From Christmas 1966 until Christmas 1979 I worked as a missionary in Thailand.

Thailand, Bantak

Image / Rachel Flintoff

For one Field conference we had the General Director of the Mission as guest speaker and I think it was he who said that the Thai field was one field without problems and that he enjoyed coming.

Missionaries are only people and there are usually relationship problems on the mission stations.

Just now I have finished reading the book “We would see JESUS” by Roy Hession.

From the book I am learning why there are relationship problems between missionaries.

Especially new missionaries concentrating on service for God, instead on God himself.

God Himself must be our goal, and not activity for God.

It is just as easy as that.

We had a very wise Field Leader in Thailand and he was like a father to me when I was a young missionary on the field. I remember him saying something like this:

“If we put enough pressure on each other we will all go home eventually.”

The reason why we did not have any major problems was due to his wise counsel.

Thailand near Bantak

Image / Rachel Flintoff

What helps you most in hard times?

That is still the question on my mind.

I have mentioned already that Praising the Lord helps me most in hard times.

But there is still something that helps me more than anything else.

What helps me more than anything else are memorized verses from the BIBLE.

One of those memorized verses is Revelation 12:11, where it says,

“They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.”

I think that verse is special to me since the visit of a missionary to our place in Kaikohe, where we were working (United Maori Mission). I think I remember correctly that the missionary who had been working in Africa (Congo) for many years used the verse in a short devotion.

There are other Bible verses which are very precious to me and which I have memorized.

They include:

First Corinthians 3:11;

Second Corinthians 3:17;

Isaiah 30:15;

First John 1:9;

First John 3:8;

James 4:2.

One verse I really like very much is First Corinthians 3:11, where it says,

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is JESUS CHRIST.”

I know of course that I should know  more verses from memory, and that I should make an effort to commit more verses from the Bible to memory.

Revelation 12:11 is a very powerful verse, because it mentions the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And please remember always First John 3:8, the second part.

Let us remember again Paul and Silas who praised the Lord at midnight in prison and King Jehoshaphat who praised the Lord when he was attacked by enemies (Acts chapter 16 and Second Chronicles chapter 20).

But most of all remember the Lord Jesus Christ who answered the devil with verses from the BIBLE, when he was tempted (Matthew chapter four).

WATOTO PRESENTS

I am just back from listening to the “CHOIR OF CHILDREN FROM AFRICA.”

Whenever I visited a certain website some time ago I read,

“Preparation is more important than the actual doing.”

I remembered that today when I listened to the “choir of children from Africa” at 1pm and did not have my camera on me and the opportunity to take really good pictures.

Let us always remember the old motto:

“BE PREPARED”

Written some time ago:

HAPPY PEOPLE AND JOY IN THE COUNTRY

“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy,” says Anton Chekhov.

It’s actually winter here in new Zealand while I am writing this. It is cold, raining, and this morning we had a heavy storm and the power was off for some time. Believe it or not but the power went off again for some time while I was writing the last sentence.

In my reading of the Bible from cover to cover I read not long ago in the book called First Chronicles that “there were plentyful supplies” of everything. The reason why “there were plentyful supplies” is also given. There was plenty of flour. There were plenty of cakes made from figs and raisins. There was also plenty of wine and oil. And not only that, there were also plenty of cattle and sheep. There was plenty of food.

Why?

Because there was joy in the country of Israel. Because there was the joy of the Lord in the country of Israel.

And where you meet happy people, there is laughter. Where you find people who are full of joy there is laughter.

“Laughter is still the best medicine,” I am reading in the magazine called Reader’s Digest.