China would be easy, China would be comfortable, China would be predictable and you would know what to expect. And there is nothing wrong with all of that, nothing at all. Unless, God wants you to know more about himself, then complacency and comfort just won’t work. Thailand, may not have been on your bucket list, but apparently God has it on your abundant life list.
On the night before we left for Thailand, I received that message from a friend. I clung to those words as we traveled for-freaking-ever to get to Thailand (yes, clearly I was still a bit grumpy about that part).
A couple weeks home now, and I can tell you that she was right. It wasn’t China. It wasn’t comfortable or predictable. And, we worked hard—real hard. Everyday was filled with large group meetings followed by one-on-ones. Mark and I were literally booked from 7:30am to 9:30pm. Mark taught about understanding deeper core heart issues and how to work through them. And, I taught from Jeremiah 42 about decision making (despite the fact that I feel wildly inadequate to teach about that myself), demonstrating and explaining what I have been doing for my personal study to introduce a new way to get deep into God’s word. We were poured out, but we were in it together, leading out of our marriage, magnifying the best in each other.
I’m so thankful I went despite the (ridiculous) roundtrip 66 hours of travel. And, time with Frank, Helen, Caleb, and Grace, daily legit fresh mango smoothies, and an elephant ride through the jungle with Caleb sitting between Mark and I were all icing on the cake (watch video below for proof).
