Hello again,
our sweet family and friends!
First of
all, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your prayers for us during our
adventurous month. The Spirit’s work was
evident throughout both of our trips, and God’s guiding hand consistently kept
us in His care, allowed us to accomplish His work, and return safely from our
time away. We sincerely believe that God
heard and answered our prayers for His glory, so thank you for surrendering us
before His throne often. We are
eternally grateful.
I (Brittany)
returned from my time with World Relief in Cambodia just over one week ago, and
I feel like I finally have processed some of my thoughts and emotions from my
time there so that I can (somewhat) clearly share them with you, our sweet
prayer warriors. What a whirlwind it
was! I found myself consistently
picturing a world map in my head, attempting to fathom where in the world I
was, and trying to grasp the adventure I was on. Cambodia is unlike any place I’ve ever been;
the country is so completely broken by the devastating effects of the last 40
years, and yet the people are so full of love.
I consistently felt the juxtaposition of the brokenness of the country,
and yet the presence of Christ in a small yet powerful group of believers. The work of God is being done there, little
by little, in an attempt to reconcile the people of Cambodia back to Christ. The people of Cambodia struggle with some of
the most apparent wickedness and brokenness in our world: child labor, human
sex trafficking, HIV/AIDS, genocide, etc., and to even get to experience coming
alongside those who are working to stop these problems was life changing. World Relief works primarily in prevention of
the furthering of these issues, along with other issues, such as everyday health
concerns for the Khmer people (i.e. malaria, dengue fever, etc.). Our team of five (all from our church, Bent
Tree Bible Fellowship) got to spend some great time with the World Relief staff
in the surrounding villages educating children, teens and adults on these
prevention strategies and overall education on these issues. This time spent “on the field” (in the
surrounding villages) is what the staff do every day, both in the morning and
the afternoon. Their programs are high
energy and highly relational, and the Good News of Christ is integrated into
these friendships. By educating the
people of Cambodia, World Relief hopes that lives can be saved, illnesses
prevented, and tragedies stopped.
Ultimately, it is their prayer that those they interact with might fall
in love with Jesus.
In addition
to this time on the field, interacting with the Khmer people, our team spent
the afternoons teaching the World Relief staff how to speak English by way of
photography. This skill-based education
has a two-fold purpose, the first of which being that speaking English will be
of great advantage to the staff in countless ways. Additionally, the story of the Cambodian
people is one that needs to be told. The
story of their country and the countless tragedies it has undergone are utterly
unknown around the world; with the work that World Relief and other ministries
in Cambodia are doing, their story of reconciliation is only beginning. Through photography, it is the hopes of World
Relief and its partner churches (like Bent Tree) that the world might know more
about how to come alongside Cambodia for the glory of God. Our ESL/photography classes were also
incredible opportunities to build relationships with the World Relief staff and
spend time encouraging them and the amazing work that God is doing through them
in their homeland. As it so often
happens on trips like this, our team left feeling like we had received the encouragement and refreshment rather than
giving it. Lord willing, we were all
recipients of a greater understanding of our loving Father and His abundant
grace.
While I was
in Cambodia, Cody returned to Uganda to spend time at the Village of Hope, a
village that was started by a member of our church and has taken in close to
200 children who were orphaned in direct relation to Joseph Kony and his rebel
army, the LRA. Many of these children
were child soldiers themselves, abducted from their families and forced to
kill. Now that they have either escaped
or been left for dead, they are orphans whose lives could have been utterly
destroyed by such wickedness. But by
God’s grace alone, the Village of Hope has given these children a new home and
a new family. These children, ranging in
age from infants (often the effects of young women being raped by rebel
leaders) to 17 years old have experienced the love of Christ and His saving
grace. The purpose of sending teams to
the Village is for encouragement, discipleship and the coming alongside of the
kids and staff at the Village however possible.
And, like my time in Cambodia, their team left feeling encouraged and
excited for God’s work.
When Cody
and I were at the Village of Hope last year, we spent a lot of time with a girl
named Brenda. Brenda is about 15 years
old, and we bonded instantly during our time there. When Cody and his team arrived at the VOH
this year, the kids had lined the streets singing welcome songs as they always
do when teams arrive. Cody immediately
saw Brenda in the lines, and ran to give her a big hug. At that moment, Cody’s trip, which was only
just beginning, was made worth the voyage, as Brenda’s first words were “you
didn’t forget about me.” This was a
great reminder to me as I sat down to write this letter. It’s hard to say how many kids we prevented
from getting HIV/AIDS in Cambodia, or for Cody to say how many people were
encouraged by their visit to the Village of Hope. We weren’t performing direct Gospel presentations,
and we don’t have a count of salvation decisions that were made, but God used
our time in big ways around the world. And
this is from nothing that Cody or I or our teams did, but entirely how God used
our obedience to go and do as He called us, just as He used your prayers in our
hearts and lives.
So once
again, thank you for your prayers. I
obviously could write so much more about our trips, as could Cody, and we would
love to continue to share with you our lessons and take-aways as we process
them. What we truly want you to know is
this: God was and is faithful. He was faithful to us on our trips, and He is
faithful to us in our reflections and growing now. We are praising Him for His faithfulness in
our travels, in our work overseas and in providing a prayer team of warriors
like you. His fingerprints are covering
our trips, and for that we are so grateful.
We can’t even begin to tell you how encouraging it was to know that we
had a faithful prayer team back home, lifting us up to the Father daily. The Lord used your prayers, not only in
Cambodia and Uganda, but also in the Montgomery family. Thank you for being an integral part of our
team.
We love you
all very much, and are looking forward to being on the same team in ministry
with you again soon.
For His
glory and by His grace alone,
Brittany and
Cody
