That’s exactly what happened to us today!
Well…not 100% “exactly”…but in similarly. No – we didn’t end up in prison.
But this weekend we had an opportunity to go as a whole team to Bangkok to say goo bye to our missionary friends who we met 1 week ago from Logos Hope Mission Ship. And also we went here to send out our passports back to US Thai Embassy in New York (they had to fix our visas, they made a slight mistake)
After spending 2 days in Bangkok by ourselves (meaning no Thai-speaking guide with us), we were finally ready to go home to Tak. So we took a taxi to the bus station and asked around for busses that go to Tak. At the 1st station we found out that their bus leaves to Tak at 10pm (and it was only 4:45pm)…we didn’t want to wait for 5 hours, so we decided to ask every booth (different companies) when their busses leave towards Tak (and IF they even have a bus that goes that way)…because Tak is in the northern part of Thailand, and pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Nobody ever wants to go to Tak. It’s the driest and one of the hottest parts in Thailand. Everything is always brown and dried up in Tak because of the heat.
So some busses were leaving at 8pm, and some at 10pm, and finally we find a booth that says that they have a bus leaving to Tak in 30 minutes!!! :) Praise the Lord! We booked that same instant and thanked God for Him helping us get home earlier (because it is 7 hour drive), and we were tired and wanted to get home sooner.
So we got on the bus and the bus lady asked us where we get off, and we told her “Tak”. We had our goal set in front of us (like ap.Paul). We knew where we were headed and didn’t pay much attention to surrounding noise around us. We were all headed back home to Tak. Home sweet home….well that’s what we “THOUGHT”! But God had other destination planned for us…City of “TRAT” (sounds like “tak” because Thai’s don’t pronounce the last letter much, and when you say it fast like they do, it almost sounds the same).
((After driving for a while, Tanya looked out the window told me that we just passed a boat that was parked on the side. I turn to Tanya and in joking manner told her that it would be funny if we were re going in the opposite direction and ended up somewhere like in Phukket (the most gorgeous beach area in Southern Thailand)…we both laughed))
So after driving for 6.5 hours (thinking that we have to be almost in Tak), the bus pulled over in some desolate bus station, and the bus lady came to tell us that this was “Tak”. We looked around and thought: “no it’s not…this is not Tak…Tak station does not look like this”. Half of our girls thought maybe this was a bathroom break (since almost everyone got off at this stop), so they went to bathroom, while Tanya, Staya and I stayed on the bus. Then the bus started leaving!!! We told them to STOP because we have girls who are not on board yet. They stopped but the lady looked very puzzled. She asked us why we were not getting off? She then asked us again where were we going. We say “Tak”. She says: “This is Tak”. We re-ask her to verify is this really Tak!? She says “yes”. So we take ALL of our luggage and start walking out. The rest of our girls come and are puzzled why are we heading out with our baggage?…this is not Tak yet. We tell them that the lady is saying that this is Tak.
There also stayed on the bus 2 other young girls who did not get off at this station. One of them spoke English well and began translating for to us, and telling us that this was “Tak”. So I took a pen and wrote “TAK” on my hand (Praise the Lord for making us learn the whole Thai alphabet to where we can now write and read), and I show it to the young girl saying “this is where we going…to TAK”.
She starts out laughing! And says that “TAK” is in the North by the Burma border…but we are in “TRAT” (pronounced “tlaht”…almost like “tak”)…and that we are in the easternmost part of Thailand, by Cambodian border! (COMPLETELY the opposite side of Thailand!) :D
You should have seen the looks on Anita & Natasha’s faces! :) They were so tired and were so ready to crash into their beds, but now they find out that we are NOT in Tak, and nowhere near Tak…but we are by Cambodia!!!…but that’s not all…we also DO NOT HAVE OUR PASSPORTS WITH US!! :P We mailed them to USA! Can this story get even better!?? :P Of course it can, and it does…!
The young girl tries to comfort us by explaining that Trat is a very nice place. They have one of the most beautiful islands only 30 minutes away. That’s where she is headed with her friend from Bangkok. She tells us that the next stop is Trat Market (the center of city) and that’s where we should get off and look for a hotel. So we agree (well, really we really have no choice). :P We all get off at the center of Trat with those two girls. The one who speaks good English her name was “Al”, and her friend was Sai. “Al” studied English in Bangkok University. And Praise the Lord that He sent us a girl who can speak English fluently (that is pretty rare out in the country).
“Al” tells us that they are on the way to their hotel and that we can come with them if we would like. Of course we do! So we all walk for 10 minutes to her hotel. It’s a nice hotel which looks very new. She tells us to wait outside as she and her friend will go inside and ask them for pricing since they are Thai (because if hotels see that you are a foreigner, they charge you higher rates because they know you have the money to pay). So it was very sweet of them to try to save us some money. She came back and it turned out that they have rooms but since it’s a new hotel, the prices are not the lowest (as it seemed to ‘some’ of our girls) >:(
…so we decided to find another cheaper hotel. “Al” tells us that she has a phone number to another hotel that she looked up before the trip. So she called that hotel, and they are cheaper (by whole $2 cheaper!) and they two rooms! (Praise the Lord!)
That cheaper hotel is located right at the place where we got dropped off in the center of the market (so we have to walk all the way back right where we just came from…no biggie). We all thanked “Al” very very much, and asked her to take a photo with us. She was a very sweet girl. We quickly said goodbye to them, apologized for keeping them from going to rest at this hour (midnight) and headed back.
As we were walking back, I kept on telling the girls that we should have taken her contact info. I just have this HUGE burden and guilt that we did not witness to her or even give her a gospel tract (Tanya had one gospel of John tract in her suitcase). As we were walking to the hotel and I had this HUGE fight inside me…this guilt was just crushing me down to the floor. We all prayed these past 2 days for God to send us people our way to whom we could witness too, and He finally sends us (by miraculous power) a person who speaks fluent English and we didn’t even witness to her, or even get her contact info to witness to her later!
Tanya tells me to relax, and I reply that it is easy for us to ‘relax’ knowing that we will go to heaven and this sweetest little girl who has a big heart will end up in hell. “Thank you Al for your help…we ‘christians’ really appreciate it, but enjoy spending your eternity in hell”. Sounds pretty brutal doesn’t it? But this is the reality! That’s what we (so-called ‘Christians’) are very good at doing. Allowing people to go to hell. Using people’s help,“thank” them, but we are too afraid to tell them about Christ. And it’s frightening to think how many people will be spending an eternity in hell because we christian’ failed to inform them of the coming judgment day! And how many will end up in hell because of me!!?
While walking to the hotel, this whole thing was going through my mind. And I KNEW I would be guilty before God for not witnessing to those girls and sending them to hell. Their blood will be on “MY” head! So I made up my mind inside my heart that I will take Tanya’s gospel of John tract and gift it to Al tonight!
So as soon as we check in the hotel, we unpacked the suitcase and I signed the tract cover and thanked her for her kind help. I wrote that this is NOT an accident that we met, and that this book is just a small gift that we can give. And I wrote down my email address. I took that book cover and took off running to Al’s hotel (where we just came from). I didn’t want to waste any time and wanted to get there before she went to sleep (it was past midnight now).
I arrived at the hotel’s front desk. The lady behind the counter spoke very little English. I asked her about two girls that just checked in about 30 minutes ago. She didn’t know who I was talking about. I tried explaining to her about 4 different ways that I could, all were useless. Then I had to use my very limited Thai that I learned so far, and she understood right away!! (Praise the Lord)!! :D
She picked up the phone and called Al’s room, said a few sentences in Thai and handed the phone over to me. I was a bit surprised. So I took the phone and apologized for calling so late. I thanked her very, very much again for her help. Told her that we found the hotel perfectly fine (thanks to her help) and that I had a little present here for her and that she can pick it up tonight or tomorrow morning from the front desk. Al was very happy and thankful. :D
Praise the LORD!!!
He made everything work out perfectly! :)
Everything was in perfect timing!
I gave the gospel just in time.
Who knows if we would have met the next morning or not. Eternity could have been our next meeting point where Al and Sai will go to trial against me before God and accuse me of knowing the truth and not sharing it with them.
There will be a great judgment day. Jesus Himself said that the Queen will get up on the stand before the Judge (God) and testify against Israel and so will Moses & Sodom and Gomorrah and Nineviah. So what makes me think that my neighbor with whom I lived for years will not hold me accountable for not telling him about the only One Savior of the world, and that I knew that there was no way of coming to the Father except through Jesus Christ and yet I never told him, and then he gets to spend his eternity in hell while I enjoy mine in heaven?
It’s very sobering if you look at things from this perspective.
It’s even frightening.
Hate it or not but that is the Biblical truth. I believe we Christians will not get away with as many things as we think just because we claim that we believe in Jesus Christ.
How many people will end up in hell because of you didn’t want to share the gospel?…think about it…(what if you ended up in their place and they in yours….how would you feel about them not sharing the gospel with you?)
Please pray for these two girls: Al and Sai. Pray for them to read the gospel together and for God to open their hearts and minds to understand, accept and believe in what they read. Pray for their salvation!
