Wednesday 06 Mar
What does it mean to be intentionally open to God and others?
Glenn and Liz have recently relocated to another area of Thailand. Here, Liz shares of their intentional openness in their new location.
"Before we left the village, Glenn and I decided that as soon as we arrived in our new home, we would be very intentional to stop what we were doing when we had people pop in to check us out, or if the neighbours were willing to chat. Glenn made many trips to the local hardware and paint shop, and also goes to the morning market every day to buy some curry for our lunch and to chat with the sellers.
We live on a busy street, so we spend a lot of time sitting out the front greeting people as they ride or walk pass curiously looking in to see what the new “Farang” (Westerner) family are doing. When we found out our neighbour had just had an operation, we took her a meal. A week or so later the same neighbour returned our plastic container with a local Thai dish in it for us to try. As we sat on our front step she said to me, “We used to have a Farang live just over there” (pointing out towards some houses). “He never spoke to us, he would just stare. I’m happy that you can talk with me.”
We pray for God to sustain us in our openness in this community as we seek to become trusted and accepted. We pray for willingness to step out of our comfort zone and perseverance to sustain relationships even through cultural differences and challenges. We ask for God to use this time to shine His light and love into the hearts of the people in our community."
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