ADVENTURES WITH THE BARNES Episode № 4
One year in and Kim knows , it ’ s got to be God .
We are now in our second wet season in Cambodia which means that we have been living here for over a year ! This year seems particularly wet and we have become very used to muddy feet .
We recently moved into a house in a village on the outskirts of town . We had a beautiful house in town before , but we knew that if we wanted to position ourselves to be more effective we needed to move somewhere where we could walk more in relationship with our neighbours . The new house is not beautiful . The roof leaks , the toilet smells , there is no hot water and the insect population is enormous ! However , there is community happening all around us and we get to participate in it , learn new things everyday and invite people into our space . My heart sings when I hear our kids playing soccer and speaking Khmer with the local kids . I love to walk in the evening between the rice fields and chat with neighbours about the goings on of the day or the season .
Before we moved into the house we had a small ceremony of dedication with our teammates and some local friends . As part of the dedication we sang ‘ He is the King of Kings ’ while the children did laps around the house . At the time it seemed almost silly , but nevertheless it was a declaration that Jesus is in fact King of our household .
Recently our new landlord dropped in for a visit . Actually , she dropped in because the day before when we were due to pay our rent , all of our bank ’ s ATMs had stopped working and the bank was not giving out any money in the whole of Cambodia ! We had met with her previously to discuss things about the house and sign contracts , but on this day Craig and one of our teammates found themselves just sitting with her in our kitchen talking about her life and Cambodia .
CAMBODIA
She began to talk about the house we are renting and said that when she began building it she had a dream . In that dream she saw herself building
the house for a king and when it was finished the king moved into the house . What an opportunity to share with her that there is in fact a King who wants to establish His Kingdom in all of our hearts . Craig and our teammate shared with her our belief that Jesus is the King and then had a chance to pray with her afterwards .
Isn ’ t God amazing ! It is so exciting for us to be here and watch what God does . While we are complaining about our cold showers and muddy feet , we see His hands at work . We marvel that it is always God who does the work .
It is always God who works things according to His purpose and it is always Him who knocks on hearts , who reveals Himself in dreams and visions and it is always Him who is glorified in our lives when we proclaim Him as our King .
resonate · issue 34 · page 2