A Little Nugget of Encouragement

Wow.

Has it really been over SEVEN months since my last blog post? Time has flown by! There have been a couple of topics I wanted to share, but for this blog, I think giving a bit of encouragement would be best.

We have spiritual gifts and specific callings, and for Christians, we are to use these gifts and answer these calls for the glory of God. I’m not sure about you, but most days, I feel completely inadequate and useless! I can’t speak Thai fluently, I don’t know every verse of the Bible, I haven’t learned how to do X, Y, Z, yet. How am I supposed to share the Good News if I can’t do those things yet??

BUT (there’s always a ‘but’), God. God fills in those gaps, gives us the strength, and hands us the ability. IF we choose Him.

Each day we build our discipline by picking up our Bibles and obeying His word. Each day I know God is with me, because I am walking with Him. Each day I can rest in knowing He is my strength.

Here’s an encouraging story that shows God using me and Brad to share the Gospel in Thai. Something we didn’t know we could do!

It has been eight months of full-time language study. Monday through Friday we study 4 hours a day with a tutor and 4 hours of personal study and then a completely Thai church service on Sunday. Two months ago, we took a language proficiency test and to “graduate” out of language school we need to score a 7. Brad scored a 5 which is INCREDIBLE because that’s a very high score for someone who’s only been learning Thai for 6 months at the time. Me, on the other hand, scored a 3 – pretty normal, on par score with the difficulty of the language and based off how long we had been studying. With a semi-competitive personality and getting an “average” score, it was honestly discouraging for me to score so “low.”

The days are tiring, discouragement sets in, and the Lord stays quiet. It doesn’t sound like a great combination, I know. BUT, God spoke encouragement to us, through our language skills while sharing the Gospel. This is how it happened.

We study spiritual language (Thai has informal, formal, and royal language) and read verses of the Bible once a week with our teacher. To be candid, I have convinced myself my language proficiency isn’t high enough to use this type of language or even share the Gospel. Red flag, I know. “You’re a missionary, you’re the one who’s supposed to be better than everyone else!” Well, we stumble too. Anyways, I digress. Reviewing once or twice a week made sense, because I needed to know basic language skills first to eventually get better to actually use spiritual vocab and basic language skills in the same sentence. Now, that’s what I call fluent! Well, not really. God was, is, and will be in my conversations. Having faith that He would eventually help me (when the time was right for me!), came quicker than I thought. He said, “Here’s the opportunity, GO!” And, lo, we went!

I was only waiting to buy a waffle for dessert, from my favorite waffle and ice cream stand in the mall. I was only thinking about going home to rest after a long day of language study. I was only thinking of myself. It’s common for sellers to walk away from their stands and have someone else watch over it, so the lady who was there said she went somewhere. I didn’t know that Thai word, so I nodded and said I’d wait a little bit. A few minutes turned into 5 and then 10. When we were about to call it, she showed up! We found out she went to a prayer room for Muslims and then… started talking about it. In Thai. Using words I didn’t know I knew. She explained why the prayer room is important, why good works gets you into heaven, and then looked confused when we mentioned Jesus. We explained Jesus is God in the flesh, not just a normal person, but God too! We explained how it’s because we are sinful people and even though we do good things, it’s not enough. It's Jesus who was our perfect sacrifice (I did have to look that word up!) who died for our sins so we can go to heaven. She read Romans 6:23 and I saw her process it. When the conversation was closing, we told her that’s why we’re here and moved halfway across the world, to tell her about Jesus! She was amazed that we would do that. We asked her a couple of times if she understood what we were saying, and she kept saying yes. Praise for the understanding! We left and felt the Holy Spirit working.

The Lord renewed our spirits.

Isaiah 40:31a “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

In our weakness, He is there.

2 Corinthians 12:10 “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Don’t be afraid to share the Gospel because of your inadequacies. God WILL show up!

P.S. After we talked with her for 45minutes IN THAI, I asked if I could by a waffle and she said she was closed already. A joyous, but sad moment. Doesn't it look delicious?

Waffle and Ice Cream Dessert