I love you, I forgive you, supper is ready

I've been so behind on writing since I've started school at Christ For The Nations.  I told myself to document because I know this experience will be memorable and filled with many Godwinks.  Tonight, a few of us students went to have dinner at a missionary's house in Carrollton, TX.  The husband, Steve, has been to so many countries.  It was amazing to hear how God opened doors for him.  He loved being a missionary in Chiang Mai, Thailand but God called him and his family back home to Dallas.  Faith, from Hai Phong, Vietnam, is the one who connected us to the family.  While Steve was in Vietnam, he baptized her parents when they were teenagers and not yet married.  Faith's roommates joined us this evening as well.  Kasitie is from Ardmore, Oklahoma and Sarah from China.  Duong from Hue, Vietnam also came along.  I am loving connecting with the students here at CFNI.  I get to meet people from all over the world!  This is one of the reasons why God told me to live on campus, so I can fellowship with students.

"You'll have to excuse my cooking.  I don't usually cook Vietnamese food," said Steve's apologetic wife, Mai.  Mai is a small framed Vietnamese woman with a beautiful smile.  She had just arrived home and rushed to the kitchen to cook for us.  For the record, the meal was so good.  I love home cooked Vietnamese food.  It was Kasitie's first time to have "real oriental food" and she loved it.! 

Steve and Mai have four daughters and I got to meet two of them.  Joy just recently graduated high school and is thinking about being a nurse.  She got very excited when she found out I was a nurse and offered to bring her to my workplace.  Her younger sister Abigail was born on their father's birthday.  "She is my gift from God," Steve cheerfully says.  He said a year before she was born, he asked God for a daughter.  Her name means "father's joy".  Abigail loves art and the wall in her room is decorated with her beautiful drawings.  She also has ornamental elephants on her shelf, a reminder of her life growing up in Thailand.  Joy's room had a shabby chic vibe.  She loves to decorate.  As I admired a sign in her room that read "One shoe can change your life. -Cinderella", I shared with her how my friend met her now husband because of shoes.  Without hesitation, Joy insisted I take the sign and give it to my friend.  She and her family are so giving and generous.  They love God and they reflect His light.

Before we left their house, I shared with the family how I had visited Chiang Mai in 2014 and a part of me felt God was calling me to go back to SE Asia to minister.  I will let you all know if that will happen!

I so much enjoyed this evening.  It reminded me of our recent guest speaker, Pastor Lawrence Neisent.  He said a poll was taken asking people what words they most liked to hear.  They were:

1. I love you
2. I forgive you
3. Supper is ready

He said these are the words Jesus says to us too.  You can read more on his blog. 

Thank you God for your unconditional love, forgiving me, sending your one and only son to die for my sins, and providing me food for my soul.





front row left to right: Duong, Steve, Mai, Joy, Abigail, me
back row left to right: Faith, Kasitie, bright shiny light, Sarah 

       

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