Abundant Mercies

Miracles have a way of grounding your faith and flexing spiritual muscle. For those of us in Cambodia today, we benefited from such a display of God's sovereign power. First some background:

We landed in Cambodia last Friday - having connected through Taiwan. Upon arrival, we learned that our flight was the last to leave Taipei that day. A Typhoon had swept in and all other flights were canceled. Same thing that happened two years ago. But God was sovereign and our plane came to Cambodia.

Since our arrival, as is typical in the south pacific, we have seen heavy rain and thunderstorms every afternoon. Speechless was scheduled for 5:00 today. Yesterday, it poured from 4:30 to 6:30. This raised several issues. First, Speechless was scheduled for a large outdoor meeting tent - without sides. With the wind and rain, we would be very exposed to the weather. Speechless would be virtually impossible. Secondly, we have been told that Cambodians don't go out in the rain - and even if we waited until the rain ended to start the program, we would have problems - they don't really go out after dark either - which is 7:00. So, the whole program was in jeopardy. Forecast was for Thunderstorms to hit all afternoon, peaking between 4:00 and 5:00.

Today dawned hot and humid. By 1:00 PM, the clouds were rolling in. At 4:20 ( 40 minutes before start time), rain started to fall. But before it really got started, it stopped. And the clouds rolled back, leaving blue sky overhead. We looked North, South, East and West, and thunder clouds hovered in every direction. But directly overhead, our patch of earth was under the late afternoon sun. And it stayed like that for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Could not have had better weather.

5:00 rolled around under a blue sky. But virtually no people were there. We waited...wondering why God had held the rain at bay - but did not bring people. 5:30 came - and still few people. But we did not start yet. Shortly after 5:30, people began trickling in, and soon we had a full house. Not only that, but the people who came were people that had been specifically prayed for. 

The program started about 5:45. The Cambodian kids did a great job - performing far better that they ever did even in practice. They rose to the occasion. Our team provided the support, direction and encouragement. In the end, the gospel was loud. The gospel was clear.

Language barriers prevented us from having significant further conversations about the material - but the responses were very positive. We may never know the impact of this Speechless program - but we could see God's clear hand in making it happen. SOMEONE was there tonight who needed to hear the gospel. Maybe we find out who when we are in heaven.

In addition, the Cambodian Speechless team was pumped - they were so excited to be a part of proclaiming the gospel in this way. Who knows how God will use them with this material in the future.

But we do know that God used the program this week - and as he stripped away any semblance of control that we thought we might have, we give Him all the glory for what happened.