Community. Family. Friends. These words all have one thing in common—they describe people who care for us. I learned something new about these words tonight as I sat in the dark. We often have power outages in the village, usually for a few minutes at a time, but sometime for hours. Tonight the blackout lasted a couple of hours.

Since it was dark in my house, I decided to go across the street to the fruit-juice shop where there was light. My neighbor came out to sit there as well. She asked me if I had a flashlight or candles to use. I replied that I didn’t even have matches at home, but I could use my phone for a light. She said that was a bad idea because it would run down my battery, and then I couldn’t make calls. She then went back to her house and brought out a couple of candles and a lighter for me. We sat there for a while just talking as much as we could with my limited Thai and enjoying each other’s company. Later, shortly after I returned home, the power came back on. Soon my landlady came in with a rechargeable headlamp for me to use in future blackouts. Word had spread quickly that I needed light.

At first when the power went out, I felt irritated as I sat there in the dark. But God used that opportunity to show me the kindness and care of the people around me—His gift to me of community, family and friends.

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