Travel challenge, was the announcement at the end of Thailand. We were to travel from the north of Thailand until Panang Island in Malaysia, about 2000km and only enough money for food. So before we head out we all gather together in groups of 3, praying, asking the Lord and acknowledging him to direct our path. We prayed for about 15 min and soon we all believed to have gotten pictures from the Holy Spirit. In unity we all remarkably recieved picture that was almost simular. We recieved pictures of the sun, the sunset over the sea as well as a picture of us with the wind in our hair looking at the sun, yes, very mejestic. Some scriptures also came up encouraging us not to worry what we would eat or where we will stay, for the Lord knows these things, this is the day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it.
So with the scriptures and pictures in the back of our head we start our travel challenge with a great expectation of how the Lord will lead and guide us. We started hitchhiking and soon it already felt very evident that every lift seemed to be devine oppointment, where we were just able to built relationships with people and share a little about Jesus as much as we can. We could see God's provision from the very start, people going the extra mile for us, paying for our transport and even giving us money and food.
On the second night after we were blessed with a very long lift all the way to Bangkok. We decided to Couch surf. Couch surfing is a app on your phone that is almost like a community of people all over the world opening their houses for you to stay for free with them, as a way to make travel a little cheaper, in return you would then open up your house again for them when they visit your country. That night we were greeted by Thai and Felix, who offered us accommodation for the night. We were able to share so much about our travels and what Jesus has done this year, they were just in awe of the stories we told them, especially when we shared what we were doing.
The travel challenged continued, elevating our ears at every moment for our devine direction. We met many "persons of peace", people that were just so eagre to help us. We noticed in this time that God would othen repeat something through these people, like "You must use the train", if something was important. Stubbornness got a hold of us and we didn't want to listen, trying to save up money, not wanting to use all our money to buy train tickets. When we finally submitted after alot of frustration, we decided to completly trust the lord, buy the train tickets and continue our journey.
The second last day was probably the most challenging. We felt like we were being lead to go to Phukket, a very long detour on our way to our final destination. After many hours of travel, meeting and sharing with amazing people, we finally made it to a beach in Phukket. We literary had just put our bags down, made it to the ocean when a storm broke out leaving us and our bags soaked, seeking refuge under a broken down temple. It would take about an hour and a half to get sort of dry to be able to continue our journey out of Phukket again, confused on why we had to be there.
It was a great struggle getting out of Phukket, but soon people started to pick us up again. Still we really felt lead by the Lord, very confused but trusting the Lord, Prov 3:5. Darkness started to settle in and we started noticing that peole continued to offer us up their homes to stay with them for the night, maybe this was again a "Take the train" moment. With the fear of being stuborn again we agreed to stay with an old man that picked us up.
The man took us very deep into the most beautiful green parts of Thailand. About 45min drive. At our destination we where greeted by a Muslim family. The old man was so proud of his three visitors, he went to show us of to the entire village. The old man took us back to his home, gave us cooldrink and showed off his bout that was located in the river behind his house. We started talking and sharing with his family until the old man showed up again and invited us for a bout ride. The start of the bout journey was filled with many water plants and mangroove, untill we went around a bent, we were looking at magnifisent and truly captivating islands in the mits of the open sea. All three of us were speecless and praising God for His creation. After our little adventure where I believe God was just showing off, the man turned around and we saw the most amazing sunset between the clouds. We were looking at each other, remembering our pictures and scriptures, never feeling more perfectly in God's will.
That night was filled with laughter and conversations while we were eating and sharing stories with the Muslim family until late at night. We had the oppertunity to pray for the food and blessed the house the morning before they gave us a lift to continue our journey. We reached our destination very late that night, with our last two hour ride in the smallest car I have ever seen, all with our 20kg bags on our legs. The couple that picked us up from the border, listened to our story and went out of their way to drop us exactly where we need to be. A confirmation yet again that God has already gone ahead of us and planned everything.
Soon in Malaysia we started settling into the new ministry point, we were to serve at a homeless shelter, cleaning, helping to prepare food and grabbing every oppertunity to just maybe share something about Jesus. This ministry reminded me alot of the words in red in Matt 25:35 "for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in" , Matt 25:40 "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me". Maybe we should start serveing people as a response to God's love for us and not as a response to the love people show us.
Our off times were filled with many prayer and worship sessions.I remember in one of these meetings a thought came to my mind, maybe it was something I heard long ago. I started thinking how othen do we worship to feel God's presence, rating the worship on how many goosebumbs we have experienced. What if we would actually start to worship in such a way that Jesus would experience goosebumbs listening to us.
One last thing to mention, that also links to my title. As every believer I think knows is that we are to share the good news of what Jesus did. To be honest this was at times very difficult for me, it sometimes feels to me like there should be a type of formula on what to say or pray, like ten steps to save. Can it be that we have over complicated this prosess, a prosess that should actually come so naturally to us. What if it is as simple just to listen intently to peoples stories, eeponding and sharing stories of what Jesus has done in your life and what He means to us. Maybe that is what is meant by the simple Gospel.