I just got back yesterday from a trip to Dallas, Texas, where we worked with Bhutanese Refugees. These are always fantastic trips! We have teamed up with Chris & Cheryl Read who have volunteered much time and effort to help the Bhutanese out. We took a total of eight people with us on this particular trip. We drove down to Dallas on Friday afternoon and arrived to a great ethnic meal cooked by our Bhutanese friends. The next day we spent going to different apartments to meet new Bhutanese refugees, many of whom have only been in the US for less than three months. Our desire was twofold: 1. to begin relationships with these new folks and connect them to the local Bhutanese Christian community and 2. to encourage our fellow Bhutanese workers to do outreach themselves.
The last time that we went to Dallas, we went over to new people’s apartments bearing many gifts to help them get started on their new life in America. I was pleasantly surprised to find out when we arrived this time, that the Bhutanese believers did not want us to bring any gifts with us at all. Their reasoning was that the gifts only serve to spoil the people. They have seen that all of these well-intentioned ministries have created a culture of enablement. Instead, we were just going to bring ourselves and God’s love. I see this as a positive sign that the Bhutanese Christian community is maturing in their faith. They are growing up into a wonderful church, and it is encouraging to see.
It really was an incredible weekend. We ministered to many people by praying for them and just hearing their remarkable stories of living in a refugee camp for twenty years. We saw many connections made between Bhutanese Christians and Bhutanese Hindus. We were also blessed to get to encourage a new church plant of about 40 Bhutanese. We were able to take their youth out bowling and to eat pizza. We intended to worship with them on Sunday morning, but the weather forced us to leave before the service started.
Please, email me if you are interested in this work. Our intention is to take about three trips to Dallas per year.
God Call 