As we crawled into bed after a long drive to see fellow missionaries in Surin, Thailand, Cindi remarked that she was feeling exhausted. Knowing that the last couple of months had been especially busy, I asked, “What would it take for you not to feel so exhausted?”
“I don’t know. I feel like lately I am always tired,” she replied.
As she drifted off to sleep, I silently prayed, asking the Lord to show me what I could do to help the situation. Then a thought suddenly popped into my mind: You should move to Chiangmai. At first I dismissed it as too drastic. But as I mulled it over, I began to think that this might actually be a really good idea. Is that You, Lord? Is this idea coming from You? The more I thought about it, the more I liked it, and I went to sleep anxious to share the thought with Cindi.
The next morning, as I shared the reasons why I thought we should move, she began to see the logic. Since arriving in Thailand in November, we have lived and gone to language school in the city of Bangkok, a city of 14 million people. We have been privileged to live on the campus of the headquarters of the Thailand Adventist Mission in a three-bedroom home the church has rented to us at a bargain rate. Living in this location has allowed us to get familiar with church leaders and take part in different church activities. Because we have two spare bedrooms, we have been able to host friends and fellow missionaries traveling through Bangkok. As time has gone on, however, we have found that living in this particular location in this mega-city has been unexpectedly busy and tiring. While we have enjoyed hosting friends, we never anticipated we would have so many guests over the last several months. All told, more than 40 people have stayed with us.
We didn’t want to make a rash decision, so we shared our thoughts with our fellow missionaries and Field Directors. They unanimously supported the idea and encouraged us to pursue the move. Next, we needed to make sure we could get out of our current lease and look into getting a tuition refund at our language school. Both of these seeming obstacles were removed, and we felt safe to pursue the idea further.
Next we decided that I should make a trip to Chiangmai to look at different housing possibilities and research language schools. My trip to Chiangmai was wonderfully blessed. Throughout my time there, I sensed God’s guiding hand. I rented a car for the trip, but I was a little apprehensive about driving on the left-hand side of the road. As I spent five days driving around Chiangmai looking at different housing possibilities, I started to feel comfortable behind the wheel, and it turned out to be a great opportunity to practice driving, which I know will be helpful in the future.
I ended up finding a nice little town house in the heart of a Thai neighborhood. And one of our neighbors teaches Thai! We believe this location will afford us many opportunities to practice speaking the language with the locals. The language school we plan to attend is nearby, so our travel time will be greatly reduced. This will allow us more time to mingle with the locals, something we haven’t done as much as we would have liked in Bangkok. The Lord truly did guide us to our new home in Chiangmai by His “still, small voice.”
We recently heard a sermon about a lady who served as a missionary in India in the 20th century who became very good at discerning God’s voice. She made it a habit to take time to listen and “be still” during her prayer times and then write down the thoughts the Holy Spirit impressed on her mind. She determined to obey whatever was shown her, and she was faithful in sharing her experiences with others.
Through our recent experience, we have been reminded of our need to take the time to listen to that “still, small voice.” We understand that the primary way we hear God’s voice is through His Word and that not every thought that comes to mind is from Him. However, “When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God. He bids us, ‘Be still, and know that I am God’” (The Desire of Ages, p. 363).
Please pray that the Lord will continue to guide us as we make this transition to Chiangmai. Pray that we will be able to discern His voice more clearly each day through His Word and through our quiet time spent with Him.
