Our Tuk Tuk driver has just dropped us off in the crazy night streets of Siem Reap. He agreed to pick us up in two hours. That means we have two hours to ask the Lord what He wants us to do and do it. Here on the world race we abbreviate everything. So this is called ATL Ministry (Ask The Lord Ministry).
With high anticipation for what the Holy Spirit is about to do, my team prays that God will reveal it to us. We decide to sit still for a minute and ask God to give us words or vision to direct us on where to go. The Holy Spirit gave one teammate the word deaf and another heard the word flowers. And with that we began to walk down this alleyway looking for flowers and a deaf person, or maybe a deaf person selling flowers. That’s what’s cool about ATL ministry, you don’t really know what you’re doing until God reveals it to you.
As we were walking, a woman poked her head through a window and asked us where we were going. She was a waitress of the restaurant in this alleyway. I immediately noticed the small pot of flowers sitting in the windowsill we were speaking through. Actually, this was the only windowsill with a pot of flowers in the entire restaurant. Ironic, right? I didn’t think so either.
We introduced ourselves and explained that we were praying and God told us to come here. She seemed confused, but very politely introduced herself as SleyMom. At 28 years old and never attended school, SleyMom had very good English which she has picked up from customers over the years. Over and over she pointed at our faces and skin saying “saan, saan” which means beautiful. We replied that she too was beautiful, but she disagreed. She said her nose was too flat, her skin was too dark and her eyes were not round like ours.
I noticed three children as the background picture on her phone and asked who they were. Sleymom has three beautiful children. I don’t remember their names, but it was two boys and one girl. She explained that her husband was no longer with her. He told her he wanted a woman from America because American women are more beautiful. She laughed as she told us this, but I could see the hurt in her eyes. That’s why she doesn’t believe she’s beautiful because her own husband said she wasn’t beautiful for him. Sleymom is deaf to her own beauty.
We asked to pray over her, but she didn’t want us to because she wouldn’t understand. Luckily she had a translator app on her phone so we typed in a prayer for her. Through the prayer we asked that God would reveal to Sleymom her beauty and His love for her.
As business began to pick up, Sleymom had to go back to work. We said our goodbyes and repeatedly told her how beautiful she was. I still don’t think she believed us, but I pray one day she does.
Not one woman in Cambodia has accepted the compliment when I tell them they’re beautiful. They respond, “No I am not beautiful, you are!” They point at my white skin or pointed nose, “this is beautiful.” What they don’t know is there are so many girls in America wishing for these girl’s dark complexion. Nobody wins! I am so sick of comparison. It’s in every culture.
One spends so much time comparing herself to others that when someone points out her own beauty, she cannot hear it. When in reality, God made each of us as our own unique self. And He sees every one of his children as beautiful. You hear that? The God of all the heavens and earth and everything in between made YOU. And He thinks YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.
Don’t listen to the lies of people who would dare tell you any different.
My prayer is that Sleymom will no longer be deaf to her beauty. I also pray that you reading this won’t be deaf to your own beauty. Listen to your Heavenly Father, “You are beautiful, my beloved. Truly beautiful.”
