In the past 24 hours, I've specifically asked three different people, in addition to my blog readers, to pray for me to have opportunities to share the Gospel up until the time I leave Thailand. I'm not sure what I was expecting those to look like, but today, God blindsided me.
I had registration for most of the day, which amounted to being a quiet catch-up day at my desk. The Thai girl who has sat behind me in the office for the past 1.5 years came over to ask me to help her translate some things into English (as in, she gives me the rough translation and I polish it up!).
Even though I see her all the time, I've never really sat down and had a conversation with her. Today, we talked. She is a talented linguist (fluent in 5 languages!) and has been at the BSC only a little longer than me. I learned so much about her. She shared with me about her experiences in Catholic school growing up, but how she had decided to remain a Buddhist. I was able to share a little with her about my faith and the differences between a relationship with God and religion.
In my mind, today was going to be an uneventful day. But God gave me the opportunity to start to build (even at the tail end of my time here!) a relationship with her. What a huge blessing!
It was also really convicting, because I think of my classroom and my church as being a mission field... not so much the office. The office is my "get work done and get out" zone. I am friendly, but not particularly chatty. After all, I need to prep for "ministry/teaching" and so does everyone else there. But even the preparation is ministry. Every thing. Every time. Every place. Every person holds the potential for relationship, conversation and investment. Even if that's only for a few moments, days, months or years.
Today was my reminder: to not forget to see where you are-- and to notice the people around you.
I had registration for most of the day, which amounted to being a quiet catch-up day at my desk. The Thai girl who has sat behind me in the office for the past 1.5 years came over to ask me to help her translate some things into English (as in, she gives me the rough translation and I polish it up!).
Even though I see her all the time, I've never really sat down and had a conversation with her. Today, we talked. She is a talented linguist (fluent in 5 languages!) and has been at the BSC only a little longer than me. I learned so much about her. She shared with me about her experiences in Catholic school growing up, but how she had decided to remain a Buddhist. I was able to share a little with her about my faith and the differences between a relationship with God and religion.
In my mind, today was going to be an uneventful day. But God gave me the opportunity to start to build (even at the tail end of my time here!) a relationship with her. What a huge blessing!
It was also really convicting, because I think of my classroom and my church as being a mission field... not so much the office. The office is my "get work done and get out" zone. I am friendly, but not particularly chatty. After all, I need to prep for "ministry/teaching" and so does everyone else there. But even the preparation is ministry. Every thing. Every time. Every place. Every person holds the potential for relationship, conversation and investment. Even if that's only for a few moments, days, months or years.
Today was my reminder: to not forget to see where you are-- and to notice the people around you.
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