Thailand Missions (2018) "From Now On"
Hello everyone! It
feels like it’s been ages since the Thailand trip but sadly it’s only been a
few weeks. Most of us are recovered from jetlag and we also just had a short
debrief meeting to see and hear how God has blessed each one of us during the
trip. One important aspect of the debrief was how can we apply what we have
learned from the trip to our everyday life. Here, I’ve listed a few big one for
me that I observed in Thailand and how I can apply in how I live “from now
onnnnnnnnnn” [Greatest Showman reference here]
Prayer:
- We were very thankful and blessed to see God answer so many prayers throughout the trip. These answered prayers ranged from God organizing many of the spiritual conversations that we had with the students to even the smallest prayers of quick and efficient traveling to/from Thailand. God also answered our prayers throughout the trip by giving us peace and courage in how we can minister to the students and also increased our strength in our faith in how He will reveal himself to the Thai students after we left. Being back now, I think my prayers to God have been more intentional and purposeful. Before the trip, I forgot about what a powerful and loving God we believe in but knowing that our God hears our prayers allows me to joyfully spend time talking to Him
Intentionality:
- Especially since our trip was
so short, I had to constantly remind myself to step out of my comfort zone
and try to be as intentional with others as possible. This resulted in
trying to bring up deeper topics in conversations or trying to be
proactive in helping others out more even without being asked. I often
found myself ending the day super tired and ready to just knock out on the
nearest pillow I could find, but it was a good kind of tired where I knew
I gave it my all. Now that I am back, I have been considering how I can
practically do this each day. There are times where I would catch myself
wasting a lot of time just browsing random things online but now I would
try and find different ways to be intentional with others even if it’s
simply messaging someone and asking how they’ve been doing. Hopefully with
this new attitude, I can push the limits of trying to be uncomfortable and
make use of the limited time we have here on earth to encourage and
witness to others.
Service
- In the past, I’ve always
wondered if there was a point in serving at church or a fellowship group
but in Thailand, I was very thankful for all the opportunities that I’ve
had in the past to train and learn how to serve. Serving others has always
brought joy to me and it was awesome to know that I was doing God’s work
despite where I was. I was also able to balance out my day more since I
could gauge how to use my energy and still be intentional with other
people. This reminded me to still take opportunities to serve at church
and continue to grow and practice the gifts that God has given me.
Rest:
- Even in the past when I had
served at different fellowship doing various roles, I learned a lot about
the importance of rest but it wasn’t until this trip where I saw the
practicality of not just doing it but doing it well. The first case was
physical rest. At the beginning of the trip, I got a little sick from not
sleeping enough and not drinking enough water. This was fixed with prayers
of quick healing as well as a reliance on God for energy and wisdom in how
much energy to exert during each day. It was also very humbling to know
that it is only by Gods strength that we can do anything at all. The
second case was spiritual rest. There were many moments where I felt
burdened and inadequate in serving the Thai and I lacked confidence in why
I was here and thus, hesitant even in talking to people sometimes.
Thankfully, spending each morning in God’s word and being able to share
with our own team what we have been learning about God had brought
motivation and hope in God to do all the work while and after we leave
Thailand. We were able to just take moments to be still and know God.
Learning to abide in His word brought us peace and strength for the day but
also allowed us to re-center our hearts on Him. God is constantly speaking
to us so hopefully we can take time even now that we are back to sit and
be still.
Culture
- Being my first trip overseas
not just on missions but in general, it was really cool to see the
difference between Thai/Eastern culture compared to our American/Western
culture. It was eye opening to see how they lived and acted in certain
situations. For Thai culture, Buddhism seemed to be at the center of it.
This was important because we could then figure out how to better witness
to the Thai. Especially since we were all Chinese Americans we could make
certain connections to them such as family, pressures to succeed, and
general happiness and peace in the world. From this experience, we learned
that an important aspect of witnessing to others can come from simply
understanding people and their needs first rather than just sharing about
our own beliefs.
Thank you again for supporting us and for your love and
prayers! Feel free to ask any of us to share more details from the trip since
these blog posts can only give a small snippet of the trip!
In Christ,
Matthew Tsang
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