I was going through some documents of our early medical mission trips and came across a photo of me and one of the Akha in Northern Thailand. When I met this gracious woman it was on our first trip to that area of the world and the team was able to help her with some dental and vision issues. After several days it was time for us to leave and she asked me, “Will you ever come back?”

I smiled and said, “Yes we will come back. God has blessed our time here and I believe our Savior wants us return.”

She smiled and said, “Westerners don’t come back.” Waved and walked away.

Well two years later we returned and she was at the village waiting for me. She smiled and wanted her picture taken with me. She looked up and said, “You did come back.”

To be honest her first statement followed me for two years and still does. The grief I heard in her voice, the sadness that she had learned that believers come but they rarely if ever follow through. Since then I have attempted each day of my life to be a man of commitment, to make sure that as I bear fruit for my Savior I don’t forget to return, to help prune, to cultivate relationships to be there when needed.

Dear God of peace, each morning reminds us that Your mercies are new each day. You have been merciful to us despite our sins of busyness, forgetfulness, selfishness, of thinking only of ourselves. Today Father teach us mercy, commitment, and accountability. Help us (me) today to go, to return (make a phone call, write an email to a person(s) that have just slipped my mind lately), to walk with another on the path…Amen. Again I say Amen.