Cambodia ministry looks a lot of the same as it did in Thailand. I find myself in the classroom again, teaching English to way more students than last month. Leadership is treating me well so far. I am trying to get used to this oversized coat. I am encouraged by my team this week. If this week had to have a chapter title it would be “testimony week.” As emotionally exhausting as it is, this week has been so eye opening to how God uses our stories to encourage and to cause us to be vulnerable.
I feel like on this race I have made myself more vulnerable than I ever have been in my life. Nothing is off limits to say and express, so I live in an atmosphere of complete honesty, which I have to say is becoming more and more normal. I have always struggled with the things that I want to say and the things that are deep inside, so living in community has forced me to come out of that mindset. As a leader, I desire to create a place of honesty and change.
I felt the need to write this blog to encourage those in silence. I don’t know where you are or what situation this life has found you in, don’t keep it inside. I have come to not only appreciate, but thoroughly enjoy people’s stories no matter how messy they are. Everyone has one that is worth telling, and no matter how it looks, it is worth hearing. There is nothing in the silence that births freedom. Satan loves to cause us to feel alone and to feel as if our lives are the only ones that are messed up. Struggling alone is his ideal situation for believers, because being alone in pain keeps you stagnant.
Sorry for being so heavy today, I just feel impressed to encourage whoever reads this to speak up! No more fear! Don’t be alone in this, but be open and vulnerable because truth causes freedom. I love that God is never surprised by our junk, and as a community we shouldn’t be either. There is no condemnation in Christ, and I believe that we should allow honesty in order to walk alongside each other into freedom…
Sanctified by: Mercy Me (the acoustic version is the best J haha)
Let there be no condemnation for all who are fully known in Christ
Unspeakable grace for all the nations by way of holy sacrifice
We worship with the sound of broken shackles falling to the ground.
Sanctified, I have been set free...grace divine, has swept me off my feet.
No greater love has ever been known than He who came to find the lost
No greater sacrifice has been shown than He who laid upon the cross
Let all creation sing for He has come and He's changed everything.
"But forget all that-- it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
For I am about to do something new..." Isaiah 43:18-19
