New Eyes and a new Heart:Char

How can I begin to tell you what God has been doing, and how can I express what I am feeling? Thank God for Lisa’s ability to write! I think I speak on behalf of the team when I say she is expressing what we are all feeling- and very eloquently I might add! It is difficult at the end of a very long day to then sit down and process what just happened! Lisa thanks for your diligence in this way.
I want to praise God first of all for allowing me to come back to Cambodia. I must tell you it is with new eyes and a new heart. Each time I come to this country I learn something new. But this year it has become more personal.
In previous years it was great to teach English to university students, and exciting to tour the country and see some of the Ratanak projects. It was exhilarating to run the Kid’s Camp last year but I feel like working with the young women and teaching workshops has been on my mind and heart since the first short term mission trip in 2002!
As you have read in the blog, a child that I met last year through the Kids Camp in Svay Pak and who I have been praying for was sold by her parents. It is unbelievable to me that a mother and father could allow or even bring about the sale of their daughter. It will take a long time for this to process in my mind if ever. This young girl named "L" is kind, and fun loving; she exhibited a real desire to be understood, and was so patient with my lack of language. Knowing that she is somewhere out there at the mercy of evil rips my heart into pieces.
There is another young woman’s story that has gripped me as well. “M” works in a local café that helps young women and men through employment and job training. Every time we come back to Phnom Penh we end up eating at this place because the food is awesome! I heard that this young woman was late for work and suspicion was building that her parents were going to try and sell her. Sure enough she wound up in a border town of Thailand isolated and vulnerable. By God’s grace she was securely brought back and saved from being trafficked into Thailand or beyond. I sat in the café looking at her- how close it all came!
Today yet another beautiful Khmer woman named "S" told me a bit of her story and how even though she is in great need she has taken in her sister’s son as her own lest he be tossed aside.
I am astounded every day and thankful with a grateful heart for my God who sees all of this and is right beside them. They are not alone. Without my faith that HE can restore these three lives I would definitely fall into despair. But that is not the case! I will sing it from the roof tops! I believe that God is moving mightily and will save the thousands that these three represent. we must see each one,pray diligently for them, and stand in the gap.