Going Forward--Taking the Next Step

I have been in Cambodia a little over 24 hours.  In some ways, I have lost track of time.  In a short time, I have been transported halfway around the world and invaded a culture I know very little about.  I have met many new people, who share my passion to share Jesus and pour into the lives of those I consider less fortunate, as Jesus would say, the least of these.

I am on sensory overload as I am trying to adapt to a country and culture that is attempting to recover from years of communist rule and mass killing of its people.  I find the Cambodian people to be extremely humble and hard working.

Yesterday morning was Sunday and our team had the opportunity of meeting with another mission team from Georgia.  They are part of an non-profit called Saving Susan.  You can read their story here - http://savingsusanministry.org/about-us

We worshipped with Lifegate Baptist Church yesterday afternoon.  The church meets on the 4th floor of an orphanage called Hailey's House of Hope run by Dr. & Mrs. Tago, a dentist and his wife from the Philippines who have dedicated their lives to being missionaries in Cambodia. Here are some pictures of our time with them.

This morning we are meeting with a local Cambodian pastor, Pastor Sihok, and will be visiting a ministry he has begun on a dumpsite in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.   Jen Barnes, founder of LifeTotes, met him last summer when she visited Cambodia.  She was here to meet a bag maker and begin a business that would provide resources to pour back into the Cambodian people.  The story of LifeTotes can be found at www.lifetotes.org/blog  LifeTote products are made out of recycled cement bags, that are discarded all over the streets of Cambodia.  These bags are collected, cleaned and made into useful products by women who work out of their homes to provide a living for them and their children.

Before coming to Cambodia, the LifeTotes team, which consisted of Jen, my daughter, Erin, their friend, Rachel and me begin praying about what we could do to help with people of Cambodia.  On her first trip to Cambodia last June, Jen met a local pastor who shared with her that he wanted to build a school on the dumpsite.  The cost was $1600.  That amount was raised in a matter of days and the school was built.  Since that time, in addition to a school, it has become a weekly place of worship, a community center, and a monthly health clinic.

We will spend today helping with a VBS on the dumpsite.  We have brought a 6-month supply of vitamins for 60 children and 40 adults.  This was the only thing that Pastor Sihok asked for and I am thankful to those who donated the money for these vitamins.  

I am trying to not be overwhelmed with the extreme need here.  This afternoon we will be visiting what is known as the killing fields. For those of you that grew up int he 60's and 70's, you are familiar with southeast Asia through the eyes of the Vietnam war.  Many of you may not be aware of the ethnic cleansing that took place in Cambodia in the late 70's.

The Killing Fields are a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War (1970–1975). The mass killings are widely regarded as part of a broad state-sponsored genocide (the Cambodian genocide).

Estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a 1975 population of roughly 8 million. In 1979, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime.

Because of this mass killing, the population of Cambodia has very few older people.  They were either killed or fled the country.  When you drive through the city, you see a country that is still recovering from the effects of war.  

My question to God this morning is 'Why am I here? What is it you are wanting me to do.'  Please join me in prayer today for our team and the many others that God is calling to this part of the world.  I am so encouraged by those that are doing kingdom work in this country.  God is not calling us to do everything but He is calling us to do something.  Here's a picture, I made of our team yesterday morning at a market in the city.  Along with myself, the team consists of Jen Barnes, my daughter Erin Parker, her pastor's daughter, Sarah Bush, and my husband, Bill, who has encouraged me to become involved with LifeTotes and the work it is doing in Cambodia.

In preparation for this trip, I spent 28 days studying a devotional book called Go Forward--it had to do with spiritual, mental, physical and emotional well being.  On the last day, I was reading in Exodus 14 about Moses and the people of Israel.    Exodus 14:14-16 says  the Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.  The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me?  Tell the people of Israel to go forward.  Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.' 

Today we are going forward and doing what we can do; and to repeat a prayer I have heard my favorite pastor pray over and over 'we are praying for God to make up the difference.'