Joy in the Presence. . .

There is a beautiful young Thai girl that comes to Youth Group each Saturday.  One Saturday a couple of weeks ago she did not come to Youth Group, but when Bill and I went back to the Youth Center early that evening we saw her with two other girls.  The three girls were playing in the small dead end street where the Youth Center is located.  I pulled the car over and Bill ran into the Youth Center to take care of some things.

The girls ran to the car, so I put down my window and we started talking.  I asked the young girl why she had not been at Youth Group, and she told me that she had forgotten because of the new time.  I told her that we had missed her at Youth Group.  Her mouth fell open and she looked at me with complete disbelief. . .she really could not imagine someone missing her.  My eyes welled up with tears at the look of total surprise on this young girls face.

You see her mother is dead, she does not know who her father is, and her sister is in a not-so-good business, so her grandmother takes care of her.  No matter the day or the time we go to the Youth Center, if this little girl is not at school – she is playing in the road.

The moment she sees our car she drops everything, literally, and runs toward the car waving, smiling and yelling “Hello” in her limited English.  The joy that emanates from her is beautiful to see.

Before I even turn into the Youth Center, she begs me to put the car window down so that I can give her a kiss.  So of course I do.    She grins from ear to ear as I pull into the Youth Center driveway.  As soon as I get out of the car her little arms encircle me in a big hug and she turns her face up to me for another kiss.  She then skips along beside me, offering to carry anything and everything I have in my hands.

If I am there to clean up the Youth Center, she grabs a broom or a cloth to dust.  If I go out to clean the bathrooms, she follows me and looks for some way that she can help.  If her two little friends are with her, they find something to play with and beg her to join them, but she will not leave my side.

My heart is filled to overflowing every time I am greeted by this thin little girl, who is just thrilled to spend time with us. 

Writing this has reminded me of my incredible joy in the presence of the Lord as described in Psalm 16:11 -

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Blessings,

April

Serving The Lord in Thailand

Hello my name is April and I have been married to my wonderful husband Bill for 23 years, and we are missionaries in Thailand.

Four years ago Bill and I were living in Pennsylvania, where Bill worked as an attorney and I worked for a municipal government in the Finance Department.  We were busy with work and serving in many different capacities at our church.

Back in 2005 God had placed it on our hearts to sell our large home (we were thinking Christian Bed and Breakfast, but God had a different plan.)  So we sold our home and started to rent a small bungalow.

Bill and I both felt that the Lord wanted us to serve as fulltime missionaries, but we did not know where or when.  So, we just kept praying.  We started to feel that the field had been narrowed to Australia or Thailand.  (Let me just stop and tell you that our claim to ‘world travel’ up to this point had been that we had traveled into Canada, several times.)  J  We really wanted to serve where the Lord wanted us to serve, so I kept praying that God would make it SO obvious that even I would get it.  And He did!

One day Bill and I were in New Jersey.  We had just gone to church down in Ocean City, and we decided to go for a drive.  We were driving in our Prius, when all of a sudden the GPS started talking.  It said “Your destination has been set!”  We were truly startled when the GPS started to talk.  We had not programmed it, and to be honest, we really had not used the GPS other than to look at the screen that shows where we are currently driving. 

We both turned to look at each other, and Bill tried not to drive off of the road.  Bill looked at my hands to see if I had pushed a button or something, and I looked at his.  But, neither of us had touched the GPS or any controls for that matter.  Just then, the GPS started to speak again.  This time it said “The Point of Interest will now show all Thai Restaurants.”

The screen did not show anything, but from that moment on we knew without a doubt that Thailand was where He wanted us to serve.  We had such a peace in our hearts from that time on.

So, we left our jobs, our families and our friends, got rid of our stuff, and moved halfway around the world to Thailand.  From the time we landed in Thailand, we have felt at home.  Okay so there were things that we had to adjust too: Like not being able to speak with most people, because we did not know the language; Not having the luxury of going to a bookstore to buy a book written in English; Dealing with the fact that a simple Thai Bible costs nearly $30.00, which puts it way out of the reach of the average Thai person; Geckos crawling on the walls inside and out; Washing dishes and clothes in room temp water; and Hot weather all year long.  The list could go on.  J

God has really given us a heart and a love for the people here in Thailand.  I really like the Brandon Heath song “Give Me Your Eyes”, and that is what I pray daily, that God will give me His heart shaped eyes to see people the way He does.

When we came to Thailand we did not know exactly what the Lord wanted to do through us, but in the two years that we have been here He has used us.  Praise God!  We have helped start two churches.  We opened a Youth Center and where we have Bible studies, games and dinner for youth between the ages of 10 and 18.  I teach Ladies Bible study every week.  I started to teach Ballet and Praise Dance about a month and a half ago, and the girls have danced in two churches and for church gathering of 200 people.  We have taught English at church and at an orphanage. . .

Everyday is a new opportunity for us to reach out, serve and love like Jesus.  We are so humbled that He would use us in this way.

People here ask me about my joy, which is a wonderful segue for me to tell them about Jesus.

When people ask me how I am, I always say “I am blessed!”  This too leads into conversations about the Lord.  Yes, there are potholes in the road of life.  There are challenges and hurts, but I know through everything that I am blessed because the Lord is always with me.  Loving me, and loving through me.  Guiding me, and helping me guide others.  Giving me wisdom, discernment, and encouragement, and helping me to teach and encourage others.    

So with a grateful heart I serve the Lord with my husband, here in Thailand.  I feel blessed and honored to serve the people of Thailand.

Giving all the credit, all the praise and glory and honor where it belongs, to the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, Jesus, my God and my Savior!

Blessings,

April

I Did It!

‘Did what?’, you might ask.  Well. . .

I gave my ‘will’ to God.

Okay, okay, I can guess what you are thinking. . .“Wait a minute, you are a missionary, what do you mean you gave your will to God?  Didn’t you do that a long time ago?”

Well the truth is, I thought I had!  But praise God for the Holy Spirit and His work in me as I read a book that opened my eyes to the truth.  The truth is that I had not completely given my will to the Lord.

So to quench your curiosity, I will tell you that I had not given the Lord my will when it came to food.

I would constantly ask the Lord to work in me and through me, giving Him my every moment. . .and yet. . .that is not how I lived when it came to food.  You see, I would be loving and obedient to the Lord until ‘the cookies called’, and then all bets were off.  I would ignore the voice telling me to “step away from the cookies”.   I would seek to satisfy myself by eating, even though I was eating for every reason except that I was hungry.  I would eat because I was having a bad day, or because someone was cruel to me, or, or, or.  The list goes on.  There were plenty of scenarios that (in my mind) warranted my indulgence in eating when I wasn’t even remotely hungry.  And the sad thing is, after the indulgence I never felt better.  I still had the feelings that I had before turning to food, plus then I also had the guilt.

The book that I read explained that God made our bodies perfectly, and that if we would just listen to our bodies and eat when we are hungry and stop when we are full we would be just the size God intended us to be.  (Of course there can be medical reasons that some people are overweight, but with me that was not the case.)

The Lord really spoke to my heart and I could see that what I was doing was sinning.  I was keeping part of my life from the Lord.  I had put up a wall between myself and the Lord when it came to my over indulgence with food.  The last thing I wanted was any sort of barrier between me and the Lord.  So I got on my knees and asked the Lord for forgiveness, and asked Him to strengthen me and teach me how to eat like I should.

As Jesus said in Luke 22:42  ". . .not my will, but yours. . ."

The Lord has been so gracious, and the forgiveness has been so freeing.  Some of you may think that obedience means more rules to follow, but I found it to be just the opposite.  I found obedience to be incredibly freeing.  Why?  Because God knows what is best for us.  Gone was the guilt and the shame, in its place was peace and joy.  You can’t beat that!

I immediately started listening to the Lord, and waiting until I was hungry before I ate – no matter what time it was.  And, I stopped eating when I was full.  Sometimes, I would eat just a few fork fulls and then I felt full and I would stop eating.  Other times I would eat quite a bit more before I felt full.

The Lord strengthened me as people tried to coerce me into eating more food, or teasing me about not being a member of the ‘clean your plate club’ anymore.

Not only did I really start to feel closer to the Lord, but the pounds (or kilos, as they say here in Thailand) just started to drop off.  I got the usual questions, “How small are you trying to get?” or “How much weight are you trying to lose?”  But the truth is I did not do this to lose weight.    Of course it was good that I lost weight, but that is not why I changed how I reacted around food.

For me, it was a heart issue.  For me, it was a sin issue.  I needed to address my lack of obedience to the Lord and do a U-turn, and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance I have done it.

Don’t even ask how much weight I have lost, because I do not know.  All I know is that I am enjoying eating so much more than I ever have, because now I really enjoy waiting to become hungry.  And when I do get hungry, I enjoy figuring out what I really want to eat and then I eat exactly that.

I have not given up eating any foods.  (I know from past experience, that giving up foods just makes me crave them all the more.)  In fact today I had a hot fudge sundae.  Yum!  That is what I really wanted, so that is what I had.  I couldn’t finish it all, but what I ate was delicious, and I did not mind pushing my bowl aside when I was full. 

Joshua 1:9  tells us to:  ". . .Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.""

I have had such strength from the Lord during this time, and I have been blessed to be able to share with others how the Lord has done this work in me.

So, I want to encourage you.  God wants to draw you closer to Himself.  God does not want there to be anything that acts as a barrier between you and Him.  God is a Holy, Righteous God, and it is just incredible that He allows – much less wants us to draw near to Him.  So let Him help you.  Let Him strengthen you.

Maybe it is eating that is a barrier between you and the Lord.  Maybe it is how you spend your time.  Reading, watching TV, spending time on computer. . .and yet not finding time to spend time in God’s Word.  The list goes on.  You know what you have let come between yourself and the Lord. 

So, “be strong and courageous”.  You don’t have to do it alone.  Jesus left us with a Helper, the Holy Spirit, and He is always ready and willing to help us draw closer to the Father.

I am praying that you too will give your ‘will’ completely to the God the Father.  Don’t hold back, God’s plan for you is amazing. 

Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Praise God!

Blessings,

April

Me (April) enjoying our 3 puppies:  Lil’ Squirt, Alphie & Pumpkin.

This is Paradise. . .Isn’t It?

When we tell people that we live in Thailand, they often get a look of ‘Wow!’ and then follow with “That must be incredible.”  Sometimes, they even add “I would love to live there. . .It must be like living in paradise.”

Well. . .

A lot of people do come to Thailand from other countries.  They come for vacation, or they come for 3 to 6 months of the year to live in ‘paradise’.  They leave the cold winters of their home country, to enjoy the heat and the beaches here in Thailand.  They come from Sweden, Germany, and England. . .just to name a few.

So, you would think that it must be wonderful to walk around ‘paradise’ and see the happy contented faces of the foreigners that reside here for part of the year.

The friends they leave back in their home countries think, “Oh, if we only had the money, we too could be living the life.  Living in Thailand part of the year, living at home the rest of the year, wow we would really be happy then.”

If they only knew. . .the sad truth is that as we walk around and see the foreigners around town, we don’t see the relaxed smiling faces you would expect.  We see serious faces, grim faces, sad faces, faces of people searching for the next ‘thing’ to fill their lives.  They march around the mall in search of stuff to fill the void they feel inside.  They feel moments of satisfaction when they make the next big purchase at a great price.  And when that feeling wears off, then the cycle starts again. . .the feeling of emptiness, and the ensuing search for fulfillment and joy.

Thai people tell me they think it is funny how foreigners come to Thailand and they are always in a hurry.  They rush around the stores.  They get impatient waiting in line.  They speed around in their cars, and lean on their horns when others don’t move fast enough.  They even talk quickly.  And they can’t understand the slower pace of the locals, even though that was one of the reasons they came to Thailand.

So here I am in Thailand, and if you know me – you know this about me, I am a smiler.  J  I love showing and sharing the joy I feel.  I kind of feel like smiles are a gift that we can share with each other.

Sometimes I will be walking toward a Thai person that looks a little sad, and I smile at them. . .and sometimes I see that they catch the smile.  That a little joy has seeped into their hearts.  Their eyes change from dismal to dazzling, and my heart overflows with joy and I pray that they will come to know the source of my joy, Jesus.

However, unfortunately that is not normally what I see in the faces of the foreigners.  Most of the time, the foreigners avoid eye contact.  They steel their eyes, look straight ahead, and rush right on by.

Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians and Philippians, that our circumstances do not determine our joy or our contentment.

Our joy, our sense of fulfillment does not come from the world.  It does not come from living in what is considered ‘paradise’.  Jesus says in John 14:1-4  ""Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.  And you know the way to where I am going.""

True paradise is living a life with God the Father, Jesus and The Holy Spirit, with the promise of eternal life with them in Heaven.  In the meantime, it is not the part of the world that we call home that is important; it is seeking to honor and glorify God the Father, and to live thankful lives because of what Jesus did for us.

1 Thessalonians 5:

Vs 11 - "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up…”

Vs 16-18  ... “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Philippians 4:11-13  "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

Praise God!

Blessings,

April

Now that is Generous Giving. . .

Bill and I have the privilege of being involved with an orphanage here in Thailand.  We teach English at the orphanage each week, and they come to the Youth Center for Youth Group for games, food and Bible study.  We ask often how we can help more, but they are reluctant to tell of their needs.

A while back we wished twin teenage girls Happy Birthday during Youth Group.  A few days later, after we finished teaching English at the orphanage, one of the teenage girls started to give me a hug.  Suddenly she pulled back, saying that she just remembered something, and asked if we could wait a minute.  I told her we would wait, and to take her time.

She ran off to the small room that she shares with the rest of the girls that live at the orphanage.  She emerged a few minutes later with two beautiful bracelets in her hands.  She explained that they were for the twin girls that had just had a Birthday, and that she wanted me to give them to the girls.  I told her that they were beautiful, and asked her why she didn’t want to give them to the girls herself.  She just insisted that I give them to the girls for her.  I finally agreed and said I would.

I then asked her where she had bought them, because I really thought they were gorgeous.  She looked confused for a moment, and then told me that she had made them.  She had made each one specifically for each of the girls, based on what she thought they would like.

I was amazed, and awed.  Here was a young lady, who was living in an orphanage, she had just started college, and she worked to provide money for the orphanage and for school.  And yet out of her generous heart she had made two bracelets that she would normally sell, and she gave them to two new friends.

She was not reluctant in giving.  She was actually beaming (and yet shy), as she handed the beautiful bracelets to me.

Her giving was not about her.  She did not call a press conference, so that everyone could see how generous she was.  She did not even want to be the one to give the bracelets to the girls.  She just wanted to give the gifts.  For her, the time that it took to make the bracelets, was just part of the gift, and it gave her joy.

Wow!  That all of us that have given our lives to Jesus would give with such a humble joyful heart.

We hugged and I promised that I would give the bracelets to the girls.

When I gave the bracelets to the girls, and explained who they were from. . .they were stunned.  I could see how moved they were, by the generosity of someone who has had so little in the way of possessions and yet sought to share what little she had.

How humbling and grateful I am to see God’s Word in action in the life of a beautiful Thai teenage girl.

Mark 12:41-44 “And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums.  And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.  And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.  For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.""

I don’t know about you, but I am feeling very challenged to live more generously. 

My prayer for each of us is that we would honor and glorify God with our generous giving, and that our giving would reflect our heart.

Blessings,

April