#9 - Getting Down Before The Lord

Vol.9

Sometimes you just have to get down....no, not dance .....but fall prostrate before the Lord, especially when twice in your devotional readings your spirit connects with the Scripture as mine did from 2Samuel 14:22 and 33: “²²Joab fell to his face to the ground to pay him honor”; and in “³³ and bowed down with his face to the ground before the king....”

So I obeyed Him and just felt I had to go and fall on my face (brought pic of Tara H to my mind!) and just spent time with Him. It really is too humbling to have the GREAT I AM come alongside me on the floor. I was just in tears enjoying His Presence.

Story told by pastor: He was in the traffic in the tuk tuk surrounded by other tuk tuks and big-name cars (Mercedes, Lexus etc.), when he saw a beggar who could not walk, was lame, and the Holy Spirit prompted him to go and put an offering in the beggar’s basket. He looked around to make sure that he had enough time to walk to the beggar, then got up and went to put an offering and came back. He said then something happened that he had never seen before in his time in Cambodia (over 10 years), people got out of their cars and tuk tuks and also went to put offerings in the basket! He was in tears!

Sometimes it just takes one person to get out of the comfort zone and initiate something: just listen to the Spirit`s voice and obey!

Stomach is a bit unstable but I have to work through it and focus on class tonight. And I am trying to type this as kids are all over me at the swing! I should go inside now....

SO I go to another place, an open room, the meeting place. I am sitting when the JK kids come running in to go to the playground with cries of “Teacher!” when they see me. I am swarmed and yet have no place to go as I am sitting down! One little girl who is the newest to be at POR brings her paper gift bag with 3 stuffed toys in it, and takes them out one by one to show me. I stroke each toy and give it back to her.  Then this little boy unfolds one I thought was a stuffed toy and it turns out to be a dead bat! A dead bat with blood traces on it! I was so taken aback that I just laughed out loud because in the next instant one boy takes my sunglasses and puts it on upside down on his face!

So with cries of “Teacher!” and the kids all over me, I knew there was no way I could learn my Khmer (I was out there to practice), so I went on the slides and the tire swing! Lots of fun on the slides and the tire which looked comfortable was NOT! But It was nice to push back and forth on the swing until one kid jumps on my stomach and wants us to swing and then another tries to jump on my back to swing as well. And then the ‘bat kid’ comes back and rubs his hand on my head! Well, what are you going to do but ……swing and slide!

I taught them a new word: ‘butt burn”! Yes, I made it up but it was very relevant! Needless to say, I had to take a second shower within one hour!

I was up at 5 walking around the area (yes, in my jammies!) and just felt I should spend time with Him in different places and praise Him!  

It was afternoon, very hot, and I walked into the library around 2:30 and gave second tests to 5 students who were failing, before giving in the marks to the public school. I saw this young man who is always in the library and asked Teacher Peoune about him and was told that he was here at POR, and then he voluntarily left and then came back some time later. I was curious, so I went up to him and asked him about his story.

In slow English, he said he came to POR when he was 15; his father died when he was young and his mother remarried but her husband did not want him. He went to live with his grandmother but there were 4 other kids there and they would always fight. Then someone asked POR if he would be accepted and he came here. However when he went to public school, he met friends who had a bad influence on him, and he wanted all the things they had, so he left POR when he was 18. But when he went back to his home province, he could not get work, life was different than what he expected; the easy life was not there. Then Mom Saconde, one of the committee members, told him that Jesus had great plans for his life, and at 20, he came back here. He realized that he is here to learn English and he is grateful to God, for His voice that speaks to him.

I was so touched by his story and by His humble spirit, I asked him if I could pray over him to bless him. He said yes and bowed his head as I prayed. I told him that there are other kids here who are probaly going through what he went through and I prayed he would be able to speak into their lives. “T” is one of the top students in his class and I prayed for his ability to learn English as well. I left there knowing this is one of the reasons I am here.

I just came back from visiting the famous temples in Angkor Wat In Siem Reap, where the remnants of worshipping the idols, Buddha, and animal figures are in evidence. Funny, when I began this newsletter I did not know that I was going to be visiting these temples, and yet after visiting I wanted to go and fall prostrate before the Lord, to worship and to adore Him after seeing people go and lay down incense and put money to pray to these idols, figures made by man that cannot hear and feel or respond.

 I LOVE YOU LORD!

Speaking of temple, HE reminded me that my body is also His temple, my mind, heart and soul are part of that temple and that I need to be in constant rapport with the One who designed me, to check my spiritual life to see that I am emotionally and spiritually healthy. For now, HE is the One I go to, there is no person here that He has given to me as my accountability partner/s. I know that is how He has designed it and I do not want to change His timing and become like the Israelites to ask for a ‘king’ and exchange His glory for someone else. I thank God for you, my prayer and accountability partners, and for the emails and calls I have received. I am claiming Psalm 119:66: that God would teach me knowledge and good judgement in all that I say and do…

Still Dancing with Him,

Sister Vidya