Many years ago, an old man lived in a hut near the forest. Every morning, he went in search of large tree branches and logs. He was a wood carver by trade, and very good at his job. His expertise was in great demand, particularly for his amazing likenesses of animal heads—buffalo, deer, dogs, cats and squirrels. Because of his skill, he made a very good living, and he carefully put every coin he earned in a bag he hid in his granary. At the end of each day, the old man would retrieve his money bag, count and recount the coins, and then return the stash to its hiding place.
Although the old man was very careful with his money, there came a time when his expenses exceeded his income. He became so worried about his money that anxiety consumed every minute of his days. He even dreamed about his dwindling money supply.
One particularly windy night, he had a terrible nightmare. He dreamed that his coins began speaking to him. They said they were bored with being counted and recounted every night, bored with being hidden away in a smelly old bag and, above all, bored with each other’s company. They told him they were leaving to see the world and meet new coin friends.
The old man awoke in a cold sweat. He rushed to his granary, retrieved his moneybag and counted and recounted his coins to make sure none of them had escaped to find new friends. Though no coins were missing, the old man believed his dream and didn’t trust his coins. He pushed the moneybag into a hole in a log, sealed the opening with clay, and put the log under his house.
The following night there was a storm. The wind blew violently, and the rain lashed down. It was the worst storm in years. So much rain fell that the river overflowed its banks and flooded the whole area. Everything that could float was swept away by the torrent.
The next morning, the old man couldn’t believe his eyes. The entire area was devastated. To his dismay, he discovered that his secret log was gone. He searched high and low all around his village, but he never found the log, for the flood had carried it far, far away. Who knows? Perhaps the coins found some new friends after all.
This Thai folktale touches on several issues like the instability of the world we live in, the futility of worrying about finances, and what we choose to do with our money. We never know what tomorrow will bring, but we can make choices for today that will have an eternal impact.
As we shared with you briefly last month, Tonya and I are now fundraising to relaunch to a new project site in Thailand to begin a new ministry among the Thai Buddhists. For the past five years, we have lived and worked among the Gorkha Nepali people of India and Nepal. Though we were forced to leave India sooner than we had planned, God is still leading and guiding the believers in Darjeeling. From Thailand, we can fly to India very cheaply, and we plan to regularly visit the believers in Darjeeling to strengthen and encourage them while moving forward with our new project in Thailand.
The leadership of the Thai Mission of Seventh-day Adventists has worked in cooperation with Adventist Frontier Missions for many years now, and the Mission has made a request for more AFM missionaries to work in Thailand. We recently visited the area in Thailand where the Mission would like to begin new work to reach the Thai Buddhist people. We were able to check housing prices and get a good idea of what the general cost of living will be. We even spent two weeks taking Thai language classes. Though it hasn’t been easy for us to leave India and Nepal, we know God is still with us. He blessed our ministry in India and Nepal, and He will bless our efforts in Thailand.
We invite you to partner with us to reach the unreached Thai Buddhists. Like the old man in the story, the Thai Buddhists worry about things like money and other earthly treasures because they don’t know that God loves them and cares for them each and every day. Please consider making a pledge of financial support so we can go and tell the Thai Buddhists about a God who wants to give them eternal treasures that can never be swept away.
