“God, if You are real, please put someone in my life to help me practice speaking English.”

During my first lesson with my new guitar teacher, Tinglee, he told me he has always been afraid to talk with Westerners, but his girlfriend told him that in order to marry her, he needed to learn English so their children could be bi-lingual. This prompted him to pray his first prayer. He went on to say that only a day or two after his prayer, the music school called and asked if he could teach me guitar! He told me that his initial reaction was to say no, but then he remembered his prayer. I knew right then that God had orchestrated our meeting.

Over the next couple of weeks, Tinglee and I began to develop a friendship through guitar and English. I invited him to join an English/Bible class I was teaching to our three Ecuadorian music teachers, and he readily accepted. I told him that reading the Bible in English would be a good way to learn because he could also read the Thai Bible along with it to deepen his understanding. During our time together, Tinglee shared that his girlfriend is a Christian, and he is not, but that he enjoys playing music with the worship team when he accompanies her to church. He remarked that when he plays music in church he feels the same sense of peace in his heart as when he meditates in the temple. He went on to say that he doesn’t like it when people claim that one religion is better than another. I just listened and prayed silently that the Lord would open His heart and give me wisdom to know how to witness and answer.

Shortly before Cindi and I left for furlough, Tinglee asked me to write out my testimony in Thai and bring it to guitar class. Sadly, I forgot to do this, so when I got to class he asked me to tell it to him verbally. As I shared the high points, he scribbled notes and asked what guitar chords I liked. He then wrote a simple three-line song about my testimony and taught me how to play it. He told me to practice playing my testimony song because I would have to perform it live for all of the other music teachers in the school the following week. As I left class that evening, I marveled at the unique opportunity God was giving me. God has given Tinglee and me a special opportunity to learn from each other. It is my hope and prayer that our friendship will not only continue to grow, but that one day he will write a song about his own testimony of coming to the Lord!

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