Encouraging Faith

The Lord delights in blessing us—with small gifts and with blessings we never would have even imagined to ask for.
 

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
(Psalm 23:5 ESV)

 
The Lord has been teaching me to accept gifts from Him. Somehow I had started forgetting to see Him in all the blessings (big and small) that He has been pouring into my life. Each breath is an undeserved gift, let alone each relationship, each meal, each smile, each day I wake up…
 
But He told me about it this week during our time together…“PLEASE DON’T ASK ME WHY I WANT TO GIVE THESE THINGS TO YOU.” Wow! Point taken, Lord. How could I be so clueless to the fact that I was grieving the Creator of the universe so deeply by not recognizing Him in my life at every turn.
 
One huge way He blesses and encourages us is by introducing us to people of great faith who are producing fruit purely by the Spirit for the glory of His name. Even Paul, one of the most Spirit filled and led men in the Bible, was eager to return to and be encouraged by the church in Rome!
 

“For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.”
(Rom. 1:11-12)
 

This encouraging thing happened to me yesterday…

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the day’s trip to Place of Rescue, but as we pulled up Marie greeted us at the gate. She is the 70-something woman who founded Place of Rescue in 1994.
 
We first walked through a small row of neat brick houses where families affected by AIDS live. The families can live as normal a life as possible, coming and going as they please. However, there is safety because they are in a community that does not stigmatize them for being HIV positive.

Soon we found ourselves surrounded by little white adobe houses. In each house lived a 'family' of up to 10 children of varying ages and a house mum. All the house mums are Khmer (Marie is the only white person on the premises except for short-term English teachers). The mums cook, clean, dress, and care for their ‘children’ just like any mother would. They raise them to love the Lord and to carry on the Khmer style of living.

Next stop, the baby rooms! All the children under 2 years of age live in a separate building where they can be more individually attended to. They were too cute for words!
 
The granny house provides a place for older women to live who have been abandoned by their families or for whatever reason have no one to care for them anymore.

The grounds also include a preschool, an elementary school (the kids go into town for the rest of their schooling), a library, a swimming pool, a play-ground and soccer field, beautiful gardens and a plot of land used to grow vegetables for the community. And this is just one of 3 sites Place of Refuge has throughout Cambodia!
 
What an incredible place alive and growing in the Spirit—an example of living out the Lord’s mandates: “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.” (Isaiah 1:17 ESV)
 
This visit wasn’t meant to make me feel like I should try to start some similar, amazing organization. Nor was it a time for talking about how great Marie was for doing such wonderful things.
 
She encouraged us and I hope that we were an encouragement to her in some small way. It was a time for celebrating together the Lord’s work being carried out in crazy ways by one of His children of great faith! What a blessing. Thank you, Lord, for sharing with me what you are doing in Cambodia!