CAMBODIA!

 

I am sad that I cannot post pictures yet because my computer is in Bangkok, but I do not want to wait to write a blog because God is teaching me some crazy things!  The Cambodian people are incredible.  They have huge hearts and are the most hospitable, serving people I have ever met.  And they truly understand community.

 

We are living with about 10 girls above the church where we are teaching English classes.  There are also about 20 guys who stay in another room above the church.  I really love this church and these girls we are living with but unfortunately we do not get to stay with them the whole month.  The main ministry we are working with is sending us to a new church each week.  But the people at Living Faith have already taught me so much.

 

One day I got really sick…like puking and I couldn’t move.  I was praying and praying and asking God to heal me but I felt like he said this was something I needed to endure and it wouldn’t be that bad.  Now God has already been teaching me a lot about the Kingdom and and about how he desires for us to be healed and well but he allows suffering so that our character can be sharpened and so that we can look more like Him. 

 

While I was sick, all of the girls at the church wanted to help me but they didn’t have medicine and they couldn’t really understand much English.  So I told them they could pray for me.  When two of the girls prayed over me, I started to cry because I could feel the Holy Spirit so strongly!  I was made aware of my ignorance and pride when I was faced with the power of Christians here in Cambodia praying.  But when they finished I was still sick. 

 

The next day I was still praying and asking God to show me why I was not getting healed and I got so frustrated.  I began to question why I can’t have what I ask for even though the Bible tells me to ask for anything and I will have what I ask for.  I was getting frustrated that God would not heal me or speak to me.  I had completely forgotten what he had said about enduring it. 

 

Finally, out of nowhere I had a revelation.  For a split second I was questioning God’s character.  For a split second I was believing the first lie ever told: that God was withholding something good from me.  Then, he so gently said to me, “Bethany, this is the least severe thing that you have to go through if you want to get to where you have been asking to go in the Spirit.” He was having mercy on me by allowing me to go through that sickness.  While I thought he was not answering my prayer of healing, he was answering my prayer to go further in the spirit!  Everything I was thinking and frustrated by was completely rocked.  And God is bringing so much more clarity from that simple revelation. 

There is a lot more to that but I want to talk about one more thing.

 

God gave me another revelation as we were participating in church here at Living Faith.  He was speaking to me about evangelism and spreading the gospel.  And a simple truth became so real once more to me.  He said, “Without the Holy Spirit, evangelism is pointless.” I realized that these people did not have a background of Christian values and beliefs but all they knew about was Buddha.  If they were to learn about Jesus the way we teach about Jesus in America, they probably would not be Christians.  But they had to have experienced something; they had to have felt something;  they had to have seen his power in order to give up everything and follow him.  They had to have had a motivation more persuasive than human words to count the costs and choose to leave their family and all that they knew for Jesus.  And everytime they pray or worship you can see that they KNOW the Holy Spirit.  You can see it in the way they live.  It is beautiful.  I am falling more and more in love with the Holy Spirit each day and I absolutely love seeing how He is working and moving throughout the nations.