This morning woke at first light feeling refreshed. I got up and walked across the room. Wait. What?!? YES!! I walked! With no bandage, no crutch, and no pain! The swelling was down. That horrible green bruise completely disappeared.
Praise the Lord!! Praise the Lord oh my soul!
Every single step I took today was a breath of praise to God. Jesus performed a miracle in my body and all glory and honor and praise are to Him. He is my healer in every way. He is my spiritual healer and today in this instance he is my physical healer as well. He showed himself to me in a real and tangible way and as evidence to all around me who witnessed my injury and healing. Words do not suffice to describe this experience. But He has made himself as real to me as my own flesh and as essential to my very being as the need for my next breath. Thank you Lord! Thank you for showing me specific answered prayer in this way.
Today we went down to the boat dock. We were going to ride a boat to Rabbit Island. Praise the Lord I could walk because the very first thing we had to do was climb down off the concrete dock onto a small rocking boat on the ocean. It was an extraordinary delight splashing over the gentle ocean waves in the morning sunlight with the islands in the distance. After about a 30 minute ride we came to shore and men held the boat steady with ropes as we climbed over the side onto a wooden bar stool and jumped into the calf high water as it washed up on shore. From here we hiked along a winding footpath through the jungle across to another side of the island. Again, step by step....thank you Jesus I can walk on my own!
So many people joined us today from the community outreach Bible study. It was wonderful to get to spend this joyful time with them. They played in the ocean, swam, fished and hiked on the trails nearby. I walked along the shore letting the waves tickle my toes and my feet sink into the soft sand. I was looking for seashells. I promised my girls I would find seashells to bring home to them. As I was walking some of the children came alongside me and in broken english asked me to swim. I showed them the seashells I had found and with big smiles they began gathering and bringing me handfulls of beautiful tiny shells. They led me down the shore to a spot covered with thousands of tiny shells where we picked out the prettiest ones to put into an empty plastic bottle. I love these precious little ones so much.
(Look, no bandage and no crutch! Yay! ......I promise I'll keep icing it though.)
We stayed and had lunch together. It rained a beautiful fresh rain. The boys played catch. We sang worship songs. It was such a meaningful time of fellowship. By mid-afternoon the waves were starting to pick up. We all gathered together and took a big group photo. Then part of our group (me, Brad, Jeff and Pete) began walking back to the other side of the island with our friends from the community outreach to catch a boat back to the mainland to return to Botanica. The rest of our group stayed to spend the night in little huts on the ocean.
Oh what a boat ride it was! The waves were crashing over the sides of the little wooden boat as we rocked side to side. We were drenched by seawater! We were drenched by the rain! For a moment I thought of the disciples and their experiences out on fishing boats so long ago.
When we finally reached the dock at the mainland it was a rather interesting challenge. We had to climb across the wood planks of the boat that served as seats while the boat rocked back and forth sloshing water and loose boards around beneath our feet. Then with the help of a couple of men on the dock we made the great wobbly leap up about 3feet to stand on a firm foundation. Although it didn't feel so firm with those first few unsteady steps, still feeling the motion of the sea. Poor Kim was seasick from the journey and I felt so bad for her.
Back at the Botanica we took time to enjoy the salt water pool and talk about the day and what we see God doing here and what he is doing in our hearts through it all. We had a quiet dinner together. Played a couple of games of pool. And then went to bed fairly early. It feels later here at night because the sun sets earlier than at home and it gets very dark.
I was nervous about being alone in my room. I knew the guys were close by but it was strange to all of a sudden be in the dark little room without the comfort of my roommate Shaela and her iPhone playing music or soft background noise as we sleep. It was so quiet and dark that everything became loud. You know what I mean. So, I began to pray for peace. I prayed for rest and protection.
I could sense a darkness coming through my room. I just prayed out loud for the Holy Spirit to have power in this place. I prayed "God you are creator and Lord of all the earth, bring peace and protection here". I heard noises outside my bungalo. It was like the sound of a bird or bat or something flying around and scraping against the walls, hitting over and over like it was trying to get in from all sides on the outside. I kept praying and asking the Lord to protect me, to give me peace and I prayed declaring his control over this place. Almost at once, as quickly as they had started, the noises stopped. My spirit felt much calmer.
It was a very hot night and although I did sleep, it was uncomfortably hot. It got up one time in the middle of the night and took an ice cold shower to cool off and then laid back down until I got up about 4:45am and started packing and getting the room in order since we will be leaving Kep soon.
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