Last Friday night my team was leaving Bangla road. We were done for the night and heading to our meeting spot in order to head back to the house. As we walked back, Thai men and women would come up to us with posters wanting us to come to a Ping Pong show in the bars. Now here in Thailand the term Ping Pong show does not refer to table tennis, but strip shows. Most tourists ignore these people who advertise and won’t even look at them but my team has made a point to look, not at the poster, but at the face behind the pictures and smile and say no politely.
As we walked back, I was in the mindset of being done for the night; I was ready for bed. But as we neared the end of the street, a man came up to me with his Ping Pong poster. I looked him in the eye and smiled at him, and before I could even say no thank you, this Thai man lowered his poster, smiled and pointed at me and said something in Thai. I don’t know what he said, but I know that he recognized me. This man saw only my smile, but he remembered me. He knew who I was by my joy.
This was only 30 seconds of my time on Bangla, but in that half a minute God revealed HIS joy to someone. I thought of it as a simple smile, but God had bigger plans. One man on Bangla saw something new. And he remembered it. He remembered the joy that I had. God’s joy in me.
One man who has recognized something different in me. Maybe one day he will hear the gospel and the name of Jesus. But for now I simply shared what I had. The joy of the Lord.
