Perseverance in Maesot

So although we had originally thought we would be working in the inner cities, God had different plans. We just spent 8 days in the mountains of Thailand around Maesot (by the Myanmar border) with the Karen people. It is a very different culture in comparison to the Thai culture, but God is working in HUGE ways. After praying over my goals of being bold, confident in God’s guidance, and obedient to His calling, God totally used me in a bigger way than I imagined He would just like He promised in Habakkuk which He revealed to me just the day before. “Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” The people here are so reserved. The children are afraid of us sometimes to the point of tears. It’s understandable since they have NEVER seen white people before. As we walked from house to house the children would just scatter as they saw us. One home in particular had several children sitting around. As we talked with the man of the house which is custom, I smiled and made faces at the children who, in turn, laughed at me and ran away. When we left they followed us but hid when we turned to look at them. We congregated back at the central house for lunch when I noticed several of them outside looking in at us. Garett and I ran outside to try to play with them. Of course, they ran, but we persisted. After about half an hour of coaxing, we convinced one girl that we were safe and wanted to play. It was so awesome to feel God moving through us and using us as a vessel to pour into these children. “Whoever welcomes ONE fo these little children in my name welcomes me.” Mark 9:37 After we won the approval of one girl, she persuaded others to join. The group of children slowly grew to close to 20 kids as we played hokey pokey, head and shoulders, and duck duck goose. Soon there were adults watching and laughing. It was so incredible to see the progress that God was able to make in just a few hours of persistent attention and love. It was also really awesome to see how we were able to reach the adults through our work with the children, which are often not given much attention in their culture. Looking back at the start of it, it would have been so easy to give up when they hid in their homes, and refused to come out. But God gave us perseverance and hope that He would do something great. And He DID!! This is only the start of it all. The children after winning their approval, still a little shy.
 Our very first Thai meal. Very POWERFUL!
 The mountains of Maesot. The bamboo huts, the beautiful greenery, and bathing in the river!
 Steadfast Love Church in Maesot, where we lived for 8 days.
 Tara trying to pronounce the names of the kids we met. They all wanted our autographs. It was the cutest thing.