Amazing Grace

I have been wondering what to write about first as I begin to unpack this trip. What is hitting me the hardest is how thankful I am for the church. This doesn't have to do with finances, although I cannot begin to thank everyone enough for that and for your prayers for my team and I, but I want to tell you is a story about a temple and a church I visited in Southeast Asia.

 I remember it like it was yesterday. Walking up the stairs to this temple and having to ask my friend if we could walk up with our elbows locked and a word of prayer on our lips as I was hit with an overwhelming shock of mixed emotions. I saw the beggars with no limbs. I heard chanting music. I smelled the smoke being offered up to their ancestors and it broke my heart as I was rocked with the reality that these sweet people really didn't know where they were going after they died and it was a generational fear. It is a routine to come to this temple, bow down to the idols and force their kids to do it too because as a part of their culture, one did not want to mess up this religious curse, I'll call it, that has been continually passed down. As I watched one family bow down to an idol the tears came rushing down and I had to take a minute to gather my emotions as I wrapped my head around the truth that these people don't know that their lives are at stake because they haven't heard the truth of the gospel.

 I will never forget this moment, but don't worry it gets a lot better.

 There's this place called a church. It's sometimes difficult to find, but once you walk in there it is a feeling of Amazing Grace, both when you sing it out and when you walk in with your bare feet and the villagers offer you nuts or whatever they have that is their very best because you are a foreigner and they want to give you the very best they have.

 It's hard being a Christian they say, all over Southeast Asia, but as one Koran boy told a member of our group:   he felt bad for us because it is hard since we have so much luxury that we don't have to depend on God. I think it is, for us, a matter of recognizing God. Yes, he may feel bad for us, but when we take a deep breath and perhaps we are dropped to our knees because we see, we really see God's grace, and when we take the time too look at it and sing, "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me..." we recognize that we are wretch's and that we are all in need of that sweet deep reminder of grace especially when you take a moment to recognize it, please don't forget to recognize that today.

Be blessed, church!