If I haven’t had the opportunity to introduce myself to you yet, My name is Hope Van Ravenswaay. I’m the Care and Outreach Pastor here at South Side Christian Church. In this role, amongst other things, I am thrilled to be able to look over our missions team at South Side. Most of you might remember, however, that the missions team at South Side has previously looked over me! Before joining the staff here, My husband (Nate) and I were mission partners with South Side. For two years, while we were missionaries in Thailand, the people of South Side cared for us from the states. Those two years shaped me in more ways than I can explain, and I thank God for my time in Thailand every day.
Nate and I were on staff with a campus ministry called Campus Outreach while we were in Thailand. We were part of a team of seven recent college graduates with one job: start a Campus Outreach at a new university in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? That’s what I thought, too! We had no idea what was in store for us.
Imagine this: seven American young adults walk into a large, semi-enclosed cafeteria filled to the brim with hundreds of students. It’s 102 degrees. We’re in dress clothes. Everyone else is 1.) Thai 2.) Wearing matching uniforms (down to the hair pins!) and 3.) Somehow not sweating profusely!? We stuck out like the sorest thumb you’ve ever seen. Immediately the students started staring at us. Most likely thinking, “Who are these random American people in rural Chiang Mai? What do they want from us?” We sat down and tried to talk to some students. Oh, did I mention we didn’t know their language? None. Not even a little bit. The amount of humility dumped on us that day was staggering. It felt as if God was saying, “Have I not told you? Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). And boy, did that prove to be true.
All 7 of us have story after story of God’s faithfulness in our weakness and inability. We couldn’t even order our own food for a couple of MONTHS. We were infants in Thailand, not able to take care of ourselves. By God’s grace, he chose and sent people to care for us. One of those people is my friend Am. When we (my teammate Carrie and I) met Am, she was a junior in college. She did not speak more than one or two words of English. We did not speak more than one or two words of Thai. God softened Am’s heart toward us anyway. We had stilted, awkward conversations with Am for months before we got a better grasp of the language, and she still loved us somehow. She was raised in a Buddhist family, like most Thai people are. She didn’t mind that we were Christians, but she wasn’t really interested in hearing about God past the point of being polite. We understood that. It's a huge, jarring change to hear about Christianity when you were raised in a religion that has stark differences in most areas. We were absolutely out of our depth in explaining the gospel to her (in Thai! Badly!) but we continued trying. Am became our best friend. We spent so many hours together. We went on trips, she came on retreats, we had movie nights. About a year and a half into our friendship, 4 months before we moved home, Am started getting more interested in learning about Jesus. We had one of the Thai women on staff come help us explain the gospel and her testimony clearly, because we couldn’t, and we thought for sure that Am would start making some steps toward knowing the Lord. Weirdly though, after our big “gospel presentation” night, she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Anytime we asked about it, she said “I don’t know, I need time to think.” Which is usually a polite way for a Thai person to say “Please stop asking me about this.” With only a month left in Thailand, we were pretty sure we were going to leave and Am was still not going to be a Christian. We prayed and prayed for her salvation. We continued to love each other, spend time with each other, and have so much fun together. About a week before we left, we decided to go on one last day trip together to the top of a mountain in Chiang Mai. This was essentially our Goodbye trip. We went up the mountain in the back of a pickup truck going what felt like 100mph on bumpy, swirling dirt roads. Once we arrived (unharmed) at the top, we had an incredible time. We dressed up in traditional clothing, ate lunch at a “famous” noodle restaurant, and looked through the tribe’s history museum. On our way back down the mountain that day (in the back of the same crazy pickup) Am, out of the blue, said, “So…. if I wanted to pray to be a Christian… how would I do that….” Carrie and I just stared at each other for a couple of seconds because: WHAT! We prayed with Am right then and there in broken Thai in the back of that swerving truck. Our very best friend became our sister in Christ that day and here’s the kicker: it wasn’t because we were superstar missionaries, genius language learners, or super hard workers. We, by the strength given us by our gracious God, took very small steps of faith every day. We, in our extreme insufficiency and inability, just woke up and tried to do what we thought God wanted us to do. We asked others to help us because we HAD to. And God did the work. God saved Am, not me and Carrie or anyone else. God warmed her heart toward Himself, and we were just blessed enough to serve and play a role in it.
Before I moved to Thailand, I was terrified of being insufficient. I was terrified of failure. Now, I am so thankful that I’m not sufficient in my own right. I am so thankful that I can find my sufficiency in Christ’s death for me, and not in my own abilities. I am so thankful that I am called to be faithful, trust God, and walk one small step at a time; not to be perfect. The scripture I meditated on the most during my time in Thailand was this:
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
I am praying and hoping that as I take one small step of faith daily at South Side, God’s grace will be sufficient for me. Will you join me in praying for that? Not only for me, but for all of us. That for the sake of Christ, we would be content in our weaknesses. For when we are weak, we are strong. Praise God we don’t have to carry the weight of self-sufficiency!
