by Allen Chin

“Lord, I offer my life to you…”

The hill tribe children of Maohjo, from Kindergarten to 6th grade sang and worshipped together in their rows of picnic benches. The open air meeting space, which overlooked the green hillsides and rice paddies below, served as a place for worship every other morning. The chords from the acoustic guitar encouraged the children onward. Some children belt out the tune while others hummed quietly in the background.

“...everything I’ve been through, use it for your glory.”

Of course, it’s actually in Thai. There’s only so much English I managed to teach in my 6 weeks at Maohjo – an Elementary school which connects several villages together. I raised my hands up and the children followed.

“Lord I offer my days to you, lifting up praise to you…”

In my short time at the Karen village, I discovered I needed to start from scratch – teaching greetings, asking, “How are you?”, and singing a Pete the Cat version of Old MacDonald, which the Karen children connected quite well to. Around the 3rd or 4th week, one of the songs which the children sang kept popping into my mind. “Gosh, that sounds really familiar!” I pondered and one day I found the worship song it matched. I set out to teach the children the words, but I mostly received blank stares. I started using my hands instead and the kids started to follow. I figured, as long as they knew what it meant in Thai (which was their second language and Karen being the first), they’d be fine. Adding the third language, English, might just get them confused. Besides, worship is about our hearts, right?

 “...as a pleasing sacrifice.”

Being my last day in the village before heading back to Chiang Mai, I wondered what happened to the time. I came with the purpose of teaching English, but the Lord revealed His deeper purpose of connecting with the children and sharing His love with them. How was this all possible? I started my year on sabbatical from full-time teaching to rest, to study, and to serve. I've come to realize through the year that it’s a part of being available – to be able to say, “Yes”, and serve in ways I never would have thought or imagined possible. 

As we all raised our hands in worship, I’m thankful I was available to connect with God’s plan in loving the children, teachers, and the village community at Maohjo. 

*I served with Becky and Mike Mann through the Integrated Tribal Development Foundation back in January and February 2020.