Storming the Gates

We have a prayer request and a confession. Most of you know that we have been asked to move to Cambodia. Kevin was appointed DS of Cambodia; we are supposed to be moving there… any time now. The problem is that all the borders are closed right now due to the pandemic. We are currently in this strange waiting place. All of the plans we made have changed. Most of our Work & Witness teams have been cancelled or postponed and our move is on hold… indefinitely. In fact, this morning we heard from a friend in Cambodia that the country will not be allowing Americans in particular into their country until the the COVID-19 situation in the U.S. in under control. Now, we are not in the U.S.; this should not affect us, but we do hold U.S. passports and so we are lumped together with all other Americans.

Waiting is hard… frustrating. We’ve been challenged to ask ourselves what God wants to teach us during this waiting season. So we quiet ourselves, we ask, and listen. We are learning Khmer online and we have plenty of time to study it, but somehow we know that isn’t all we are meant to learn.

I mentioned that I have a prayer request and a confession. I believe the confession should always come before the prayer, so here goes… we have not prayed for the borders to open. Yup, you read that right. We have groused about how frustrating it is to wait; we have talked about how we just want to get on with it, to move and get started; we have talked about how long this might last and what we will do if we are stuck in this waiting place indefinitely, and we have even prayed that the borders to Thailand would open so that our kids can come visit us as planned. But, we have not prayed once that the borders to Cambodia would open so that we could begin the work we’ve been tasked with. Why? If we are honest, it’s because we don’t really want to go.

Cambodia is a very spiritually dark place. We’ve felt it every time we’ve visited. In my mind, I think I’ve equated it with the very gates of hell. And who wants to go there? No one. Sometimes we think of hell as this permanent place where all those who have rejected Jesus go when they die. Perhaps that’s true, but hell is also the place where living people suffer without hope and without God. It’s the place where sin and depravity reign and where the love of Christ has not been shared. No one can blame us for not wanting to step into that, to live in that. Except… there are souls behind those gates. There are people there who need to be rescued, transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light. There are people dying without Jesus.

Today as I was thinking/praying about the situation, I believe the Lord put an image and a question in my mind. The image was of a barrier at a border crossing. The question: You can’t go? Have you tried? Upon walking up to the barrier, I could see that it was made of paper, like the large paper banners high school football teams run through with ease. The answer… we haven’t tried at all. We’ve been told we cannot and we have just left it at that. Now it’s true that we actually are not physically allowed in Cambodia right now. But things are opening up. It’s true that Cambodia is restricting Americans, but we’ve been in Thailand since last October. It’s true that this job, this task is bigger than anything we’ve ever tried. In fact, it’s something we are seriously under-equipped to accomplish. But none of that is actually the point.

The point is those things, those realities are not the Truth. The truth is that God’s Word says that the gates of hell will not prevail against His people, His Church. The truth is that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we possess the same power that raised Christ from the dead. Truth: If we pray, Church, those gates don’t stand a chance. They are nothing but a paper banner. Failure is not a possibility.

You’ve heard the confession. Here’s the request: Pray with us. “Lord, forgive us for talking as though we want what you want, but for not wanting it enough to even ask you for it. Realign our desires to match your will and open your way before us and give us the courage to walk in it.”

Pray and then watch with us as God claims the nation of Cambodia as His territory and His people. Pray Church. The victory is ours.