We arrived in Cambodia not a week ago and coming to Phnom Penh was really like entering another world. I thought since Thailand and Cambodia were so close in distance that the cultures would resemble one another. Boy, was I wrong! Loving culture as much as I do, I picked up the differences and similarities pretty fast. But one thing that stands out in my mind are the people. I know I say I love the people in every country I go to, but here more than ever I sense a true genuine spirit amongst the believers here. Their relationship with the Lord is real, raw and passionate and coming around it is not intimidating but inspiring.
This month we are volunteering in a church calle New Life here in the capital city of Phnom Penh. And this church is incredible. I don’t just say that. The ministries that come out of that church and the leadership there is solid. They have 3 sister churches in Cambodia along with 70 church plants. They have a street kids outreach that happens every Thursday to kids who don’t have a home. They just wander the streets. But you should see this place on Thursday afternoons. It is crawling with hundreds of kids learning about Jesus. It rocks. They also have departments that do outreaches to the slum, medical outings, missions ventures, children at risk, youth, cell groups…you name it, they have it. Their worship team is also phenomenal. Last month they had Joyce Myers here (a famous Christian speaker) along with Delerious and Hillsong UK. Speaking of Hillsong, they love that stuff!
Honestly, I have never been more moved during a worship service than I am here. I have literally come to tears at the way these people worship. It is the most enthusiastic, genuinely joy filled worship I have ever been a part of. And it all comes from a deep passion they have for the Lord. I am constantly challenged here to return to my first love. I think we can come to a point in our walk with the Lord that feels stale and repetitive and performed out of routine to the point where we don’t even really know why we do it all. But I really believe that God brought me to Cambodia to break that in me. Ok, that was my little rabbit trail.
So with this church we really get a mixture of everything! I am focusing primarily on the youth and worship. (Surprise, Surprise..I was asked to sing My heart will go on and on…Celine Dion…AT the youth group PLANNING meeting. ha! I laugh.) But during the week I am also going to be involved with Medical missions just helping out wherever I can, going out the the provinces and slum outreach.
I hate talking about the end of this trip, but I know it is coming quickly. So my request to you is to pray that we finish strong and that God lays out a path for each one of us beyond this year. I know that even now God is placing in my heart passions and desires to reach the nations beyond this year. I am just trying to figure out how that all looks! And pray for my team…we have been hitting a lot of rough patches and while community living can be a great joy, it can also be a big, fat difficulty. And pray for our time in Cambodia that we will work hard for the Lord and be blessed by the work that is already taking place here.
Here are some pics from my day out in the province. We went to a village about 3 hours out of the city (on a very bumpy road! But Jimmy and I observed a Leadership training session and got to share our testimonies with them:
Rice fields, the most brilliant green I have ever seen with my own two eyes!
Leadership training school in the Province
Making a beautiful purple garment
