Cambodia started throwing punches from almost the moment W Squad entered the country. We’ve had multiple people in and out of the hospital. A team had belongings stolen from the church they were living in for the month. A small electrical fire in the church late one evening saw the same team packing up and moving to a new location. And perhaps hardest of all, Team Phoenix was pulled from their ministry after only six short days due to a woman with mental disabilities running around the property with a machete.
Cambodia, it seems, has rolled out the welcome mat for us.
As Amanda and I are training our new Squad Leaders this month, they’ve been able to see the full gamut of Squad Leading responsibilities. We had to leave abruptly from the remote village where we had spent a few days with Team P63 to travel to Phnom Penh, an eight hour bus ride away, to spend two nights in the hospital with one of our racers who had been admitted with salmonella. On the way, we hit a cow and had to sit on the side of the road for almost two hours waiting to be rescued.
The cow we hit and perhaps inappropriately nicknamed "Road Block." Photo Credit: Lincoln Vallett
As the squad has been encountering trials, difficulties and spiritual warfare, we’ve been covering them in prayer and interceding on their behalf. We’ve prayed for their safety, for their joy to remain intact, and for the Lord to allow them to be a people who overcome adversity. Yet something never quite felt right about praying for the Lord to shield them from the hardships.
And so I stopped praying for protection.
I’ve seen something beautiful come out of the struggle. I’ve seen the men and women of W Squad be driven into the arms of their Savior. I’ve seen faith grow and trust in the Lord increase. I’ve seen prayer and worship and surrender and a clinging to the promise that “…for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 ESV).
I see and believe that this time of spiritual warfare, illness, fires, theft, exhaustion, bad dreams and sleepless nights is a time ordained by the Lord to strengthen and build up the squad. My prayer is not that we would shirk from trouble but that we would meet it head on with the assurance of victory at the hand of Christ.
After all,
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger or sword? …No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, not anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:35, 37-39 ESV, emphasis mine)
With Love,
The Overcomers
