For a few days last week Cambodia was experiencing weather that's uncharacteristic for January. The mornings were actually cold (around 20C) and the rain was keeping many students from venturing the streets to attend the English classes. I was actually wearing my Roots sweatshirt in the mornings and drinking a hot tea while teaching English. The Cambodian teachers laughed at me and claimed that I was becoming Khmer because I was feeling cold easily the way that they do. 
     Now the weather has returned to normal and the departure of the rain falls has left that sweet 'after the rain' smell that reminds me of the Calgon body spray that I used to buy before they discontinued it. That smell of summer lingers in the air, producing a sense of cabin fever and an excitement for what is to come.
     Two missionaries Geoffrey and Jessica have arrived from Los Angeles, and they'll be here serving for several months. It's awesome to hang out with them. We've been going through the book of Romans together each night after dinner, and I feel a relief in the sense of community that our fellowship brings. We also hit up Pizza World's 2 for 1 pizza on Tuesday which is always a great idea.
      My English class, being the highest level, continues to be small. Lately I've had only 2 or 3 students come which is quite the contrast from the lower level classes with are packing in about 40 students. I enjoy this opportunity though, because 2 of the students who come are new Christians and one of them is not a Christian but is considering about Jesus, so we have some really good discussions.
      I've just been praying that I don't over look even the smallest opportunities that God so graciously gives to me, because really they are not small.

Josh and I bond with the new missionaries Jessica and Geoffrey over some incarnational insect eating, except Jessica and Josh just watched and laughed..and incarnation felt kinda squishy.

       Something that has especially been lacking in my walk with God has been prayer. Even though I’ve known that prayer is good and important, it was just something that I’d usually forget to do. Just recently I began to realize how much I do need to be a woman of prayer.

     The greatest men of God in history; the revivalists, reformers, saints, etc were also men of prayer and stressed prayer as being crucial to their walk with God and their ministry. Even more so, Jesus prayed to God. You would think that if someone didn’t need to pray it would have been God incarnated, but even He prayed to His Father and taught the disciples how to pray. There is simply no getting around how important prayer is.

     So I’ve been enjoying some great times of prayer while sitting at my desk, writing on the white board when I’m teaching, cooking, sitting in church, walking, playing with the children, etc. God has opened my heart to the preciousness of all day communion with Him. It is so incredible that the king of the universe is my father and that He wants to spend all day conversing with me. I find that the more that I pray the more thankfulness and praise for what God has done and who He is, just wells up inside of me.

            When it all comes down to it: prayer is talking to God. We can pray about every small thing because all of those small things make up our life. He is our Father and He cares. I was praying at my desk for one of my students and I felt impressed to pray that she would be thinking about God even as she is riding her bike that day. I was surprised and excited when I talked to her that evening and she told me that she was riding her bike home from school when she began to just think about God. It’s such a simple example but I felt like God was showing me how He really does honor our prayers when they reflect His heart.

     I was watching the documentary ‘Finger of God’ and I was really inspired and convicted when Heidi Baker said that to her praying is like breathing. I’ve asked God to put it on my heart to pray more and more, and that talking with Him would become as natural and imperative as breathing. I don’t want to just tell people that I’ll pray for them or that I am praying for them just as a sort of Christian formality. I want prayer to be something that I feel I cannot live without doing.

 Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NASB)



     
             

    
 

This is the text from a sermon on Psalm 23 which I preached on a Sunday morning at New Life in Christ Church.