God revealed a lot to me this week through our community outreach and I would like to share that with you.
Here is a rundown of this week;
　
Day 1- Prayer walk
On our first day of outreach we got an opportunity to walk around the city of Battambang and pray. This was an awesome experience because we went out and prayed out loud for the city and its people. Not only was it cool pray out loud for the city, but is was even more awesome to know that when we pray we pray with power, knowing that change is going to happen.

Praying over Battambang got me thinking.

Why haven’t I walked around Prescott and prayed over it?
I came to the conclusion there is nothing but my own laziness and fears stopping me.
Why didn’t I think of this before?! I know how powerful prayer is and the drastic changes that can come of it, so what’s holding me back now?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING…

Can you imagine what changes would occur if we as Christian went out regularly walked the streets of our cities and prayed?

I was reminded of Matthew 17:20 “He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

I think sometimes we limit God and the power of prayer.. Just sayin’ he told us that we can move mountains with faith and prayer, and I would love to move some mountains.
　
　
Day 2, 3, & 4 Handing out toothbrushes & dates with the Monks

Day 2- We broke off into groups of 3 and were told to walk the streets, talk to people, and hand out toothbrushes. I was with my teammates Kori and Amy. Truthfully at first we were walking aimlessly around town. I mean I was touched by some of the people we were able to hand toothbrushes out to because of how thankful they were for such a simple item but I wanted God to show up big. I kept asking him to lead us to where he wanted us to go. I felt God telling me to cross the bridge so we did. Then we were led into a Buddhist temple. Around the back of a temple we found a few poor houses and gave a child a toothbrush then we went and sat on a bench. Then we decided to leave because there was a really disgusting dog that wouldn’t leave us alone. As we were walking out I heard a voice say “HELLO!!”. I thought it was just another Cambodian yelling hello at us like they normally do.I looked over and much to my surprise I saw a Buddhist Monk. He was motioning us to come sit down and talk with him. His name was Ou Dom, he was 20 years old and had been a monk since he was 15. He spoke English very well and wanted to practice with us. We spoke with him for a little bit and before we knew it we had to leave to go meet our team but we made a “date” with him for the next day. Walking out of the temple that day we were all so excited, literally freaking out because of how cool that was. Who knew I would ever get an opportunity to talk to a monk and maybe even share Jesus with him.

I can't believe I even started to question if God was leading us or not. Stupid Erin!!

Day 3-We arrived at the temple and no one seemed to be around. We sat down and Ou Dom approached us with three of his friends. We started to talk with them especially one in particular name Or Ren. I asked them why they became monks, the majority said they wanted to study and learn about Buddha. Somehow we started talking about our beliefs. He asked me why as a Christian I believe what I believe. I was like hold up, I never told him I was a Christian. I paused for a moment and prayed Lord please give me the words to speak. So that’s what he did, to God be the glory that I held my own in a discussion about my faith with a monk. Then we talked about forgiveness and how in their faith in order to be forgiven they must receive something back for what they did. Kori explained that we don’t have to receive a punishment to be forgiven because Jesus paid for our sins on by dying on the cross. They wrote a few questions down that centered around what Christianity is and what Jesus tells us to do, so that we could answer them. After that they still wanted to talk to us again so we told them we would bring our translator Seang with us the next day.

Day 4- We went back for another round with the monks. We discussed current events going on in the USA, Gaddafi and Obama etc. We got an opportunity to explain Christianity to them. We spoke about creation and Jesus and about how the written historical evidence is the bible. We got to show them the bible for the first time, awesome! Then they shared some stuff about Buddhism with us; the 8 fold path, 5 precepts, 4 noble truths. He explained that they have to continuously work hard to achieve “nirvana”. It’s almost a hit or miss. He said how if you mess up then you just try again and again. All I wanted to scream is guys you can have all of that through Jesus! He forgives and he will always forgive! I long for them to know that His grace is amazing and His love is unconditional! After we finished talking to them they told us that we could come back whenever and talk to them. That means there are more dates with the monks in my future.

Talking to these monks got me thinking.

If you can tell a monk about Jesus why can’t you share it with people at home?

I never imagined in a million years that I would share Jesus with a group of monks nor did I think that they would be open to me sharing it with them. How cool would it be to be able to share Jesus not only with the monks, but with the people who live in the same town as me and who speak the same language as me! Shouldn’t it be easier? There is no language barrier and you don’t normally find devout Buddhist Monks walking the streets of Prescott. See, now I not only have a desire to share the word of God here but at home. I want people at home to know of His love, His grace, His promises, and His forgiveness. The people at home need it just as much as the cambodians!
God has called me to be a disciple to everyone and I plan on doing that!
 In my eyes if I can talk to a Monk about my Faith, I can and I will talk to people in the states about it!
　
What’s holding me back now?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

                                 
Us with our Monk Friends!

            
The one on the very right is Ou Dom and the one with the darker robe is Or Ren