It was that time again... time to make my monthly trip to Mae Sai to renew my visa. *sigh* I wasn't looking forward to it. All day on a bus... no fun at all, especially by myself. Movies shown it thai, annoying thai music, and no one to talk to.
PiDuang drove me to the bus station, and I waved to her as I climbed aboard the 8:00 am bus. I squeezed down the aisle and found my seat. Of course it had to be on the side of the bus with double seats, and I didn't even get the windown... another sigh. I sat there morosly waiting for the bus to leave, hopeing no one would take the seat next to me. No such luck. A middle aged farang (foreigner) stopped next to me, and I moved so he could take the window seat. Well, at least maybe I could talk to someone.
He got situated in his seat, and then I asked him where he was from. (No one generally starts with names around here.) He said he was from england and lived in Chiang Mai. He asked where I was from, so I told him Tennessee, and that I also lived in Chiang Mai. Thus began our long conversation. We talked about everything from the difficulty of the thai language, the upcoming Songkran festival, and how we liked thailand, to the problems of our countries leaders, the thai verses english monarchy, and how we really were tired of visa runs.
He'd asked what I was doing here in Thailand, and I'd said I was teaching the kids of some missionaries, but I didn't mention the fact that I was here as a missionary as well. I wanted to keep the conversation on neutral ground, after all, there was only a half hour before we arrived in mae sai! Then I heard a still small voice reminding me that "Whoever deny's me before men, him also will I deny before my Father in heaven." Yikes! I sure didn't want to deny my Best Friend, so with a prayer for guidence, I brought the conversation around to religion.
At first my new friend (I'll call him Josh) was not receptive at all. When I casually mentioned that last month, I'd had a very intersting converstation with a Jewish guy about God, his response was, "That's nice, good for you." Uh oh, I thought. I'm stepping on some toes here... but that means it's probably needed. I was trying to think of something else to say when Josh blurted out. "you're sure brave, I thought religion and politics were the forbiden topics, and here you are starting a converstaion about God!" That broke the ice. I laughted and began to tell him what Jesus ment to me, and how He had changed my life. No theology, unless Josh asked a question, just my testamony. This brought to light that my seat mate didn't believe there was a God. He said he needed tangible proof. He said evolution made sense, and he'd never seen God, or heard His voice, or anything like that. Josh thought he did fine on his own, and said that in every situation where he'd had a problem, he'd gotten himself out of it. It wasn't God. He thought religion was good if it made someone do good things, and filled a need for a "higher power."
With continual short prayers for the words to say, I tried to share with Josh that I couldn't doubt the fact that God exsisited because of what He had done in my life. I continued to share with him and he asked lots of questions, even including the state of the dead. He was all ready to shoot me down with the normal Christian "eternal soul" belief, but I think I surprised him when I agreed on his point of view that when someone dies, that's it. They don't go to heaven or hell.
All of a sudden we realized that we had arrived in Mae Sai. I told Josh goodbye and said I'd enjoyed talking with him. But he cut in saying, "you want to go for coffee or something? You can't start a converstation about God and then just stop it like that!" I figured since the cafe he refered to was very public, it would be ok. So he enjoyed his beer and rice, and I enjoyed my pineapple slush, and we talked some more.
Soon we both had to go renew our visas, and he was going to shop a bit, and I was headed back to the bus station. So we shook hands and said maybe we'd see each other at the upcomming songkran festival. Then we headed our seperate ways.
It was a totally awesome experience! Add that to the jewish guy I got to talk to last month on my visa run, also about God, and there have been several others!
So now my tune on visa runs has drastically changed. I can't wait to see what unsuspecting victim God will drop in my lap next month!! Isn't God amazing!!!
Please pray for Josh, and the others that God has given me the opportunity to talk to. Pray taht they find the God and the truth they are searching for. God bless - sha
