Cambodia. A place of hurt, need, growth, love, noodles, children, ants, lice, and more noodles. In my last blog I had mentioned about fighting for not only my relationship with Christ, but my team’s as well. Let’s just say it was not an easy 1st round knockout kind of fight. There were times that I just wanted to give up on the fight and fold up, but God kept telling me, “no Joe, you are a soldier in My army and we don’t quit”. Cambodia in itself is an absolutely beautiful and amazing country. We stayed in a children’s home with 20 amazing and beautiful children. They taught me so much about child like faith. The second we showed up to the home they ran up and hugged us all without even knowing who we were. They trusted that we would hug them back and show them love. A thing I would do with some of the kids when I held them was to dangle them upside down and sway them back and forth, an that in itself is not too meaningful, but that really translates in to how I need to put my faith, struggles, and fights in to God’s care. As God dangles me upside down in life and let’s me swing all over the place, I need to trust that he is still holding on to me and that he will pull me back up into His arms. I had to really rely on that promise during those times of wanting to give up and just focus on myself for the month. I really feel like a sense of unity was brought over our team for that month, and I can absolutely not take credit for that because I said I was going to fight for them, because the rest of my team really bought in and worked and served for each other.
Outside of our team dynamics, the ministry was very laid back but great. Being able to build close relationships with some of the children there was absolutely incredible, but made it pretty hard to leave. God is doing absolutely amazing things with all of us and everyone is really setting aside all the petty differences, home sickness, and fears an really diving in to what God is laying on our paths. Unfortunately I am writing this in South Africa, two months after we were there, but I will forever remember the things God taught me in Cambodia and the kids at that children’s home.
