Valentines Day. We made plans with our friend named Lily who lives in the village we stay at to go out for lunch with her at this local Indian restaurant. We all don’t have any love interests so we made it a so called “galentines” date. We had planned to meet her at 1pm once she got home from work. We went to her house at 1pm and she wasn’t home yet so we wandered to a grassy area by a pond to wait until she arrived. (Because we don’t have those fancy things called cell phones). While we were laying in the grass a guy walks up to us looking troubled and upset. He asks if he could join us. We invite him in and introduce ourselves, and asked how his day was and he responded with, “Today has taken the smile away from my face.” He then continued to share how that day he was kicked out of his parents house because he had relapsed.
So flash back to November, Matthew was discharged from Agape (the Christian rehabilitation center that we go to every week) after being there for 6 months recovering from his drug addiction. He grew up in a Muslim family and agape was the first time he was introduced to the Christian faith and where he invited Christ into his heart. When we were talking to Matthew by that pond he was afraid and had no place to go. His parents threatened to hurt him if he tried to return home, they didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. My friends Emmy, Mykayla, and Emily and I prayed over Matthew and encouraged him. We didn’t know what else to do or how else to help him other than put him into the Lords hands. We invited him to the youth service that the local church has every Friday night, praying that we would see him again the next day.
Friday rolls around, and the Lord had placed Matthew on my heart this whole entire day. I prayed and prayed and prayed. Emmy and I rush to the youth service in hopes of seeing our friend Matthew there. 6:30pm rolls around and he isn’t there. We were bummed. I spent that service praying, praying, praying. Asking the Lord to bring Matthew there. The service comes to an end and we are chatting outside when we see Matthew walk up with Mykayla and Emily.
***Side note there is a man named Setan from Cambodia who came to share his radical testimony with the college students (which is a whole story outside of itself that I would love to share sometime) but our friend Matthew had ended up going there thinking it was our youth service, which was completely God ordained. Setan shared his life changing testimony and it resonated and moved within Matthews heart.
Matthew comes up to us and spills everything that had happened in the past day. After he had left us at the pond he went up onto prayer mountain and prayed for hours. After that he said that he went and sat on the side of a busy street and a married couple walks up to him and takes him into their home. (Which is what we had prayed for specifically and had been praying for ever since we left him, thanks be to God!!!) This couple were believers and the husband was a previous drug addict. Matthew said that he encouraged him and showed him that there is a way out of his addiction and there is hope for him. They provided Matthew with a place to rest and a place to feel supported and fought for.
He then mustered up the courage to go back to his parents house. He went back and they welcomed him back with open arms. Matthew asked us if we could escort him back to Agape the next day. He expressed how he wants to get his life back on track, and how he wants his whole life to be completely devoted to the Lord. He didn’t want drugs or anything to hold him back from what the Lord has in store for him. After he listened to Setan share his testimony and the husband express his victory over drugs and his devoted relationship to the Lord, he said he wanted to do that same thing. He wanted to show other addicts that there is hope, there is a way out of there hopelessness and emptiness and that is by Jesus alone.
God lit an undeniable fire within Matthew that I watched light up in front of my eyes. It took so much courage for Matthew to open up to us about all of those things. When I looked at him I saw a courageous son of God who desired more. He tried it all. He tried drugs in hopes to fill a void that he soon realized only the Lord could fill. I saw hope in his eyes, like he had never felt before. Looking back on these past two days I see the hand of God over it all. He heard all of our pleas and cries for our friend Matthew, and He scooped him up and called him back home into His loving arms. He reminded Him that with God we don’t have to feel hopeless. God has already defeated the grave, we already have victory through Christ!!! No matter how hard the enemy tries to steal kill and destroy, as long as we look to God and His strength, the enemy is DEFEATED.
AND HE ISNT DONE WITH HIM!!!!!!!! Today we escorted Matthew back to the rehabilitation center, and I believe the Lord will use him to radically change the hearts of those there. We have created a lot of relationships with people at Agape, and as much as we encourage and speak with them I believe that Matthew’s words will have an even deeper impact on them. Continue to pray for our friend Matthew as he returns to rehab, I know the Lord has amazing things in store for him. Thanks be to God for his faithfulness and pursuit of His children!
Prayer is so powerful. And if the Lord crossed our paths with Matthew for that specific purpose I believe it was completely ordained by God alone. The Lord is here, he is ALIVE. It is our decision whether or not we go to him in complete faith. He can move mountains, he can heal the blind, he can calm a raging sea!!!! That isn’t an ancient myth, but a reality that we live with and have access to every single day. Let’s lean into it and in turn lean in closer to God. Pray those big prayers that may seem completely impossible to you. With God all things are POSSIBLE!!!!! Let’s believe it and live it.
“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually” -Psalm 105:4
“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you… Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.” -2 Chronicles 20:12 & 17
