Tim's Perspective: Chilling Moments

Our two weeks were full of chilling moments, moments that gave me chills, despite a climate that would never give anyone the shivers.  These are the top moments that gave me the goose bumps:

1. On our first day, we were given a tour of all (or at least most) that Agape International Missions (AIM) is doing in Phnom Pen.  It is quite mind blowing all that they are doing. My favorite thing though is the employment center where the girls who have been rescued and "rehabilitated" are working.  We walked in and were greeted with waves, smiles, and hellos!  So much joy! These are women who have been through hell on earth, however, they have been rescued and God has worked His healing power on them.  Such a beautiful, hopeful thing, it gave me chills!

2. Imagine 200 children, ages 3-11, in a room about 1500 square feet singing at the top of their lungs praises to our God. It happened most every day. On one particular day, it was especially boisterous.  I leaned over and said to Janelle, "I can only imagine how much joy God gets out of this."  It gave me chills!

3. As a leader of the team, you worry about how your team members are doing.  On two separate occasions near the end of our trip, two of my team members confessed to me that if they did not have families, they would not be going home.  It gave me chills both times!

4. Imagine sitting through a church service where 90% of what was said was in a language that you did not understand.  Boring, right?  Wrong! Almost everyone on the team said that one of their favorite things was attending church in Svay Pak.  Not that we could understand much.  But we shared communion.  And the presence of the Holy Spirit was palpable.  It gave me chills!

5. Near the end of the first week or the beginning of the second week, we are all a little bit weary.  I woke up early to prepare my devotional feeling particularly worn out.  As I open up my Bible, out fell a stack of 3x5 cards.  The night that we left, our church had a prayer meeting to send us off.  These cards were the things that they prayed for us.  At the end of the prayer meeting, when I was handed the cards, I thought to myself, "what am I going to do with these?".  When they fell on the floor and as I picked them up, I leafed through them.  I realized that God had answered EVERY SINGLE ONE of those prayers.  It was just the reminder and encouragement I needed. It gave me chills!

6. In the middle of the second week, we knew that that afternoon an altar call was going to be presented to the guys in the gym. As a team we prayed that there would be one, maybe two guys to accept Christ.  Later that day, near the end of the day, Clay came up to me and told me that not one, not two, but twelve guys had accepted Christ.  It gave me chills and almost made me cry.  Almost...

Twelve of these guys accepted Christ!

7.   Janelle astutely observed that the place that housed the foster children was devoid of toys. She asked the Pastor's wife about it.  She said that no one had bought the foster kids any toys for a long time.  Janelle took it upon herself to remedy that. During her lunch hour, she took $300 and went nuts.  You would not have believed all the toys she got for $300.  The very last thing we did was present those toys to the foster children.  It was better than the best Christmas you can think of.  It gave me chills!

8. Our last day, near the end of the day, we had a chance to meet with the Pastor and all of the Cambodian staff.  We thanked each other and we prayed over them. But then they gave us a Certificate of Appreciation.  When they handed it to me, I could not read it for several moments for fear of breaking down.  They were the ones that do the heavy lifting all the time. They were the ones that made us feel so welcome. They were the ones that prepared us lunch every day. They were the ones that blessed us.  And yet, they were thanking us.  It chocked me up, but also gave me chills.

Living in God's story is far from dull. When you have the opportunity to be a part of something where God is clearly working, it is so fulfilling and brings one such joy. I doubt there is any high like it. And in a country where people rarely experience goose bumps, I got the chills often! 

Tim