-Last blog 2 of 2-

We spend the afternoon visiting Phnom Penh and seeing the museum written about in my previous blog, and our team had a time of reflection and sharing about what Christ had done in our lives, lead by our leader, Dr. Joy. She encouraged us with the fact that while no one overtly accepted Christ as their Savior while we were there (as far as we're aware of), many heard the gospel, even for the first time, and God promises that His Word won't return void (Isaiah 55:11). She also shared a quote with us, which was very encouraging. It was said by a missionary to Muslims during the 18th century, who wasn't seeing many people trust Christ. It is based off the "harvest" analogy presented to us in the New Testament:

"I am not yet reaping;
I am not yet sowing;
I can hardly be said to be plowing,
But I am removing stones from the field."
~Robert Bruce, missionary to the Middle East (1875)

That evening our team ate dinner with the Broeckerts and another missionary family there who helped us, the Freezes. We ate at a terrific Asian restaurant, and had an awesome time of talking, laughing, and encouraging each other.

The front of the restaurant

After this, we packed our bags, met at the airport, said our goodbyes to the wonderful missionaries there, and boarded the first of several flights. One by one, each of our team members caught their different flights. I personally had about 24 hours of flights to return to Iowa, including a 12 hour layover in Atlanta before my last flight. Between the lack of sleep on flights and the time zone changes, I landed in Atlanta with about 3 hours of sleep in the last 40 hours. Let's just say I was mistaken at the airport as a part of the background cast in The Walking Dead... (just kidding).

Atlanta

Two months ago today was the day I got on the first plane to Cambodia. I had no way of knowing how it would impact me, and I still am discovering how it did so even today writing this.

There are so many things I could write about on this blog- it's been hard to know what to take the time to write and what to leave simply as memories. I feel I must somehow bring this blog to its conclusion, but I'm not sure how.

I hope this has been beneficial, encouraging, and challenging to have read. Again I want to take a moment to say an enthusiastic "Thank you!" Thank you for your prayers, support, and for reading. I encourage you to use any and every opportunity to share the love of Christ with others, both where you live now, and maybe somewhere new too, if God gives you the opportunity.

Moving forward, I think about my future. I don't know what I'm going to do, or how I'm going to do it, but I know the One who does. All I know is I love medicine, and people, and want to somehow use both for the rest of my life. Dr. Mary told me she is praying that God calls me to full time medical missions... only God knows. I do pray about it though. I maintain contact with my friends there on the other side of the world, and pray for them often. I actually just learned the other day that two teenaged Khmer accepted Christ there since our team left! How awesome is that!?

All I know is as I stepped on that first flight back, one question weighed upon my mind...

"When can I come back?"

Seeking to serve the One who died for me, whether here or abroad,

~Aaron