Cambodia update! Life since we arrived in Cambodia has been a bit hectic. The first few days were in a hotel with the squad. The next two were spent meeting our contacts and tip-toeing around plans, knowing we would soon be traveling south to Phnom Penh to get our visas for India. SO! We’ve just returned to Siem Reap and we will begin our official ministry on Tuesday. We will be working with university students this month. They come to the center to learn English and through that time and the conversations it affords, we get to share Christ with them. Thus far we have had one session with our students and they are the most loving, gentle people! It’s hard to give your heart again when you feel you’ve already poured it all out in one ministry, but a fellow squad mate said it well: when you’re pouring out of God’s heart and not your own, you can keep giving and never be the lesser for it. AMEN!
As we went about this first week making comparisons about Thailand and Cambodia and how we missed living in a village (weird, I know), God just really humbled me with the reminder that it’s not about me. Sounds simple, but it’s a big, hard lesson! Just because I’m on the mission field doesn’t mean everything I’m doing is missional. It should be! But He is constantly reminding me that it’s not about my preferences or tastes. It’s not about my comfort or level of qualification. He has called me here for this moment and I need to completely surrender each one to Him in order to be effective. Any plans I have just get in the way.
One night soon after arriving, we went down to the night market to do the touristy thing. When I get in situations like this where people are waiting to swindle, I automatically get really defensive and anxious. I have this sense of “justice”, but in the midst of that, I ignored injustice. I looked it in the face and turned the other way.
I saw a man begging. He had no arms or legs. I passed him more than once. But in my tourist mentality, I kept walking. I deemed it a part of the landscape. To be honest, I bought into the thought that a lot of people asked me before I left, “what difference can you make?” I didn’t see how I could change this man’s situation. If I gave him money, the man next to him would more than likely keep it. If I gave him water or food he would hunger and thirst again. There’s no law protecting the disabled people like him and helping them get jobs. So what did I have to give? But as I crawled into my bed that night, the image of this man was burning into my mind and I was broken.
Proverbs 24:11-12 “Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death. Don’t excuse yourself by saying, ‘Look, we didn’t know.’ For God understands all hearts, and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew.”
My team is doing a Bible Study by Todd Phillips called Get Uncomfortable and it’s about the church’s role in social justice. The church was founded on it. Look for Jesus in the scriptures and where do you find him? With the outcast. The down-trodden. The broken. “It’s not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick.” (Matthew 9:12) So our study that next morning struck me to the core. This is the analogy it gave concerning our role as ambassadors for Christ in a broken world:
He relates it to some mountain climbers who get lost on a mountain. They were without basic necessities and were close to death. A helicopter came to them and a rescue worker would jump down to each one and bring food and water, etc. “He would say something like, ‘Fred, here’s food and water and here’s medical aid, but this is just the beginning of things to come. You’re about to removed from your present situation and taken to another place. We’re going to take you away from this place so you won’t be cold any longer. You won’t be hurt any longer. You won’t be thirsty or hungry. The helicopter has a few more people to save before they get to you, but I’ve been sent to take care of your needs and assure you that they’re coming.'”
Oh my word. When I heard that, it just clicked. My dollar donation can’t fix his situation. But I have the Bread of Life to give! That is what I’m here for. One person is worth it. Kim Walker says it in her song “Holy… we are “carriers of God’s presence”! My aid to his temporal needs are only shadows of the hope that is to come. That is why the church is the most fit for bringing social justice. Because through the HOPE that comes in Christ Jesus, we have the ability to do more than offer temporal or superficial treatment. Christ made us his ambassadors to bring temporal relief as a mirror of the eternal hope that is yet to come. I can be so short sighted sometimes. God is teaching me to keep my eyes open at all times. To be wise in every opportunity. I pray you do the same.
