Time to Say Goodbye -- Blog by Hanna Reisdorff

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March 11, 2013

I arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand on June 12, 2012. I’m leaving next week. This year has changed me in a way that I find nearly impossible to put down in words.

When I left home, I expected that adjusting to a new culture would be difficult. For the most part, it wasn’t. Life here was surprisingly easy with all of the conveniences from home. I thought that teaching classes without any prior experience would be torture. It was ok. Hard work along with God’s blessing made classes go really smoothly.

I hoped that I would learn to be more proactive, work harder and become a more capable person. I did. But as it turned out, those weren’t the most important things I learned.

This year I learned why God tells us to pray for His kingdom to come (Matt 6:10). My little, newly-converted mind had never quite understood this verse. I mean, God already has His plan, and Christ said that for all of us the Kingdom is coming ‘soon’. Why would I pray for it to come? It’s already decided… isn’t it?

The thing I’ve realized is I don’t need to pray this prayer for God’s sake or for His plan. He can take care of that. This year, I’ve found that I truly needed this prayer for my own heart.

The students at Legacy come from all different walks of life, both physically and spiritually. There are students who could care less about the Sabbath or the Holy Days. There are students who observe the Sabbath because it’s the culture at this school. But there are a handful of students who are baptized, who love the truth and want to learn more about it every day. Those students are the ones it is difficult to say goodbye to. It’s for those students that I pray for the Kingdom to come.

Next week I will say goodbye to these kids whom I taught – really, these kids who taught me. I may see them again, as I hope to come back to Chiang Mai for the Feast of Tabernacles in 2013, but we can’t know the future. And after that? Realistically I wouldn’t be able to keep them in my life, even if I tried.

I am so grateful and so thankful that I understand the truth of the Resurrections. I know that those students who never had a calling and never saw the plan of God will have an opportunity to know God when He calls them. I’m ecstatic about those students who are baptized and love the truth. I have the hope that after we run our separate races, we can meet again in God’s Kingdom. I am left with such a feeling of awe and gratitude, I can do nothing except pray with all my heart, ‘…Your kingdom come…’.