This month we are in Cambodia. We started off the month in the city of Phnom Penh as a squad. By day two our race was rocked with team changes and new leaders being raised up.
I am now on a new team with five other amazing Godly women. We are Team Woven. Each of us bringing together things we have learned over the past four months. We are determined to grow more with the Lord and with each other.
We find ourselves throughout the day having many intellectual conversations about God and all His glory. We also can’t help but talk about how much our hearts have been broken by the evilness of this world. Each of us have had our eyes opened in one way or another and it is hard to understand how they were closed for so long.
In Ghana, my eyes were open to child trafficking for the first time. It’s something you hear about but don’t really put into perspective until you see it in person. In Nepal we met with women who worked at dance bars where some were forced into it and some had done it so long it was the only life they knew. Once again trafficking had taken over. In India, locals believed because we were foreigners, our prayers meant more than theirs. My eyes were open to not just pray for the healing they were asking for, but pray for them to understand that their prayers mattered. God loved them just as much as He loved each one of us.
This month, my eyes were opened when I got on Instagram.
My team and I are working in a school on the outskirts of the city Phnom Penh. Each of the other teams are spread out throughout Cambodia. We are at a school of 200 children where our main goal is to teach them english and assist the teachers in any way possible. The first three days we had a team from Singapore come and introduce VBS to the Cambodians. They were so happy to have us here, not only for the extra hands, but because each of us had some prior experience with working with VBS.
One day, between classes, I got on Instagram to post a picture. The first picture on my stream was from a squad member in Siem Reap. It was a picture of a bridge and she talked about how her team had been going to that bridge to speak to women who to others seemed like beggars. These women also had babies who they had to drug in order for them to not cry or sleep while they were on the bridge. The longer I stared at the picture the more I started to recognize it.
I had walked by and through this bridge multiple times. In May of 2015, I took a trip to Cambodia and spent a week in Siem Reap. This bridge was near where I ate dinner every night. I walked by all the time and didn’t even bat an eye at these women. Nor did I know that they were suffering. My eyes had been closed. I had been blind to Christ’s children around me waiting for someone to reach out and help them.
How often do you walk down the street and see a homeless man and not offer to help? Or see an article about something that is happening around the world and not click on it because then you might actually have to do something. We all are so blind to our surroundings. At home. In other countries. Everywhere. We have no idea until our EYES ARE OPENED to the world around us.
My eyes have been opened on this race and there will be many times where they will be reopened over and over again. The difference now is I no longer want to be blind. I want to open them up to what breaks His heart. I will never be able to help each and every person I run into or even begin to understand why people suffer the way they do, but I can pray. I can trust that God has a plan for their future and a reason why we all live the lives that we do.
I challenge you to open our eyes. When you see posts that may make you uncomfortable, OPEN IT. This world is an evil place but just because you don’t read it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. I’m not asking you to change your life. I’m asking you to change your heart. Seek after God’s children no matter what they look like or what they have been through. Lastly, pray. Pray for you to see beyond surface level. Pray for God to open your eyes to His people. Pray that they one day find freedom.
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But everything exposed by the light
becomes visible – and everything that
is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise
but as wise, making the most of every opportunity,
because the days are evil.
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
-Ephesians 5:13-17
