I see this in my day to day in my relationships with refugee families. Refugees have had to leave their home or face extreme persecution or death-- plain and simple. Many familes I have met are victims of war or torture. Though they are here now and generally don't have to be concerned about being carried off in the night anymore, they are faced with a new, slightly less acute trauma of resettling in a new place.
This was not in the plan.
None of them thought as children, "When I grow up I hope war forces me to go to a foreign land where I don't know anything or anyone". None of them thought, "I hope I face the bitterness of lonliness that comes with being a refugee one day".
No, they had plans like I did- they wanted to be teachers, doctors, farmers, houswives, but one day that was all broken and kicked in the dust, for a time at least.
However, God was there. In those hopes and dreams- God was there. He was there when evil men smashed those dreams and they had to run. And He takes what was meant for evil and pain and suffering and turns it to good. He makes all things new- in time.
He has done/ is doing that that for my friend Paw Moo. I have story, an update of sorts- a story of God's faithfulness in action. A story of how he used a ruthless dictator and ethnic cleansing to call people to Himself.
Yes. Paw Moo and her family have declared that they " want to follow Jesus until they die". Those were the words. Simple and sweet. Paw Moo said that they had always been a Buddhist family and hadn't intended to ever change that. It had been a long process for them and they have been touched by the people who have reached out to them and they have decided (she, her husband and their 10 year old daughter) that they want to follow Jesus until they die. This was said to Pastors Cody and (hmm what shall we call the Karen pastor?) Hsar Shee and my friend Scott at a meeting with a handful of people who were to be baptized in the Karen church.
In Burma Paw Moo may never have heard the name of Christ because she lived in a collective community that loosely followed the teachings of Buddhism. In comes death and war and she and her family are eventully thrust into a strange world where everyone is in a hurry, children have to wear pants, you have to fill out medical histories everwhere you go and to top it off, cold white stuff falls from the sky and makes you fall down. :)
Yet in this strange land she also encountered Christ followers- Burmese and American alike.People who loved her, not because they want her to adopt their ways- to force some system of belief on her, but because Christ loved them .
Anyways. That is the story. Christ taken the broken pieces of dreams and hopes of Paw Moo's life and made, and continues to make something new. Beauty for ashes. He has used the horrible disruption in her and her families lives to call Paw Moo, her husband and her daughter to Himself.
It's just like You to bring beauty to ashes, it's just like you-- Lord, it's just like you. (Waterdeep)
I was at Paw Moo's baptism- Scott and I were watching her 4 year old as she and her family "took the plunge" we were also charged with recording the event. Paw Moo and her family each said before Cody dunked them, " I have decided to follow Jesus until I die". They were just glowing for hours afterwards. I burned them a DVD of the baptism and they were so excited to recieve it, but not for the reasons I thought initially. When I handed to her husband he asked me if it will also play on a VCD because they plan to send it back to Thailand to "PiPi" so she can see and know that they are followers of Christ now.
It's jsut like You to bring light into darkness, it's just like You to bring beauty from ashes, it's just like You to bring life to these dry bones-- Lord, it's just like You.
My sister Paw Moo and her hubby
