Older Random Entries

 I thought maybe some of my diary entries might be worth putting up on my blog. I'm not much of a writer but I need to write more!

5/9/14

Worship this Friday evening was in Karen, so I didn't understand it, but didn't want to look like I was ignoring the message, so decided to imagine what the message was about and what the pastor was talking about. It actually got kinda interesting but the ideas didn't all go together. It's a little harder on the imagination when the Karen inflection isn't just like English.

Oh, that I had a thousand lives to give, I would send them to live with and learn the language of every culture that I may share Jesus with them! But I have yet, only one life and I will strive to give it completely to God and to go wherever He wishes me to go, no matter the consequences!!

Thailand Arrival (Video Update)

Check out my first in a series of video updates showing my trip to Thailand and my work there as a Media Missionary

Chiang Khong Health Seminar

Aw, sweet rest! I'm sitting on my bed, eating some papaya, in the center that Leading to the Light Ministry has up in Chiang Khong, Thailand. Leading to the Light is the Rawlings ministry. They are renting a place to do the health work up here. Unfortunately, when we first got a here a few days ago, the first night I didn't sleep very well because the bedspring was very hard with no mattress. I woke up all through the night and when I got up in the morning I was in soo much pain because I had knots all over in my back from the hard surface! I think that was part of what took my immune system down. I then started not feeling too good. I may have gotten the flu or just eaten the wrong soup, that, by the way, was really spicy! Anyways, I have been in bed the last day or two just trying to regain my strength. Right now it is Sabbath evening and I am feeling a lot better now! I was able to be up a lot more today and walk around without feeling very dizzy!

Now, for the more interesting part! We are up here doing a four day health seminar in Chiang Khong District! They have already done 8 health seminars up here but this is the first one that we are working with the local government. The local government clinic opened the doors of its lecture hall above the clinic for the meetings and Supot Wicha, who is the director of the clinic welcomed us and introduced us to the locals as "Ambassadors of Health".

Of course we want to be more than just ambassadors of health down the road but there are a few more steps for these people than in America, where most are already Christian. Now you can see how powerful the Health work is as the "Entering Wedge"!

The district leader also stopped by to welcome our team and shared how this was one of the first times someone had come from outside the district to teach the people about health! He was very excited to see us here! The seminars have been going well so far! The people are really enjoying it and one of our local Adventist workers up here said she would follow up and visit the families that were at the seminar to make contact with them and start befriending them!

Festival of Lights

We went to the Festival of Lights several weeks ago at Maejo University in Chiang Mai. They have a mass lantern release, where they release several thousand lanterns at the same time! It was breathtaking and really got me thinking! We are to let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven! It almost seemed like an object lesson to me, where we are the lights! When the lights are lighted they can't help but rise higher into the sky. The higher they rise the more they can be seen. I saw many lanterns that had lost their fire later that had plummeted back to earth. They were useless when on the ground but when their fire was rekindled they would rise again into the sky! When you have Jesus in your heart you can’t help but shine out to those around you! Let Jesus love burn in your hearts today!

Long leg of the trip - Nov. 4

Later that morning I hopped on the plane, ready to leave the country. Farewell to the United States of America! I'll speed things up now, hopefully, so I can catch up to where I am now! When boarding in San Fran there was a group of young men all in blue. I started talking with them and found out they were a group of Hispanic Christians from Spain, I think and they were on their way to do some mission work somewhere in Asia. It was really cool to run into some other missionaries like that! We were on the same flight so I saw them off and on all the way to Singapore. I got an amazing picture flying over the Golden gate on the way out! This was probably the longest stretch of the trip. Roughly 20 hours over the Pacific ocean! It was really weird because we were moving almost with the sun, so the day streeeetched out and the night finally caught up to us a few  hours out of Korea. There was a short layover in Seoul, South Korea in the middle of the night where we basically just got off the plane and then back on. From there it was a few hours to Singapore. We got in at about 1 or so and my next flight wasn't till 8 so I found a somewhat quiet corner and curled up to sleep for a few hours. I was awakened by the airport security, I guess just to make sure I wasn't a homeless person trying to blend in as a traveller. I was able to get some good sleep though and felt a bit more rested when I awoke. I went exploring for breakfast and found a good vegetarian Indian food place which had some awesome, spicy Samosas! Once done there I headed for my terminal. On to Thailand at last! It was clear as we cruised over Thailand headed straight for Chiang Mai! We got in after a few hours and Mr. Rawlings picked me up at the airport. He had to do a shopping trip so I got a pretty good tour of most of Chiang Mai. The Rawlings just got back to Thailand probably a week before I got here. We stopped at a really good vegetarian restaurant and had some lunch. Boy was it delicious!

Part 2 - Sharing Truth

I went over to a different part of the terminal and finally found a place to plug in my computer and charge it so I could work on writing everything down. Where I sat down they had desks that people could use with plugs behind them. There was an older lady sitting at the one next to me. I was setting my stuff up and not to be rude said hi. You could almost tell she was looking for someone to talk to. We are IN the time of the end, friends! People WILL be coming to us! We chatted for a little bit and the conversation somehow started turning toward spiritual topics and she appreciated that I did not reflect much of the youth of today and I began to share with her why and the importance of a proper understanding of truth. She asked questions from time to time and one of them was about the catholic church as she shared that it didn't seem christian. I told her about the beginning of the church with the story of Constantine and the transition from Pagan Rome to Papal Rome. She was very interested! I shared with her also about the French revolution and how they took down the leadership as a revolt against the overpowering power of the church uniting with the state. Also how the atheistic thought process of the Enlightenment era had led to this.

I told her how the french revolutionists tried to create a 10 day week but how it utterly failed because God created the week a perfect length with a perfect day of rest. In passing I mentioned that only one of the ten commandments began with the word Remember! I asked her if she remembered which one it was but she couldn't. I told her to look it up later and she said she would. I shared with her that with the way things are happening in this world time is very short and Jesus is coming very soon! She could see the truthfulness of what I said and was listening! As I was sharing all this with her I realized that much of what I was sharing was the skeleton of the Great Controversy! I got her one of those GLOW tracts about the economy and showed her on the back where it showed the GC. I told her about the Great Controversy and how it actually covered much of what I shared more in depth and covered much more as well and of the blessing it had been to me. It was getting close to time for me to check my checked baggage in, so in finishing up my conversation with her, I remembered that I had a little booklet with me called "Alone With God", So I left it with her and had a prayer with her before heading to the checkin. after checking in I walked back by but she was gone. She was nowhere around the area we were at earlier. God says, 'If ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me!' Perhaps she was an angel but most likely just one of God's children put there at just the right time to see the beauty of following Christ!

Part 1 - To San Fran!

Alas, I have been busy and getting settled in that I haven't taken the time till now to update you guys! November third, Sunday, Dad and I went to the Portland airport and he dropped me off. The witnessing opportunities started as soon as I got into the airport. as I was going through the TSA checkpoint I began chatting with this gentleman standing next to me in line. He was hispanic I believe and into martial arts and so we talked a little about that and other things as well. It was a really neat experience and we got to our gate just about the time to board and so I said a few last things to encourage him and left him with a GLOW tract about the economy! It was a nice, quick flight to San Francisco and my mom and Cousin that lives in South San Fran picked me up. It was such a blessing to have the best deal I could find on a ticket be such that I would have a 22 layover overnight as well in San Fran and get to see my mom before heading to Thailand. She has been at Weimar taking the HEALTH program which trains people in how to be medial missionaries in their home town or overseas! I spent the night and got to visit with my mom a little bit and the next morning my cousin dropped me off at the airport on her way to work so I had several hours to wait for my flight to come in.

I found a bench to relax at for awhile and eat my breakfast. There was a lady a few seats down on the same bench when I got there and as I was sitting there and looking at the bag of food that my mom had brought for me from the Weimar Cafe, I started chatting with the lady and offered one of my granola bars and an orange. She would have taken it but had to get to her terminal soon. We chatted about several things and made friends with her. She shared that she was traveling to Germany for work. She was repacking her bags which she hadn't touched since her last trip. She gave me some hand sanitizer and some other stuff that she had doubles of in her baggage. We had an interesting conversation and towards the end I found out that she was going to give a lecture about devices used in the treatment of Cancer and that she was a professor at Stanford! I left her with a GLOW tract as she set off for her gate. I was thankful then that I had some quiet time to rest and write down the experiences that I had had already, but alas that was not to be! When you are in a public setting like this, especially traveling by public transportation you will naturally be closer to people and they often seem to be more receptive, probably because the Holy Spirit is softening the heart!