Saying Our Goodbyes!

Throughout the week, the team and I were all holding onto the hope that we would be able to make it out to the church in Prey Preal. God blessed us with the opportunity to go--we took off this Sunday morning to Prey Preal for our church service. Not only did the team get to go, but so did the Rapha House girls who study at the medical clinic with Dr. Paul Fleenor.

The church there is small, but it's nonetheless a place to gather in fellowship and praise our Lord. We had our service outside. The number of kids there definitely outnumbered the adults, but that only meant we had more little faces smiling at us as they copied the team's motions and moved along to the worship songs we sang. Afterward, the team performed the "Everything" skit. Although some of the kids laughed at the most intense parts of the skit, I saw some of the girls from the clinic wiping their noses and drying away tears in the back. It made me realize that it was okay that the kids were laughing. God sent us here to Cambodia to plant seeds--to etch into their minds this skit of Jesus saving His children--because at the end of the day, it's not us that saves, it's Jesus and Jesus alone.

Sean gave the sermon for the church service and spoke about 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." And the thing about love, we're able to love because God first loved us. I believe that because of His love, we are given an incredible threshold for loving others. I don't know if I'm called to be in the mission field, but I do know this: I am called to love people--it's all I ever want to do. And although I arrived to Cambodia with the mindset of reflecting who God is and loving on the kids and anyone we crossed paths with, it was they who loved on us--they were the ones to reflect God's love to us.

After the service, the girls from the clinic gathered the adults from the church to provide vital tests and check-ups. While they were doing those, the team and I sat down and started singing some worship songs. It wasn't long until the kids joined us to listen. Sure, they couldn't understand us, but the Lord is much bigger than a language barrier. 

Later on in the evening after the vital tests were finished, the team, the girls from the Rapha House, and the Fleenor family all met back at the clinic to say goodbye. We gave the girls the quilts made by people from our church, and the girls loved them. We had each person draw a number from a bag to see in what order they would go then choose the quilt they wanted. Saying goodbye had to be the hardest part. When I first met these young women, they were so timid--so scared of being asked about their past. But today, they were laughing, hugging us, even making jokes. They opened up, and the amount of love they showed to the team.. we are so grateful and so blessed by it. There's no way to not fall in love with these girls and the hearts they have. And although there's no guarantee that we'll ever get to see them again, there's no better way to part ways than to know that we'll all be praying for each other and to know that The Lord will protect them.

We headed back to our hotel; it was time to say goodbye to the Fleenor family. The Lord wasted no time in having us love this family from the moment we arrived in Cambodia. Paul, Diane, James, Hannah, Benjamin, Lulu, and Georgia are all extraordinary people. Each one of them are different, but they form a family that clearly love the Lord and bring glory to His name. 

Thank you for supporting us and praying for us throughout this entire journey--for helping us to come and encourage part of our church family as well as give and receive the Lord's love to our Cambodian brothers and sisters. We can't wait to share with you what the Lord has done here and to glorify His holy name. 

In Christ's name,

Stephanie