Sent to fetch our donkey...Silver team Luke 10

What do you think of when I say ‘Luke 10?’

You may say ‘Jesus sending out his disciples two by two; they were sent into the harvest field because the harvest is ripe but the workers are few; so that all men might be saved…’ or something along those lines. Through different teachings and preparing for such a journey we undertook a few weeks ago, we also learnt some very important things: the characteristics of a man of peace; the characteristics of the person going; and the overall purpose of Luke 10 being for kingdom building of those who are willing to go; a time of learning and growth, with many risks involved; and to demonstrate a compassion for the lost so that all men might be saved.

For silver team, our Luke 10 journey started with the scripture God gave me in The Philippines one Sunday at church in July - Acts 9 (which is detailed in my previous blog). After an amazing 2 weeks in Thailand of prayer, seeking the Lord, receiving different teachings on Luke 10, and through scriptures and prayer confirmations, we were told to go ‘fetch our donkey’ in Siem Reap Cambodia, just as the disciples were told to go fetch their donkey in Matt 21: 1-17 for the Lord. Although what Jesus asked them to do didn’t make sense to them at all, it was done in such a way so Jesus could enter Jerusalem and destroy the image that the Pharisees had made Him out to be. Jesus had His Father’s heart in mind for everything, and if all God asked of the silver team was to fetch our ‘donkey’ on Luke 10, then we were to obey and honour Him in that request, even if we didn’t understand the reasoning or purpose behind it initially.

Siem Reap is a city in Cambodia ripe for the harvest. Although we were not privileged to see any harvests, we were able to plant seeds of truth in different people’s lives who we met along the way, including our man of peace, his friends and his landlady and son (all Buddhists). We are trusting the Lord to continue the work that He began in their lives, through our meeting which God purposed.

Here are a few Luke 10 highlights / struggles / joys and frustrations:

*Even as we stepped onto the road to begin walking on day 1, a pickup stopped and we got our first lift to head out to the highway and go north in Thailand…a sign of things to come of God’s provision for us the entire Luke 10 journey, even before we asked at times!

*Getting out of Thailand took us 2 ½ days with many lifts, walks, 2 free train rides, and even the blessings of food for most meals, and a place to stay one night! We even met the Blue team at Bangkok train station before heading to the Cambodian border and they headed north to the Laos border…

*We were privileged to receive all our Cambodian visa money plus a little extra cash for food on the Thai side with one special family blessing us above and beyond the call of general courtesy!

*From Sunday through Friday morning we spent in Siem Reap, a big tourist town in northern Cambodia (gateway to Angkor Wat), with our man of peace who we met upon arrival.

*Experienced growth, development and leadership skills shining through in all four of us, as we journeyed by faith with the Lord!

*Learnt what it really means to completely trust the Lord (Prov 3:5-6) by not having anything (not even a place to call home!) and yet not want for anything!

*We were blessed to meet a number of travelling Christian backpackers and groups along the way who prayed for us and ministered into our lives as we made our way north and once in Siem Reap- what a blessing!

*Most days we were blessed with 1 or 2 meals and saw the Lord provide with our whole new level of trust

*We were never cold or went without a place to stay- a bus one night and a train station another night, but every other night we were blessed by different people and from our man of peace to have a roof over our heads as we slept

*Saw the fulfillment of Acts 9 throughout the 9 days – amazing to walk in the steps of the Lord’s for us!

*Received bicycles to ride around on for 1 day in Siem Reap to look for ‘Bill- our donkey’ which was heaps of fun!

*Shared the Gospel with people we met along the way, including a number of Buddhist’s, which was an amazing experience!

*Met the Siem Reap YWAM  D.T.S crew one evening in the local park in Siem Reap, and we were able to speak into each other’s lives- what a blessing!

*Helped at an orphanage for a few hours one afternoon

*Even managed a trip out to visit Angkor Wat during the free part of the day after 5:30pm, and played Lara Croft running round like crazy taking photos of as much as we could in 45 mins before it closed!

*We were challenged to love each other throughout the 9 days, but in doing so our bond as silver team was strengthened and became even stronger

*Donated blood at a children’s hospital and even received a free T-shirt / snacks / and a coke!

*Meeting a number of wolves who rebuked, chastised and tried to dissuade our purpose in coming to Siem Reap by attacking our faith personally. But through this persecution our character was developed and hope was praised to continue the work He started in their lives by hearing the truth through us.

*Hitched from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh on the back of a gas truck in a day, sitting on top of LPG bottles…:)

*Witnessing the Father heart of God as He provided and shared His love for us- Amen!

…And ultimately learning what it means to really obey the Lord even if things don’t make sense to you at the time, or even after the situation, but trusting in the fact the God sees the bigger picture and when our desire is to honour Him in that area, He directs our steps. We were sent to Siem Reap on our Luke 10 faith journey to meet a man named Bill, and see what the Lord had for us with meeting him. The entire meeting lasted 45 minutes and then he sent us on our way after praying for us and we heard nothing from him after. But we knew God had called us to Siem Reap, and if using Bill as His means of getting us there, we were happy to just obey and go (Luke 10:3).

Yes we did a lot of things wrong and would love to do it again sometime this year on our Global Challenge expedition, to continue learning through the experience of Luke 10, but we definitely grew in our faith and understanding of a Luke 10 journey from our Guatemalan trial to this latest one. Bring on the next journey, but also a lifestyle of Luke 10 principles for the rest of our days on earth, of trusting the Lord and understanding now what it means to trust the Lord with complete abandon of all human capacity and ability and what freedom that brings in my own life!

Many times Jesus asks things of us that don’t make sense to anyone but Himself- but we demonstrate our love in action to Him by obeying and going anyway. Remember Jesus only sends those who are willing to go- are you willing to go and get the ‘donkey’ that Jesus is asking you to go and fetch on your journey of faith with the Lord today?

As silver team would say, ‘thunder and lightning, very, very frightening...ah ha!’