Remember

The story this week in my small group was out of Exodus 12 when God establishes the Passover as part of releasing His people from Egypt. One of the questions that is asked every week at small group is “If this story is true, what will you do in response?” I was struck by verse 14, which says, “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”

The EMBARK House

What God did to release His people was quite remarkable. It would be easy to think they would never forget something so spectacular. However, God knows His people. We are prone to forget. So God asked Israel to set aside time every year to remember forever what He had done to save His people from Egypt.

I decided in response to the story, it would be a good week to remember and celebrate God’s work during my time in Thailand. In October, I had put together a list of the ways I had seen God at work during my time in Thailand. This weekend I went back through the list to remember and to add more evidences of God’s goodness during this season. Here is a sampling of that list.

·          The foundation for EMBARK laid by the Mellis and the Wilsons

·          Neil’s willingness to run with the EMBARK concept even with limited resources

·          The provision of the EMBARK House and the generosity of our landlords

·          God’s revealing of His love and purpose for Doi Saket to me on Palm Sunday

·          Free training material provided by LeaderTrek

·          Getting to be Stateside for Grandma’s 95^th birthday, Dave’s 30^th birthday, Abby’s 1^st birthday, Mother’s Day 2012, and Mom’s first chemo treatment because my visa had been cancelled

·          Alicia and Olivia’s willingness to be “guinea pigs” in a new program

·          Jane’s ability to come help during EMBARK 1 and her involvement with future EMBARKers

·          Relationships built with Thais in Doi Saket- Sorn and Daa, Jay, Mike, P’Muk and P’Janet, the donut lady

·          The gift of Jasmine and Amy and all the resources shared from Bethany School of Mission

·          The provision of participants for each of the EMBARK groups

·          More funds raised than I could have ever imagined for the house, car, furniture, etc.

·          The provision of the EMBARK truck, Emmett, through Expat Auto

·          Going with Mom to doctor appointments, infusions, and the radiation center over the course of her 18 months of treatment

·          All the money and visas for Bini and Ellian in three weeks time

·          The diversity of our EMBARK teams

·          The growing endorsement for EMBARK from YFC/USA and Britain YFC

·          The provision of The Center TESOL course

·          Meeting people like Shelley & JR, Shelbey & Rachel, Laura, and others who never participated in EMBARK, but I had the opportunity to disciple them in the decision-making process

·          The response from the national directors to EMBARK at the National Director & Spouse retreat

Church at CMCC

·          Regularly attending Chiang Mai Community Church

·          Joining the story-telling small group

·          Joining the women’s basketball group in Chiang Mai

·          Discovering the aqua aerobics group Chiang Mai

·          Attending the Ladies Retreat in Chiang Mai in September 2013

·          My financial and prayer supporters being more engaged in my ministry than ever before

·          Visits to Chiang Mai from dear friends and my parents

·          Ellian really engaging with the people in Vietnam and breaking so many stereotypes

·          Renee figuring out she wants to teach for a living

·          Everyone passing their TESOL course

·          Learning to trust Jesus more than I ever have in my life

·          Mom declared cancer free

·          The perseverance that has grown in all of us, in Thailand and back in California

·          P’Prompt, the Chiang Mai YFC director’s, request for me to teach him English

·          The relationships that have been built from our English classes in Chiang Mai

·          Lana and I getting to live together

·          Opportunities to become more convinced of the incarnational ministry of Jesus and my own commitment to 3Story living

·          Learning to trust God with my family

·          The support and love of my parents through an intensely difficult season for them

·          The volunteer team from my different churches coming to help with YFC’s General Assembly in September 2014

This is only a partial list. God’s faithful hand is seen all over my time in Thailand. Sometimes, especially when things haven’t turned out as planned, it gets easy to forget and start to be discouraged. So I want to spend time this week celebrating God’s work and I want to make sure I go back and remember often that God has done a good work in and through me here. It is worth celebrating.