So, funny story: There once was a girl who went to college to be a teacher but she didn’t really enjoy it at all but stuck with it long enough to get a degree in it. Then this girl went to live in Cambodia for 3 and a half months and guess what she’s doing now? She’s a teacher and, oh, why yes, this girl is me. The Lord is just so full of irony! Lol. Luckily, I am a co-teacher with the incredible Miss Hailey Mae and we make a darn good team! We have between 4 and 6 kids on any given day that are between the ages of 7 and 13. They are on all different levels but the Lord has shown us what each one needs to learn and grow in and we are indeed learning and growing! We just finished our first week and I can honestly say that I love teaching these kids! They are smart and funny and are just gobbling up the Bible studies and English lessons. It is so encouraging to know that by teaching these children English, we are literally changing the course of their lives from a potential future of enslavement to one of honest labor and hope. Pray that our students, Pear, Show-Time, Miss S, Little L, and B1 and B2 will be given the grace to continue to learn and retain their English lessons and especially their Bible studies. Two of them, Pear and Show-Time, are Believers but the rest aren’t, so please pray for my students’ salvation as well!
One of my precious students, Pear (pictured on the right!), is a 13 year old young man and has an incredible heart for the Lord. You should see this young man worship with all of his heart! Pear lives at Transform Asia and is happy, healthy and loved. But it wasn’t always this way. Pear has parents but they have completely disowned and forsaken him. When they kicked him out, Pear lived on the streets of Battambang at this place that my team and I just visited called, “The Concrete Slab.” It is a place where many street kids and really poor families cram in together and attempt to stay alive. It is smelly and full of trash and flies and often floods. Pear lived there and managed to find enough food to live. However, Battambang has a history of gang violence and one night a gang got ahold of Pear and beat him really badly. Pear somehow found Transform Asia and asked to stay there. At this time Transform Asia didn’t have any housing for boys, but they took Pear in long enough for him to heal and eat some good meals. Then Pear had to go back on the streets where he got beat to a pulp again by a gang, went back to Transform Asia and by then Transform Asia had housing for him and now he lives at the center!
Pear had everything going against him and by all means should have been just another sad statistic of street kids who are beaten to death by gangs, but by God’s incredible mercy and grace, Pear now has shelter, clothing, food, a Christian family of older brothers, mothers and many, many sisters whom he adores and who adore him and Pear now knows and loves God! When Pear is in my class, I’m so blessed by his patience and perseverance as he is learning how to learn for the first time. Numbers and letters of the alphabet may take him awhile to learn but Pear knows the Bible inside and out— he won’t stop adding in details when Hailey and I are teaching Bible studies! Many, many powerful prayers and funding and time and effort went into rescuing Pear; your prayers could be one of the many that will enable Transform Asia to continue to help rescue and restore many other precious young men like Pear.
This week God has powerfully spoken through some of my teammates to teach me and remind me that my words and actions and even my very presence have power. Because I love and follow Jesus Christ, Christ is in me and He is transforming my heart and mind to feel and know more like He does. My prayers and the things that I say to anyone and the things I do to/for anyone have the potential to either show Christ to them or show just another messed up, discouraging person. Twice now I’ve had roommates hear my voice praying over them in their dreams and they received life and peace because the Spirit was flowing through the words I was praying. It is crazy cool to realize now that God is using even my humble but bold prayers to encourage people in their subconscious dreams! I’m so encouraged and at the same time so humbled by the responsibility and power of the Spirit of God that is in me. Believers, we have the choice to build up people in the Lord by showing them Christ with our words and actions or we can choose to revert to our flesh and tear people down. Our words and actions and prayers and even our very presence has power! Spiderman heard it best, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”
Don’t forget to check out the prayer list below!
Much love—
Sarah
** Safety, salvation and provision for T and her little sister (pictured last week in the blog and now pictured on the right). T is just turned 16 and she has decided to leave Transform Asia with her little sister, who is 6, and her plan is to go to Thailand for work. However, this “work” in Thailand is likely to include a bondage to sex-trafficking. T is in a tight spot, but pray for God to provide another way for T to find work and pray for T to trust in God and that He will protect her and her family and provide for her, if she trusts Him to do so. T and her little sister haven’t left yet for Thailand—pray that they won’t ever leave! (These two girls are also the sisters of Show-Time.)
** Salvation of Mr. S (our tuk-tuk driver) and his family: Wife, Y (daughter who hangs out with my team and I), S (daughter who Hailey and I teach), and M (son who is another of our tuk-tuk drivers). They are a precious family and we love getting to know Mr. S and his three children, but they are Mormon. The two daughters get to hear the Gospel daily, so pray that God would open their minds and hearts to accepting His love and salvation!
** Salvation of the two Buddhist boys in my class, B1 and B2, and their father.
** Salvation of all of the girls at Transform Asia! Many of the children at the Transform Asia trade center are either orphans or have been abandoned by their parents. Most have been abused and some have been trafficked. Some of the youth are Believers but some are not; pray for our powerful God of redemption and restoration to redeem and restore their lives to the true life, joy and peace of Christ!
** For Pear and Show-Time to continue to grow up to mature into godly young men and to let the Lord define who they are, not their parents or their society.
** For good health for my team and I and for us all to continue to grow and mature in love for one another and in the Spirit and knowledge and freedom of Jesus Christ!
And, for another GREAT and insightful update,
visit my teammate, Courtney Osborn's, blog!
(It's entitled "Street Children".)
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