Most of our time is spent “reading” with our readers.

A visitor in our apartments!  Just kidding, Nico!  It was up the mountainside!

Greg like you’ve never seen him…that’s all I have to say!

Five Best LST New Mexico Party Pictures!

It amazes me that no matter how many LST trips I have been on (and this is my ninth) that each trip is so distinct, so unique from all the others. Each trip turns my experience on its head, because I tempted to rely on my experience only to discover that said experience is so inadequate.  This is always a lesson and a reminder to depend on God and to allow him to lead me through uncertain waters.  

Another thing I am used to on LST trips is a fairly high measure of control, usually again because people default to my leadership because of the aforementioned experience.  But that has not been the case on this go around, because of some unusual factors.  

We arrived in Thailand a little over a week ago.  This overlapped with an LST team from Pepperdine who were in their last week of a six week trip.  The plan was to peel off readers and transition them over to me and Gregory and the full command of the LST ship, so to speak, be given over to us at the LST party (the 10th).

More or less this is what happened, but for obvious and legitimate reasons the Pepperdine LST team wanted to hold on to a majority of their readers during their last week.  

So, Gregory and I didn’t have very many readers that first week and some of those didn’t show, probably also transitioning out of the program for the last week of the Pepperdine project.  In addition to this, there were many activities both planned and spontaneous that were obviously part of a long goodbye for the Pepperdine team.  This made things feel busy in one sense, but not overly productive in another and sometimes the situations seemed a bit awkward.

Now a couple of qualifiers:  1.  The Pepperdine team was nothing but awesome to us the entire time.  They are some of the most zealous young men and women I have ever met.  I am serious.  They are that impressive.  2.  Some of the awkwardness has to do with an age gap.  I am 35.  The oldest of them was 28.  I am married with kids.  They are all single.  Their interests are different than mine and their way of relating to the readers and church members is different than mine. So, at times, all of these factors made me feel “out of place.”

And so, back to my earlier point, I have learned all the more this week to trust in God and to seek his presence.  I have been disciplined to open my hands toward him in acceptance, surrender, and submission.  I have checked my ego (at least tried to!) and said, “Okay, God this is your thing.  I am here for your purposes, whatever they may be.”  

Great freedom came in taking this approach.  It has allowed me to loosen up, enjoy being around folks ten years or more younger than me.  It has allowed me to focus intensely on the readers I do have.  It has made me available for intimate times with God that are hard to come by in the states and it has opened my eyes to the big picture and reminded me that it is always a blessing to play whatever role he allows me to play.

And the readers are coming.  My schedule is full for this week. We just had an awesome New Mexico party in which Greg and I were in charge of and about 16 readers were there (33 people overall).  And those early reading sessions have laid a foundation for great things to come for this week.

One of my readers is named Palm (in the photo on right with Ying from the church and Vinny from the LST Pepperdine team at the LST New Mexico Party)

and he very much has been embraced into this church family. He’s still on his spiritual journey with Jesus, but he already refers to God as “my Father.”  The time I have been able to spend with Palm has been really special and I look forward to more faith conversations this week.

The church here is awesome, so energetic, and full of the Spirit.  God is at work here and I am most blessed to both witness and participate in the works of his hands!  Keep praying!

The sunlight washed this one out a little bit, but this is Gregory in his very first reading session! The sessions started on Monday.  We are in a little bit of a transition between teams right now (Pepperdine to 3rd and K), so we haven’t exactly been swamped with readers yet, but those we have had have gone really well!

I thought our VBS folks would appreciate hearing this song from Thailand!