God Said To Build A Stage...2/1/2017 Greetings from Poipet Cambodia! I'd like to start by saying thank you to everyone back in the states for helping to make my stay fruitful, enjoyable, and refreshing. It was so good to catch up, eat some amazing food, and see how God has been moving in the various lives and communities I'm privileged to be apart of. It's only been 3 weeks since leaving the states but it's quite the eventful 3 weeks. Our departure from the states and arrival in Cambodia between weather delays, lost baggage, transport problems and immediately jumping into a 2 week conference with 400 people kind of knocked me for a loop. I quickly realized that although America was great the abundance of luxuries and amenities offered there had sadly provided comforts that masked my need for God and allowed for a bit of spiritual apathy which I think if I'm honest I'm still trying to snap out of. Prayers are appreciated as I take the next week to re-center myself spiritually and seek God's direction for this upcoming year. I'm acutely aware of the fact that without His grace and a thankful heart I'm going to get smoked as we say back home like a Philly blunt. Thanks be to God however I haven't had to look hard or far to find things to be inspired by or be grateful for. When we came here last year God spoke to our team in one time of prayer about building a stage. We were puzzled and the more practical ones of our team took it quite literally to mean that we should build stages. We did end up building 2 small school building where education and gospel presentations take place but I tucked that word away in my heart and only when I returned to Poipet last month did I see it come to pass. Last year we worked hard to create relationships and a system of operations through which ministry would flow. When we left we arranged for a Fire and Fragrance DTS team to come out and test out what we had established with only our 1 khmer team member here to help host them. We arranged for them to volunteer as teachers a few hours a day at a friends private school and in return she would provide transportation via their school vans through out the week to villages and various places of ministry. We also set up an opportunity where some of the guys from the team would volunteer as personal trainers at a friends gym. They even taught a Yoga class. To be honest though I wasn't sure it would work. Would the relationships hold strong? Would the team be comfortable in our home? Food? Culture? Language? All the different logistics that go into making ministry work here were stacked against us. Stacked as it was the success of that teams short month long outreach in our city using the "stage" if you will that we've built was beyond my wildest expectations. All over our city people were getting miraculously healed, radically loved, authentically educated, and change was taking place. The team raised money for one of our contacts who had previously been walking miles a day to various villages to teach the poorest and most isolated. One of the team put together a soccer team by combining a local youth group and a private school and took second place in the city. At a thank you dinner the other night provided and hosted by our friends the gym owners one of the team a young man named Matt stopped an employee who he saw was limping to pray for her. My friend the owner, a wonderful agnostic Buddhist, translated to his employee and told him to sit down and let the foreigners pray for her. After a short prayer the women said the pain was better, slightly sarcastically my friend told her to get up and run around a little if it was indeed better. The smirk on his face quickly changed to a jaw dropping stare as the woman stood and quite in shock herself began to yell "But Chung!" "But Chung!" (Completely Gone!) and literally ran away in shock. I had Matt, who my friends thought was a holy man by this point close the meal with a prayer for them, their business, and their soon to be born baby daughter. Seeing all of this has filled me with a great sense of gratitude towards God for allowing me to be apart of starting this new Ywam Base here in Poipet. None of this would have happened if it wasn't for the team of people that were crazy enough to give up 9 months last year and start something new in one of the most unreached and in need cities on earth. At the same time it's put a holy fear in me to persevere and continue to follow God in the next steps as He reveals them. I've never been good at consistency. My life has been basically a long series of drastic ups and downs and that scares me a bit. If there was one time in my life where I would really appreciate not a major or sharp improvement but just a gradual and consistent one that time would be now. Maybe it's my age but I think I'm just too tired to start at square one again right now. Much love my friends. Please keep me in your prayers and if the Lord moves in your heart to support the work I'm doing here financially please consider a one time or even better once a month donation. It's not my favorite part of the job but it's how this whole thing works. We Go, God guides, and typically uses His church as the way to provide. Until next month, stay up and while the world argues and fights over political and social issues keep your eyes on Jesus and your heart full of love. Below are a few photos of the team doing ministry throughout our community Thankfully while the team held down the fort in Poipet we were able to attend a conference at the brand new campus of out big brother base in Battambang. Love our Ywam Community here in Cambodia.
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AuthorMy name's Uriah Lyford and I'm a volunteer with YWAM. My dream is to see the spiritual solution of a restored relationship with God through Jesus be made available to every person on earth. I do this through the mentoring and training of young people to build and become the Church Jesus died for. Archives
June 2018
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