After I applied with Adventures in Missions and knew I had been excepted to join a team and travel to live in a part of the world I had never been to or possibly never even heard of came the task of discerning where God was leading me. All I knew was I wanted to serve. My heart broke for so much that I saw myself in Swaziland, Morocco, Spain, Guatemala, Turkey, and South Sudan. I saw myself in all these places serving the people in each country along with their needs all the while showing and teaching them about the love of Christ and what he did and the hope found in him.
With a little guidance Cambodia was suggested to me. I have to be honest I didn’t really know much about it and I wasn’t exactly thrilled. I suppose I was thinking of somewhere more in need. How ignorant I was.
Through some research I found that Cambodia was very much in need. A center for the sex trafficking market, people who have been oppressed by their government, a genocide that wiped out a fifth of the country’s population leaving over half of the current population 24 years and under and a country that faces poverty on a nationwide scale. I found out that they are very much in need. And so God began to break my heart for the people of Cambodia.
I saw myself walking along the streets or in the market listening to the sounds of daily life. I could see myself praying over the sex bars and asking God to deliver freedom to those who have been in bondage. I can see myself quietly listening to the Buddhist monks chanting while meditating on the Lord and then striking up a conversation with one of them and sharing the gospel. As I aloud God to move in me I could see little glimpses of the bigger picture. Looking back at my past and some of my own wounds and scares I can see exactly why God wants me in Cambodia. I can see the redemption in my own life and the fulfillment of forgotten promises. When I stop and think about all that God has done for me, what he has brought me through and what he plans to use me for I overflow with gladness and gratitude for my King.
“The place God Calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and where the world’s deep hunger meet”. Frederick Buechner
Come, Lord Jesus!
Matthew
