Kids' stories aren't just for kids!

The silly girls I live with...wouldn't trade them for anything.  :)

"Julia!  Can I come visit you?"  Wi asked, opening my door before sound could leave my mouth. 

"Ooh, your room is hot too."  Wi said, as she came in.  "What are you doing?"

"Translating a Bible story to teach the children at church on Sunday."

"Can I read too?"

"Sure."  I responded, handing her the teacher's book of stories. 

We sat on my bed, fans blowing the hot air around the room and flapping the pages of our books.  Wi read story after story out loud but to herself, insisting I get my work done and only occasionally stopping to ask how to pronounce a word or its meaning.  I occasionally did the same, asking the difference between two verbs that seemed interchangeable or the correct phrasing for a sentence.

After a while, Wi turned to another story.  "This one is from Genesis 26."  She stated.  "What's a 'well' and why were Isaac's ne-i-ber-s...a-r-gu-ing?" She asked, but quickly followed with, "I'll read and find out." 

Soft murmuring came from the other side of my bed.  Her petite finger ran across the lines of the story, brow intermittently wrinkling under her short, black bangs as she stopped to examine a word. 

"Hmmm."

I looked up, noticing Wi was finished with the story.  "So, why were Isaac's neighbors arguing?" I inquired.

"They wanted Isaac's well. But Isaac didn't want to ar-gue, so he built another one and then another one. He wanted to be their friend."

We sat quietly for a moment.

"I'm going to go now."  Wi stated, rather abruptly.  She paused, seeming to think about the stories she had been reading.  "God encouraged me to not argue with my friends."

"Good." I said, marveling at the way God just used a kid's bible story and my prep time to remind us of a lesson we often forget, even as adults. 

The door closed, and I was left alone to translate the rest of the story for Sunday school.

"Ar-gue?"  Wi called back, checking to make sure she was remembering her new word.

"Argue." I confirmed, smile widening across my face. 

Multiplication, God Style

A fun part of small group is hanging out to play games afterward!

"I really enjoyed coming to small group with you last week."  NaamFon shared with me on Sunday. 

NaamFon has been a believer for some years and is involved in another church, so I almost didn't invite her to our Bible study.  She surprised me by being very interested and insisting on going, even though we meet all the way downtown. 

"I think I will start meeting with a small group of students to study the Bible too."  NaamFon continued.

Wait.  What?  Wow! 

Is multiplication that simple?

Well, of course it is, if God is doing it.

We model what the Bible teaches, gathering together with Christ as the focus and the Bible as our life guide, and God brings the people and does the work. 

So in the next few weeks, there will be a group of students meeting at Ram 2 university even though our team is focusing on Bangkok university.  God has shared the vision and passion with a couple other people from NaamFon's church, so they will be partnering in leading this group. 

Just imagine... What if God multiplies that group in the same way, to reach out and start another group at another university.  And what if other people from our group are lead to start a group at the other Bangkok university campus. How long would it take until there was a small group meeting at all of Bangkok's 30+ universities? 

And that's just the work God is doing through our church.  Wow God!  What a blessing it is to get a glimpse into God's bigger vision for reaching Bangkok and Thailand. And what a privilege it is to be involved!

Perspective

Perspective changes everything.

This past week, we played a game called "Can You Make It?"
 

Each team was given a pile of random objects and players took turns trying to make the word they drew out of the bag.  Whatever team guessed the word correctly first was the winner.  Think of Pictionary, just making the object instead of drawing it.

My team guessed this immage within about 10 seconds of me beginning to make it.  I was very impressed.  With the right perspective you'll see...a sailboat.


"Do you ever feel weak?"  Gif asked me later.

"Of course.  Everyone one does at times."  I responded.

However, how we look at this feeling of weakness goes back to perspective.   "We can think about it as God's reminder that he is the one doing the work and we should be relying on him, or we can just be frustrated because we feel like we don't have enough strength."

At one point in the game, my word was "chair."  I made an "L" shape with string then lined up four toothpicks sticking off the bottom.  To me, it looked like a chair.  To the judge (who pointed and said, "That's it exactly!") it was a chair.  To my teammates, it was string and toothpicks in a mixed-up pile.  

How many times do you think we see God's plan like that?  When really, if we seek him (and are patient for his timing) the picture would look much different. 

 Any guesses? 

This one my team figured out...a cat.

 Teams 1 & 2

Teams 3 & 4

 The "making" process.

 Too easy!  

An ice cream cone.

 I was impressed that we figured this one out...

An elephant!  (The trunk is closest to us and the blue dot is its eye.)

Teams 5 & 6