One of my clearest memories from the past 5 months happened in Cambodia.
It was evening in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia.
My team and I walked out of the hostel we were staying at, which was located on the river street – one of the main tourist streets in the city.
Our plan was to go and get ice cream, about a 15 minute walk away.
As we wandered down the noisy, brightly lit, crowded street, we found ourselves surrounded by Cambodian children.
These children are out on these streets every night with the sole purpose of selling their wares (usually bracelets or small trinkets) to tourists.
We had been told that the children are put out there by their parents to make money.
With that being said, you can imagine that as an 8-year old that’s a lot of pressure.
Are they allowed to just be kids without the burden of providing for their families hanging over their little heads?
So naturally, with that in mind, our first instinct was to play with them.
And obviously take them out for ice cream.
They didn’t open up to us right away – of course we couldn’t have been the first people to try treating them like the children they are.
But I think it’s easy for a child to forget his “role” as a child when he or she knows they have a duty to their family.
So it took us several tries before we saw, through the masked little faces, their true colours show.
Kids who live in one of the most impoverished countries in the world, who have a heavy burden as main provider for the family, who don’t have much opportunity or reason to let go of that mask and just let go – we saw these beautiful children become human beings right in front of our eyes, instead of little salespeople.
That’s one of the stories that I think of when I think of my experience in Asia – one of the many stories that have caused Asia to capture my heart.
For the last 5 months of my life, I’ve been to 5 different countries that make up the very large continent of Asia.
While each one of them is different and unique in its own way, and while I’ve learned so many lessons about myself and the Lord through each of them, there’s one major thing I’ve learned overall: God is moving in huge ways here.
I honestly believe that the Lord has a special place in his heart for the people of Asia – there’s something about them that lights a fire in you.
They unintentionally make you fall in love with them without you even realizing it.
Just when you’re getting ready to leave all of it behind, you feel it: this continent, these people, these cultures that you just poured everything you have into have stolen pieces of your heart that you’ll never get back.
This is exactly how I feel – coming into the Race, I can honestly say that I didn’t expect to come away caring for these nations nearly as much as I do now.
As we made our way through 5 countries, there was a theme of religious oppression – it was painfully clear to us that the people of Asia are searching for something, anything, to fill voids in their hearts.
And while we couldn’t offer them solace ourselves, we could offer them the One Ultimate Source of comfort.
So that’s what we did.
I left Asia feeling accomplished.
But it wasn’t because of anything I did – it was because I entered with an open heart and left feeling filled by how the Lord is moving throughout the whole continent.
And to put it in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, “I’ll be back.”
