A Wonderful Opportunity at SRU

I am still amazed at our Lord. I am honored, humbled... everything at the wonderful chance I had to let these college students know about Jesus. That is all I wanted to do with them, was to let them know that God loved them so much that He came Himself to take care of our sin that we could do nothing about. And I think they understood it. I used many illustrations, both verbal and pictorial, as well as a song at the end. I taught them "How deep the Father's love for us", but had it written in their notes in Thai. I wanted to make sure they understood what it was all about. However, the rest of the lesson was in English (as it is an English class after all!), so I repeated and restated what I was trying to get across. I started off by clarifying some things about Christianity, such as where did it come from. Many people here view Christianity as a European or American religion, so I told them how it really started in the land of Israel in the middle east. I was hoping that would help them to think of this as something that could be for them, instead of writing it off as an attempt to Americanize them.

I told them the story of the gospel as the story of God redeeming mankind to Himself. Think about it, is there a more beautiful story, really? An all powerful God creates man for friendship, and that creation rebels and breaks the one rule that He had set. Because of that, man is separated from his God. Throughout the years, man's attempts to reach God are futile because of his own sin. So God comes down to man Himself and takes the punishment for that sin in the person of Jesus Christ. Because of this, man can be reunited with God. I said more than that, and not using those exact terms, but at the end, I really felt they understood what was being said. And I know they understood the song. I told them over and over again that God loved us so much, that He allowed His own people to kill Him in order to bring us to Him.

I had much freedom to say what I wanted to say, and I certainly am grateful for that, but I was cautioned against pressuring the students. So I simply left it open to come and see me if they had questions about anything. I don't know if they will, but I know they heard about Jesus today. Thank you to all who were praying for this. I want to let all of you know how much we appreciate the prayers, we are excited about the opportunities that God has given us here and are working to make the best use of each one!

I am not sure how many of the students had heard of Jesus before, but I am thankful to God for the chance to present our Savior in such a way. I have found that being here in Thailand makes me think about many things, see things in ways I had not thought of before. It tends to put things in perspective. As I was teaching today, presenting Christ to people who had no idea about this life, it dawned on me yet again the raw power and the incredible love contained in the story of the Jesus. Sure makes it worth dying or living for Him!

Drew