Insignificant

When we moved to Cambodia almost 2 1/2 years ago, I was excited to get busy working and making a difference here. One of the things I did first when we arrived was to familiarize myself with all of the various departments of Asian Hope and our partner ministries. That meant meeting a lot of great people and witnessing first-hand all of the lives that they were impacting. It was such a huge blessing and encouragement. However, as much of life here can be, I was simultaneously hit square on the forehead with the 2x4 of paradox. It was only a few months after we arrived and I had just left a small Christian school that Asian Hope supports with teacher training, material, resources...etc. This particular school enrolls very poor orphans from local orphanages (a likely place to find them). As I was leaving the school I had a sudden overwhelming feeling of insignificance. I felt like a drop of water in an ocean. What could I do in country that had so much hurt, pain, poverty and loss of hope? How could I help these wonderful people? I was one person. Still not sure of where I was going, how to get there, how to ask questions if I got lost...etc.

Some sweet kids that received clothing after their homes were burned.

Sharing the gospel in a remote village.

Some of our "neighbors" at our Christmas outreach at Logos International School

A young girl working at a fish market early in the morning.

Some happy neighborhood kids at our Spring outreach.

That feeling remained for about an hour or so until I listened to what God was trying to tell me. His words to me went something like this: "You are so hilarious and full of pride. Do you really think it is up to you to make a difference here? Do you really think you can do ANYTHING to impact these amazing people for good? I have been in the business of changing lives for thousands of years. I will orchestrate change in Cambodia, in my way and in my time. It really has nothing to do with you. The only thing I need from you is obedience".

It may sound funny but that conversation lifted a huge burden from my shoulders, heart and mind. All I need to do is obey what God has set before me and the rest is up to Him. Huge sigh of relief. It was then that I was reminded of a conversation that I had just had with one of my kids. I had asked child A to clean the kitchen while I was gone. When I returned the kitchen was still a mess. In a frustrated father tone I said "Why didn't you clean the kitchen?"
"I was busy."
Snickering a bit I said, "Doing what?"
"Putting the laundry away."
"But I asked you to clean the kitchen."
"I know but I thought I would put the laundry away since I know that needs to be done, too."
"But I had asked Child B (Not what I really call them) to do that".
"Ohhhhh".

This conversation illustrated to me the importance of doing what God has asked me to do and not trying to do everything. "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams" 1 Samuel 15:22. Don't sacrifice your time, money, talents on something that God isn't calling you to do. First, you will wear yourself out completely and second, you will be doing a job that He has likely asked someone else to do. If they don't do it, that is between them and God not between you and them and God.
When I think of the issue of each person in the Body of Christ doing what God is calling us to do, I often think of a huge, beautiful tapestry. The tapestry is the work of God in the world and each thread represents one of His faithful followers. If you are standing with your nose pressed against the tapestry, all you can see are a few threads intertwining. They don't make any sense and don't even approach a masterpiece. But when you back up and see the entire thing, you see a magnificent piece of art. The few threads that you saw up close are now an integral part of the whole picture. Missing any of them would be make the tapestry incomplete. In the same way, when individual believers don't do what God is calling them to do, threads are missing from the work God is doing on the Earth.
That is why God needs obedient Christians. What is He calling you to do? What part is He asking you to play in the tapestry? You are not insignificant!

"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10

Unanticipated

When we moved to Cambodia nearly 2 1/2 years ago, I knew that we would run into many challenges that, although anticipated, would still take some work to navigate well. We were at least ready for them, even though there were still some surprises. For one, we had already experienced the traffic when we visited. It is crazy and sometimes drives us nuts (pun intended) but we were somewhat ready for it and have mostly adapted. We also expected the hot weather. There are some times that we would still looooove a day where it got down into the low 60's even...but if that happened there would probably have to be a frostbite alert issued in Cambodia. At any rate, we have also adjusted to the heat...as much as you can. I would have to say that the food is another anticipated challenge that we encountered on our move to Southeast Asia. In America, we loved Asian food. Carolyn and I had a favorite date place. It was a great Vietnamese restaurant that we frequented. Yummy white rice and spicy Asian flavors. What more could you ask for? Well, now we ask for anything but white rice. In an effort to explain food challenges here, I often have visitors here think of the one restaurant from back home that they would say, "I could eat there all the time and would never get sick of it". Then I challenge them to really think about how that might end up for them. What if you ate there every day (sometimes twice a day) for 3 months? 6 months? 2 years? Would you still like it? That is how it was for us moving here. Nevertheless, we have still adapted to the food since sometimes each of us will actually crave white rice if we haven't had it for a while. Weird, I know. I am so thankful that God makes us so adaptable.

Our family with a couple of dear friends on vacation at Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. 

However, I would have to say that one of (if not the) most profound and unanticipated thing that has happened in the past 2+ years happened mostly to Carolyn. Anyone who spends any amount of time around her (basically anything over 5 minutes...sometimes less), experiences her love, care and compassion. She has a gift to be able to make you feel like you are the only one in a crowded room during a conversation. She has a heart that connects deeply and cares immediately. You would think that that would be an asset with the kind of work we are doing...and it is. But as with so many things we have experienced, that positive is inextricably bound to a negative. It creates an unavoidable paradox. What I mean is that, we all left dear friends and family back in the US but Carolyn's connections run more deeply as a result of who she is. So to leave was heart-breaking but she is strong and we were all walking in the confidence of being in God's will so there was also great joy. However, the unanticipated aspect of this journey was that she has now made deep connections with people here. With kids that she loves almost as if they were our own. On the surface that doesn't sound like a problem. It may even sound noble and exciting to have moved here and loved so deeply in only 2 years. It is an amazing thing and neither of us would change the past 2+ years at all but there is a difficult reality that is unavoidable: for the rest of her life, her heart will be split in 2, on 2 separate sides of the globe. If we stay here, there are friends and family in America and eventually at least a couple of our kids. If we moved back to the States, there are deep bonds here that will always be. That will never change, unless all of our friends and family in America move to Cambodia with us (which is also unanticipated by me).

Carolyn and Abby on a service trip last year.

Alex and Cameron with David and Jonathan at a temple near Angkor Wat.

Carolyn with Calli and Abby at Angkor Wat.

We can only rest in that, although this was unanticipated by us, it was not unanticipated by our Creator. He has gone before us and prepared us for what we are facing. I have to remind myself of that often. We serve a faithful God who wants the best for us. I anticipate being thankful for that for the rest of my life!

Love

Last Saturday our family had a unique opportunity to work together as the 6 of us to love on the kids that go to NKO, or Neighborhood Kid's Outreach (If you would like to read more about that program, go to this link). Typically, the kids who attend this weekly program get a chance to swim, play soccer, learn English and hear the Word of God. It is a great program but this week we had a spring celebration for all of the kids who attend our program. It coincided with Easter and Khmer New Year. Our goal was to love on each of the kids and bless each one of them. I love simple goals. And that goal was overwhelmingly achieved. When the kids got to Logos, they were divided into 7 groups of about 25 each. They rotated between 6 different game stations and just had a blast. The 7th station was manned by our family. That was the ice cream station! As the kids cycled through our area, we were able to serve them with a smile, interact with them as they enjoyed their treat and show them the love of Christ.  As I watched each member of my family at different points throughout the event, I was so thankful that we were able to reach out to these members of our community together. It was a great enhancement to our Easter weekend. Please pray for the continued impact that this outreach will have on our community. As I tell my high school volunteers every week, "They will know we are Christians by our love", not our programs or talent...etc. Love on them and the message will get through! Thanks for your faithful prayer and support of our family and what God is doing through us here. We love and are truly thankful for all of you. I trust you all had a very blessed Resurrection Sunday! And by the way, if you weren't able to make it out to an Easter service, go to this link for a great message from Francis Chan. Blessings.

Ice Cream scooopers

Some of the kids waiting for their turn. The girl in green is one of our Cambodian volunteers.

Abby marking the hand of one of the girls. Wanted to make sure we didn't miss anyone.

Happy about Ice Cream

Love those happy faces

Content

One shift of the serving crew

As one final surprise, we helped the kids with heat-management. We had them congregate in the courtyard and....

...cooled them off with water, from 3 stories up. They actually waited until we refilled so they could experience it a second time. Such a blast!

Focus

If you spend any time at all in Cambodia you would have to try hard not to notice the many smiles that greet you. I'm not sure if they smile more here or if the contrast of their white teeth against their dark skin just makes it seem that way but regardless, we see a lot of smiles here. One of the contributing factors, I am certain, is that many Khmer will instinctively smile at westerners. Even though there are a fair number of us here in Cambodia, we still comprise a minute percent of the population. We stick out. We look different. We act different. We talk different. In short, we can make for pretty good entertainment...even if we are just shopping or walking down the street. We don't even have to be doing something particularly interesting, smiles (and laughter) greet us.

However, what has struck me even more than the smiles themselves are some unusual times that I have seen them. For instance, one time I saw some kids riding on a bike with school books and some produce. When they slipped on some loose sand, they fell and their books and fruit scattered on the road. My kids would have likely learned some interesting new English words from me if I had fallen, but these kids were all laughing and smiling like they had just heard a funny joke. I took note of it.

Another time I saw a young child pulling a recycling cart along the road gathering anything that could possibly used by his family to make some money. It was relatively early in the morning yet he had a smile on his face. I again took note and wondered how my face would look if that were me. 

On a different occasion, I was at the gym and saw a guy riding his bike by. He was probably in his 20's and I would guess he was heading to work. He was just riding slowly, taking in the view and just smiling, enjoying his ride. Seems fine so far. The thing that caused the disconnect in my mind was that he was riding a bike that would have been more appropriate for a 5-year-old girl: First, because it was obviously too small; Second, it was bright pink. Again, if that had been me, I would have worn a hoodie, pulled the hood up over my head tightly and rode like my butt was on fire until I reached my destination. I would have wanted as few people as possible to see me. Once again, I filed this sight away in my mind.

These 3 anecdotes are just representations of what we see on a regular basis. It has caused me to wonder what it is about the Cambodian people that makes them joyful much of the time. I think it gets down to what they focus on. I think, in general, they don't worry about tomorrow. They aren't concerned about how the stock market is doing. They don't spend time concerning themselves with complex political problems. The possibility of war or natural disasters don't invade their down time. They simply take care of what needs to be taken care of for that day. "I will collect enough recyclables to buy food for today and maybe save a little bit extra for tomorrow." That's it. That is not to say that some Cambodians aren't good at saving and making bigger purchases but in general they strike me as people who don't spend a lot of time worrying about things that will happen whether they think about them or not. It is such a great reminder to me as I can sometimes look for things to worry about. 

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?

   ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.