Well, I am safe and sound in Cambodia! After four flights, a night in the airport and one on a plane, we made it to the capital city, Phnom Penh. After we stayed a night in a hostel and shopped at the market for dinner, my team and another bussed to our current home town, Siem Reap.
We are working with a Pastor and his church for the month. Our main ministry is to teach English at his school, but we’re quickly learning this entails a lot. The Pastor has a church and a school, plus he is church planting in the villages outside of the city. Saturday we traveled to two of these villages for church and to teach a quick English class. His church has done some amazing things there. One of the churches was built on an old mine field. The surrounding villages don’t like each other because of the war that ravaged the country a few decades ago. Now they sit next to each other hearing about The Father’s love and forgiveness on an old mine field that use to be use to destroy each other. Talk about redemption.
Another one of his ministries is to give away chickens. There are half a dozen chicken farms that provide for families in town. Yesterday we spent out afternoon walking to the farms to check on these chickens.
We’ve been here for three days, and I’m already learning so much. In America, missionaries and pastors seem to develop a bad reputation of helping people but enough. You pray for them and send them on their way. God is all they need, so that’s all we give.
But what if God wants to give them English lessons, clean water, and chickens? Shouldn’t we give them those things too? I love this combination of ministry of helping people be sustainable while also showing them who their real Provider is.
I think about how much I forget this. I can get caught up in being a good (read critical) humanitarian and figure out the problem and the solution for it. After all, I have minor for that. But I forget that it’s okay to get both from God. Today is our first day off, and I’m figuring out what rest is going to look like this year. Yes, God is my rest. But he also gives me rest in the form of coffee shop wifi and a hammock nap.
There’s this amazing thing about God where a sacrifice can be a gift too. Rest can be physical and spiritual, mental and tangible. God is with me, and he can be WITH me. I never want to settle for just the gift, and I never want to feel guilty for enjoy the gift he gives. But this amazing thing happens when I ask for the Giver, he usually gives me the gift too.
And that’s what I want to do this month. When I sing songs with kids, check on chickens, and teach English, I want to give myself not just the gift. And that’s what I want from him too. I want him. And if he gives me puppies to play with or a rooftop sunset, I’ll remember in those moments he’s giving me more than just a gift, he’s bring me to the Giver. And He’s the One my heart really wants anyways.
