Today began our second week at Daughters with another powerful time of intercession. One of our translators Kolab was sharing how much she benefited from Nancy and Peter's member care workshop on spiritual warfare as she was under attack last Friday from the enemy. Through that workshop, she shared how she came a way more equipped with new tools/weapons to fight against the attacks of satan on her life. The message she heard from Nancy was further reinforced at her church service this past Sunday and she felt so empowered by it all that she has felt led to share it with others at a conference she is invovlee at next weekend. This is just one of many items of praise that we give to God as we see His hand touching peoples lives in the midst of our daily activities
I wish I could say the same for what I saw at lunchtime at the Sovannara mall that we go to daily. Some of my team members spotted two foreign men with a Khmer girl. Since we've been here I have not seen much of this except for our first night. This was not the first time these two men were noticed by my team members as they seem to frequent this mall regularly and a particular restaurant where some of us eat. Picture two men sitting opposite each other in a booth with a girl trapped on the inside. Each time our team has noticed that they come with a different girl. This image is so symbolic of how many girls are trapped with no way out. This particular girl sits silently as the two men carry on their conversation but the voice of this girl is not heard. She is a trophy of theirs. This time round I decided to be a bit bold and began to snap away some pictures of them. One of them noticed that we were staring at him but I just stared back. This whole incident fuels my holy discontent and I find myself being a bit more 'in your face', not afraid. I stand outside the restaurant and pray that God would intervene and change the course of direction of this girl's life and convict these two men and block their plan to harm this girl. I figure a dose of heaven is a good way to fuel my distaste of this darkness. Back in the van, one of my teammates Peter suggest I pray that if these men should catch a glimpse of me staring at them, that instead they should see the face of Jesus staring back at them. I like that idea so I await to see if another encounter will come again.
Later this evening Char, Genie and I head off to a local restaurant to meet up with a new friend for the voiceless. Alli has just adopted a little Cambodian girl called Isabella and her other friend Ruthie are part of a team from Hardplaces, a new group of young people who have a passion to seek justice for child sex slaves. I feel that this is one of these divine moments as I had read and heard about Alli as she partners with our Newsong friends in Svay Pak. She has been running the outreach program for the kids in Svay Pak at Rahab's house since last fall along with Ruthie who is a school teacher. Through her ministry with our friend Ratanak and Pastor Chantha, both Alli and Ruthie have come to know many of the kids that we had spent time last year. They told us intimate details of some of the girls and boys we had come to know and pray for. Many of their stories were heart breaking as they mentioned how some of the girls we knew were being repeatedly raped at night. Ali shared how some of the young ones would come in the next day to Rahab's house and they could barely walk. Some had bruises on their thighs and one little 6 year old girl came in one day with full make up and false eyelashes. As I write this, I have a lot of emotions going through my head. I know these kids. I know their names and I have photos of them. I have hugged them and held them as if they were my own children, my own daughters. They have run up to greet me and call my name each time I have gone to Svay Pak. Some of them wanting me to lift them up so that they could give me a kiss. Others just wanting me to hold their hand and play with them. Each time I hold them I tell them that Jesus loves them and so do I. I cannot stand the thought of what is happening to them. Like Alli, I cry out to the Living God and ask that He will intervene somehow in their lives. This dark side of Svay Pak is always before us but I have a dream that one day Svay Pak will become transformed. One day the voices of the children of Svay Pak will be heard. They will not be silent. I believe this as I think back to the church service we attended again at Svay Pak yesterday. Watching several of the young ones perform and sing a song talking about following Jesus, loving Jesus because He had forgiven them and had died on the cross for them. And they sang, 'we want to serve Him.' I can't help but think of what goes through the mind of any one of these children as they sing these songs in the morning and yet when night falls, darkness descends upon their young lives. What a cross they are called to bear.
To the Team:
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the love and passion you hold in each of your hearts for the people of Cambodia but more specifically the women and children of Daughters.
It is a joy to read your updates regarding Daughters but it increases my yearning to be there along with you. May you walk and carry me with you in your hearts.
Beautiful are the feet of those who bring the Good News of Jesus Christ! Beautiful are your Feet! Blessed be your Feet.
Love,
Kimberly Foster
In total agreement with all Kimberley said. I too wish I could be there and I thank Him for each of you walking in obedience and persevering through attacks. Continuing to pray daily for you and the hearts prepared for Him.
ReplyDeleteIf you have the time, you should download this Sunday's sermon by Benjamin Devadason on RAC website. He was a hoot! And what he had to say was powerful.
Blessings,
Sita
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all — how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
ReplyDelete"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)
I pray for these little sheep, these little lambs, who face death all night long, who are considered as prey, that nothing will separate them from the love of Christ.
And I pray for the predators, the customers, that their sin will sit uneasily in their guts, will sicken them, will give them no peace; that the evil and the utter futility of what they are doing will give them no rest; that, like the prodigal son in the far-off land, they will come to the end of themselves, come to their senses and TURN.
I pray for such a wave of healing of our broken sexuality, such a deep understanding of the good gift of sexuality for marriages that the Lord intended it to be, such an honouring and respecting of the dignity of each person, made in the image of God, that business would dry up for the traffickers and purveyors for want of customers.
Your will be done, Lord, here on earth as it is in heaven. In the powerful Name of Jesus, Amen.
LR, what a powerful prayer and when I read along all these comments, yours is underneath my breath too as I prayed and wrote about what Lisa shared here on my blog. It was very tough to read yet I find comfort to know that our God had already walked before anyone of us here, our God knew what happened to that little girl who sat in that booth (how my heart and whole boday ache).. it also brings me to the verse which Peter shared earlier on 1 Corin 15:58 :
ReplyDelete“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord in not in vain."
Hi Kim
ReplyDeleteWish you were here. I do hope that you will have the opportunity to cone back here. We are enjoying our time at Daughters and appreciate the joy we see in the girls.
Blessings
Lisa