1. Eunuchs.
About a month ago, after a night of prayer for the other half of our team, my friend Sharon was feeling really heartbroken about our friend Palm who is a ladyboy. He's only 18 years old and yet he has already had a sex change. It was in that same moment that I had one of those "That's So Raven" moments and realized:
Ladyboys are eunuchs!
The Bible talks about eunuchs. There's the time in Acts 8 when Philip meets this Ethiopian eunuch on the road to Gaza. He finds him reading Isaiah 53–one of the most direct examples of the Old Testament pointing to Jesus.
But the first example of eunuchs in the Bible that I thought of is found a few chapters later in Isaiah 56. It says:
3 Let no foreigner who is bound to the LORD say,
“The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.”
4 For this is what the LORD says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant—
5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever."
This is a big deal because having sons was a big deal back in those days. And since eunuchs are emasculated, they obviously can't have sons. But God is saying, "if you follow me, I will give you a heritage better than sons to carry on your family name."
I shared this passage with Sharon and it was such a sweet moment–knowing that our God is a God of redemption and hope and that there is hope for Palm!
2. Big Buddha
This past Monday our ministry contact took us up the mountain to see the statue of "Big Buddha." The thing stands 148 feet tall. It's big. It's a reminder that 99% of Thai people don't know the hope of Jesus and still worship gods made of stone.
The thing that stuck out was what our contact told us:
"This statue is big–but the mountian is really what makes it draw a crowd. And who made this mountain?"
He also made a comment that when tourists, even the Thai people, come up to the top they spend most of their time looking at the scenery below–not the statue. What a view! God's creation causes much more awe than the marble statue.
3. Pam
Pam is our receptionist's niece. She's been doing an internship for the past month or so before she heads of to Univerisity in the Chang Mai provience. She knows English fairly well and we have become good friends. We've had some dance parties, played guitar together, saw Hunger Games, and she plans to go to the night market with us this weekend.
I feel that she is worthy of mention because she has recently become a Christian through the sharing of her aunt. She has never been to a church though! So I invited her to go to the Thai church that we went to our first week here for Easter!
Pam is an awesome friend and definitely needs prayer. What a cool opportunity she will have to share her faith at the University. She will need a good church or campus ministry when she gets there to equip her and help her grow in her relationship with God.
Today I showed her the "How Great is Our God" video from Passion 2012, where there are people singing in all these different languages. We talked about heaven and how God loves all nations and how we want more Thai people to be there. Then she told me that she will miss us when she goes to University. I told her we get to spend eternity together in heaven with Jesus. What she said back melted my heart:
"Sabeena, you be in my heart forever."
Keep praying for us! Thank you for all your support!
