what is unseen

It is ironic how this quote so appropriately describes how I have viewed the past week and a half. My heart breaks for the desperate people of Toul Che. This is our ministry site for the month.  It is one of many slums in Phnom Penh located around the base of “Rubbish Mountain”, the dump site. Thirty percent of the population lives in the slums and there are roughly 569 slums within the city limits. The people work in the mound day-in and day-out for their daily rations. A day off means no food for their family. The village is larger than I had expected and it seems like its own entity on the outskirts of the city.

 

 

 

Most of the people except this hard life and savage living conditions. When I look in their eyes I see a distant numbness. They reverberate a declaration of settling in hopelessness that is inevitable. I am so overwhelmed with the thought of people living like animals that, for a second I thought numbness might be  better than being hopeful for reprieve. I had to shake that thought quick because it definitely doesn’t display my faith in an Almighty God or my our mission as ambassadors of Hope.  

Immediately, I wanted to ‘fix’ these peoples’ lives.  I wanted to bring in loads of money and buy them clothes and medicine. But, I was stopped dead in my tracks when I was confronted with what the Lord wanted me to extend to them.  He isn’t asking me to fix these

people. What is there to fix?  They are alive, they are sustained as I.  What makes them so much worse off than you (He says)? What do you have that they don’t (He says)? In God’s eyes I am exactly the same as the man in the slums and the man at the gate of the temple (Acts). You have lead me to the least of these Lord, so what do I have to offer them? And the words of my teammate, Josh B. came to me- “You have EVERYTHING to give because you have Christ.”

 

Acts Chapter 3 and 4 is an amazing witness to the power of Christ.  A man, like any other crippled beggar sat at the gates of the temple.  He was present everyday at the time of prayer.  The gate was not just any gate but it was given the name ‘Beautiful’ and was the favored entrance. So, just imagine how many people passed him over the course of his forty years since birth. But his life changed the day Peter and John demanded his attention and shared this, “Silver or Gold I do not have but what I have I will give you.” Though the man was healed this day they gave him far more. They gave healing in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

 

There are so many things in my life that I rely upon that are trivial and fleeting. In the end,  what we find hope in is what we cannot see.  When I place my hope in man or in things of this world I am always let down.