April 2, 2012
Wow, where has the time gone.
Life really sped up the past few months with some transitions in assignment and moving to a new house. Also, Tina started her own blog and hasn’t been able to guest post as often. The blog caught the short end of the stick or got the raw deal. I neglected my writing here, but I want to come back now that it’s already April. Let’s get into it.
I’m back, and back with a new enjoyment of writing as an outlet for my thoughts and efforts.
June 24, 2011
My first Father’s Day flooded me with many thoughts as I prepared to write a blog post. The musings I had overwhelmed the space for one post, so I wanted to take some of the other thoughts and break them out over a few weeks.
When I think of my dad, and his dad, one character trait that runs through is that of telling corny jokes. Already Ellie is learning to roll her eyes from her mom at the silly jokes I make. Yet I love that she grows more and more familiar with me as her dad and reacts when I come close.
As I reflected on the ways we interact, I found one overarching essential role I have as her father. I have the privilege to instill into my daughter a spiritual life that can carry her for the rest of her life. She will have her first glimpses of God through watching me live my life and teach her. She will likely refine me as I notice things I do that are less than worthy of her father. She will be a great mirror for me on my life as I aim to reflect the light of Jesus in my life to her.
Ellie already enjoys fixing her eyes on every move I make. I imagine she wonders what goofy thing will daddy do next, or how will he try to make me laugh now. When I have the opportunity to preach, she never takes her eyes off of me…well unless her stomach gets the best of her and she asks mommy for some milk. She watches me everyday.
Therefore, I want to set a godly example for my daughter. I know I won’t be perfect, so I hope to always be open and honest and ask for forgiveness. I desire that she sees a man who earnestly seeks after God. In the passions of my life and zest to enjoy life to the fullest, I want her to see a father who has passion for God above all. I am less concerned that she sees me do great things and more concerned that she sees me do things with great integrity.
As I look to imprint on her a life with God, we get to have times of prayer together every morning and evening. When she first came home from the hospital I enjoyed getting to listen to spring training baseball in the middle of the night as I held her or helped her fall back to sleep. Now, as she wakes up at a more regular routine each morning around 6 am, I take advantage of those quiet mornings and spend time praying with her. As we walk around the house, after changing her diapers and getting her dressed, we sing songs and pray for those that are close to us. As she wakes up and plays next to me, I take time to read scripture each day.
With Ellie, I am waking up with a purpose and delight as we press in to be with God together. I enjoy her smiles and the quiet times we have with God together.
May 31, 2010
We are leaving soon for Atlanta to join the Foursquare Convention. I wanted to share a few thoughts about convention as I see it. Last year, the Foursquare leadership dubbed convention under a new name, Connection, to give people more of a sense of why they come.
The first few things I think of when preparing to attend a Convention include in no particular order, what the good food is for this city, which of my friends are going to be at convention, and is there a baseball game in town (Convention always starts on Memorial Day). Then I begin getting ready and excited for the coming convention.
To me, Convention is all about connecting with friends and making solid connections for the ministry. The meetings are important and have their place, but many in my generation look forward to this spaced to see friends and share life.
Convention gives the space to reconnect with old friends that you see at the most once-a-year, or sometimes less. The space and time of convention allows for encouragement, refreshing, renewing vision, and building one another up as we deepen the connection we have with one another in our movement. I am looking forward to sharing meals with people I went to Bible College with and new friends we have made since. I look forward to catching a baseball game with some friends as we share stories about ministry in each of our own contexts. (I’ll add another stadium to my lifelong quest to see all the baseball fields.) I even hope to catch a morning run with some other friends, who bring their running shoes for such a purpose of seeing different cities as we run through them. I will be looking for those running buddies again…I have my shoes and shorts.
Yes, we have business to attend to and that is probably the primary reason to have a convention. This year we need to elect a new president, discuss bi-laws and go over the budget. We need to function in certain ways to stay on track and that is okay. We also will have meetings to and gather together to worship. I pray the Holy Spirit moves in these times and refreshes the body of Foursquare ministers.
Yet, I also pray that the Holy Spirit moves in the times of connecting with one another over meals, coffee, dessert, baseball games, walking the city, praying with one another in the lobby and wherever the good people we serve with in Foursquare connect in Atlanta this year.
May 3, 2010
As the politics go in Bangkok, one has to work hard to know what is PR spin, and what is really happening. Our Thai friends who are tuned into the pulse of the political situation read the gossip page to find the real stories. The English language papers don’t offer a matching gossip column, so we constantly get updates from twitter and from our friends on what is happening under the surface.
One interesting sub plot keeps people guessing where the former Prime Minister will show up next. Thaksin cannot enter Thailand so he moves from country to country in Europe and Asia. Dubai has been one spot he returns to among his many trips between countries close to Thailand. Rumors also have him getting chemo therapy for an undisclosed reason. He has been rumored to be receiving treatments in Russia.
Now, on May 10, his followers are preparing to have a fake funeral for him in Chiang Mai, his home area. The idea is that a fake funeral can give you an extended life. Not only is Thaksin trying to be tricky in the public opinion and media coverage, he is trying to trick the spirits.
You have a fake funeral to try to extend your life. The idea is that the spirits who want to take you at the end of your life will think you are dead and not come after you. This will give you more time to live. I would compare it to the quick point guard moving right and quickly crossing over to the left, leaving his defender lost behind him. I don’t know if Thaksin is sick and trying to lengthen his life, or if his supporters are trying to help without his knowledge.
March 30, 2010
How does someone choose their amulet? Is it style, symbol or something more? Usually, the symbol determines what makes for a strong amulet of protection or power. However, from time to time, some one will win a battle or escape death in a miraculous way, and their amulet will become popular.
The masses scramble and push to get the same amulet he was wearing. The demand for this amulet rises to record highs.
As Thailand has been in the middle of ongoing political posturing and even fighting the past several years, we have seen the different practices in this series play out by the party leaders. We have seen the people use curses, fortune tellers and lucky symbols to help their cause. When one leader escaped a mob-style hit last year, his amulet rose to record demand. As he was driving in his armor-plated car, two motorcycles rode up next his car. They pulled their M-16’s from behind their backs and unloaded more than 100 rounds into the car penetrating most of the armor. The leader of the yellow shirt movement was wounded, but as he quickly crawled to the floor and protected himself as best he could, most of the bullets missed him. Note to self; be careful when two motorcycles pull up slowly next to me. Second note, the middle of the day is a as good of a time for a mob hit in public view, so don’t get on the wrong side of the mafia.
The next day after the political figure released a statement saying he was okay, everyone clamored to find out what amulet he was wearing. It was front page news.
People want to find a way to block evil, calamity and trouble from destroying their life. They look to things that seem superstitious to a westerner. They see them as more than lucky, but as carrying power. To Thai people, amulets are real and more than a lucky rabbit’s foot to an American or four-leaf clover to the Irish. As Christians, are there things we use in our life to help us succeed? Do we wear lucky underwear for the playoff baseball game? Do we wear a power-tie to the big meeting? Okay, that might be stretching it. Do we ever look for signs from God when we should just trust him?
June 22, 2009
I am continuing the thoughts about convention/connection ’09 to unpack some ideas on the unplanned theme to restock the shelves. We all see the numbers that we have an aging group of senior pastors with the median age being 53 and more senior pastors over 80 than under 30. A few people have been banging the drum for years that something must change in order to grasp the future God has for the foursquare movement.
The good thing from this convention is that we were actually talking about the situation at hand. We need more young leaders to simply replenish the existing leaders as we age. If we want to go forward we need to breakthrough some barriers and release loads more of young leaders into the field to connect a world that needs Jesus with the one we profess the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I can’t escape one idea that could help both promote an empower younger leadership and create opportunity to push the envelope with creativity and enthusiasm for evangelism and discipleship. What I am thinking of is a track to church planting at the Bible College. What if we got revolutionary and designed a way to get people equipped to plant a church within the year they graduate?
I am thinking back to my class in 2002. And we will theme this what if…
What if…we did more than a class on church planting (which I believe no longer exists at the school), but an entire track. What if students began preparing as soon they hit the upper class on graduating into a senior leadership role? Maybe not everyone is cut out for a church plant, starting something from nothing, but there are many open pulpits right now this summer if one of those graduate students this year were up to the challenge.
What if we didn’t wait for people to prove themselves, but we took risks with younger leaders? As for myself, I am pretty sure I wasn’t ready upon graduation, and needed to grow in my confidence as a leader. However, I know there were several students graduating with me that would have been ready had there been a process to train and establish them in what it meant to be a lead minister.
What if we dedicated the final year of learning to an integrated set of classes with the church plant vision and plan? Secondly, we tie that into a local church with a pastor willing to mentor and coach the graduates as they enter into the tough road of starting a church, or even taking over an existing church which comes with its own set of hurdles. I believe care is the missing ingredient of the mentoring process. I see Paul write to Timothy twice that we have record of to encourage, exhort and propel him into everything God has for him. The key for Paul’s purpose is Timothy’s success and not Paul’s legacy.
What if the cream of the crop weren’t looking for the best place to gain a good job, but were identified and poured into to take the baton and run with it into leading the future of the Foursquare Church. Rather than having barely a dozen senior pastors under the age of 30, we could have dozens with years of experience by the time they are 30. They will have the youth and willingness to take risks that aren’t taken when they get older. They will make mistakes, but the lessons learned over those years will greatly increase the years of effective ministry to come. As we grow older, we are less likely to risk our reputation, our family, or our future with the necessary innovations to reach the world for Jesus. We become more likely to go with the status quo and hope some one else has the energy to change things.
What if we had a half dozen graduates per year plant a church? In the eight years it takes them to reach 30 years of age, we would have 42 new churches just from one place of input, LPC. Let LPC take the risk and lead to empower and continue the care for the young leaders we are praying for. Yeah, some would fail, but some already fail…many more would succeed, and I dare say this would greatly help change the culture and focus of the Bible College, the denomination and the local church in a positive way with out changing the core values of our movement.
I don’t want to be sitting around in a few years bemoaning how few of my friends have remained in ministry after 10 years. I want to begin to celebrate a new chapter in our movement of how many people after me I can speak future and hope into. How many can I participate with to see their dreams achieved? How many can I pull forward to fulfill their potential and fulfill the Great Commission, still the greatest commission ever?
June 20, 2009
Okay, I wanted to share some thoughts from the Foursquare Convention/Connection ’09 http://www.foursquare.org/convention/
Some time has passed since I was there. The upside of a blog is timeliness and immediacy, and the downside is timeliness & immediacy. Blogs rarely give space in this frantic overly informationalized culture to have perspective and process thoughts aside from banter on the blogs…
I get the privilege of walking the halls at a meeting like our denominational gathering as a missionary. I don’t get the typical, how are things going question (which translates to how big are you?). Sometimes we lose perspective at convention and rather than finding a way to be encouraged and refreshed, we find our self fretting my friends seeing me and wondering if I will compare favorably to what they are doing in ministry and walking away downcast and beaten.
Conventions include business meetings, worship gatherings, a hall filled with booths covering the range from social justice to fiscal health, church growth and leadership development to prayer and spiritual health. For me, I always join the meting to see friends and cultivate the relationships I have with my foursquare family.
This year the big news that pretty much swallowed up the rest of the convention was the news of a leadership transition coming sooner than expected. The surprise of Pastor Jack Hayford withdrawing his name to be president filled the conversations, twitter feeds and face book updates for the days surrounding Connection. The take away from the last five years will be a return to integrity and recovering lost ground from poor transitions the previous two times. My hope looks to gaining ground for the kingdom of God in the coming years.
I thoroughly enjoyed several of the themes that showed up on the evening sessions.
1. Youth, a push to look to the next generation definitely came across the first night, from the music to the people on stage.
2. Women in ministry. Foursquare was founded by a woman, and many women founded churches in the first generation of the movement. However, the past few decades toward a male dominated leadership. I find it funny when meetings like this will often have women in ministry workshop, and the vast majority of those in the session will be women. Telling women they should be in ministry validates an innate calling; however the men are the one’s that need to be reminded of the necessity for shared leadership. Women don’t lead because there is a void of male leadership, but because they are empowered and released.
3. Missions…I loved seeing amazing leaders from our global family sharing with the convention body. A. H. Manday from Indonesia has been used mightily by God to pastor a revival in Indonesia. We were blessed to share the diversity of what God is doing around the world.
4. Restocking the shelves…this theme was found in and out of the different speakers as we look to the future of the foursquare church. We can’t deny that we need to get more young leaders out there.
Again, Connection defines exactly why I love to be at these meetings. I love to see my friends who I have served in ministry with for years…making new connections and just dialoging with people about how God is taking care of them. We connected with many people have partnered with us as we serve in Thailand. It was exciting to have them introduce us as their missionary. We are so blessed to represent the call to reach unreached people around the world for local churches in the US.
May 8, 2009
I wanted to share the words of Tina’s father on the passing of his mother. I wish I could have been there to hear the message. Tina got to be there to represent us for the family as I remained behind in Thailand. I’ll just let the remainder of the post speak for itself as I copy the outline of Clayton Robinson’s message at the memorial service.
Liz Robinson: A Life Well Lived
Dr. Clayton D. Robinson
I. I’m not sure offering to speak today was the wisest decision I’ve ever made. Then again, no one knows my mother better, other than my father. I know that my mother was proud of me and would have asked me to do it. I’ve done many memorial services, many for some present today. I’ve always loved weddings and never knew what to say at a memorial service. But today, my heart is bursting with so much to say that will honor such a women of God! Thus, today I want to tell you who Liz Robinson was, as told by a son, rather than an outside observer. I do ask that you grant me this one failing, to keep my composure I may read this message from time to time rather than simply tell it to you.
A. During the depression, my grandmother moved to LA as a single parent when my mother and uncle were very young. They lived off the street in an age where there was no social help. They survived by scrubbing floors 15 hours a day, picking fruit during harvest season, and being willing to do whatever it took just to get enough food to survive. My mother used to brag about having calluses so hard she could walk on glass or over burning coals, because she did not have any shoes. They would sleep on the beach in the summer, camp in the dessert in the Spring and Fall, and share a room with multiple other families in the winter. They had only the clothes on their back and were thankful if they had a place to sleep and a little bit of food to eat.
B. After four years, grandma heard of a women preacher. As the story goes, she just had to go and see that! At the very first service they attended at Angeles Temple, they heard the gospel for the very first time as Aimee Semple McPherson preached the word of God, and they accepted Christ. My mother was 8 years old. The small family knew how hopeless life could be, and after that day never once looked back at the world! Their lives were forever dedicated to Jesus Christ!
C. That love of Christ never waned! Even these past few weeks, when my mother’s health was failing, and her thinking was not as clear, the highlight of her week was being in church service. For weeks before she died, whenever someone would sit with her she would say over and over again, “I get to go to church on Sunday!” No question about it, it was the very highlight of her week.
D. That heart for the Lord determined my mother more than anything else. She would often note that she knew what it was to be poor and lost, and that she did not want anyone else to not know about the Lord. She led people to the Lord wherever she went.
II. Life Lessons Passed Down: My mother, especially in the past several years, has strived to pass on a legacy to us, her family. She told us many stories about what it truly means to grow up hard. Such as kicking something all night in your sleeping bag while sleeping in open in the desert, only to shake out a rattlesnake in the morning. Of seeing the power of God work through Aimee Semple McPherson. Speaking of how you could feel the presence of God enter the room with Aimee so that you could know whether or not she was present by the power of God in the room. And then challenging us to strive for that kind of spiritual presence. While I could simply share her stories, even more powerful to me was her life. Thus, without contriving to a preordained outline, I’ve jotted down a few “life-lessons” that my mother taught me, and in honor of her legacy I want to pass them on to you.
Never pass an opportunity to share Christ: When I was a young minister, my mother told me a story. My mother was 22, and my father 23 when they took their first pastorate. Shortly thereafter a man came to the parsonage and asked to speak to the pastor, because he wanted to know more about Christ. My mother informed him that the pastor was out, but if the man would return after lunch, he would gladly speak to him. After lunch, when the man did not return, my father went to visit him, only to find that the many had decided to take a nap while awaiting his appointment and fell asleep smoking in bed. A fire erupted and the man did not survive. My mother carried a deep burden for that man all her life and determined that as long as she lived she would not pass up another opportunity to share Christ. She pressed than on the rest of us as well. After that she was a quiet powerhouse evangelist. When traveling on a plane to Hawaii she disappeared, only to be later found leading a large Jewish family in a prayer to receive their Jewish messiah, Jesus. In a grocery store, she led the checkout lady while a line 15 people deep waiting and watching as my mother held the sobbing grocery lady’s hands and prayed. No one, anywhere or anytime was immune from her radiant testimony and faith!
A. Submit to those in authority over you: It would be impossible to find someone who was more submitted to the Lord, her husband, or her pastor. She never would do something wrong, but outside of that, one could ask her to do something and rather than asking “why?” she would ask, “when?” She would do the things asked of her, even when she knew better; she would do things they way asked even when she could do them in a much superior manner. The wise around her would simply task her and allow her to get the job done.
B. Don’t speak ill of others: In my entire life, I’ve heard lots of people criticize others, maybe even entered in myself once and awhile, but I’ve never heard my mother criticize others. She always spoke good, not evil, always believed the best, rather than feared the worse.
C. Put others first, Be the Servant of All: I don’t remember ever saying, “I just need sometime for myself.” On Mother’s Day she would Joy and I invite a large contingency of youth who came from broken homes over to our house. When we offered to help with the dishes, she would respond, “Mother’s Day is the day mothers get to serve others in need. Don’t cheat me out of my special day! Even when my mother was dying, she would not let us talk of it at all, for to her last dying breath she believed in the healing and sustaining power of God. In her last two days, my mother slipped into a coma, but would wake up every now and then struggling and would arouse suddenly, forcefully saying, “I don’t want to go yet!” Even though God knew she had served her purpose here on earth, she did not want to leave those she loved. If she could have, she would have gotten up from her bed to serve us all. I don’t think she relished even for one moment that for once all of us were serving her.
D. Be an encourager: My mother would come up on a regular basis and tell me I was the best preacher she ever heard, and that I had just preached the best sermon ever preached. She was so consistent I even began to believe it myself! Others would tell me “you’re not that good.” But my mother would say, “You’re the best!” I would preach twice as hard when she was present!
E. Hospitality: Accept into your home everyone as if they were your own family. My mother became the mother or grandmother to anyone who needed it. That is why so many even present today think of my mother as being your own! We completely lost our holidays, for the table every year would be full of people my mother would invite to join us.
F. Trust God in all circumstances: Growing up poor, my mother learned to trust God. I don’t every remember hearing her fret about things, she would just pray. Even when the food ran out, she would quietly trust God, and agreeing with my father’s faith somehow we never went without.
1. Maybe she learned that when she was 10. Work had run out, they had no place to stay, and it was winter, too cold to sleep on the street. After attending a service at AT, the family sat on a bench in Echo Park with my grandmother sobbing. A retired African American women came up and asked her what was wrong. “We have nowhere to go, and I’m sure they are going to come and take my children away from me,” my grandmother responded in tears. The women invited them to come to her house and sleep on the couch, for she had already given all the other rooms in her house away to other homeless families.
2. Don’t be fooled into thinking that faith meant riches in our early years. I fondly remember my mother ironing the used tinsel and wrapping paper to put on our donated Christmas tree. Yet I don’t ever remember my mother complaining. She thought we were rich. We had food (usually), a secure home, and were safe. She never asked for more! Only when my parents had proven happy and generous, in spite of severe need, did God begin to prosper us. And our prosperity NEVER came from the church, but directly from the Lord!
3. Trust comes from understanding God’s word. In fact, Rom 8 speaks of trusting that God will work on our behalf through all the circumstances of our lives. While I could expound on this well, better yet, let’s let her share it herself. Here is a short segment from her “Breath of Life” radio broadcast. [Sound Clip]
G. Be a Person of Prayer: How did my mother learn to trust God in all circumstances? She learned the principle of the power of prayer! Maybe she learned that as a child in a story so strange, so wondrous, so improbable, no impossible, that one can only be amazed at the greatness and goodness of God to guide our lives.
1. My father was a street punk. One day, while just a young teenager, he came upon a small Pentecostal church during the midweek service. Devilishly he lit a deadly gopher bomb and tossed it through the window during worship. As you can imagine, it caused quite a stir. By divine appointment my grandmother was there in the service with her children. She said to those gathered, don’t worry about it, it’s just a street punk. Let’s pray that he finds the Lord and gets saved. So the pastor led the prayer. When he finished, the Holy Spirit came upon grandma and she boldly proclaimed, “that’s not good enough, let’s pray that he become a preacher!” The pastor then replied, “Sister Elizabeth, since you have the burden, why don’t you lead out in the praying.” I’m sure it was a long and meaningful prayer. But, years later my father met my mother at a party. He asked to date her and she refused because he was not a believer. He did, however, attend AT so he could see her. A year later he accepted Christ and was called into the ministry. Only years later did God reveal that he had divinely ordered their lives…
2. Whatever your circumstance, whatever you face, don’t every underestimate God’s power to bring about good out of difficulty. If there is one thing my parents have taught me, God truly is the God of the Impossible!
H. Diligence and Excellence: My mother modeled giving your all, all the time. Hockey players speak of giving a full 60 minutes (although they rarely do). My mother spoke of giving 365 days a year without a break, each and every year, for a lifetime, and she did!
I. Always Improve: My mother learned biblical Greek and Hebrew after the age of 70! She already knew Hungarian, French and Spanish. Although she had 50 years in the ministry, was a renown speaker, and had taught on the Radio for years, she never failed to take any class offered at New Life Bible Institute! She read hundreds of books each and every year, none of them novels;, noting that there was so much more to learn and so little time to learn it! She stayed up all night reading and working even through this last year. In all this she was dependent upon the word of God more than anything else. My mother read her Bible every day, through the Bible dozens of times each year. Yes, that’s right, dozens each and every year! She was ever hungry for God’s word.
J. Be faithful to the Lord always: Be Faithful to the Lord: My mother, every day of her life, lived Christ. I never heard her say a dirty word, not once! I never heard her tell a course joke, not one! I never heard my mother speak ill of another person. She was the perfect example of love and purity, of holiness and innocence, of faithfulness and endurance. In her, love never failed!
1. In these past months during her grave illness, my mother did not always think clearly. She would be so sick and we would say, “Mom, you need to stay home and rest.” But she insisted, “I’m going to church service.” She even sat in service a week ago Sunday. Somehow she sense her body was about to completely fail, and she would not miss her last chance to worship God. Monday her body failed and the Lord took her on Wednesday. Just the week earlier I went over to the house and sat with her. She just kept saying, “I get to go to church this Sunday!” After a dozen times, I realized it was the single highlight of her week! She modeled the scripture that states, “When you have done everything, stand firm!”
K. I think the only way my mother would have let go in the end is if the Lord assured her what Paul says in 1 Thess 3, “For we now live, if you continue to stand firm in the Lord…And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”
III. In conclusion: I wanted to share these simple truths with you so that her life legacy can impact you yet again one more time. From now on, however, her legacy must be written upon our lives. If you will, we must let her legacy live on through us, as we pass these godly principles on to others! But, if my mother present today she would want me to challenge you afresh, “Are you living for Christ today?” “Is it truly well with your soul?” Regardless of whether you are a long-term believer, or today you need to make a fresh or renewed commitment to Christ, would you stand and join me in a prayer of commitment to Christ.
May 7, 2009
This is part three in the series on baptism in Thailand. The journey to faith in Thailand comes in a process of relationship and investigation with a major milestone being baptism. When the Thai person is ready to profess their faith in front of their friends and family, they have committed to God.
Today, I want to tell a wonderful story of a guy named Brian (for confidentiality). He is a 17-year-old boy from the north of Thailand. Brian first met us when we traveled north last August for an English camp in Mae Sot. The camp was held in a government school, so aside from a few loose references to Christ, we showed them the love of Jesus in our actions.
Fast forward until last month, and Brian was in Bangkok registering for a new school as his mom decided to move out of Mae Sot. While on the overnight bus, some one stole Brian’s money and atm card. He didn’t know what to do, but remembered Ole (one of the leaders in the Bangkok church) from his group at the English camp. She took him to the church building and called his mom. She had to go out to prepare for the children’s camp the next week, so she left him with the other staff from the church. That is when I received a frantic call to come to the local food court to join one of the girls in the church. She wanted me to join her to eat with some guy. I couldn’t figure out what she wanted, but know I should go. I sate with him and conversed the best I could in Thai.
Brian decided to stay in Bangkok, because he could study at a better high school. Ole let him stay with her at her house in the slum community with a couple of other people from the church. After a several days of authentic Christian love, Brian knew God cared for him and wanted relationship with him. He gave his heart to Jesus and was baptized at the camp for the children for the church.
Now he serves the church by working at the coffee shop and helping out where he can. The growth and identity he now has as part of the Christian community is amazing. He always smiles and says hello to me after being so shy that day at lunch. The joy of the Holy Spirit truly is evident in his life.
May 4, 2009
I am continuing the series on Baptism in Thailand illustrated by a few stories from some recent baptisms Our Home Chapel in Bangkok.
I will call this girl Julie to protect her identity. She is a shy girl at first, but when she gets to know you, she opens up and has a super fun personality. We first met while she was studying at Ramkhamheung University, and I went to begin dialogue about faith. Julie decided she wanted to learn English, so she took our invitation to study at Our Home English School.
A couple of months later, she connected well with one of the teachers, Kristen Estabar and hung out a lot at the movies or shopping as well as our fun trips to visit Thailand’s sites and attractions. Julie looked into Christianity, and some of the Thais in the church befriended her and helped answer some of her curious questions. She kept hanging around and investigated what Jesus and Christianity were about, and we kept on loving her with the love of God. Tina and I enjoyed having her over to our house to watch a movie and develop our friendship further.
After a few months of looking into Christianity, Julie decided she would give her life to Jesus. Now we got to celebrate with her as she professed her faith in Baptism as one of the 10 new Christians baptized in the river at Ampaw outside Bangkok.
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