In the beginning of October, when we started off at the Overflow Guesthouse, I heard the words “newness” and “life”. I believed God was revealing these words to me for myself. Without a doubt, they were for me, but as I started to think and talk about them more, I found that he was speaking newness and life into so many more places.
I felt Him calling my teammates into newness and life in this season, like He had called me. I felt Him also declaring newness and life for the Overflow Guesthouse. I prayed that over that place- the whole space and especially the rooftop.
As my team lived and worked with the guesthouse, we worked on developing ideas for the rooftop space to become a church. This included adding our creative ideas and even more beauty to the space. We had ideas for vines to go along the walls and roof of the space and for twinkle lights to go across the roof as well. I promise you, it was quite a beautiful vision and we were able to get a basic setup of it- so exciting!
I was able to see a visual of “life” in that space. It was a beautiful picture of what the Lord was doing there and what the Lord was actually doing in the whole of Cambodia. From what I have heard from those who have lived in Cambodia for a longer period of time, many people have become desensitized to death- funerals are just a motion you go through. Isn’t that cool that God would speak that over a country so disconnected from the deaths around them? He loves them so deeply that He wants them to be able to deeply love and mourn those they have lost, wholeheartedly.
Also, where we stayed (Siem Reap), there were many bars supporting prostitution, and I heard Him calling the women working there into newness. He calls them to Him- offering for them to become new creations in Him- living a life free from shame and condemnation. This goes for the men sitting in the bars as well. Freedom and love is just as available to them as it is for the women. What a beautiful thing, am I right?
We had to leave Siem Reap early because another two squads were coming to stay at the guesthouse, so we headed to a church and English school in Poipet- which is right on the border of Thailand. We stayed there for a week- evangelizing, assisting English teachers, taking part in Bible studies with believers in the villages, and painting an artsy wall of a classroom. Fun fact: Our ministry host took us to a casino several times for dinner because we were able to get a good meal in budget there. Another fun fact: I accidentally got squid/calamari my first night at the casino. Whoops. I only had one piece of calamari. At least I tried it, you know?
Anyways, I wanted to tell you about the wall of the classroom that we painted! It was incredible how it worked out. As we brainstormed to figure out what we wanted to do with the wall, we all came with different ideas and plans. We eventually came to the conclusion that we really needed to pray about it. After giving it to the Lord, the three other girls I was working with felt led to the same design and we found that it connected it to Scripture. We chose to paint vines and flowers coming from the vines, with nothing separate from the vine.
It says in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Oh the Lord. How good He is to give us a unified vision to glorify Him fully.
I have been feeling so blessed with the repetitive symbols He showed me. In Siem Reap, we worked with setting up vines on the rooftop of the guesthouse and in Poipet, we painted vines on the wall. What a beautiful picture of the life He wants the people of Cambodia to live- a life of simply abiding in Him- in His love, grace, joy, wisdom, and so much more. That’s what He put on my heart for them and I hope you can receive this in your own life, in your own way, as well.
There’s so much more that we experienced, but it’s definitely difficult to relay that all in one blog post, so if you’d like to hear more about random/neat things, message me on Facebook (I should only have WiFi for the next few days, but message me and I can try to get back to you when I can). Also, you can read my teammates’ blog posts to hear more about our experiences and the cool things the Lord has done. You can find them on the left side of this page! 🙂
Thank you for reading this and for supporting me! I’ll be off to Fang, Thailand in just a few days to assist in teaching English for two months. From all the way across the world, I’m giving you a big ol’ hug and want you to know I love you lots!
