Today marks my last moments in Cambodia. What a trip it has been. I feel as if I have lived here for years but yet seconds at the same time. Every single moment has been precious and life altering. I have seen a world that I could have never imagined. I have experienced a world that has broken my heart. The 3rd world, is something that movies can not depicted. I have climbed mountains, water towers, I have taught English via the bible to buddhist teenagers, I have spoken the gospel to those who, "only heard of it once, a long time ago." I have walked over the clothes of the dead thousands and watched as 100's bowed to golden images that have stolen there lives. I have set and talked with people who live in homes that are falling in around them, known people that can't feed there children. I have spent time with a mother, with a beautiful baby girl, and the world around her tells her to kill her daughter. However, Jesus tells her to value this beautiful life. I have seen cruelty. I have spent time with a Cambodia family, I have experienced the poverty of village life, I have gotten sick from drinking water. I have seen poverty! I have watched a grandma fall down a mountain in pursuit of dirty water. I have befriended 35 Cambodian orphans. With this friendship I have lost 35 pieces of my heart, for they hold them, each of them has stolen a part of me. By the grace of God I will see these children grow up. I will see there weddings and graduations. I will see there great purpose unfold before my eyes. I will have great Joy watching there lives play out. Watching them become who the Lord has already predestined them to be. What Joy they will bring me!! I am leaving a part of myself here. I have made friends with the Carson family and understood just a blink of what sacrifice and heart strain they experience in there day to day lives. They have given there lives to Jesus, and though it is a beautiful life it is marked with sacrifice and suffering. The Lord has built a friendship that I pray continues for a lifetime. The Lord has used me here. He has taken my tiny talents and used them for His great purposes. The Lord has met me here! He has met me personally in a way that could not be described. He met me in the secret place, in laughter, in dance parties, in the eyes of hungrey children, in the face of poverty and darkness, in Ream, in Kit. In the darkness, He has showered light. Rained Joy. He has given me revelation of his character and that has made all the difference. He has shown me who He wants me to be, who He is in me. He has given me a revelation of life and Joy! I am different. I have come to a clearer understanding of what life is, and what I want my life to be about. I have come to understand that I love the science of OT, and this is what I want to do with my life. I have come to understand that I love people, and this is what I want to do with my life. I have come to understand that Jesus is everything, He is satisfaction, and this is what I want to do with my life. Oh I could write for days of what these 3 months have been to me. These 3 months have been a treasure, a little ring of gold that I will hold with me for the rest of my life. They have been a respite from real life, a wilderness, that the Lord brought me too. In the wilderness, He has spoken kindly to me, and given me my vineyards of fruitfulness. (Hosea) I pray as Paul prayed that the Lord will allow to return soon, to complete my Joy, and encourage those in Christ. Oh, and I understand Hope! I understand why hope is so important to our Jesus. Whisper the promise of Jesus to the hopeless and you will see the effects of Hope instantly. This place I have lived over the 3 months is called the "Greater Hope." and that is just exactly what it is. Kit and Ream are raising children that look just exactly like hope in the face of Cambodian destruction. Thank you Jesus for this time. I praise you Jesus for your kindness. Goodbye Cambodia.
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