What Power!

  

10-11-2015

Bangkok Thailand

What Power!

We woke to the sound of thunder and lightning. In Thailand, that is cause for uneasiness as the rain routinely comes down in sheets.  Add to that, a power outage, which means loss of air conditioning and our uneasiness grew.  That's how today started out: full of water, out of power.  Fortunately, the power returned just in time to take showers, pack up and head to the school for the morning.

On our drive to the school, the rain subsided.  We arrived to find the school out of power and fully in session.  The children we were supposed to teach were already in class.  The Director (principal) had been called multiple times but had not alerted the teachers or students of our visit.  Time was ticking away, and we were getting anxious as we thought of the lessons we had planned and the time we needed to teach them.

The Director came back to us and agreed to let us start the lessons.  Soon after, the power was restored!  For the second time in just a few hours the power was restored in a timely fashion.  As believers, we don’t see this as coincidence.  It is His Power we rely on and count on.

 The children were brought in for a time of song and introduction.  Tak, from Lutheran Hour Ministries, has a way of working with the children that is hard to describe unless you've seen it.  He gets the crowd engaged and excited.  This morning, that did not seem to be the case.  The children, especially the 9th graders, were slow to engage and this made our task a little harder and all of us a little more anxious. It seemed we'd lost the power to get the kids revved up to learn.

God however never loses His power, and things started to change.  The storm passed and the one we thought was brewing inside, was only a  sprinkle of unease.  God was working.  The Lutheran Hour team, with the Brookfield Lutheran team and the supporting church team, shared the love of Jesus through our English Speaking lessons.  The Living Water was now flowing through the classrooms. The only power necessary to change hearts was working in the children, thanks to God's Holy Spirit.  

God continued to show his power through our lessons.  One of the demonstrations we do has the children draw a heart in the center of a piece of paper.  The paper is folded several times and ripped in a specific way.  When unfolded, it reveals a cross with a heart in the middle. When the children saw how the torn piece of paper turned into a cross, their faces lit up. The paper cross activity was followed by group pictures. When the pictures were done we were mobbed by a spontaneous group hug.  God had melted the hearts of these seemingly cool kids in 9th grade.  Only He has the power to do that, across an ocean and through a language barrier.

Let’s reflect on power.  Where do we get it? What form does it take? Is there an infinite amount of power? Is it renewable? How do we access power when we need it? Is it easily transferrable? We have experienced today that His power is all of the above. Readily accessible, renewable, transferrable, infinite!  We have an awesome God! Please pray that God will continue to bless our work here in Thailand, keep us safe and healthy, and let our words and actions do His will.

                                 -Dave & Gale Goeman