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A comment posted inspired me to reflect on this issue…the whole Western world is lobbying for Tibet’s independence, but what does GOD want? This is something I really wonder…So, let’s examine this. First of all, God can sometimes use forces or people who are acting outside of His will to accomplish His purposes.

Let’s look, for example, at the Greeks during Jesus’ day. They prepared the way for the Lord by uniting the language of the region to Greek, thereby facilitating the spread of the gospel through language. They also facilitated the spread of the gospel through creating an integrated road system which allowed for easy travel of missionaries. God used the wicked actions of wicked people to accomplish His purposes.

Another example of this is when Israel was taken into captivity by a wicked nation - Isaiah 10:5-7, but God used it as an act of judgment to bring them back to Him. However, God did not only do this in Bible times. God is still using the actions of wicked people to accomplish His purposes. When communists took over China, the same thing happened. The language was united from thousands of dialects into ONE language - Mandarin - facilitating the easy spread of the gospel throughout China. Also, the communists built up the infrastructure for travel - the road system - and therefore the missionaries could easily travel to places they could not go before. For example, Tibet. Tibet used to be extremely difficult to get to as it is on a high plateau and had little easy access. However, when the communists came, though they also committed many atrocious acts and much wickedness, they also created road systems which allowed missionaries easy access to an unreached place. So, God used the wickedness of men to accomplish his purposes. However, make no mistake, God will most certainly judge their wickedness even though He used it for His purposes (Isaiah 10:12 and Jeremiah 51:24).

 Perhaps God has used the takeover of the Communists in Tibet to try to reach an unreached people, or perhaps it was act of judgment like the taking of the Jews into captivity in Babylon (but this too served God’s purposes to bring them back to Himself), maybe both, who knows what God’s purposes are. We can only guess. What I do know is this: God wants the Tibetans to turn to Him, the only One worthy of worship. Whatever means He uses to accomplish that I do not know, but I do know He is actively trying to reach them.

 Considering He often uses the wickedness of men and for His purposes and turns Satan’s plans for evil upside down and brings good out of them (like the crucifixion of Christ - 1 Corinthians 2:8 - “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.“), it is very possible that God does not want Tibet to be free UNTIL they have turned to Him! If they became free now, they would probably just continue on in idol worship - they need something to shake them, strip them of their trust in false gods, and bring them to realize they have an emptiness that ONLY God can fill. That is when our part comes in as missionaries, to go and let them know that only God can fill their emptiness. We cannot miss that window - it is open in China and I believe, opening in Tibet.

Here are some more Scriptures relating to this:

Proverbs 21:1 “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.”

Psalm 33:10-11 “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. “

Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”

Isaiah 19:3 “The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing”

Habbakuk 1 - Habbakuk complains about the wickedness of Judah and God tells him how he is raising up the wicked Babylonians to bring judgement on them - Habbakuk complains saying that the Babylonians are more wicked then Judah and so if He uses them to bring judgment, then isn’t He approving of their actions? God says no, “they will still be held guilty, they whose strength is their god.” (read more here: http://devinsgirl.blogspot.com/2007/08/can-god-use-evil-to-accomplish-his.html)

 Genesis 50:20 (referring to the story of Joseph) “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”

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The most exciting thing happened this past Thursday…something I’ve been hoping and praying would happen for 3 years, ever since I came to
Madison. When I arrived in
Madison 3 years ago I heard there was a decent sized group of Tibetans living in this city, and since I went to work with Tibetans on my DTS outreach in 2004, I REALLY wanted to meet some local Tibetans. On Thursday, we went for a walk after our Bible study and when we got close to library mall we saw a group of people holding signs and talking about something in a microphone…not too unusual for
Madison. But when I got closer, I realized they looked Tibetan and the signs they were holding were about standing up for human rights in
Tibet!!! I talked to the nearest guy, and found out he was a Kham Tibetan whose parents had fled to India, and they moved to the
US when he was 16. They were asking people to sign petitions to ask that something be done about the human rights violations toward Tibetan people, and hoping for
Tibet to again become a free nation. Another girl I talked to was Amdo Tibetan, from
Qinghai – the same area I went on my 2004 outreach, and the same people group I worked with for part of that time! I sang part of a Tibetan Christian blessing song for one of the guys, and he actually understood me. I told them I had been to
Tibet and have been praying for the people for a long time, and have a special place in my heart for Tibetans. They were encouraged to find someone else had been there. I wanted badly to go back on one of the other days they would be out there, but Friday was a snow storm and Saturday I just couldn’t get over there. I wanted to wear my Tibetan robe, and remember the rest of my Tibetan song, and find again how to write “Jesus Loves You” in Tibetan, and find my Tibetan tracts I had gotten when I was over there, and tell them about my Tibetan music video CD… I wasn’t able to do all that, but I did run into the Tibetan guy I had been talking to at Walmart on Saturday! What a divine coincidence. I would really like to see them again, so please pray I get another opportunity. I want to go out for coffee and chat, share with them about Jesus, learn what life is like for them… I was so excited I could hardly contain myself on Thursday, and I am still excited. Today, I decided to have “Tibetan day” and am wearing my Tibetan robe and listening to Tibetan music.

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So, it is Sunday and James is still in Barbados. They’ve been gone for a week for the UW spring break outreach. He arrives in Chicago at 11:30 pm, tonight, Easter. I miss him a lot, especially right now as it is Easter and I have no one to hang out with. Yeah, I’m going over to the Phos house for Easter dinner tonight, which is great. But, I miss my family. I talked to my dad today and they had all just sat down to Easter dinner at my grandma’s house, and I got to say hi to everyone. My dad took a bite of grandma’s cheesy potatoes for me - my absolute favorite. I really missed being there and wish I could be, but it wasn’t meant to be. I had all kinds of stuff happening this weekend, but most of it ended up falling through. For example, Friday night I was supposed to go to an outreach for International students but we had a terrible snowstorm and I didn’t feel safe taking Sam out driving in it, so I stayed home alone. My mom and uncle had just left that morning. Then, Saturday I had a baby shower to go to, which was nice. Today (Easter) I was supposed to take a Chinese girl, Eva, to church with me - her second time ever to church - but she cancelled because she had too much homework. So, I am sitting at home at 2 pm on Easter Sunday, blogging and I’m about to scrounge up something to eat and then clean up our place. I want it to look nice when James gets back. Anyways, that is my day. I look forward to catching up with James and finding out how his week went and then getting back into the normal swing of things next week.

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I sat down to nurse baby Samuel and picked a book off my shelf to read - “The Girlfriends’ Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood.” Sounds pretty good, huh? All new moms want to survive! I think I’m surviving pretty well, thriving you might say, but everyone could improve, I guess! I sit and watch him nurse, looking up at me and occasionally grinning, thus losing his latch - how adorable! The joy I feel is inexpressible. I then open up this book and read about how “terrible” your sex life is after having children (I disagree ; woe is me my body isn’t like it used to be (so what?); breastfeeding is such a nuisance (no, it’s the exact opposite!); I never get any sleep because this monster is attacking my breasts all night (actually, I sleep just fine and don’t mind interruptions), etc… Seriously! I am shocked! Not at her bluntness but at her attitude towards children. It is entirely selfish and me-centered, and sees children as a bother and annoyance - and what is further, I think her book is so popular because that seems to be the consensus across this country. And I must admit - I used to have this attitude also. I was terrified of having children, of being forced to stay home with the kids all the time when all I wanted to do was have a life, losing my body and gaining weight, going through the pain and suffering of childbirth - that was my mindset until only last year sometime. Actually, just shortly before we got pregnant did I come to the point where I was OK with the idea of having children. God truly “renewed my mind” regarding my attitude towards children (referencing Romans 12:2), and I am still in process. I now see that children are “a heritage from the Lord - the fruit of the womb is a reward from Him” (see Psalm 127). It’s TRUE! Children are a BLESSING - it’s totally worth any sleepless nights, crying fits, diaper blowouts - those are chump change compared to the privilege of creating a new life and seeing this tiny baby grow up and develop, training them up in the Lord and guiding them into the destiny their Heavenly Father has for them. What an HONOR God has given to us parents - I am excited for each step of the journey. God has given us an incredible privilege and I am honored that He has entrusted to me (to US) one of His precious little ones to train up and disciple, and though there are ups and downs, it is WORTH IT! So, I’m not complaining - there’s enough of that in this world already. 

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I’v been trying to get a blog up and running for a long time, and finally, here it is. My husband, James, is in Barbados right now and I am home with Samuel. Just to preface this blog - I will usually write posts when I feel really strongly about something - maybe I just read a book that I loved or hated, or God showed me something really cool, or something really awesome happened at Juvenile Detention Center, or I got really bothered by the state of the world, or something like that. That’s how I journal too, and this is the public version of my journal. So this will be a little more tamed-down than my real journal because I know people can read this, and people can’t read my journal (or, they shouldn’t - I rant and rave in there when things are rough or I’m upset about something). Anyways, I hope that this gives you a little more insight into me, how I think and what God has been doing in me and the world around me. Enjoy! More to come.

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