Stories from the Field

July 2005

One Night in Bangkok

By a Student Volunteer to Thailand

One of my prayer requests from my last journal entry was that God send us people to share the gospel with. Well, that happened right off the bat during the night we spent in the Bangkok airport! After more than 20 hrs of flying, we set up camp in the Bangkok airport to sleep during the 9 or 10 hours before our flight up country. Out of boredom I pulled out my guitar and our team started messing around with music.

A Thai man who looked to be about 50 years old came up and started listening. He requested a few songs like Hotel California, and other 70's rock classics. We obliged to the best of our abilities and then begin talking with him. He spoke English, but not very well. He told us that his name was Lim that he often comes to the airport to practice English on people, and just to talk with them. He then told us that he lost all of his money on booze, prostitutes, and bad business decisions (I know what your thinking, sob story + rich Americans = $$$).

We could tell he was empty inside, extremely lonely and hurting, and we began asking about religions in Thailand. He told us there were many religions and they all taught peace and to do good things. We could tell he did not think he was good enough for all of that. To make a long story short, we ended up spending the ENTIRE night with him, showing him love and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had never heard the name Jesus so we had to start from the beginning. I told him that we all do bad things, and that none of us are good enough. The entire world is searching for happiness and to fill that void in their lives with alcohol and sex and money, and many other things of this Earth. We shared with him that Jesus paid our debt in full, and we no longer have to keep earning our way to anything. Jesus will fill that void and emptiness.

There is a lot more to the story, of course. Lim did not "get saved" right then and there, but we pray that we are all part of the puzzle God is putting together in Lim's life. He loved us to death, and was SO SAD to see us leave. He asked where we would be playing so he could travel the distance to come and see us. He insisted on carrying our bags for us and directing us to where we needed to be. We were all teary eyed to say goodbye because of the love he gave us, all the while never asking for a single dime! He too was surprised that we showed him so much love. It was an incredible experience and we ask you to pray for Lim, that God continue to work on his heart, and to help him back on his feet again. He hugged us as we left, and we could tell he was extremely sad. We spent 8 hrs with him talking, laughing, and loving him in a way his culture wouldn't. We couldn't help but thank God for introducing us. Is this a foreshadowing of things to come? The fact that we hadn't even gotten to our destination and God is giving us opportunities like that... all we could say after that was WOW. I will never forget Lim, and I pray that Jesus is made real to him.