at the right time, in the right place

Today, Thursday was supposedly laundry day for me. I did not have language learning class and I slept very late last night. I had coaching online with Mary Elliott, the wife of the World Outreach Director. It was a great time, she did very well in coaching me with mothering my kids and being a wife and a missionary all at the same time. John and Mary have grown up kids and I admire how they have been such good role models. Their kids are in their 20’s and are active in missions themselves now. After the coaching, Joey, the kids and I practiced our song for Sunday. With our new guitar, we just sang every song we could remember. Since we got here, we have never sang any English song in any service. Hmm.. nakakamiss din… I miss Cebuano songs, too. But for some reason, we set a meeting with Lorraine, our director this morning. It was unscheduled– but God scheduled it. We talked at 10:30 in the morning then ended at about 11. Lorraine and Irene had another meeting, and the family just decided to hang around the church for a while. It was already lunchtime, but we were still there. Jez played around, Ria answered her paces and I, taking advantage of the free internet, just did facebook and chatted with Barbette in YM. Joey came in and asked me to come to the Pastor’s office. There was a sense of urgency in his voice that I had to go right away, without even telling Barbs I will be right back.A broken man. I was surprised to see an American guy sitting at the pastor’s office with Joey. “Who is he and what is he doing here?,” I thought. He seemed very shaken and as he talked, I found the right adjective– he is broken. Much later I learned that he is not just broken, but he is totally BROKE. (haha). Well he introduced himself, and said he was just driving around the city to find someone to pray for him. When he found our church signage, he just made a turn and came right in. How amazing that at that time, only the Thai staff were there (P’Lorrie and Irene were in another office having a meeting– when they do that, they are not to be interrupted!) and we were there, at the right time and place! We could have gone home minutes before that, but God just let us stay a few minutes more. He told us about his problems– he used to be a well-paid teacher (just like any Farang) at a school until he got confined in a hospital for four months. At the hospital, someone shared to him the gospel and received the Lord. He was left broke, and his wife did not take good care of his 8 year old son. His son has this very weird kind of phobia, and he worries he could no longer feed him. He taught at a school yesterday but just today, the school just got rid of him– he was so devastated so he started to seek for someone to pray with, not exactly knowing where to go and whom to turn to.

The Presence. Listening to his story and his brokenness, we just asked the Lord for discernment if this guy had mental problems of any sort.. or just a hoax. But it was clear that he was thirsty enough to come here and asked for help. He could have gone anywhere else. Joey got his guitar and we just sang some songs and worshiped. The presence of the Lord was just awesome in that room. We felt God just embracing us.

Radical Giving. All of us were in tears when we finished worshiping and praying. Then he asked us if he can give to our missions. We were surprised. A man so broke talk about giving? he got his cash from his pocket and got 300 Baht and prayed, “Lord, let this money be useful for your glory..” something like that. We were really touched by his generosity even at this time of lack. I did not want to take it from him. “It was too much,” I thought. I saw him only having about 60 Baht left in his pocket. I mean, he could have more money somewhere, but obviously 300 Baht for him at that particular time was a huge amount, and giving it away meant he had to do it sacrificially. But I did not want him to be deprived of the blessings. He prayed and thanked God that He sent us two angels. Wow, I think it was the first time someone called me an angel! It was a great feeling to be of help. More than anything else, I praise God and just marveled, How amazing it is that God allows us to be in a place, at the right time, for the right reasons.

Explore posts in the same categories: Divine appointments, Radical giving

Tags: brokenness, giving, obedience, transparency

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