During this summer our team has had the privilege to build a relationship with a 74 year old Thai woman named Nikki. The more we got to visit with Nikki, she would open up more and more with us. Nikki is the sweetest company anyone could have telling you her past stories of events in her life. Nikki also felt so comfortable and open with us to invite us into her apartment and told us more stories of her with her pictures she stores of husband, children, grand and great children. She also told us about what she believed and it was then when we got to see how strong in her faith of Buddhism and then that we realized how open she was with us. Since then we have been so prayerful about the next step God wanted us to take in this relationship with Nikki.
Today me and Nikki ran into each other. We stopped to say greetings and then she asked me to come to a restaurant with her, there she bought me tea and we talked about our days and the news. The subject of family came up in our conversation again and I told her that I had brought pictures of my friends and family to share with my new friends here in Thailand. I told her if she would like to see them she was more than welcome to come to our apartment and I would love to share stories with her like she did us. She took me up on the offer.
I was sharing stories about my life with my pictures with Nikki. I had brought pictures of my baptism with me here with the intention of sharing with any of our Thai friends who got close enough. I told Nikki what that was and I asked her if she knew what baptism was and she said "no". I told her "It's what followers of Jesus do" I got a blank stare and proceeded to ask her "Have you ever heard about Jesus?" And she responded "No, I don't understand, I don't know what you are talking about" And I took a deep breath and said "Ok, I'm going to try to explain this to you how you would understand it, is that ok?" She said "ok"
What an opportunity to "flat out" share to share Gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time to someone who many have been praying for, to someone who had no idea of the Gospel period! Before I shared clearly saw the opportunity God had perfectly planned for me today and I prayed that he would talk through me. I can say that I would not be able to tell you verbatim how I shared the Gospel with Nikki, I know that it was spirit lead. I too learned something about my walk with God while sharing with Nikki. After, thinking about how I shared remembering how EXCITED I was to tell this AMAZING story like I was hearing it for the first time and to see Nikki's eyes widened as mine did to. All I could think was "Wow! This is real happening and I know but I don't know what I'm saying. Thank you, Lord for this!" Nikki asked more about what we thought about heaven because it was different than she believed and nodded her head and she "oh ok" looked at my pictures and nodded her head and said "that's good" We said our "see you laters" and she went back to her room and I sat down to pray.
I pray that our team gets to continue this relationship with her for the next 2 weeks that we have left her and just LOVE on her. That the Thai people that live here continue to reach out to her and walk with her. I pray that God stirs in her heart and she questions here curiosity. I pray that she would seek the truth, understand it, and want it. I pray that I would not be anxious that I may never get to see her be saved, but, rejoice in how God used me to bring her and glory to himself. Thank you for reading til the end! I'm so glad that you got to be apart of another piece of how God is working in Chiang Mai! Please pray for Nikki and our team!
Different stories, different perspectives, but the same God working! Check out Amy and/or Shauna's blog to read what they did with more Thai friends today:
"One Day"
Shauna's Blog
