Praise to the Lord

"I will always thank the LORD; I will never stop praising him. I will praise Him for what He has done; may all who are oppressed listen and be glad! Proclaim with me the LORD's greatness; let us praise His name together!" Psalm 34:1-3

I want to praise the Lord and I don't want any glory or praise for it. I have been wanting to share this information since it happened but have really struggled in my heart with true motives. I am a sinful human and we humans (for the most part) like praise and like to hear what a good job we're doing and perhaps especially if we are missionaries or pastors...we are often tempted to write a good prayer letter or, in this case, blog post, so that all you back home will know that WE are doing a "good job." Well, this, of course, is rubbish and is sinful. Taking any glory of the work here is sinful. Only God is worthy of the glory. I don't want all of you out there who read my posts to think I am bragging or in any way taking glory for what happens in this land (and that goes for our entire team). We, as a team, recognize that it's ONLY by God's grace that we see any fruit of the labor here. I also want to clarify that when I share a testimony of God's faithfulness here it's not to show what a great person I am...because I am not a great person, just a regular 'ol gal who God sometimes chooses to use as His tool, despite my weakness and unfaithfulness to Him. With all that said, I proceed with this post. Please do not look at the messengers but only the ONE who is worthy of the praise due His name.

Last Friday I took the boys and our Thai intern, Tang, to the park. I met up with a friend of mine that I've been getting to know over the past couple months. She has a son a little older than PJ and he is a very sweet little boy. If you recall the first time I met her she had a lot of questions about Christianity and (http://henrysinthailand.blogspot.com/2007/01/encouraged.html)Catholicism. I answered the best I could with what I remembered from my Christian terminology. Well, last week, I introduced my friend to Tang (the intern from Bangkok Bible College). She opened right up to Tang just like she did with me and started to ask her a bunch of questions...and Tang could answer SOOO much better than me! And, Tang, having a tremendous heart for evangelism shared the Gospel with my friend...right there sitting on the sidewalk beside the playground area. Tang had brought along with her a small booklet of pictures that walks a person thru the Gospel. It was incredible to witness and as I looked after the boys I prayed and prayed that the Spirit of God would work. My friend hasn't received Christ yet, but she did bring her son to Joy Kids the next day and joined the English class I am teaching on Saturday mornings!
It turns out my friend had seen "The DaVinci Code." Tang told me this on our way home. It all made a bit more sense at that point because my friend isn't Catholic. I was annoyed when I heard she had seen that movie but then I stopped and thanked God for the opportunity He provided thru such a horrible movie. Had she not seen it, would she have these questions? I don't know but once again God shows us He is still in control and can use evil for good...just like with Joseph way back in the OT and just like Adam and Eve when they disobeyed and got kicked out of the Garden...God had a much bigger plan, didn't He?

Well, I know many of you are faithfully praying for the Thais. Please continue to pray. God is working and we, as a team, are encouraged at what HE is doing here. Pray for hearts to be softened and ready for the Good Seed of the Gospel to take root. Pray that it lands on good soil. Pray for our interns and Thai staff as well. They share the Gospel so naturally, pray that we foreigners can learn from them. Pray also for all of us to be bold and yet humble as we share. God is SOOO good. Praise the Lord with us!

On the Way

Well, if you noticed a change to the blog over there on the right hand side, you will quickly realize that we are expecting baby #3!!! We are overjoyed and very excited at this blessing. As I live in this world I don't take things like life for granted and I am praising God that He would choose us to raise another child. I hope that this little "widget" (i just learned about these things today) will help you remember to pray for us and also watch the baby grow! I am due October 14th.

""For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I wll give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well...Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them." Psalm 139:13-14,16

Fun!

It's no secret Calvin likes to eat and here he is proving it although it looks like there is more food on him than in him!










In other Calvin news, he started "wai-ing" on his own the other morning. This is how Thais greet each other (they bring their hands together like they're praying in front of their body) and it's especially important for children to always "wai" their elders so as you can imagine Calvin has been trained but for some reason it has taken him awhile to get it but it finally came!









And today kicked off our new Joy Kids semester at the office. PJ joined the other 30 kids for teaching from the Bible, games, snacks and lots of fun. I began teaching some parents of the kids that come some English. I had two students (three for about an hour but the one dad had to leave). Next week, I am told there will be more students for me as well! It was a lot of fun. Anyway, after Joy Kids I was asked to take some of the kids home that live in a poorer community near the office but there's really no public transport that can take them home...so I gladly offered. Here you see a number of these precious kids pictured with several of our Thai staff or interns from Bangkok Bible College and Seminary (BBCS) in the bed of our truck. Can you spot PJ with his blond hair? The cab was full of kids too. It was a blessing to serve them in this way. We also took a table and chairs over to Chai and Pawn's new home. They are so excited to have found a great house...and I was thrilled to get to see it!
Many of these kids are coming to our Sunday Thai worship services. Please continue praying for them.

Driving adventures in BKK

Hee, hee. I have to laugh. I also am reminded of God's goodness to me/us as we travel here. Today, Calvin had a follow up appointment for his second installment of the Japenese Enchephalitis vaccine...if you'd like to know more on JE, google it. Anyway, two weeks ago when I went I decided to drive myself and the boys to the hospital. I had only been to this hospital one other time when our teammate's daughter was a patient there last year. It's not very far away from us and is part of the same hospital system where I had Calvin. We decided to doctor there b/c of the proximity..the other hospital is downtown. I do digress. So, two weeks ago, I got the low down from Paul on how to get to this hospital. I could have taken the "safe" route (ie, not as much fast traffic and no getting on motorways and tollways, etc.) but I decided that would cost us a lot of time so I decided to go the motorway. Unfortunately, there are two exits for the road I needed to get off on and I got off at the ramp that turned the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. Not good. So, I knew I had to do a U-turn and proceeded to cross the four lanes of heavy traffic to get in the far right lane to do a Ueeey. To my utter surprise, once I got in the far right lane I HAD to turn right onto another main road. "Ok," thought I, "I will just do a U-turn on this road and then turn back on the other road and all will be well." Yeah, right. Not in Thailand. For the entire length of this road...there was NO U-turn. So, I then had to turn Right again! At that point I saw a sign for the road I first turned off of and got excited. So, we basically went around a huge block and finally made it to the hospital. And on the way home I went the long, "safe" way so not to get "lost" and frustrated again.
This leads me to today. We had to go back. I was dreading driving there again but thought I knew where I made my mistakes the first time round. As always, PJ, Calvin and I prayed before we took off down the road (we were already running late in my mind) and thought there is no way we're going to get there in 30 mins. Well, we got there 2 mins after we were supposed to be there! Pretty good timing! I thanked the Lord over and over again for His grace in leading us there so easily. By the way, the exit I should have gotten off at loops around and the first left hand turn off the ramp is the hospital! Silly me. Today, I also decided to come back the motorway because the last time it took way too long to get home. So, we did and again had no problems. I know it might seem like a very small thing to all you Americans out there...but really, driving here is just a different animal. I think when we return to the US we will be picked up and ticketed for many things because of how differently you MUST drive here or you will get hit! So, today, I give my God thanks, honor, and praise for getting us to and from the hospital without any problems..without going the wrong direction, without getting into an accident, etc . How good He has been to us.