Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him…So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
A few months ago, my ship sailed on a journey to discover what it honestly means to depend on the Lord. Last night, as I sat soaking in the words of Jesus, the little light bulb in my brain flickered to life. Here I am, on the other side of the world, in the middle of the Mae Hong Son Province in a town called Maesariang, surrounded by people who quite possible have never seen a white person before, and certainly can’t speak English, but the Lord is taking care of us. I read the verses above and the storm in my heart quieted. Kind of like when Jesus was in the boat and he came out and said, “Be still” and the waves listened. That’s what happened. So many times I find myself worrying about silly little things. What will be for dinner? Will I be able to teach tomorrow? Will I make it two more weeks? Will I sleep in this heat? And we pray for these things. But, the Lord knows what we need before we ask Him. He is taking care of dinner and class and sleep. The Lord has already been to the end and back and laying the path according to his great plan. The only thing required of me is trust. He asks me to seek him and his kingdom and he will make all things right. And, I must say, He has done all of these things for us. Food has been good. Sleep has been good. Class has been good. Everything is going well. The Lord is truly taking care of us and is providing just enough for each day. He is our sustenance as long as we trust him. He is the rock, if only we would build our house there. Unshakeable. Unchangeable. All Powerful. All Good.
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
The rain came. The river flooded. The hurricane blew through. But, here we are. Standing on the rock. Each day taking care of itself. Every second of every minute carefully planned by the God who created it all.
Will he not continue to give us our needs? Surely he will.
On a lighter note, Bobby has a new nickname. Bobby SpiderSlayer. Yes. He took on the greatest challenge thus far and flushed the beast out and killed it. It was a spectacle, let me tell you! Last night we visited one of the dorms again and they asked us to teach them a song. So, we taught them the first one we thought of…Hey Jude. Oh yes. We wrote the lyrics down for them and ten minutes later we had a whole choir of Hey Jude. Amazing. I think Bobby wants to try to get the whole school singing it at one time. A lofty and honorable goal.
Today was interesting, however. The English teacher wasn’t here so we taught all four of his classes. Long day. Needless to say, we passed out after lunch. The goal is for us to teach two classes a day.
The plan for the afternoon is volleyball. BADOW. They play with their feet over here. Unreal. This one girl has the sickest jump serve I have ever seen.
I ask that you pray the Lord would open our minds and let us absorb as much Thai as possible. It’s tough not speaking the language, especially when the goal is to build relationships.
On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
-junglejon