Something I have been trying to do is write down important things I want to remember in the mission field on sticky notes.  I’ve been collecting these sticky notes in the front of my notebook for safe-keeping until I get there, and I want to have a space in my room to put them up as reminders when I come against hard times.  All through training I’ve been wanting to share the lessons I am learning, yet struggling with how to even attempt to explain.  The idea dawned on me a few days ago that the sticky notes are the perfect way to narrow it down to a few of the major concepts we’ve been learning.

“In order to be good at something, you have to be willing to start out bad.”
One of my major goals going overseas again is that I want to learn the language better.  I know this will take conscious and consistent effort to talk, and that is hard for me to do in my native language.  Especially in a language I don’t know, it will be even harder.  But, “in order to be good at [Thai], I have to be willing to start out bad.”  And that’s really the key: being willing to start out.  Even when I can’t talk very well, I have to be willing to use what I do know, and that’s how I’ll get better.

This applies to far more than just language learning.  It applies to building relationships with the Thai people, teaching cello, and really anything else in life.

Going along with this is another sticky note: “Failure is an event, not a person.”  Sometimes I will fail at something (language, culture, or anything else).  But this is an opportunity to learn and try again.  It doesn’t make me a failure.

“Salvation looks like relational healing.” / “The life you live is the gospel you preach.”
These are actually from a list of four assertions about team ministry and the gospel:

1. Salvation looks like relational healing.
2. When we live together, it reveals our relational brokenness.
3. When we experience relational brokenness, it’s an opportunity for us to practice our faith in what God can do.
4. The way we live together is the gospel we preach.

In Genesis, we read about the creation of man.  Humor me a moment.  Can you imagine coming into being, into consciousness, for the first time?  All of a sudden, you are.  And you look up into the face of a majestic and beautiful Being gazing down with love, and He says, “Welcome, Adam.  I made you.”  What a beautiful relationship that must have been.  And with that in mind, what happens in Genesis 3 makes you want to weep.  This beautiful relationship is broken.  The communion God and Adam (and Eve) had before is not possible anymore, and they must be banished from the beautiful home God made for them.

This broken relationship, one we are all born into, is the reason we need salvation.  And this broken relationship causes brokenness in our other relationships.  Salvation, and the resulting change Jesus works in our heart and life, is reconciliation in our relationship with God and with our fellow humans.  If we preach that Jesus can change lives, but our relationships are just as broken as everyone else’s, it negates the effect of our preaching.  On the other hand, if our relationships show the change Jesus has made in our lives, preaching is hardly necessary.  The change Jesus makes is evident already.

“The Stuck Truck: Trust God Anyway.”
This is a lesson from a story one of our trainers told.  There is no way I can attempt to give you a sense of the story; you’d really have to hear it from him.  As an attempted summary, I’ll say that there came a point where he was trying to make it to a jungle airport for a flight, and his truck was hopelessly stuck in the mud.  He was ready to throw in the towel on missions, just go home, and live a life without God, and if you heard the whole story you wouldn’t blame him one bit.  But he made the decision to trust God anyway.  Even though God didn’t seem to be listening to his prayers.  Even though he couldn’t see a reason why.  Even though God seemed to be against him.  He would serve God anyway.  He prayed again, committing himself to follow God anyway.  Next thing he knew, he and the truck were at the top of the hill.  He made it to the airport 5 hours late, sure he’d missed the flight.  But the pilot arrived at the same time, and he was able to get where he needed to go.  He ended up speaking at a school, sharing the story of the stuck truck and his decision to serve God even though he didn’t know why God allowed that to happen.  It turned out, that story touched the students and started a revival at the school.  Group after group of students came to him wanting to commit their lives to Jesus.  And he realized, maybe this was the reason God allowed him to go through all those hardships.

No matter what I face, I want to make the decision to trust God anyway.  Even when I can’t see Him working.  Even if He seems to be against me.  I want to serve Him because He is God.

“The Bucket Test: Build as many bridges and tear down as many barriers as you can.”
The bucket test is an illustration.  There is a pole with three buckets hanging from it (see illustration on the sticky note photo above).  The top bucket is where you put things that are requirements, that you must do.  The ten commandments, for example, go here.  The lower bucket is where you put things you absolutely cannot do under any circumstance.  This would be things like killing, stealing, things that go directly against God’s law.  The middle bucket is for things that are neither prohibited nor required, the grey area.

Everyone decides what goes in which bucket.  As an example, where would you place the following things?  Going to church, eating between meals, spending money selfishly, using coarse language, drinking alcohol, swimming on Sabbath.  Two people who are Bible-believing Christians and both follow God could potentially have different answers for some of these.

The whole idea of the bucket test is to prayerfully arrange your buckets to build as many bridges and possible and tear down as many barriers as possible.  For example, if you put eating cheese in your lower bucket, and you go around telling people they should not under any circumstances eat cheese, this could create a barrier that is really unnecessary and not strictly biblical.  It would be better to put it in the middle bucket.  It’s not a requirement to eat cheese, but it’s not against God’s law to eat cheese, either.  Of course, this is a silly example, but it shows the principle.

“Humility looks through the window, rather than into the mirror, of praise.”
Receiving compliments has always been a hard thing for me to do.  I don’t want to seem conceited and full of myself by agreeing too heartily with the person complimenting me.  But I also don’t want to seem calloused, rude, ungrateful, or self-deprecating by refusing the compliment.  This statement is a game-changer.  When receiving praise, use it as an opportunity to “look through the window” into the heart and life of the person giving it, rather than using it as a mirror to look at yourself.  For me, if someone compliments a song I play at church, I can say something along the lines of, “I’m so glad you were blessed by it.  What did it teach you about God?”  It is an opportunity to see into their heart and mind and get to know them better.
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It’s hard to believe we only have one week of training left.  I have made many new friends and grown in my relationship with God.  It’s even harder to believe I will leave for Thailand in 2-3 weeks!

Father, You know me intimately.  You know my hopes and goals, You know my weaknesses, and You know what lies ahead.  Thank You for bringing me this far, for preparing the way ahead of me.  Make me into what You want me to be and teach me how to work for You.
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*To learn more about the backwards brain bicycle, watch this video by Destin from Smarter Every Day.  One of our requirements at training is to be able to ride this bike to the end of the (looong) driveway and back without putting our feet down.  The main lesson we can draw from it is that when we go to a new culture, ways that we are used to doing things may not work.  It will be hard to re-wire our brains.  Sometimes we will look like idiots, or like little kids just learning.  It’s part of the process, and with practice/experience it will get easier.  There are so many amazing lessons this bike can teach!!

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