Hosea… it’s one of my favorite books of the Bible. There’s still a lot of the Bible I have yet to read or fully understand, but just yesterday, I really felt the Lord prompting me to read Hosea again.
I’ve found that it’s not just for me, actually. Yesterday, the two teams here at Overflow Guesthouse in Siem Reap, Cambodia, went out to do “ask-the-Lord” ministry. We prayed together, asking the Lord to give us words or pictures of what He wanted for our time. After this, we split into groups of two or three- some people feeling led to go with certain people.
My friend Ashlyn and I rode a tuk-tuk into town, simply looking for a tall building and the color orange- possibly a man in an orange shirt. We started off at the beginning of Pub Street, hoping for the Lord to highlight what He wanted for us as we walked the street.
We continued to wander. And wander some more.
Finding a two-story Burger King with orange bricks in the front, we took the chance to refocus. We grabbed our 80 cent ice cream cones and headed to the second story.
I pulled my short self up onto a barstool next to the window. In front of the window, we had views of a night bar, small restaurants, vendors, and many tuk-tuks and motos (motorcycles).
We spent time relating on our previous ministry times, when we were with different groups and we knew we needed to spend some of our time there praying. I started, feeling led to pray for the night bar in front of us and for our teammates, who – were feeling very discouraged. Ashlyn felt the same and continued to pray for them.
After leaving, I felt better, but still not seeing very clear direction. We decided to go back towards the place we were dropped off at. We sat down at our pick-up spot and pulled out our Bibles. Having my heart heavily set on Hosea, I opened there, explaining to Ashlyn how I had felt the Lord leading me to the book that morning. Guess what? She felt led to Hosea that morning, too!
That isn’t even the best part. We spent some time talking about it and then this woman came up to us, asking if we were reading the Bible. We responded- saying we were. As we talked more, we found out that this woman and her husband are from America and are Christians in love with Cambodia. She had even been reading Hosea that morning, as well. We shared about our understanding of Hosea’s story and the story of the Lord’s love for Israel and it was beautiful.
We didn’t find Ashlyn’s man in an orange shirt, but I hope that she does find him, eventually.
Then.. today being my team’s off day- Sabbath- we spent time seeking the Lord and allowing Him to shape our day and give us the rest we have needed. I journeyed to buy some 50 cent coffee with Nina and Lauren joined us later on. We journaled, ate some delicious bread and allowed our spirits to be fed as we listened to a podcast from Lauren’s church.
I had read Hosea 4 before the podcast and I was asking the Lord for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding and to see what is of Him.
He answered me.
As we listened to the podcast, we found ourselves looking at each other and smiling with the cheesiest grins. I found myself in awe of how much the Lord was speaking straight into my need. Her pastor spoke a lot about wisdom and knowledge and he spoke from Ephesians (1:18 was one of the verses). He used the word “epignosis” which means fullness of knowledge that comes through personal acquaintance and interaction with truth. Wild, huh?
We continued to journey and adventure through our day- experiencing new things and walking through very deep puddles. There’s so much more I could share, but it’s hard to put my thoughts together well enough and concise enough to put them into a blog, so if you ever want to hear more from me, message me on Facebook or e-mail me and I should be able to get back to you. Maybe we could even video chat- especially this month!
This month’s ministry is very close to my heart- it makes me want to stay longer, but sadly, we only have about a little less than two weeks left here. We will soon be moving onto another ministry in Cambodia and moving to Thailand after that. I’m really looking forward to all that God has for our next countries and ministries, but truly enjoying and seeing Him in the moment.
Love and miss you, sweet friend. Thank you for following me through my adventures. Read Hosea and tell me what your thoughts are on it. Let’s start a discussion. Remember how much you are loved by our crazy-good God.
X This month’s ministry is very close to my heart- it makes me want to stay longer, but sadly, we only have about a little less than two weeks left here. We will soon be moving onto another ministry in Cambodia and moving to Thailand after that. I’m really looking forward to all that God has, but truly enjoying and seeing God in the moment.
