Each week we do different chores around the house. This week a couple of girls and I had the task of scraping paint off of these lamp posts that will eventually end up at the land (the addition of SHE that will be done in about 6 months). Right now however, the job is to scrape the paint off, sand the posts down, and then finally repaint them.
This is not a quick job. We’re talking a few hours wasn’t enough to finish just getting the paint off of one of them. Well, Monday afternoon we had been at it for a few hours and there was so much work ahead of us still. There were points where I would feel so discouraged, thinking that I hadn’t really made any progress. But then I would remember what the lamp post looked like when we started and know that was a complete lie.
I think I am like a lot of people in that I like to see the final product right away. However, sometimes (no, let’s be real here, MOST of the time) it takes a while to get to the end result. In this case you have to chip the paint a way a little bit at a time (and I mean we’re talking a REAL little bit at a time) sand it down, and THEN you can repaint. Such a long process, but it’s a beautiful one.
I’m pretty sure that the Lord gave me this picture to teach me a little more about Bangla. See, the Lord isn’t done with Bangla, He’s far from it. But that doesn’t mean He’s not working there at this very moment. Bangla is not a place that changes overnight. It’s going to be a long process.
“being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion, until the day of Christ Jesus.”
-Philippians 1:6
It would be so easy to walk onto Bangla, and to see the brokenness and be instantly defeated by that. But the Lord is working there and He wants us to rejoice in the victory He has already promised over that place, and also in the process it takes to get there!
Before we got here we were told to rejoice in the small things. As we went on to Bangla Monday night, we walked in the victory we knew Christ has already spoken over that place. We readied our hearts to rejoice in the small things and God was there, waiting to show us so many different things to rejoice in.
The first time we walked down Bangla, there were NO GIRLS dancing in glass boxes. Then in Soi Crocodile, where there are usually at least 3 or 4 ladyboys dancing with a huge crowd around them, we noticed an empty stage. Later, we noticed there were girls dancing in the boxes. However, every time we passed by a box with a girl in it the street below it absolutely reeked (this is something we pray for almost every day) and there was never a crowd. The girls were eager to talk to us that night. So were tourists. God was definitely on Bangla before we got there, while we were there, and even after we went home.
That night we walked on to Bangla ready to see the Lord and He showed us exactly where He is on those streets. He is there, He is working, and you better believe He is going to finish what He has started!
