My last two days in Thailand where spent hanging out in Chiang Mai and Bangkok. One night Shyam and I were out late at the night bazaar and we decided we would go and get a foot massage. You can laugh all you want but having an hour long massage from a professional is amazing. Anyway, as we were there we were able to share the Gospel message with the guys giving the massage. Both of these guys sat there ask questions and discussed the differences in Buddhism and Christianity. I am not sure how much they got, but I know they a least understood that there is only one God and Jesus is His name.
One of the lessons I have learned over and over again in my life is that God uses bad circumstances to bring about good things. A prime example would me my flight home from Bangkok. As I checked in, the only seat available was the one right in the middle of two other seats. A great annoyance of any traveler is to get stuck with this seat. As I sat down, I pulled my arms in tight and tried to share what little space the three people in our aisle had. Once we were airborne the guy sitting at the window had to get up so I had to stand up with my laptop that I was typing on. As I stood up the Nepali people around me starting staring at me and then I remembered that I had put a large Nepal sticker on the front of my computer. As I sat down the guy with the aisle seat said, “I am surprised you have my country?s flag on your computer. I went on to tell him of my love for his country and his people. I told him I was there to teach the Bible, a little about the Bible, the God in the Bible. During our conversation the guy sitting at the window came back and began listening to our conversation. As my conversation died down with the “Aisle man”, the “Window guy” broke in with some questions. Just before he left Japan for Kathmandu he had been given some gospel tracts which had made him very interested in the message it carried. From his understanding of Christianity all he had to do was say the prayer on the back of the tract over and over again, hand out the tracts he had been given, and then He would become a Christian. I have no idea where he got this idea, but I made sure he knew his assumptions where wrong. We talked for an hour about Jesus and the Bible, but he knew nothing about our faith at all. It’s hard enough trying to share Christ with someone who has some kind of foundation, but this was REALLY HARD. He had no concept of a God as we understand it, of creation, of any kind of authority, of mercy, or a list of other things. Finally I told him that becoming a Christian was a simple process, but that it would take time for him to understand the truths that he needed to understand. This week I am planning to meet with the “window guy” or Mahendra which is his real name. Pray that God gives me wisdom as I do what Jesus did with the men on the road to Emmaus as I teach the whole counsel of God from Genesis to the resurrection.
With that said, I arrived in Kathmandu and settled back to my “normal” life.
On a different note. I thought I would give you some idea of my everyday life, so here is a picture of my living room. This is where I have my? language lessons and do my quiet time.? A note of interest, all the furniture you see and the rug on the floor were made by hand. Cool huh!
