Christians Should Never Outgrow Their Childlike Faith

We find ourselves unusually busy this week. I really can’t find the time to update this blog. Narlin is now holding three Evangelistic English classes from afternoon to early evening. I am preparing the materials and the visual aids most part of the day in this computer while supervising my children’s home schooling and afterwards visiting people and sharing visions with our pastor. We also spent a day with our fellow Great Commission workers from the Philippines who came to visit us to see the ministries we have been doing. They are inspired with the works that we have been doing here. They claimed that in all the places they had visited we are the only ones they believe who are doing “real” missions work. They saw our work at the nursery and the come to know about the Evangelistic English classes.

I think by now you are tired of reading posts about our visa. I am tired of this visa thing myself. And I’m hoping against hope that this will be the last post that will mention about it. However, this post is not about visa but God’s faithfulness. It is a story about living literally by faith and not by sight.

Some of my friends know about this because I told them this story in email. But it’s worth repeating here and hopes more people will know how God had been moving in our lives. Now to the story… we have been praying for our one-year visa extension. I guess by now most of the readers know the situation. We were waiting for over a week for our friend-lawyer to call us anytime to go to Chiang Mai immigration for the extension of the visa. The problem was we really didn’t have the money for the visa. The cost was too much for us. When the lawyer called us, we only had 1,000 in our bank. But with a trusting attitude we packed our things and prepared to travel early the next day. How could we go to Chiang Mai when we didn’t have enough money for the bus fare?

The children were excited to travel. But they too, knew the situation and they never worry. That’s child-like faith for you which Narlin and I seemed to retain and never really outgrow. And we thank the Lord for that. That night we had a Home Cell Program (I don’t know why Burmese brethren called it like that it was actually a midweek service) and the Pastor came to know about our predicament. After the program, we went home. Later that night when we were about to go to bed, we heard somebody knocked on the door (actually roll-up). It was unusual for us to have visitor late at night. Even more, it was unusual to open the roll-up that because it made so much noise that it will disturb our sleeping neighbors.

The pastor came to visit us, stayed and talked for a while and gave us an envelope before leaving. We sincerely thanked him. But our hopes were not too high. These Burmese migrant workers are very poor. They work hard here but get so little in return. They are exploited by richer people here. So… we were not expecting that the envelope would contain so much. Anyway, it’s not the amount that counts it is the thought. We were just expecting a 100 baht bill. But when we opened it; right there before our eyes was 1,000 baht. It was worth a week salary for a poor migrant worker. We were deeply touched. We thank the Lord for his provision. He provided the money for the bus fare then we really did not doubt that God will provide the money for the visa. We were ready to go.

So we left for Chiang Mai the next day, we took the earliest trip 6:00 am because this was the cheapest bus we can take, if we were late our money would not be enough. We drove to the terminal in our old motorcycle (two trips) and left it at the terminal hoping to see it again after two days when we return. We arrived at Chiang Mai at 1:00 PM and a friend met us there. We actually called her and told her about our plan to go to Chiang Mai the night before. And we were happy to see her. Seeing a friend when you didn't have enough money was very assuring that things would gonna be okay. She knew about our predicament and we knew that she would see us at the terminal. But we were not so sure that she will lend us the money we needed for the visa. Actually she also needed the money for her own visa renewal. But she told us that God impressed to her to lend us the money. She would not need the money in another two weeks. We thank the Lord again, he provided the bus fare, and now as we trustingly expected he provided the money for the visa.

The next day, we went to the Immigration office with our lawyer-friend. He prepared every documents we needed and told us that it would only take one or two hours, then we can return home. We started computing the amount needed for the visa and the work permit. We thought that the work permit will be paid later in some other time. But the lawyer told us that the payment was also needed that day. We thought the money for the visa was not enough to include the payment for the work permit. Narlin counted the money it was almost not enough. I looked in my wallet and found some bills in there. The money we had was exactly what we needed. With only a few 20 bills left, I had no choice but to withdraw the last money we had in the bank for our bus fare back home and just hope that somebody would deposit money to it sooner so that the account will not close.

We waited at the Immigration Office for interview and approval. But because there were many people in the immigration trying to extend their visa before the implementation of new visa rule, one hour become one day. We got the interview in the afternoon. The officer was kind and very polite. She looked at us and asked us some questions in English. She talked to our friend-lawyer most of the time. For most Filipinos who are getting their visa, this is the most stressful moment. You couldn't predict the officer decision would be. Will she give us the one-year visa or just extend us to another three months just like the others? Will she give us another tourist visa just like what happened to us in Malaysia before? Or will they just tell us that you have been staying in their country very long, you should go home in your own country? The officer looked at us very long and stamped our passport allowing us to stay the whole year. Now, we need to renew our visa next year July 2007. And until then you will not see me post about visa any more. I want this out of my mind, well at least for another year.

Our stay and work is now legal under Thai laws. However, this would not be possible without the help of people who really care for us and know the importance of what we are doing as Great Commission worker. We don't have money but we have a lot of friends, church mates, family who are helping us along the way. And for us that is more important than money. Friends are God's great gifts to us. We feel their presence and care although they are far away from us. We let them know our situations here and they respond as true friend should be. As a Filipino missionary our regular support comes strictly from the Philippines some missionaries and locals couldn't believe this, most Christian workers and activities here are being supported by the organizations from the west or more affluent countries. But we, impossibly, may it be, are being lifted up by our friends back home.

Our friends help us to never outgrow our childlike faith. Here, our children influenced us too. We learn a lot from them... after praying for our needs to God and sharing them with our friends and family back home, they eould tell us, everthing's gonna ba okay (Nag pray na tayo tapos sinabi nyo na sa kanila, okay lang yun, tulog na tayo, aalis na tayo bukas.) That's children’s faith, so simple but very confident. God certainly honors childlike faith.