Last night I went to bed thinking about the struggle/fight/battle for the hearts and minds of children.  I haven’t been able to shake it all day long…I hope to find release with some of my thoughts with this posting.

This battle over children is not specific to where you live, who you are, your race, your gender, your income level…it isn’t even specific to our time and place in history.

The battle began as our recorded history began…in the beginning.  The fall of man in the Garden can even be seen as a war that was waged by the enemy against the first children of God.  A battle that was seemingly won but for those who have read the last page of the book, we know that the WAR will be won by the Father.

The battle came against male and female both.  How did the enemy inflitrate in the garden?  He began by saying in today’s vernacular “Did your Dad really say?”  He called into question the values and teachings of a father to his children.  Doesn’t really matter (for this blog posting) that it was the Heavenly Father and the first children, Adam and Eve.  In a nutshell,  it was just a voice speaking against and calling into question the teachings and instructions of a father to his family.

The battle continued through the wealthy seed of Abraham and through the seed of a servant woman, Hagar.  The battle raged with Abraham and Sarah.  Not able to wait upon the promise, Abraham and Sarah turned to Hagar for what?  A child.  The battle between the child of promise and the child of the flesh still wages today and is played out so sadly in newspaper headlines.

How did God, in His infinite wisdom, choose to reconcile with fallen man?  Through the birth of a child.  “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…”Isaiah 9.

But with the birth of our blessed Savior, came one of the most vicious attacks against children in recorded history.  It came against sweet innocents.

Matthew chapter 2 recounts the event in stark terms…Our enemy (through Herod) was so frightened of the newborn Christ child that each and EVERY male child in Bethlehem was put to death.  Each and every single male child two years old or younger… That grips my heart as I am the parent of a two year old myself.

I live in Cambodia where the enemy (through Pol Pot) stripped away the true meaning of family with the Khmer Rouge.  Families were torn asunder while 2 million lost their lives so quickly and somewhat quietly …the world didn’t and still doesn’t shrink back in horror at the atrocities.  When I share about our ministry and the country of Cambodia, time and time again folks will tell me that they have never heard of this…”when did this happen?”  Or worse yet, some will say “Oh, I’ve seen that movie, The Killing Fields.  That really happened?”
Yes, folks, that really happened.

At times, I will be to the point of pulling my hair out because it can be just so stinkin’ hard ministering/living in Cambodia.  Mark and I seem to often go from one situation to another…one fire put out to another…it is a constant battle.  Time and time again the thought has visited my mind…”Why is the battle so fierce over just 22 little children?  (Benz kids plus Bykota Kids) We aren’t that big.  We are just trying to love and care for 22. “  Why?  Because we are engaging the enemy over his favorite target and his biggest threat…children.

I have had many who question, some kindly–some not, our ministry.  “We like to support church planters” they say and for a while I thought that I understood.  But something has risen up inside me…I think it is a truer understanding of our calling and the HOPE that is ever present in our calling.

We ARE church planters!  What the enemy has taken and tried to destroy…God is rebuilding through the lives of the children of Bykota.  We aren’t building a church building and doing provincial outreaches or doing medical ministry…all those things are so needed by the people of Cambodia and we so desire to see them come.

What we are doing is trying to raise up 22 warriors.

Twenty two warriors that already have the enemy of God shaking in his boots.

Twenty two warriors that are being equipped to handle the Word of God and life’s affairs in an approved and unashamed manner.

Twenty two warriors who will walk out into the country of Cambodia and take it by the power of the Word of God and their testimony.

PURE AND UNDEFILED RELIGION IS THIS…TO CARE FOR ORPHANS AND WIDOWS IN THEIR TIME OF NEED!

Want to join us?

Breathing in, breathing out,

Rhonda