THANH'S STORY

April 2015

Springtime was in the air.  Flowers blooming, sun shinning and new life was being manifest all around.  People were getting out of their houses for walks on the warm days and the Lord was in the process of causing great change to take place.  It started with a walking path accidentally being poured across the north side of Murphy Road Baptist.  Suddenly the city was told the land belonged to the church and the project was put on hold but not too soon, as they had already poured the path across the land right up to the street and people would soon be walking across the church property when they walked the path. 

At the same time this was taking place "Pray for Every Home," was being started by Collin County Association.  On Wednesday nights small pieces of papers would be handed out to members that attended Murphy Road and they began to pray for the people that lived in the houses surrounding the church while I was up in the sound booth feeling like I wasn't getting to be a great part of it but was praying from where I was running the projector.

Our pastor began seeing a vision and preached a sermon titled, "Beyond the Waterfalls."  I remember coming home from church so excited that day that I could barely stay in my skin.  This vision he presented to our church was right in line with Digging a Well Ministry and the whole picture began to unfold as our church began to take on a new face.  People began to walk through the doors and for several weeks I would walk past someone and they would say, "Wow, that was powerful, when I walked through the doors you could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit."  There were times I would walk past someone and they would be weeping.  When I stopped to talk with them they would say that the power of the Holy Spirit was so strong and poured over them so heavy they began to weep.  This was a continuous thing we began to see happen.  The doors of heaven began to open at the same as I was losing my job and life as we knew it began to fall apart.  In reality, it was falling into place instead of falling apart and Digging a Well Ministries began to flow in every direction possible at that time.  The blog has gone into 45 countries and we have distributed over 2000 copies of books this year and have 27,100 hits on the blog. 

What was the sermon pastor Lash preached, you ask?  "Beyond the Waterfalls," was a message he received while visiting a waterfall on vacation.  As he watched the waterfalls, he noticed how the snow fell onto the mountains, it gathered into the stream, it traveled over the falls and moved into the streams below, which would move into the rivers and flow into the ocean.  The snow that once fell from the heavens on the mountain top was now touching the borders of nations around the world.  This was the vision he saw Murphy Road Baptist having,  The theme of our church is having a big foot print in this world.

Moving to the metroplex in 2013, we pondered what church we should join.  We visited churches all around for a sixty mile radius.  One Sunday we would drive one direction and visit a church and the next Sunday we would attend Murphy Road Baptist.  The following Sunday we would drive a different direction and visit another church and the next Sunday we would drive back to Murphy Road Baptist to visit.  After about six or eight months of doing this, Steve and I finally had the discussion, "Why are we going to Murphy Road Baptist Church every other Sunday?"  Neither one of us could really put our finger on it but for some reason we both were at peace doing it.  Therefore, we decided to join and wait, watch and pray to see why God kept drawing us to this church.

Thanh was the first sign to me that God had placed us exactly where he wanted us and from that point on the Lord sent continual confirmations that he was going to Dig a Well there and as pastor Lash had preached, it would fall on that little mountain, travel down the stream, flow into the river, meet the ocean and from there touch the nations around the world.

Therefore, I feel God isn't finished with what he started.  He has only begun and Thanh's story is the first of many to come as we watch the hand of God move over that church and watch the Lord God Almighty move people in from different areas that will fill the gaps needed in order to bring this to fruition and then bring in people from around the world for us to share the love of Jesus Christ with. For you see, when they find this love that Thanh has found, they will turn around and share with others about this Jesus who gives them peace, who meets their needs and who has given them eternal life.  From there we will see a larger stream bursting forth, flowing down the mountain and touching the cities around the banks it comes in contact with, as it goes forth into the world.

As Thanh and his mother walked that new path that had been poured they read a sign in front of the church.  ESL Classes - Wednesday 6:30 PM and inquired about it. (ESL, English as a Second Language)

One Wednesday Thanh and his mother showed up for ESL Class.  I am normally in the sound booth building the presentations for our Sunday morning worship times and also corresponding with people through my "Digging a Well Ministry" online.  But that night I had walked out of the sound booth to go to the restroom and get a fresh drink of water.  Thanh and his mother had entered the building and was looking for the class for Vietnamese speaking people.  I tried to assist them but soon learned, they knew no English and I knew no Vietnamese, so me assisting them was something only to be desired.

Although, living in this day and age has some advantages that other generations have never been able to have.  Google Translate was something I used often at work when I couldn't communicate but I had never used it to translate Vietnamese but tonight was a perfect opportunity to learn. 

As Thanh and I began to communicate with each other I watched his heart fill with excitement and he began to ask all sorts of questions that I would type and hand him the phone to see the answers.  He wanted to know what I did at the church and I explained how I typed all the songs for the services onto a computer and it projected it onto the screen for everyone to see and then on Sunday's I would be playing the piano.  He became more and more interested by the moment.  Pretty soon he asked if he would be allowed to come and watch American's worship,  This was the beginning of an adventure not only for Thauh but one for our whole church.  

Sunday morning came and Thanh showed up.  I knew using my cell phone worked to translate for some things but with translating a sermon I would need my IPad so I made sure to take it with me.  I had notified our pastor and told him that Thanh would be coming, so if he had a sermon outline he could provide me it would be most helpful.

Our first worship service begins at 8:30 am and true to his word, Thanh showed up for worship.  As Pastor Lash preached I would translate a few paragraphs that he spoke and condense it into a few sentences.  Back and forth we would go throughout the whole service. When the service was over Thanh said, "I understand."  

Now it was time for the second worship service which began at 9:45 am and Thanh is sitting there waiting for more.  I explained to him that we sang the same songs and Pastor Lash preaches the same sermon and I attend a class during the 9:45 service after playing the piano.  Thanh hands me the phone back and says he would like to stay and learn.  Today I do not attend class and once again I type as fast as my mind and fingers would move, pass it over to Thanh to read while I listen to what Pastor Lash is saying so I will know what to tell him next.  Back and forth trying to capture more in depth the second service.  The service ends and Thanh says, "I like this, I understand!"

Now it is time for our third worship service which begins at 11:00 am. and Thanh is sitting there waiting for more. I once again explained to him that this sermon is the same as the first two and all the songs I will be playing on the piano and the congregation singing will all be identical.  Thanh hands me the IPad and it says, "I stay and learn."

Once again I try to take Thanh a little deeper into what Pastor Lash is preaching and as I hand him the IPad he becomes more and more interested, He starts saying out loud,  "Yes, Yes, Yes,  I understand."

The next Sunday Thanh plans to come once again to all three worship services, so I plan ahead this time. On Saturday I type every song we are going to sing into his language.  I contaced our Vietnamese ESL teacher and ask him to make sure the words are translated correctly as sometimes there is confusion in translating Christian verbiage through Google Translate.  Brent Sorrels would go through and make corrections and send the songs back to me,  I would print the songs and have them ready to give to Thanh so while I was playing the piano and the congregation was singing he would know what words were being sung and could follow along. 

Pastor Lash would supply me with an outline and I would do my best to explain to Thanh what was being said.  Getting the opportunity to do it three times every Sunday was a huge asset, as there was no way I could type that fast and then let Thanh read what was being said.  Each Sunday I would watch as Thanh was drinking up every word he read.  By this time Brent Sorrels, Thanh's ESL teacher had given him a bible in Vietnamese and on one particular Sunday as I was translating he asked me to stop because he had found something in Romans chapter 8 and 9 that seemed far more important to him than the words Pastor Lash was speaking.

Posted below is what I wrote on my Facebook page after that service.

Sadly, a few weeks later Thanh told me he wouldn't be able to come to church now.  His step father was angry and had asked him to leave his house.  Thanh had found a job in Plano and would be moving and had no way to commute back and forth to church.  

We were all saddened to see Thanh leave but felt the times he came had been packed as full of the gospel as we could possibly give to one person that had an open heart. 

Months passed and not a word from Thanh until Sept 2016 and as I was leaving the second worship service after playing the piano, Thanh followed me out of the sanctuary with a huge smile on his face. Instead of going to my class, I turned around and took off where we left off months before.  This time, Thanh let me know he would like to just listen.  He had been taking classes and comprehends English better now and wants to listen as much as possible and learn.  

Then surprisingly Thanh asked me to translate.  Pastor Lash was baptizing someone and he wanted to know why he was doing this.  Why is this person grown and being baptized instead of a baby?   Why is he putting him under the water?  What is the reasoning for this type of thing we are doing?  The questions kept coming during the entire sermon of which neither he nor I listened to.  After the sermon Thanh told me he had excepted Christ into his life and wanted to see if he should be baptized also.  Brent Sorrels our ESL teacher assisted me as we all went out to lunch the next week and Brent was able to converse back and forth in Vietnamese and make sure that Thanh understood what it meant to accept Christ and to be baptized.  He assured us that he understood and had done this months before while attending church.  Looking back at the post I had on Facebook, I wonder if it was after pushing Google Translate aside and reading Romans 8 and 9.  The chapters are packed full of just the words Thanh wanted to hear.  

As Brent talked with Thanh, I was asking the Lord to give us a confirmation of Thanh's salvation.  He had brought a friend with him and she was from San Salvador.  Thanh asked Brent if he would translate into her language the gospel of Christ and see if she understood and find out if she believed.  Brent conversed with her and found she attended a Pentecostal church and this pleased Thanh.  

This was the confirmation I was looking for.  He had accepted Christ and now he was reaching out to see if his friend knew this Christ he had received.  He had found a treasure and now longing for others to find this same treasure. 

Thanh has spoke with his mother and step father.  They don't plan to attend his baptism and his step father is not happy.  His mother doesn't believe in his new found Savior, but she supports Thanh in his new decision.  I assured Thanh, that while Brent is baptizing him Pastor Lash has asked that I be right by his side which Thanh was very happy for, as this is all new to him.   

Sunday will be a great day of celebration as the Vietnamese class will see their first student be baptized, Pray for every Home will see how God is answering the prayers of the faithful praying for that neighborhood, Pastor Lash is seeing how the snow is falling on the mountain and making it's way down into the valley and moving into the rivers and beyond, and I get to present Thanh with an English Bible from Digging a Well Ministries.  This is a beautiful picture of how God takes a brush and uses the strokes of all the colors each of us present with our lives and has painted a masterpiece for the world to see.    

Thanh shared with me that he feels the Lord has blessed him abundantly since coming to America.  He has a great job and purchased a new car, has a place to live, and now he has a new family.  A big big family.  

Now we Wait, Watch and Pray to see how the Lord uses Thanh to reach others with the gospel of Jesus Christ as they see this great masterpiece of art displayed with the glory of Jesus Christ written all over every stroke on the canvas.  

BEHOLD MY GOD!

I know this blog is long but I can't leave without posting the words Thanh read that caused him to push away from the sermon and become engulfed with the Word of God.

Romans 8

1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

26   Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 9

1  I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

2  That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

3  For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

4  Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

5  Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

6  Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

7  Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

8  That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

9  For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.

10  And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;

11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

12  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

24  Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

25  As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

26  And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

27  Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

28  For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

29  And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

30  What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

31  But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

32  Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;

33  As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.