Life in Battambang

I am learning that God really is good. But it has come through having to look at life differently and ask some hard questions. Honestly, there have been some really difficult days. The reality of life in a third world country has set in. And the reality of what life is for so many hits me every day. And there is so much lostness! I have met so many people that have literally never even heard the name Jesus Christ before! That is so hard to imagine. I daily see kids living on the streets, the slum village, beggars, trash...my heart breaks and I am continually asking what am I to do? What does Jesus want me to do? How do we "fix" such a big problem? Kids sniffing glue, streets flooded with trash and sewage when it rains, little kids going through garbage to find some trash that can be sold, little girls being sexually abused by drunk fathers, neighbors and brothers, people without legs due to land mines, boys and mothers being beaten by drunk fathers, a country still healing from a decade of war and genocide. Sometimes I just want to shut it all off, pretend it isn't right outside my front door. But I know that is not what Jesus wants. And in them midst of all that I am meeting a new face of God and it is so beautiful! I am continually being broken and put back together. I am always being lurred back into the arms of my Abba Father...his intimate, loving embrace. I am learning what it means to live life in the spirit and to bring the Kingdom of God with me everywhere I go, because I am caring the Living God of the Universe inside of me all the time! I am learning what it means to live a life of evangelism. I am tasting new foods, a rediculously hot climate, and meeting some of the most beautiful people ever. Some of the landscapes are breath taking. It really is a beautiful country. It is so amazing to get to bring Jesus to these people. I am humbled and honored. We see miracles, experience God in real ways, and are learning to lean on him and trust like never before. In the midst of the difficult I see the beautiful. God's children. His world. His heart. His love. Welcome to everyday life in Battambang, Cambodia!