Yesterday, my team and I witnessed something so beautiful and glorious it’s beyond any of our understanding and my words won’t do this experience justice, but I’ll try my best to explain what happened.
Our squad did ATL’s which means “ask the Lord.” So, each team prayed and then went out into the city of Battambang and allowed the Holy Spirit to guide us wherever He wanted us to go.
During our prayer time, my team heard lots of things from the Lord. The words and phrases “market” “tiny girl in pink” “little boy in Spider-Man shirt” “river” “graveyard” and “girl in red” were all significant for this day. We started at the market and God showed us all of these things. The “tiny girl in pink” was something that I specifically heard from the Lord so I kept an eye out while we were there. After about an hour of being at the market, chasing and playing with some of the kids, I asked the Lord where this little girl was. He simply told me, “I’ll bring her to you, don’t worry,” and a couple minutes later, a grandmother walks over to me and hands me her toddler, wearing all pink. I sat and played with her for a while and then handed her grandmother a note that my team and I had written earlier that said, “you are beautiful and Jesus Christ loves you!” The grandmother read the note aloud in Khmer to her granddaughter and they both smiled.
Bekah, who is on my team received the “boy with a Spider-Man shirt” word from the Lord and we saw 2 little boys at the market confirming we were exactly where He wanted us to be. Another girl on my team, Grace, received the “girl in red” word and as we were leaving the market she talked to a girl wearing red and colored a picture of Ariel with her and invited her to the English classes our ministry hosts provide.
Then we were on our way to the next place which was the river. We passed some tiny puppies on the side of the road and stopped and played with them for a while. I’m convinced the little white one stared into my soul and we have a deep connection now. I’m on a mission to find him again. He fell asleep as I pet him and he closed his eyes, it was the sweetest thing and everything I needed in that moment. ATL actually stressed me out at first and I put a lot of pressure on myself to listen to the Lord. But, He knows me and my heart and provided every step of the way.
Then we finally made it to the river and went under the bridge and sat next to a man who was fishing. I kept trying to talk to him, but he didn’t know a lot of English so it was hard and I felt a little discouraged. God told me to just sit and listen to the music we were playing and be still. During this time, He filled my teams hearts and prepared us for one of the craziest experiences we ever could’ve imagined.
Tennessee heard the “graveyard” and in Cambodia, they have pagodas which are temples and a place where they can bury the dead and honor their ancestors. We went to the closest pagoda which ended up being right by one of our ministries. We walked in and I asked my team which way and simultaneously they all said, “right.”
So, we turned and saw this man who looked homeless sitting on the ground. We walked over and started a conversation with him. He spoke a little English, but not much. After we would ask him a question, he would mumble and talk to himself in another language and it didn’t sound like Khmer, the Cambodian language. Grace asked if she could pray for him and he said yes and we all prayed blessings over him. Then, Lauryn, took a picture of him with her Polaroid camera and gave him the picture of himself and when she handed it to him, she felt the Holy Spirit tugging on heart to speak to him in tongues. She obeyed even when she was unsure of what the outcome would be. And thank you Jesus she did because what happened next was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed.
He understood her!!! The man understood whatever language the Holy Spirit was speaking in through her. I will never forget the look in her eyes when he replied back. Right when she looked at me and my teammates, we burst into tears. There was this unspoken understanding that the Holy Spirit was performing a miracle right in front of our eyes.
The words rolled out of her mouth effortlessly in this foreign language and had a full conversation with this man for about ten minutes. She doesn’t know what language she was speaking in or what she said. This man wasn’t speaking to her, he was speaking to the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit used my courageous and obedient friend, Lauryn, as a vessel to speak to this Khmer man in the middle of a Buddhist temple and He allowed us to witness it. The glory of the Lord surrounded us and the Holy Spirit filled us in a way I’ve never experienced. I was in complete awe and reverence of the Lord and wanted to fall to my knees and cry, “Hosanna!” It overwhelmed and consumed me in the most amazing way possible, I’ve never felt such joy and love in my whole life. My spirit was dancing and rejoicing with the Lord.
Lauryn gave him one of the notes that said, “you are beautiful and Jesus Christ loves you!” in Khmer and the Holy Spirit explained what it meant to the man. They kept repeating “Preah Yesaou” which means, “Jesus Christ exhaled above all.”
As we were walking away we still were in awe of the Lord and cried in each other’s arms. Lauryn continued to speak in tongues and praise the Lord. It was so good. He is so good. He told me right after that, “this is just the beginning.” I’m honored and humbled by this experience. My heart feels like it’s going to explode just thinking about it and the fact that He promised more to come. HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST!!!
