Month 4 finds us living about 30 minutes out side of Takeo, and about one and a half hours from the city of Phnom Penh. It is a very small town with no electricity or running water. We have a few hours of light each evening provided by the generator and we shower from water caught in bins from the rain.
During our stay we have be teaching english at the church and working with Teen Challenge. Teen Challenge here is the same as in the U.S. They take in boys that are addicted to drugs and alcohol and trapped in the bondage of an addictive lifestyle and teach them about Christ and freedom. There are a few differences here but the premise is the same. It is a year long treatment plan. Some of the boys I met will still be in this center even after I return home.
I have absolutely fallen in love with the young men here. There is so much love and freedom and hope that radiate out of them. Many have shared there testimony about how bad life was before and how great it is now living with Christ – living in freedom even from the confines of the treatment center.
I have been able to share a bit of my testimony with them as well. Being in and out of different treatment centers and rehab centers myself; it is really awesome to see how God can use me and my past all the way on the other side of the world to share His glory, His promises, His love, and His freedom.
God has really used these young men to encourage me. They have helped me see past the hardships and distractions that have too easily come up lately on the race. When I see these boys and how easy it is to just sing with them, talk with them, eat meals with them, and love them… I am reminded of why I wanted to do this… I am reminded that I can do this because it is God who loves, and serves through me… I am reminded that He is my strength and my purpose. He is my promise and He is my privilege. I am reminded that I am redeemed daily. God really is just so Good. Oh, how He loves us!
