So just about six months ago I was sitting on a porch at training camp and was praying that the Lord would give me something to hold onto to encourage me in the race. I was hoping for a verse I could reference back to in tough times or a specific word that would remind me of how far He has brought me. Little did I know what I had just asked for. I closed my eyes to eliminate distraction and just began worshipping our Savior. As I sat there in His presence I saw four quick visions of people and where they were from. I saw a little girl from Cambodia, a disabled adult from Romania, a widow from Uganda and an orphan boy from Ethiopia. For the past six months I have been praying for these people and their faces have been engrained in my head. I was so excited that the Lord had given me a vision that I told everyone that crossed my path and if you came to my pancake fundraiser I am sure I mentioned them once or twice!
Today is our first Sunday in Cambodia and for ministry today we get to go to a village! In my head the village has straw huts everywhere, surrounded by red dirt and nothing else. There are a few children barely clothed and small little fires that they are cooking over. I picture church being maybe one or two people and us just walking around calling people to come listen to us preach. I imagined us singing a few worship songs (in English of course) and then continuing on to testimonies and/or one of us giving a message but then leaving right after. Just your average day on the World Race or life in missions.
Wrong! That is not AT ALL how today went. We arrive to church this morning and yes there are red dirt roads but heaps of children. I do not know if y’all have ever been to Cambodia but they have the most adorable children and most beautiful people I have ever seen on this big green earth. So, we arrive in our Tuk Tuk (Which is really just a box attached to a moto) and the kids begin waving to us. We were a little late to service (Sorry team! I take full responsibility for this one) and I sit down next to this adorable older woman. She was so full of life and joy that you could tell she had had an encounter with Jesus Christ. We begin to sing worship songs, not in English, but in the local language of Khmer (What was I thinking? Of course it’s not in English). So, as we are singing and clapping along I see a little girl walk down the aisle and we make eye contact. I have never been so sure of something so fast in my entire life… this was the little girl. The little girl I had been praying for, the little girl that would captivate my heart and the little girl I had a vision of in America six months prior. I had been searching for her the second I set foot in Cambodia and the moment was finally here. As she walked past me down the aisle and our eyes met I gently smiled and waved at her. She happily waved back with a big smile on her face, eating her loaf of bread, and continued walking to the back. This is it. This is the moment I have been waiting patiently the last six months of my life for. The preacher continued with her message but all I could think about was the little girl. What do I do? What do I say? I knew the Lord would reveal her to me, but I never would have expected it to be three days into ministry. My stomach began to fill with Holy Spirit butterflies (if you know, you know) as I sat through about another thirty minutes of the sermon. When the service was over I quickly grabbed the pastor to translate for me so I could talk to her mom and tell her about my vision.
Her mother wasn’t at the service, but her grandmother was with her. So, we sat down with her grandmother and two other moms of some of the children to hear their stories. The other two moms spoke first and were telling us all about how one child had diarrhea for four months straight after he was born. His butt was red and would cry all night long until the pastor prayed over him and was healed. The other mother explained how her child constantly battles with getting fevers and now has some sort of rash on her neck. Then it came to my sweet little girl, Rajhani, and he said that she has been completely healthy since birth and has had no complications.
I may be looking into this too much, but I would like to believe that my prayers have kept this little girl healthy, at least the last six months.
I am still processing all that happened today but I was too excited not to tell anyone and everyone about this story. The Lord is continuing to amaze me and this really is a testament that His words do not return void. Although this was something revealed to me six months ago, I have not lost hope in one day meeting this precious girl. I will admit that at times I felt like the weirdo Christian girl that was talking about God giving her visions and probably sounded like I was hallucinating. At times I began to give in to my fear of man and was worried what other people would think about me if what He had showed me didn’t come to pass. I assumed I would be judged for being a liar or that I can’t really hear from God. However, the Lord is teaching me how to be confident in Him and really make my head knowledge heart knowledge. I may say that the Lord is faithful but do I really believe the Lord is faithful in my heart? I am beginning to grow in confidence that my God IS faithful. My God IS a good. My God IS loving. It is who He is.
So, all in all, today is nothing like I expected it to be and I am so grateful! That is another thing I am learning about the Lord… he is unpredictably predictable. He may promise you something but I can almost guarantee you it will be revealed to you differently than what you were expecting. He is 100% predictable in the sense that He will ALWAYS show up, but so unpredictable of how or when He will.
I hope that this story will encourage you to keep believing in the Lord if He has told you something and you haven’t seen it come true yet. Trust in His timing because it truly is perfect. If He speaks something to you or over you I promise it will not return void, you may just need to grow in patience. Like I said earlier, I am still taking all of this in but I am so grateful for this divine encounter. This truly has been a connection six months in the making.
