Please let me tell you this story as it is for you and for Peach. Northern Thailand is marketed as "The Land of Smiles" and it is a fitting and honest marketing slogan. I must confess that everyone smiles here. Everyone that I have came into contact with has been kind, gracious and courteous. As a culture we have much to learn and much to honor in the Thai people. The Thai culture teaches that men are to control their anger and to quickly calm themselves down and to accept a wrong and move on if it cannot be quickly resolved.
   This is the story that I have not told you and I have only alluded to because it was a story of grace that was unfolding and I thought it best to keep a close lid on it until the confirmations came.  Now I can share a bit more with you about how God is working a marvelous story of Grace before our eyes.
   Shortly after arriving I met Wandi who is the owner of a Thai tour company which handles group travel for our mission group as well as many others. As I sought the Lord out to open my eyes because I wanted to see him in Thailand I quickly got more than I bargained for. I needed to see the Lord and his moving and leading in Thailand. This whole trip was a walk of faith for me as the leading related to M300 Ministries is. The Lord told me at one point, " Your support will not come from the people", "Your lips have been sealed for too long, you must speak of me to both the believer and the unbeleiver" Little did I know that this leading would take me to Chiang Mai, Thailand where God has been at work in the hearts and minds of many people. God sat a young women down next to me on the airplane ride from Bankcock to Chiang Mai. This young lady is not the young lady pictured above but is another young lady named Kai. The Lord helped me to speak to Kai who quickly asked, "Who do you work for?" When I explained that I directed M300 Ministries she quickly chimmed in with her limited English to say, "Oh I see you work for God, I want to know about Jesus... I know Buddhism ends in nothing...my parents are Buddhist. This crossing of paths has led to a Bible study with Kai and her friend which was a Holy Spirit filled experience that had the two girls crying, my translator crying and myself agreeing it was the perfect time to cry as well. Those young ladies were found precious in the sight of the Lord and they agreed to sit at dinner and to watch the nearly hour long Jesus Film in Thai. What followed were many questions, prayer and an agreement to meet again.
    Back to the story of grace at hand. After arriving and meeting Wandi I understood who she was and what her role was. Wandi was gracious and bilingual which serves her and her business well. I thought surely she is a Christian after having attended many Christian mission groups from the states. Along with Wandi was her niece Peach. After class I spoke with Wandi for about 4 hours about her life and belief's. She expressed to me that she was a Buddhist although many might think she is a Christian because of the Christian groups that she facilitates in Thailand. A further talk with her revealed that most visitors simply don't broach the subject with her as they assume that she must be a Christian. After this in prayer as I prayed I understood from the Lord..."Show her Grace" meaning that if she understood grace she coud then come to the Lord.
    Oddly enough as we talked she related that she had been having dreams about Jesus for roughly 7 years. I asked about the dreams and what happened in the dreams. She related that in her recurring dream a man calls her daughter and tells her to come to him. She explained that she did not know the man in the dreams until last year when she had accompanied a Christian to a bookstore and saw a book with the picture of Jesus on the front. It was then that she stopped in her tracks with the recognition that it was Jesus who was calling her saying, " Daughter come!" This left her confused for more than a solid year because she thought it odd that Jesus would call her because she was a Buddhist. With this in mind she kept this dream a secret from everyone. 
    I told her how special it was that God would even speak to her heart in the first place because she was not a Christian. I related to her how many Christians never hear or understand the voice of the Lord. Then we talked about how she would feel if she called out to her own daughter everyday for 7 years and her daughter did not respond or acknowledge the calling. She said that she would think something was wrong with her daughter and that she had a problem of some kind. So we understood the same to be true of Wandi...she has a problem that God wants to heal and a salvation to provide. After studying for about 4 hours her husband accompanied us to a local restaurant and then on to their home. The Lord blessed me to study with her husband who is the man pictured on the home page. We studied and conversed for about 5 hours.
    As I was trying to understand how to show Wandi what grace was the Lord spoke clearly to my heart saying..."Fix the teeth". I did not understand this and looked at Wandi thinking perhaps she had an issue with her teeth. He teeth looked really well cared for so I kept this thought in my heart as we studied.
    Then it happed without warning and without expectation. Wandi's niece came outside and I had previously noticed that of all of the people I had met in Thailand that she was the only one who did not smile. When she laughed she covered her face and when she did manage a smile it was with an oddly acrobatic lip that sagged to one side. I don't know how exactly she did it except by years of having covered a problem. It was then that she smiled when she greeted me and I saw the problem as it became very clear. "Fix the teeth" was now very clear as it was not Wandi's teeth that needed fixing but her niece's teeth. What does a person do in the Land of Smiles if the smile is not a good one. The only option is to hide the smile with the hand, cover it with a drooped lip or not smile at all.
    I am slow but I was starting to get it now....At first I thought ok I wll ask each of the 30 members of our mission group to contribute towards the cost of having Peach's teeth repaired but somehow oddly God spoke again saying, "YOU SHOW GRACE!" with an emphasis on me taking the initiative and quietly paying the full cost to have this done. The experience of grace was for me and for Peach as well as Wandi and her Husband. I would later learn that the experience was for some of the mission team as well.
    I consulted with Wandi regarding the cost of this operation and after she informed me I gave the funds to her on the Lord's day and explained grace to her. I explained that just as God had pointed out a problem to me and out of love and compassion had motivated me to enter into a solution with them, in much the same way God sees us as beautiful and He loves us with love and compassion wanting to remove our problem and to restore our eternal smile. I explained that this was a gift from God with no request having been made, no expectation of being repaid, no desire or motivation for self but rather love in action that transforms and restores us. She received the gift and committed to have the procedure done on Monday. I have to share with you that when I studied with her husband he told me the following. He said, "For many years Christians have came and many times tried to explain the concept of grace. As a Buddhist I never understood it. I never comprehended it. It remained a mystery for me. Today I understand grace because Wandi has told me that you choose to freely enter in our life to help our niece with a problem. We did not ask for your help but it came freely out of love. We don't have to repay the gift because you have given freely with no expectation of a return. Your gift enabled us to help our niece and to restore her smile. Now I understand grace! What you have taught us is grace!"
    Wow sometimes you just want to role over and kick yourself for ever doubting God or for the thought that you might have heard wrong when the request is not an easy one. We need to hear God speak to our hearts. We need to tune ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Even more so when we are in a foreign land full of idols and false Gods, when we are in a different spiritual dominion we need to be so close to the Lord and his leading.
     The day has come and Peach and I had a dental appointment at the same dentist. My appointment was for a cleaning and minor work while her's was to restore a smile to one in the Land of Smiles. This is so much more personal to me because I am very close to someone who is beautiful and lost a front tooth at one point and I remembered in my heart how she became withdrawn, sad, hiding from interaction with people. This someone endured for a matter of days until the problem could be repaired but I soon learned that the one to whom grace was shown directly to is a special child of God. I thought, not knowing, perhaps God would use this special showing of grace to lead Peach to the Lord. After interacting with Peach a bit this is what I have found and confirmed. Peach was born and grew up in Bangkok where about 7 years ago she was taught about Jesus Christ and quickly became a Christian. As it is with many, she was immediately and summarily bannished from her home. Her parents became very angry that she had became a Christian and they kicked her out on the street for her choice of Christianity. Peach had no choice and no option until the tour company owner who is her aunt said that she could come and live with her in Chiang Mai. I thanked her aunt for harboring a Christian refugee and assured her that God would look and had looked on that with favor. In any regard God takes care of his own and Peach as it turns out is one of his very own who has suffered much, lost all and been banished by her parents for her profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord knows so much more than we do. The Lord knows all things and we can only see a limited amount of things from here. The Lord knows where to push, where to prod, how to motivate, how to heal and how to show grace in us and through us if we will just listen to the gentle leading of the Holy Spirit confirmed by God's own word.
   A follow up picture of Peach will be posted below after tonight's celebration. See how God restores his own in The Land of Smiles. Grace and peace to each of you in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.