As I pondered the verse on the back cover, Isaiah 43:19, I realized my wife, Jieling, and I transitioned from doing the “right thing” to doing “God’s thing” throughout our journey with SEAPC. Although doing the right thing is not wrong, doing God’s thing is richer and more exciting because we are participating in His vision. Shortly before our journey with SEAPC, Jieling and I were married in 2004.We felt God directing us toward some sort of mission. Our Pastor suggested we go to Cambodia on a mission trip. The week before the trip, I really didn’t know what we were to do there. However, since the pastor was so supportive of us, I decided to do the right thing and we went.
While there, God touched both of us. We felt the burden for children. I went on another mission trip with my church and felt that burden confirmed. A couple of years later I received a call from Ken Martin, the CFO of SEAPC. Later there was a follow up call from Mark Geppert and a connection was made. I was a member of a private foundation and we began funding some children’s home building projects with SEAPC. When I visited several children’s homes in Cambodia I was impressed with the care the children received. More impressive was the difference in the attitudes and vision of the children compared to those I met in my earlier mission trips.
As a CPA, I quickly realized how much SEAPC accomplishes with the funds they receive. When Mark visited and asked us to join the board, it was easy to do the right thing. We became board members, and I became the next CFO. Then I really learned what SEAPC was all about. Between the board meetings, Friends Around the Table, and visiting our leaders in the field, I found SEAPC is really about prayer. Prayer, prayer, and more prayer. I realized that SEAPC and its leaders were about doing God’s thing and prayer was the direct path to finding it. How else could SEAPC accomplish so much? From high quality children’s homes in four countries, to congenital heart disease work for children in Tibet, to an autism program in China, to church plants across the globe, to schools in Cambodia, these are accomplished by SEAPC through prayer and only because they were God’s thing. There is no other explanation.
What is the difference between the right thing and God’s thing? Read the back cover of this magazine. If you are only doing the right thing, you will not be aware of what God is doing. You will not see the road in the wilderness or the rivers in the desert. By doing God’s thing, you will see them, both in your life and those around you.
Are you hungry to do God’s thing rather than the right thing? Do you wonder how to know which you are doing? Here is what worked for us last year. Jieling and I were invited to attend SEAPC’s Friends Around the Table in Malaysia. Initially we decided not to go because of work commitments. After the deadline, we did not feel peace. It was as if God was nudging us, so we decided to attend after all. Prior to going, we both re-read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. We usually read a chapter a day and would share with one another what we felt, what we thought God was communicating, and more importantly, would pray about it together. Our hearts were opened and our assumptions were challenged. For me personally, it became clear that I was all about doing the right thing.
When we arrived at Friends Around the Table, our hearts were open and ready to receive. We came open to whatever God had in mind. Surrounded by so many men and women who were all about doing “God’s thing,” it supported our effort to seek his direction. They prayed with and for us. Throughout the week, He came, He guided, and He shared.
Today, Jieling and I are about doing God’s thing. He is revealing what he is doing. He is showing us the roads in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. As you read further in this issue, do you see your part in all of this as God’s thing for you?
If you want to do God’s thing, pray and open your heart to receive. Could it be with SEAPC? Could God’s thing for you be providing financial support, or going on a short-term or long-term mission, or lending your professional skills or your gift as a prayer warrior? Whatever it is, find God’s thing. The right thing is okay, but God’s thing is what we all should be seeking.
~ Don Quinn
