Today my life changed...

Its just after lunch here and today I saw the most suffering I have ever witnessed in my life just a few hours after breakfast. I am going to tell this story exactly like it happened, explaining every detail, because we Need to hear it! You and I need to here stories like this and the thought of sugar coating disgusts me. Today Ream took me into a near by village, she wanted me to see a christian kindergarten church and cell group. We got there saw adorable children and the teacher began to tell Ream about a lady in the village that was very sick. I promise you, I PROMISE YOU! You have never seen poor, impoverished, like I have now seen poor and impoverished. I can't even relate to you how our Cambodian family has to live, there is no American standard of which I could compare it to. Think of the poorest person you have ever meet, maybe you visited there home, picture that. Then take that picture place them as the richest person and most Cambodian villagers about 10 degrees poorer on that scale. Let me give you some examples:
*We meet a grandma, about 80 years old, she works by sowing rags together to make sqaure's of fabric. She does this everyday all day for pennies. She makes pennies, but in order to eat she must. Ream showed me here kitchen. They cook over fires with maybe one pot, 1 cup, 1 plate, 1bowl for the entire family. This cook wear is never washed and lays on the ground. The chickens, live chickens, live in the kitchen. They nest in the pots, pop on the food, and remember no one even knows that your suppose to wash your dishes.
*Then here is this story that you need to hear. We went to visit the lady with breast cancer, she looked to be just a little older than me. We got to her hut. Literally a hut, made of straw and bamboo, there is no american way to explain this. She was laying naked on a wood bed covered in a mosquito net. She cant walk so she is never bathed or cared for. Her breast has began to rot and her nipple has fallen off. Her entire left breast is green and black, it looks like she has been burnt. She lays in 100 degree heat, on a wooden bed, with no food, no family, and the villagers say, a quote from Ream, "they hear her crying out night and day from the pain." She has no medicine. Her family has deserted her because they can't afford to pay for any help or food. The surrounding community may bring her some rice if they have extra to eat. But sometimes she will go several meals with nothing at all to eat or drink. Please remember that today is was 90 degrees and 80 percent humidity. Its only going to get ridiculously hotter. We prayed for her. The Lord heals here. He heals because they ask, because they need him too. Ream was telling me about the witch doctor in the village has become a christian. She came to Reams father suffering and about to die. She said, "I know that Jesus is the only one that can help, He is only one that can save me. " Jesus is not just wanted, or considered, put on a shelf for thought later, he is needed, he is it, the only hope, their only chance at living. He is literally the bread of life, living water. I can't fully explain.

Before I came to Cambodia I had several conversations with several people about the word Hope and how I didn't have a context for it. I didn't understand what the Lord meant by Hope and why it was so important to him. Now I do, Now I do! This country, these villages are all together hopeless. Their families don't care about each other, there government doesn't care about each other, and their religion teaches that if you suffer you deserve it because you were bad in a previous life. So here in this country you look out for you and only you, because if you don't there is no way to survive. So every time I exit the gate darkness surrounds me, suffering, poverty, hunger, dirty water, Buddhist temples, the smell of incense in the air. What word comes to mind well to be honest...hopeless. Where do we even begin to rebuild. These people have no standard of living, no care for each other, life is not valued. What do you do? Well, I spend a lot time thinking, why? Because no one can really talk to me except for a few of the kids. So I listen a lot, observe a lot, think and pray. When I look at the children, when I hear them speak about there precious salvation and how the Lord brought them out of darkness. When I see them smile! When I here them laugh. When I hear their horror stories and then there success. When I play with them. When I watch them love and care for each other. When I watch them study so hard, so hard at school and English. When I here, "Hello Hello Court-ney" over the walkie talkie. What do I see in all over there faces, I couldn't really pinpoint for the first couple of days but now I can. I see Hope! I see Hope, Hope for a generation, Hope for a people, Hope for a country. I see the bride for the first time coming to know her bridegroom. I see beautiful beautiful beautiful Hope! Now I understand Hope, and now I understand why its important to my King. I praise you Jesus for this day.