(As told to Jeremy & Adrienne Penner)
We had been in Bang Chalong for months, and while we clearly felt God leading us to serve there, I often faced many feelings of inadequacy.
I had never planted a church before. In fact, I barely finished two years of Bible College! I don’t play guitar, so I couldn’t even use music as a way to draw people in. There were so many gifts that I lacked, so much that I could not do. Then God showed me that there was one thing that I could do. I learned this from the Book of Nehemiah. I saw that Nehemiah spent a lot of time in prayer before he ever built anything. I thought to myself, that’s something I can do! I can pray! So I began to do this.
We would rise early, at four in the morning, so that we could stand on a high bridge and see everyone going off to their jobs. We prayed over each person that we saw. Then we would walk the streets of Bang Chalong, praying for opportunities to meet people, to build relationships and to share the Gospel. As we walked and prayed, we met so many Burmese factory workers, curious as to what we were doing. We formed many new friendships in the community, and had many opportunities to share about Jesus.
My wife and I prayed between six and eight hours a day, for three months, and nothing happened. During that whole time, no one showed any interest in church. Then suddenly one day, people began to come! More and more came to us to worship and hear about Jesus. Somehow God formed a new church, birthed out of our prayers!
We still continue with our prayer walks, meeting new people on the street every day. We take the time to get to know them, offering to help find them jobs or a place to live. We serve any way we can, even doing translation from Thai to Burmese at the local hospital. In so many ways I still feel like I am not doing enough, but now I see that it is not about what we can do, but about what God can do, when we just talk to him, and listen and obey his voice!
