Cambodia

I've spent the past 4 days in Cambodia and I LOVE it here. The people are so gentle and kind, the children are so tan and beautiful and the trees are so green! But for all its beauty, Cambodia is a place of great darkness and sadness. 98% of the people here do not know Christ. You can see that people are just living for the next day, trying to figure out the next meal.. they don't know hope.


One of the greatest issues in Cambodia is sex trafficking. The girls line up on the streets to sell themselves to whoever will buy them- I have seen it with my own eyes. We spent the past 2 days visiting organizations that work to help girls and women get off the streets but nothing became real to me until today. Today we went to Sway Pak- a village that is known around the world for trafficking children. You can feel the evil in Sway Pak when you walk down the streets. There, almost every children in RAISED to be sold into prostitution by their own families. Virginity is especially valuable and so most families sell their daughters at as young as 5 years old. A Cambodian proverb that says "Men are like gold, women are like white cloth" basically says that if men are dirty then they can be cleaned easily but once women are dirty then they are stained forever. This is why once women have lost their virginity, their family feels no guilt in selling them into the sex trade. They no longer have value in the eyes of their society.

Today in Sway Pak we walked down the dirt roads, past the very homes of the people who do this to the children. I looked past their doorways, saw their homes, looked into their eyes. My heart cried out- "Jesus, where are you? God, why does this happen? Please, Lord, redeem these people."

 And then we turned a corner and all the sudden there were children EVERYWHERE. The dirt road was full of them.. running all around us, grabbing our hands and asking for candy. They reminded me of a street full of my students- little girls with innocent faces and little boys with wide smiles.. except they were all destined for a life of prostitution, slavery, a life without Christ. My hands were handing out candy and clicking pictures with my camera but inside all I could do was cry out to the Lord- "why? why? Help them Lord!" I wanted to stay be with them and at the same time I wanted to scoop them up and run. When it was time to go, I made it as far as the corner of the road before tears were streaming down my face. I can't describe the overwhelming helplessness I felt (and still feel) for those children. I can't explain how hard it was to leave them on that street knowing the life that they are going to live. It's terrible and horrible and unfair.

I have so much to process and understand and ask the Lord to show me.. but for now I know He is saying to me that I need to pray for those beautiful innocent hopeless faces I saw today. Because He has not forgotten them, and I now that I've seen them.. I'm responsible to pray. One of the places of rescue that we visited this week reminded me of this song, and it has become my prayer today:

I will change your name

Your name will no longer be called-

wounded, outcast, lonely, or afraid.

I will change your name

Your new name shall be:

confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one.

faithfulness, friend of God,

one who seeks My face.

Join me in praying that Christ will REIGN in this country.

Pray!

Today some of our HOL teenagers are interviewing with the embassy in Southeast Asia to try to get approved to travel home with us for a visit to America. They are very nervous and very excited about the possibility.. And so are we! Please join us in praying for favor with the US embassy! This would be a huge huge deal for them- and I would loveee to get to introduce them to parts of my life in America. :)

Our team made it to Cambodia and all I can say so far is that I never imagined it could be so different from Southeast Asia. So many things are similar and yet it is so much darker. I will blog more tonight from a computer if I can. (I'm using my phone) Pray for these people who are hurting so much that you can literally see it in their eyes. love y'all!

Beauty for Ashes

Here we go.. attempt numero uno at blogging! All thanks goes to my dear friend Anna for bugging me to start one of these.. we'll see how long it lasts :)

I made it to Southeast Asia! It's so very fun to be back here. In so many ways it feels just like I've never left.. like the whole past year of my life hasn't happened and I'm just picking right back up where I left off. Same sweet (ha) smell, same precious faces, same honking horns all night.. and here I am right back in the middle of it. The Lord is so good to me- I don't know how I ever deserved the gift of getting to know and come to this place but I am SO grateful that I do.

We spent our first day just getting used to jet-lag, meeting some of the other people we'll be traveling with, and then we got to attend the 100th year of the gospel celebration. It was sooo incredible- thousands of Southeast Asians all in one room celebrating how the Lord has come to their country! We got to sit in the front row and just take it all in.. My favorite moment was singing "Great is Thy Faithfulness" with them, in two different languages.. I can't help but think that I know nothing about faithfulness compared to the voices singing in the other language.

I had a lot of time to read, think, and pray on the plane ride over and one song that I really listened to was Beauty for Ashes by Shane and Shane. (thanks Carrie :) )

Beauty for Ashes. You are better. Take this heart of stone and make it yours. 

These words quickly became my prayer. Over and over I listened to them- I want that. I want to believe  that God is better.. better than me. Better than my desires, my pride, my stuff. Better than what the world tells me is good. Isaiah 55 says "LISTEN and I will give you what is good. Listen, and you will find life." My prayer is that I let God tell me He is better, and I find in Him goodness and life, not so that my life is better.. but so that others know him and find life. I want the sweet people of this nation to know Him and find life so much.

You are better.. than all the world.