Flowers and Broken Fobs

Hey folks, it’s been a while since I hopped on here, but before I head home for a few weeks, I wanted to share a few stories of the times the Lord has shown me His love, through His people, over the past six months!

One day I went into the city and I dropped my key fob and it broke into a million little pieces. I tried to open my car with the key instead, which for those of you who are smarter than me know, this proceeded to make the alarm go off. So after google failed me, and my dad couldn’t explain to me what to do over the phone, a Thai man and his wife from their business near by came over and started to also try to get the car to stop blaring. He finally got enough of the pieces of my fob back in order to be able to press the unlock button making the blaring noise stop. He then proceeded to put all the pieces of my fob back together. We had a sweet little conversation in Thai and I thanked him profusely while he continued to just say “mai pen lai” (no problem). I got in to leave, and he even helped me back out of the little street I was on, which is when I then proceeded to cry. Feeling overwhelmed with how much love I have for the Thai people. For their kindness. Their calmness in the midst of chaos. For their smiles and the way they make you feel like there really is no problem. I thanked Jesus for this divine appointment and for allowing us to meet. For showing me that he will always provide people to be alongside me even when I feel alone.

A few days before that, I let a man turn in front of me in traffic and he literally stopped alongside me and proceeded to bow to me in thanks. I smiled. Feeling overwhelmed by the little acts of kindness I receive by people who don’t know me, don’t look like me, don’t owe me, but show me hospitality in their country that I am a guest in anyways.

The next week I went to the flower market to buy flowers for one of our office staff ladies' birthday and I met a lady who was buying flowers to present to her gods at the temple nearby. She told me how thankful she was to meet me and proceeded to buy me flowers! We swapped numbers and I told her I’d come visit her flower shop later that week and that I would love to stay connected with her. A sweet and simple interaction but again I know the Lord is creating these moments as an opportunity for me to really “move into the neighborhood” and love those in my day to day.

Just last week I posted a fundraiser on my Instagram to raise money for school uniforms for our kids at Agape and within a week people from my community gave over $2,000 USD! With others from all around the world, we were able to reach our goal of $7,000 USD and provide enough uniforms for all of our children to wear to school this week! Praise God!

The Lord has constantly provided for me and those around me in so many ways throughout the past few months and I feel overwhelmed by His graciousness. Living in another country can often be frustrating and tiring, but he never fails to show me the warmth of his love in the midst of the harder moments.