJ loves going there becuase there is sand to run his trucks thru and to make roads and stuff. We went there last Friday and met the cutest and sweetest little boy. He and PJ had a lot of fun playing together. So, we went back last night and the same little boy was there. He ran up to us as soon as we got to the plaground. After a little while his mom showed up (she was running around the track that is there for exercise while he was playing). I started to talk to her and we talked for well over an hour. She asked me the same question, "Why are you here?" And again, I was able to answer, but last night she had even more questions. She wanted to know the difference between Catholic and Protestant and where our church was located. There is a huge Catholic church not too far from our home and she thought that is where we work. It was amazing to me to see the interest this woman had about religions. She and her son go to the park every evening and I hope to deepen that relationship. Please pray for her and pray for me. Pray for God to work in this very weak vessel to proclaim His Good News.