Posted in General Articles by The World Race on 6/21/2006
Hay Everybody, it is about We bloged again.
This is a short one, You can contackt Sanru at sfjvr@yahoo.co.uk
you can contackt Francois at fsjvr@yahoo.co.uk
cool. God bless
| |
|
Posted in General Articles on 4/22/2006
Ps 27 "Wait for, hope for and expect the Lord"
This has absolutely been the theme for Thailand.
God has just not disappointed, and exceeded in every expectation.
He is alive in every area of this beautiful land, in the nature and definitely in the people.
I have never experienced hospitality like I did in Thailand… anywhere!
There is a few things to get used to, the humidity for instance.
My glasses steamed up when I walked out of Bangkok airport and every night (and during the day) it constantly feels as if I just got out of a swimmingpool, dripping…
Francois and I had 2 days for ourselves in Hua Hin, the cutest little town ever, we immediately fell in love with the place.
After our little vacation we had a train ride down to Trang and from there we went to 1 of the pearl islands where the Tsunami hit to pick up some trash and experience island life.
I love the way the people greet - they 'wai' - it is so wonderfully humble and respectful.
Our race was from Trang to Phuket and it was awesome.
We lost, but the challenges we had was great.
We had to compare the taste of locust with silk worms.
We had to find a local fruit that is not allowed in places like elevators because it stinks ('stinks' is an understatement) and eat it.
Luckily it doesn't taste like it smells, it tastes like Tropica fruit juice.
We had to ride elephants and look at tricks that they do, what an experience.
They are endangered though, I think there is only something like 2000 of them left.
Side note: it now turns out that we came first, we had no time penalties and that pushed us from last to first… go figure
The local missionary in Phuket gave each of the teams assignments to do in 5 different areas on the island and our team was in the sea gypsy village.
We were the first 'tourists' to stay in the village, people are afraid of them (even some of the locals) and our task was to find out more about their culture, have interviews with the people, live among them, learn what it is like to live like them, show Jesus to them, basically to do Luke 10!!
I was intimidated at first when we got dropped off
there, but as soon as we found our "man of peace" things started happening.
The people were so friendly and helpful and happy, it was inspirational.
They love life and they enjoy every moment of it.
God is showing Himself here and He loves these people so much.
The harvest is ready, but the labourers are few…
We also had the privilege to experience "Sokran", the Thai new year.
Everyone throws everyone with water, it doesn't matter where you are or what you are doing, it was awesome.
It was the biggest water fight I have ever seen in my life…
| |
|
Posted in General Articles on 4/5/2006
WARNING! THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG BLOG!
This is a summery of all the amazing things that happened in china since we last 'blogged' about Hong-Kong.
We left
Hong Kong for Ling-xia with excitement in our hearts. We had an expectancy about
China, but we had no idea what God had planned for us.
Ling-xia
After a five hour bus ride from Hong-Kong to Guan-xiou we took a thirty seven hour train to Ling-Xia. If you would look at a world map, Ling-xia is approximately in the middle of china. After we met some of the locals and learned about their local culture we realised that the locals are some of the most hospitable people in the world. We met permanent missionaries that live in Ling-xia. (Due to certain laws in china, pseudo names will be used)
Eugene and Cindy have stayed in Ling-Xia for a couple of years now, and God blessed them with a beautiful baby boy.
Dong-sha is a small town situated on the nearby mountains just outside Ling-xia. It is so high that the farmers in the aria can only grow potatoes. Our team stayed there for a week. Our objective was to build relationships with the locals and to learn about the local culture. Our accommodation was three small rooms, each had three beds in them with thin grass mattresses. The toilet is a typical Chinese toilet(a hole in the ground) and was shared by all the residents of the hotel. This is the culture and why we were there and it was a great experience. The surrounding mountains was truly an example of what God can do when He wants to create something beautiful. There was a small dam at the bottom of the town where the mountains form a valley. It was so cold that the dam was frozen over. Clara and
Antony told us that thay walked on the ice so ofcource Sanru and I wanted to do it aswell. Unfortunatly the following day the sun had melted some of the Ice and when Sunru climed on the Ice she fell hip deep through it. This was a truly memorable time for us because it was also our one year wedding anniversary.
Tibet
After all that we journeyed to
Tibet. Sanru felt that God called her
to stay behind which she did.( Despite the facet that I did not what her to, Lucky she loves God more than me!) Travelling time was more or less forty hours in total. We reached heights of 18000 feet above sea level. The altidude became so extreame that some of the people became nautious. In
Tibet our main goal was 'Tract bombing'. This meant that we would go to different towns and place tracts in there monasteries. The reason we do this is because of the communication barrier. So the only way that we can communicate the truth to the people was by using tracts, and mostly only the monks can read so that is why we place them in the monasteries. This is illegal in
China so we had to be very careful when we did this.( more detail about this can be found on the main team blog). Our team was assigned to go to 'Chu-ma-leg'. ( 15000 feet) here are some photo's to show you what it was like there.
Tailand
We have now been travelling for seventy hours straight. All the way from
Tibet to Hong-Kong and a flight from Hong-Kong to
Bangkok, then a bus down to Wha-hin. This is
Paradise. The locals are friendly, The accommodation is cheap and clean, and the food is great… This is going to be a good month…
| |
|
Posted in General Articles on 3/30/2006
You always read of martyrs in books, maybe hear of someone's amazing story not too long ago, but it will never really hit home until you get a phone call in China about someone being really upset about what christians are doing and threatening loved ones! Only then do you realise, this is real, it is dangerous and it is indeed a war...
About an hour ago we received a phone call from the missionary that they are being threatened at the place where they currently are with the police and being thrown out of China, maybe something worse!
One of the people there is known to receive dreams and visions which comes true and he had a dream about this place and he saw blood and a lot of foreigners. I am not writing this to be dramatic or to make people scared, but to inform you and to ask you to please pray and pray non-stop... Please pray in particular for the missionary, his wife and their baby boy, their friends (they are with those getting threatened) and also for our husbands and friends. For us it might be over soon, but for those with a calling, this is their home and it is different!!!
| |
|
Posted in General Articles on 3/27/2006
John 5:19 says "So Jesus answered them by saying, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing of Himself, but He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does is what the Son does in the same way."
How powerful is that, even our Saviour did NOTHING without imitating the Father and then we come and pray a prayer like "Please show me what You want me to do" when we should actually be praying "Please show me where You are busy and make me willing to want to go there and do what You are busy with" The first prayer has to do with us wanting to be powerful, spectacular and relevant whereas the second prayer is all about God, it is about having His heart as our own and like Jesus, seeing what the Father does and then doing the same thing!
I am currently busy reading a book by Henri Nouwen called "In the name of Jesus" and in the foreword alone it gives quite some food for thought. (The foreword was written by Cardinal Basil Hume) It says that ".... we are liable to be tempted, as our Lord was, 'to be relevant', to achieve great things for God, rather than to respond first to a love which Jesus has first given to us; 'to be spectacular' rather than humble because conscious of our frailty and limitations; 'to be powerful' rather than just to be, loving and serving, and at a great personal cost."
Matt 4:1-11 speaks about the Lord's temptations.
(I am still in the process of absorbing all this, so excuse me if I write a bit confusing)
The book is for christian leaders, but I think it is relevant to all human beings. I myself am not involved as such in any form of leadership, but as I read the book I find myself making it relevant to this trip and it is so easy to think that "Yeah, I'm traveling the world sharing the one true faith with people and now I am being faithful to my calling and God is really using me" How vain is that! When and if God uses me has got absolutely nothing to do with me, but when it does happen a usual response is "I feel so blessed; it is such a good feeling to be used by Him" and we forget to thank and love Him with our prayers and songs of worship. We forget to be humble because this is such an awesome thing and when it comes to serving at a great personal cost it becomes a struggle because we yearn after the power of doing something for God and gaining something where others see me! But staying behind in a small little flat, helping a wife and mother where no-one sees, living everyday life, that is where He works with my frail heart, moulding me a little more to be what He intends for me to be!
Thank you Lord.
| |
|
Posted in General Articles on 3/23/2006
Our time in China has been a blessing that I cannot put into words. We just stand in awe at what God is revealing about Himself and even about ourselves.
It is so easy to lose focus on Him. All the sites, all the things we see, which we know we will probably never again get to see is a very potent and powerful focuspoint. It is so easy to get caught up in the races and with people, worry becomes instant when you notice the money in the bank disappearing and you pray and pray and what does God say: Do you want Me or my blessings, do you want Me or my provision?
God is working with us in ways that's not nice, but it's wonderful! Our focus is shifting back to Him. And the way He is doing it is in sending us on different missions, Francois went with the group to Tibet (a place I was really looking forward to see) but God laid it on my heart to stay to help the missionary's wife at home with their baby and with whatever else was necessary.
Believe me, I struggled, it was not an easy decision, but it was very clear that God told me: You are here to worship Me, sights are a bonus!
Francois wanted me to go with them and he wasn't exactly happy to say goodbye for the week, but today I got to talk to him on the phone and he said: I think I know why God split us, He is working very hard with me! That made me feel good, I was obedient to God for my husband's sake (and for mine) but, I had absolutely nothing to gain (the sights) and in being able just to serve for this week is so far a blessing of its own.
| |
|
|
|
|
