I had been taught to love planting trees since I became a Christian, by my missionary friend.
My trees were growing beautifull and I thanked God for it every time I came home.. until one day ....
I got home and couldn't believe my eyes, all my beautiful trees(growing tall in 4 years time) were cut down and destroyed', by my husband. He decided he was going to build a fence without consulting me
I was extremely upset and did not want to see my husband ever again. I also did not want to talk to God either. Why did He not stop my husband!!!
This went on for a few days when one night I boiled up some snails for us to eat. usually one can just suck out the snail with not too much effort but this night I could not suck it out and frustration built up in me as I throw one snail after the other down. My 10 year old boy watched me doing this and he got up to find some smooth sticks that came with a Thai sweet which my husband bought earlier on. My boy offered me one of these sticks to pick out the flesh of the snail saying:" Mother, isn't God wonderful, He got into dads heart and make him buy the Thai sweets so that we could have these sticks now to pick out the snails meat".
These words "God got into dads heart" just stopped me in my tracks. I knew this was God speaking to me and not my little boy. God was reminding me that He can change my husband, only He can get into his heart. I was ready to give up on my husband. This time he went too far. Now I was willing to talk to God again, thanking Him for knowing about my pain and trusting Him again to change my husband. I had immediate peace and even joy returned.
(This is the story of a Thai Christaian from Namkhem church in the area that was hit by a Tsunami 7 years ago.)
The other day, Grit (13) was at our place, just hanging out as he does quite often. He suddenly remembered that he wanted to tell me something and came up to me with a big smile. His phone had been broken for a few days, just not turning on at all. Grit had fiddled with it trying to get it to work but nothing happened. In the end, his younger sister, "Wen" had decided to try praying. She and Grit have both heard quite bit about God at our place over the last few years. They have heard how God answers prayer. So, Wen just simply asked God to fix the phone. Then she pressed the on button again - and on it came! They were thrilled.
God is good. He knows they are just taking their first steps of faith, working out if this God is real and if he really does all we say he does. Does he love them as we have said he does? So, God answers and little by little they see that he is real and does love them.
God doesn't always fix things when I ask him these days. He knows me and stretches me and grows me through tough times and times when he answers in ways I hadn't expected. Yet it is such fun to watch him answer for the kids who are brave enough to reach out to him. These are their first "baby" steps. It's a great place to be at, watching them grow.
A few months ago while on Home Assignment in Australia, I was visiting a supporting church in northern New South Wales. On my day off, I went to for a bush walk at a nearby Nightcap National Park. On the way down to the bottom I discovered a timber sign with the words, "Shortcutting causes serious erosion. Please stay on trail provided." The sign itself was not looking all that stable. A little bit further down the trail though, there was some serious erosion, where that part of the trail had slipped down the hillside. While I found it only a little difficult to navigate past that point, I wondered how someone less mobile than myself would have managed.
Already the area around the sign was showing signs of erosion. The sign itself had a bit of a lean, and just a few metres further along a section of the path had slipped down the hillside. Obviously erosion was already making its mark felt, being helped along by those who had, for the sake of their own convenience, made shortcuts down or up the hillside.
It got me thinking - what does erosion look like in human society?
Therefore confess you sins to each other, and pray for each other so that ye may be healed.The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and affective. James 5,16
. . . - especially the prayers of a mother.
Phon is a 10 years old boy, very imaginative, bold and a
gifted story teller. Unfortunately Phon follows instruc-
tions only very unwillingly and is extremely difficult to
motivate.
I am far away from being a gifted children’s worker, I’ve
never been one. Each Sunday school I had to spend lots
of energy to motivate Phon to take part. If he felt like eating
some snacks, he would just get up und buy some, regard-
less of the program. Needless to say that Phon didn’t go
alone but he took at least one more child with him.