Give it all away

On Thursday I went to the IDC, Immigration Detention Center, something I used to do almost every week when I lived here. It is a "prison" for people who violate their visa and either have no money to be able to go home or chooses to stay for fear of going back to an unsafe home (for a full description of what the IDC is you can read about it in a previous blog I wrote the last time I was in Bangkok. Blog site is meghanflammer.blogspot.com) I was assigned to bring out a Sri Lankan man named Mr. Balahamaran. He and his wife have been inside the IDC for a few years. Over the course of our visits to them they have accepted Jesus as their Savior! In fact many people have come to know Jesus inside this "prison"!!! What really struck me to the core was the amount of obedience this Sri Lankan couple had despite their current situation. You see, they have very little inside their concrete walls and chain fences, and what very little they do acquire could be used to help set them free or just survive day to day, but on this day they reached their hand over the fence and handed an envelope marked "tithe" to my Swedish Pastor friend, Daniel. Daniel and his wife and family have planted a church called lifecenterbkk, after being called away from Sweden by God to Thailand. They have been pastoring these people inside the IDC and now this Sri Lankan couple consider lifecenterbkk their church. It was so humbling and also convicting to watch a man walk in obedience despite being in "prison" and having no earthly possessions, give his money as a tithe to God's church. It reminded me of the story in the Bible about the widow who had only two gold coins but she gave all the she had. "And He sat down opposite the treasury, and  began  observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on." (Mark 12:41-44 NASB) What an example to follow. To give all that we have to God, even when it's hard and there may not be a lot. What fools does it make us if we give only to our comfortability? Does that say how little we trust and value or Savior?  Do we give our all to Jesus? Or do we only give what we have excess of? This story is extremely convicting to me and it is my prayer that I will walk in obedience and have enough faith in Jesus to give all that I have.