Category: Missions

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2013

2013 is the year I fell in love with Thailand.

It took me awhile to wrap my head around the implications of what I have just recently realized after living in Thailand for over 2 years. Now, I am ready to put pen to paper (or put my fingers on the keyboard), and begin marking my thoughts on a blank page that has been haunting me for weeks.

Buddha

Before Jason and I got married we already knew we were going to Thailand. We knew we would be serving in fulltime ministry. Though Jason has been in the ministry for many years, this would be a leap of faith for me. I have never served fulltime especially in the mission field, which was a very foreign concept to me not too long ago. Continue reading “2013”

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On Thanksgiving: Counting My Blessings

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Thanksgiving is a tradition I was not familiar with while growing up. It’s not celebrated in the Philippines as an official holiday like it is in the States. While Filipino Christians may be familiar with this practice, the average Filipino is not aware of such occasion.

And so, it is a fairly new tradition for me but I have come to really love and enjoy observing it.

I still clearly remember my first Thanksgiving celebration. It was during my first year in the States while living with six other girls, fondly called the Taylor girls by everyone in our community, in one house. We all decided to rough it up and drive to Maryland, to one of the girls’ aunt’s home. Continue reading “On Thanksgiving: Counting My Blessings”

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A Humbling Lesson and A Note of Thanksgiving

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Being in ministry is tough. It has its own form of challenges unique from what I have gone through as a fulltime classroom teacher.

A friend once asked me the struggles I have with being in fulltime ministry, the major things I have a hard time adjusting to. I have thought of these struggles, but I have never really opened up much on this subject or carefully reflected on it. Her question made me uncomfortable but it allowed me to be honest to myself.

It set in motion a necessary introspection. Continue reading “A Humbling Lesson and A Note of Thanksgiving”

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At 33

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Today I turned thirty-three.

I felt a soft tugging in my heart to spend the morning of my birthday with the Lord. So I woke up early this morning, went straight to the beach by myself, and spent all morning with God.

Today I turned thirty-three. And I am dumbfounded with gratitude for how God swept me away with His raging love.

His. Insane. Grace.

Staring into the beauty I beheld this morning, God broke the silence. As He softly spoke, I saw the last ten years of my life unfold before me. I furiously wrote what He reminded me with. Continue reading “At 33”

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On Gratitude

by vol25 on www.etsy.com (Click on the image to go to vol25's page.)
by vol25 on http://www.etsy.com (Click on the image to go to vol25’s page.)

I have been thinking. A lot lately.

I have been restless and unable to put pen to paper. For weeks now, enduring this inexplicable burden I feel, I have tried to write to release me from my thoughts. Yet I can’t seem to construct a sentence I didn’t want to throw out the window. It all seems off. I kept waking up in the middle of the night with incoherent thoughts running wild and in all places.

With rain that seems to always find its way to Krabi more often than not these days, I contemplate even more. It gives me this calmness that allows me to gather my thoughts. I love rain. I am thankful for it. With it, I feel God’s embrace; I sense the familiar surge of gratitude rise up in my soul reminded of His unending grace. But something appears conflicting even as I whisper a prayer of thanks for it. Continue reading “On Gratitude”

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Prakhun: You Are Royalty

Prakhun is Thai for grace.

And I am totally blown away with the beauty of this word.

I personally find languages to be captivating. I perceive them as an intimate expression of God’s inexhaustible creativity. While I may feel God’s embrace as displayed in nature, I see and hear God in the languages of different cultures. God’s presence is palpable as people of diverse origins uniquely use their languages in their interactions.

Thai people buying and selling at Pattaya Floating Market
Thai people buying and selling at Pattaya Floating Market

To me, the pulse of a culture is felt in the way its people communicate with words. I believe that for each culture to develop its own system of reading, writing, and speaking is unquestionably God’s doing. The art of words, written or spoken, growing and unfolding in different dimensions with the people who use them exudes so much power and life. It is, most definitely, an illustration of the existence of a big Creator.
Continue reading “Prakhun: You Are Royalty”

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Go Left (A Luke 10 Journey)

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Photo Source:  www.sheepy.me

Leave at 8 in the morning.

Go left.

That was all Andreas, Cristo, and Anica knew when they stepped out of their guesthouse in Krabi town yesterday after praying where to go and leaving everything they own. With no money and no clothes, except the ones on their backs; and knowing nobody in a strange town where hardly anyone speaks English, they faithfully walked in the words of Luke 10 waiting for the Lord to show them their man of peace. Continue reading “Go Left (A Luke 10 Journey)”