You’re lucky. I was going to make this another long, melodramatic post about the hopelessness of the world we live in and the spiritual needs of the people around me that I will never hope to meet… But I decided against that. I’ve been feeling hopeless for too long, and I’m ready to focus instead on the positive.

Seriously though, there are plenty of reasons to feel hopeless in terms of sharing the gospel in this country. Thai Buddhists are so set in their traditions, it would take God Himself coming down in human form again to convince these people that He exists, and even then many would doubt. I digress.

While there have been many days where I’ve felt like my presence in Thailand won’t make any sort of impact, recently I’ve become more and more encouraged that I am actually needed here, and that my presences does in fact make a difference in some people’s lives. One of the most practical examples is my relationship with my music students. I didn’t always have a good relationship with my students. When I first arrived in Thailand, I ended up teaching my first set of lessons on my second day here, and I really can’t say that I enjoyed it. I had high hopes for my first experience as a full-time music teacher, but within the first 5 minutes of teaching, that low-attention-span, high-energy, apathetic student quickly demonstrated to me that my hopes of cultivating musical greatness in the city of Khon Kaen would never be fulfilled. With that dream crushed, I instead focused all my energy into helping my students achieve as much success as possible while trying to maintain a fun and exciting atmosphere. The results so far are a mutual respect between me and my students, and my growing attachment to each one – even the apathetic, low-attention-span, high-energy students. Each student I’ve taught has wormed their way into my heart, and they know it.

I will say that even though some of my students can be a handful and I often find myself counting down the minutes until the end of their lessons, many are progressing quite rapidly. I have a flute student who, when I first started teaching her, could barely get through one song without stopping every two measures to catch her breath. Now she’s flying through pages of music without getting winded, and the quality of her sound has improved miraculously. That student alone gives me hope that maybe some of what I’m teaching is making sense. Another miracle is the attitude change of a girl who gave me so much grief at the beginning that I was all but praying for her to quit. She didn’t want to learn anything new, she begged her parents not to send her to lessons, and she refused to be taught in any way different from her previous teacher. However, by the end of the first month she would burst into the school overflowing with excitement for her next lesson. I was able to channel that energy into learning new pieces, and thankfully she’s not so opposed to new ideas any more. The teacher she had before was planning to come back in October, but her plans changed and she ended up not returning. When I told that to my student and her parents, I half expected them to withdraw her and find a different teacher, but after a moment of disappointment she perked up and exclaimed, “So that means I can keep studying with you? Yay!” We’ve been happily continuing our studies since then with much improvement and progress on her part. So I’ve come to the conclusion that, in regards to the music school, I think it was definitely worth it to come. I’m so privileged to be working with such sweet students, and the skills I’m learning as a teacher will follow me the rest of my life.

While the music school is flourishing, and [most of] my students are making this job the most enjoyable one I’ve ever had, I can’t help but feel like there’s more I could be doing to spread the gospel to them. Simply being their teacher and forming a friendship with them isn’t going to be enough for them or their parents to ask deep spiritual questions. A few days ago our team was blessed to be visited by our field directors, Don and Janella Abbey, as well as AFM’s president, Conrad Vine. The three of them gave us many ideas on how to improve the school, and they also gave some guidance on what we should be doing to reach out more in regards to spiritual things. They promoted the idea that we should not only be praying for each of our students and their families, but we should have a white board with prayer requests and praises out in the school lobby where students can see that we’re praying specifically for them and how God has answered those prayers. Testimonies of answered prayers are sometimes the best way to prove God’s loving character. Our mentors also suggested that we pray with each student before their lesson, explaining that if we ask for God’s blessings on our studies, He will give us success. I’m so excited to try these new ideas, and I’m praying that God will bless our efforts to reach out more for Him. I’d like to ask for your prayers on this experiment as well, that it would open the doors for more spiritual conversations and stimulate interest in Christianity.

To conclude, I’d like to say that I’ve purposely left out from this post all the feelings of despair and discouragement I’ve experienced in the past few weeks. I’ve come to realize that complaining about a situation doesn’t make it any better. I’ve done my fair share of weeping over Khon Kaen, just like Jesus wept over Jerusalem, but crying about how lost these people are isn’t going to help them find their way home. What this city needs is prayer, and lots of it. We need to be praying for a spiritual revival, that the city would wake up and realize their need for a Savior. I’m praying for opportunities to witness to people every day, and also for the wisdom and strength to actually reach out when an opportunity does arise. I know for a fact that God wanted me in Thailand this year (and not just to escape the political uproar of America during the election). I would ask that you continue to pray for me as I discover more ways to reach out to these people, and that by my example many people will come to know our loving God. I’m determined now to stay positive and watch how God works miracles in Thailand.

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