The Lord has called each of us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 19-20) This is the Lord’s calling for each of our lives. God calls us into this but also gives us power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, being sent out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (Luke 9:1-2) The Lord calls us to make disciples, equips us with the Holy Spirit, and then says “Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves”. (Luke 10:3) We have the power over any sickness, any enemy but it will not be easy. We are sheep among wolves, being persecuted daily, but willing to suffer for the Gospel. This is a great reminder for me as I am serving here in Cambodia. With 95% of the population being Buddhist, sometimes it does feel like I’m a sheep among wolves over here.
Our ministry here in Cambodia is amazing! We are living and working at the same school. This public government school contains about 1,500 students, grades six through twelve. We have the opportunity to teach English a couple hours in the morning, and then a couple hours in the afternoon. After school is over, sometimes we play sports with the students whether that is soccer, volleyball, or basketball.
We were expecting to be teaching only English, but oh how the Lord provides opportunities to share His Good News! The beginning of our second week here, the English teacher we work with asked us to share with the class what we were doing. That whole week, along with the third week we mostly got to share the gospel with these students grades 10-12!! We sang some worship songs, explaining what each song meant, did a fun dance with them, and then shared the Gospel! In all, we probably have shared the gospel with about 6-8 classes so far! In a largely Buddhist country, having this opportunity to do worship and share the gospel with students at a public government high school has been such a blessing! So many of these students are at that age they are searching for something, and that something is Jesus Christ!! They are so open to hearing about the Gospel and who Jesus is! The English teacher we work with, Sokum, is not a Christian but Buddhist. The Lord has also blessed us to be able to share the gospel with Him throughout our time sharing in His English classes.
It’s a bit funny actually because we are teaching English which is our ministry here in Cambodia, but it’s at a public government high school. Our ministry host, Dara, we have only seen about three times since being here, so our “adopted” ministry host is Sokum who is Buddhist. We live life around so many people who are Buddhist but the Lord has absolutely provided us opportunities to love others like He would and share the Gospel with them! Yes, we aren’t doing “traditional” ministry by working with Christians, but we are living our day to day life loving others and spreading the Good News where we are at!
No matter where we are in the world, we can always share the Good News of Christ with whomever we encounter! The Lord equips us with the Holy Spirit to share this news. Although it’s not always the easiest, and we are sheep among wolves. We as Christians can be persecuted much more in certain places than others. Throughout my time the last couple months, I have realized how much of a gift it is that America is so open to Christianity. We don’t get arrested if we share the Gospel, we might just get an eye roll or annoyance. We all have that power to share and it absolutely changed each of our lives… so why are we keeping it in our hearts for ourselves? No! We are called to make disciples and share the Name of Jesus Christ with everyone we encounter!
Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks!
Alexina (:
