I wish you were here

I wish you were here.
I wish you could be here and see the things I see. Experience the things I’m experiencing. Sometimes I feel like my blogs only give you the picture frame, when the main thing is all the colors printed on paper in between.
How do I explain fully the joy on children’s faces as they coat my face in baby powder? Their shy smiles as I try to make them laugh on a bus? Their tears when I have to leave at the end of the month?
How do I explain trying to learn simple phrases in the language just to break the language barrier, only to not be able to communicate any further with words? In greeting the shop keepers and having their faces light up as they realize that, yes, you are actually smiling at them? How do I communicate the joy I feel in meeting students in Thailand that are from Cambodia, a country I just was in? 

How do I evoke the balance of having to trust God with tough questions yet seeing Him working in every situation? How do I describe the goodness of God that I’ve been able to taste?
My words are hardly enough for such a task. Sometimes, I struggle getting out the right words to share a story with you knowing countless others remain untold.
I wish you could be here so instead of having to explain it all, we could just sit together and bask in the wonder of it all. I wish you were here to cry with me when days are hard. To laugh with me about things that are so different overseas. To rejoice with me over the salvation of a woman who just returned from the hospital.

Yet in a way, you’ve been with me through it all. You were with me when you think of me and decide to pray. You were with me because you gave so I could be here. You’ve been with me when you read my stories and tell me how they encourage you.

Thank you for that. I wish my words could show the gratitude I have towards you.