“Good-bye, Teacher. I love you big!�
I looked around to see which student was speaking to us, but it was already too dark. Sokhal fired up the tuk-tuk and we began the 45 minute journey back to our temporary home in Siem Reap. As we sped around bumps and potholes, children waved and chased after us until we were out of sight. The breeze from the ride carried dust into every crevice of my face and clothes, but I didn’t care because it brought relief from the Cambodian heat.  Just another day teaching English to the children of the Bakong Village.
I love our ministry in Cambodia. I love the sweet children of Bakong that melt your heart with their almond-shaped eyes and joyful laughter. I love the little dirty hands which reach for mine and the little dirty feet that dance to songs about Jesus. I love the canopy of banana and coconut trees that offer shade from the relentless sun. I love the mothers who proudly let me hold their babies as we communicate with head nods and smiles. I love the students who somehow, without watches, eagerly remind me that it’s time for English class. I love all of it so much.
I love it big.
One of the many sweet little babies in Bakong Village.
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Pointing to their home, Cambodia, on the world map!
Lord, use me as a vessel of your love in Bakong. Help these children see You and not me. Give them understanding about why Jesus died for them. I don’t want to just be another “good� foreigner who teaches English. I’m only here for a month, but God, you promise to be with them for eternity. I pray that they come to experience your love .
Because you love them BIGGER.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith — that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14,17-20
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