You can rejoice in your sufferings because you know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. Problems that cause you pain can ultimately increase your hope. However, this does not happen automatically. You have to cooperate with The Lord as He will guide you through times of suffering.

This is a true statement. Thailand was the hardest month for me because I felt so many emotions that I did not know were possible! My heart broke for this country and it was very challenging for me to go out and do ministry as I was feeling this way for the country. This is when I really had to learn to trust in the lord for strength. To persevere through the roughest times on my race to do what God wanted me to do.

As I was laying in my bed not wanting to do anything I was asked if I wanted to go to “Monk Chat” which is where you go to the temple and talk with monks and learn about Buddhism and monk life. I agreed to go and as I look back now I am so grateful I said yes to go that very specific day. As I went to Monk Chat I met a very awesome monk. Little did I know I was going to become friends with this monk and He was going to change my whole view on the verse, “where the spirit of The Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)

Kelly (a Teammate) and I sat across the table to begin our two hour long conversations with our monk friend. Our friend opened up about a lot of things that day as he must have felt comfortable with us to talk about his life. I cannot go into too much detail about our conversations so I can protect my friend from harm.

To give you an idea about what happened this month in Thailand, we made it a point to spend a lot of time with our friend and through that we gained an amazing friendship. We got to download a bible app on our friends phone and a few days later our friend messaged us telling us I want what you have because I feel freedom in my heart.. Ok this is a Buddhist monk to remind you. This opened up the door to talk more about God, and how God is love, but with that other people at the temple started to catch on and we were not welcomed there anymore but did that stop us? No! We did not give up on our friend.

At the end of the month it was so hard to say goodbye. But then I realized you can be such an influence in someone’s life in such a short amount of time. When you are the light people notice, some love it and some hate it. I am glad my teammate and I gave our all, even though at times it was hard to keep going, God knew what He was doing.