Month 9 = ATL month. “Ask the Lord.” We have no ministry setups, no ministry host, we are given a budget and figure out where we are staying and what connections can we make.
One bittersweet part about this month is figuring out how to have the kingdom of God in EVERYTHING you do.
ATL so far consists of:
- Talking the truth of the Lord into a lady who has schizophrenia, who lives in a great amount of fear of the world (while talking to her, I just had a sense of nervousness and felt a bit scared like I shouldn’t talk to her) she was very thankful and gave me a hug in the end
- doing bible devotions every morning as a team
- going to the park (a few times now) to simply give kids a piece of their childhood back. To set down the items this boy is trying to sell me and simply say no I want to play with you. Buying a ball to bring back to the park, giving piggyback rides, playing soccer, scaring the birds away (there is a lot of pigeons at this park). First time meeting a family of 6 kids in which I got to hold a baby, second time of having up to 9 kids playing with us, then today we ended up having a photographer (he takes pics of people in the park with the royal palace behind to sell professional photos) and having a few older kids and adult play along too! Simply giving joy and fun to whoever we meet in the park
- taking time to learn Khmer so that I can communicate with people I come across
- making friends with people we’ve met at the hostel we are at and roomates we’ve had, a guy from England, Australia, philippines, London, South Dakota
- speaking khmer (or trying to with the staff at the hostel)
- visiting the same lady consistently where we get our dinner from and she will also teach us Khmer
- Trash pickup at another park and receiving comments such as “don’t you feel shame? You’re just enabling the locals to continue littering in their park. They can do it themselves.” Not even 5 minutes later to receive a comment from a local that says “thank you so much for picking up the trash, people just don’t care” and ended up asking to take a picture with us.
- In the same day at the park to meet a prisoner originally from California but recently got out of prison of 4 years in Cambodia. A man who is trying to find a week long place to stay and food to eat before he gets home. To spend some time at a nearby coffee shop to find shelter and food kitchens for this man and eat lunch with him in the park. Had some great conversations about where he’s been and working in women trafficking in the peace Corp in the Philippines. I shared my French fries with him. And ended up praying for him in the park.
- taking Time to teach half my team about what we learned about prayer in Malaysia at PenHOP, then doing an intercession small group prayer
Having an ATL month with no setups has forced me to figure out how can I bring the Lord into my everyday interactions whether it’s intentionally seeking people out like the woman I get my dinner from, or the random just heading to the park and seeing who steps in my path. It makes me be more observant in who I walk by and who is here at the hostel that I’m staying at. It makes me immerse myself into the culture and see Cambodia for real than from a tourists view. It makes me think more in how can I have God’s light shine through me in this moment. I am a person who’s a doer, I want to get on the way and DO something. I’ve been here about a week and I’ve been able to DO physical ministry in 6.5 hours total and I’ve been here for about 168 hours. That doesn’t seem like much but I’m learning to cherish every moment I get. I get to learn what it’s like to do ATL as a team and a community (it’s definitely a learning curve) but I am personally learning this month how can I apply this into my life back at home, with family, friends, and strangers.
