It has been almost five weeks since I was last in Cambodia, not by choice but of necessity.   Even though I was careful to get a 48 page passport when I renewed just over two years ago, my travel schedule is such that the passport had run out of pages and needed to be sent to Ottawa for replacement.  Although it was frustrating to be tied down, it did allow me the opportunity to get caught up on a number of thing s that there is usually little time for. 

I am happy to be heading back to Cambodia for a full week of meetings with contacts both old and new.  Both Steve and I strongly believe that the main purpose of our work is that of planting seeds.  Whether that is introducing new information or ideas, challenging ingrained ways of thinking or viewing the world or building networks, envisioning new ways of building relationships or simply encouraging others to plan creatively it is all essentially the same.  Whether in the context of education or healthcare, the needs are great.

However, we are not great. We are just simple people, filled with weakness and doubt, trying to do what we can to help. We definitely do not think that we are wonderful in any way. But we have both committed ourselves to a simple idea: that a God who loves us wants us to show that love in a tangible way to those whose needs are greater than our own. We have some skills that we bring to the task, but there is so much that we cannot do. We recognize that if God is not in what we do, all our effort will amount to nothing.

So once again I would ask for your prayers for me this week: that all the plans that I have made will bear fruit; that meetings will take place; that others will see the need to step into the many gaps in this project and take their part; that God would give me the physical strength that I need for this week; and that He would bless in the lives of those who are working to make Cambodia strong again.