What Happens When You Go?

     This last friday my bible class wanted to take class to the slums.  One of my students knew some families in the nearby slums and so we went.  It was drizzling, the dirt road was extremely muddy, and we had no real plan.  This is exactly what I wanted.  I wanted God to guide our every move.  I didn't want a plan, I didn't want to know what I was doing, I wanted God to lead us.  There was me a translator, and about 7 students.  At the very start some had concerns about what we were doing, but I knew that it was only an attack and that we were supposed to be there.  This was something I desired to do, but it's difficult to just walk up to people, and talk if you don't know the language.  I think God put this on my heart because only a few days after one of my students asked if we could do the very thing that was on my heart.  And so the circumstances and the attitudes around me would not effect me.  I was determined to go and be used by God.  It took us about 10 minutes to walk to the slums from the youth center, and once arriving we just began walking down the narrow muddy road.  There were homes very tight together that were nothing more than a shack with one room raised from the ground.  Only walking distance from luxurious hotels and modern cafes.  It's a hard thing to take in.  To know that people are living so comfortably so close by, and yet many don't even have a bed to sleep in.  Yards and landscaping don't exist.  Home furnishings and decorations are not even on the radar.  Whatever they can find to build a shelter is what they use.  
     When I first got to Cambodia and saw the vast difference from the upper to lower class it didn't phase me.  I didn't understand it.  Now, God has been giving me His heart for the poor.  To see them as people who are hurting.  To see them as people who need so much.  To see them as people...
    As we were looking around and feeling awkward I had to fight not to feel defeated or that this really wasn't a good idea.  I was trusting in one of my students, Sok Na, to lead us because she knew some of the families.  She looked a little lost and a little out of place.  Still I was fighting the defeating thoughts.  God had told me to come here, God was going to do something.  I asked God to bring us someone who he wanted us to minister too.  I felt like it would be a women, but I just prayed out to God almost in desperation.  I didn't want this be a failure, I didn't want my students walking away without feeling like we did anything.  So I prayed.  
     Sok Na found a family that she knew.  I was relieved.  She a few of my students were welcomed into the house and they quickly had me come in with them calling "teachah teachah".  So I went, Sok Na told me a little about them and we all prayed for them together.  It was great and I was glad to pray for them.  I knew that not being able to speak their language wouldn't allow me to do too much and so I was content to pray.  As we left that house I saw another one of my students, Dareth, talking with another family across the road.  I went over and asked if he knew them.  He said no, he started laughing nervously and I did the same.  So I introduced myself to a couple people in the family.  I asked Dareth to ask if they needed prayer.  There were 6 or 7 children in the house watching TV.  (They have nothing, but almost all of them have TVs)  They told me that all of them had colds and were sick.  And so they gathered all the kids around and I put my arms around a few of them and prayed for their sick bodies.  One of the girls at the house new YWAM and had taken classes at the youth center and it was great to be able to talk with her and bless that family in our short visit.  
     As I left that home the group I had been with walked to the end of the road and were talking with a lady with a young child named Ya.  Sok Na told me that her husband had another wife and things were very difficult for her right now.  My heart went out to this lady.  I prayed for her but this time that wasn't enough.  I had Sok Na translate for me and I just began speaking what I felt God wanted to tell this sweet lady.  As I spoke I watched her as she looked down and fought to keep the tears inside.  I knew that what I was saying was penetrating her heart.  God had come through, He had brought me to the person I had asked him to.  Though I don't speak the language God still used my words through a translator.  You can't limit God.  Sometimes it means doing things that are uncomfortable, sometimes it means putting yourself out there.  When you obey God, you are never disappointed.  Listen for His voice.  He wants to speak to you, He wants to use you for His purpose and His glory.  Even when it means walking to an unknown place with muddy roads and only a word from God to go.  
     I hope to go back, I hope to meet Ya again, I hope to be God's voice to this lady, I hope that if she does not believe in God that by my love and by what I say, she comes to know Him.  To know Him in a way that completely transforms her life, that gives her hope, that gives her comfort.  I want Ya to know the God I know, to know how much she is loved, and to know that there is hope in salvation.  That Jesus died for her, that He is alive, and that she must only believe on Him for eternal life.