Trust and Obey, a Blog from Cambodia

Over the past few months, my team and I have been traveling all over the country of Cambodia. I had always wanted to visit Asia and experience the varying cultures within such a massive continent. Cambodia was a country we had planned to go to on my last World Race trip and it didn’t turn out. So when I found out that it was going to be on this next year’s journey, I was ecstatic.

Starting in October, after our training camp, K squad left the comforts of our base in the States and launched ourselves in a plane over to Asia. After an entire week of travel, we finally found ourselves sitting in our new home in Cambodia. There’s always too much to share about, that is, all that we did and got to see there. But, one thing that matters the most to me and I think the only thing that does matter when you leave a mission such as this, is to see what happened to the love that God placed in you. Was it given away through me? Did I complete this mission according to the Lord’s plans? Or was this another travel excursion to see another part of the world out of my interest? Did I trust God when he sent us here and did I obey him? 

Something huge that I’ve been learning about this past year is the act of obedience to the Lord’s voice. In this world and this life, we have choices. Every day we have thousands of choices. Sometimes I get caught in them. Do I act on my fleshly desires? Should I go here or there, should I say this or that, do I take that step of faith in what I know God says I should do? 

Something we must understand is that our heavenly Father is polite when it comes to asking him how to do things. I think it’s so easy to dismiss Him and grieve His Spirit in the distracted world today. Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” He does not force his will and way on us, we get to choose Him every day and every moment. And I’ll tell you, I want to stay in alignment with his way. It’s fulfilling, it means abundant life, and it means full joy and wholeness. He has perfect plans for us to walk into each day, he has a pleasing and perfect will. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” I don’t want to miss it, I can’t miss it. It means death, it means I walk outside of blessings and protection and effective ministry. What a straight and narrow path. Wow is it narrow, and few who truly find it.

Looking at our time within ministry and life in Cambodia, I’ve gotten to see the Lord’s covering and grace in making decisions. He showed the way, made our paths straight, and established our steps. We can look back and see the hundreds of kids we impacted, the people we pointed towards the love of the Father. The way my heart felt as we left those faces, I know what we had done. I saw the seeds we planted, even salvations witnessed. But the biggest thing I saw, was how plentiful the harvest is in Cambodia, the workers are so very few and there’s a lot of work to be done.  

Many times I found myself alone with the Lord, looking up to Him, overwhelmed, dazed as to what to do. I said Father show me how. He said, my son, do you trust me? You know I’ve called you here. I’m left without words for the perfect example. “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”