"Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited upon Him for ten days, that the Spirit’s power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power." - Hudson Taylor

Hudson Taylor makes for a much better start than my own words. More importantly though, I think it really captures the lesson the truth that I saw in Thailand. When we finally settled into Bangkok, our schedule still wasn't set in stone, at least not by any human knowledge. We weren't quite sure what we would be doing and we weren't sure of anyone would show up to the things that we did do. All this uncertainty prompted much time on our knees in prayer. This served as a much firmer foundation than all the human planning in the world possibly could have. All too often, we like to trust in our own abilities, even in ministry. We like to plan events, go all out on marketing, and stock up on all these popular attractions. And in the chaos of trying to plan the "perfect" ministry, we forget to ask God to be our guide. Or worse still, we forget Him altogether.

I usually go crazy when there isn't even the slightest outline of a plan, but I ended up being really thankful for the way God worked in Thailand. I'm thankful especially because he didn't allow us to delude ourselves into thinking it was through our own effort.

There was one time in particular that I remember. Things were still pretty tense with Hector at that time. The day had been pretty relaxed and I felt fine for the most part. But in the evening, as Hector and I were going to the Lighthouse for our evening English classes, exhaustion began to settle in. I felt completely drained of energy and just wanted to go back to the condotel and sleep. This was shortly after I'd had to teach a lesson by myself, so I was tempted to just say, "Hector, I'm really tired. Can you just take care of this class today?" I'm not usually one for shirking my responsibilities, but at the time the thought was so enticing. Instead I threw up a quick prayer, asking for His grace to get me through this class. And surely enough, it did. As I started teaching, I started feeling energized again and full of joy. A gallon of caffeine could not have gotten me fired up the way the Spirit did.

Another huge answer to prayer came during the church retreat. The theme was "glom git" which roughly translates to "harmony." I don't think anyone in that room needed to hear that message as much as Hector and I did. The one verse that really struck me was Philippians 3:13b:

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

I'd been trying to forgive Hector for awhile at that point, but it wasn't until I was reminded of this oft-spoken of verse that I was finally free to really forgive him. I've heard far too many people say that forgiving means not forgetting. I used to think so too. After all, it takes will power to forgive without forgetting. Forgetting is generally seen as an involuntary result of poor memory or an early symptom of Alzheimer's. But I began to wonder, "If we have really forgiven someone, what is the point in remembering?" It brought to mind Peter's exchange with Jesus in Matthew 18.

"Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?'
Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.'"

Note how Jesus states that we are to forgive others seventy-seven times (seven times seventy = 490). I believe this means that as long as a brother or sister is repentant, we are to forget their past offences because
no one in their right mind, save for a very bitter, grudge-holding person (not at truly forgiving) would be able to keep track all the way until the 490th time and then decide to withhold forgiveness after that. Also at the retreat, but for a different reason, I think Hector reached the same conclusion--that we had to free ourselves from the baggage of the past in order to strain towards the goal that laid before us.

These were only small examples of the power of prayer. God can work is tremendously more powerful ways, if we only have the faith. All too often, we pray small prayers. But we have a big God, who can answer big prayers. But we must pray with faith. The Thai Christians weren't afraid to pray big prayers. They'd often have prayer meetings and like us, they would pray for one another. But they also prayed for their nation. They prayed for their king to believe. They prayed for lives to be changed.

"'Have faith in God,' Jesus answered. 'I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.'"