Desire

A sweet little girl I saw at a local market

I have been reflecting lately about our move to Cambodia almost 8 months ago. That always leads me back further to the year and a half leading up to our move. We had many people standing by us, cheering us on but we also had our share of people saying "what in the ... are you thinking?" or some derivative thereof. Believe me, I have been in the second camp at times myself but thankfully only for short periods.


Those questions always left me thinking, why did we move here? When we are walking down the sidewalk stepping over trash; passing naked, dirty, begging children; sweating almost constantly; being stressed out by CRAZY traffic; being so far from what is familiar; unable to find what you need and if you do, often unable to communicate with the workers selling the item you need...etc. Those don't even take into account the fact that it is the "wrong time" to move the kids, as we had many people say.  Wait until they get out of school...etc.  The list of reasons is so long as to why we shouldn't have moved. So what were we thinking?

A car amongst unusual traffic

A boy begging for money, presumably with his sibling.

We wanted to.  It was our DESIRE to move here. Really. It is not that we are overly spiritual but we just wanted to come. It sounds so counter intuitive. No one wants to move to one of the poorest countries in the eastern hemisphere, do they? Before we visited I even had to find it on the map. Not exactly a top 10 desirable destination for most. But that is where God comes into play.  He says: "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."  Now, I am not sure exactly what we did to "delight" ourselves in Him except to walk in obedience to His leading.  And I guess when we boil it all down, that is really all He wants. Obedience.  "To obey is better than sacrifice".  As a father myself, I know that feeling.  I have told my kids before that there is nothing they can give me that I don't already have...except their obedience.  Which really represents the gift of your heart.  To obey is to trust the other person's heart for you, even if you can't see the end result.

Some sweet kids we brought clothes to after they were displaced by a fire.

So that brings us to where we are.  Enjoying our new home...trusting God's heart for us...excited to walk in His plan for us in Cambodia...the best place on earth to live.