Scott brought up this e-mail I sent out to last years team and I thought it would make a timely addition to this years blog. I hope you enjoy the story and that it inspires everyone headed to Cambodia this year, and also the family and friends that support us, to always be receptive to the miracles God touches our lives with.
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I thought, since this is Easter Week, that I would contribute a little real life story from a few years back. It happened one Easter morning when my kids were young and Easter to them was still about bunnies, colored eggs and candy. It was a small thing we witnessed as we got ready to head to church. I've mentioned this in passing to friends, on occasion, who have been duly impressed and quickly offered up the obligatory response of, "Wow, that's amazing." And it was, especially since it happened on the morning that we celebrate the world's ultimate miracle, The Resurrection.
My oldest was about 5 and his brother was around 3. Easter was a big deal to Beth and I and in the weeks leading up to it we had lots of Easter Egg hunts out in the front yard. It was a game the kids loved and so did we. They would wait inside while one of us hid the plastic eggs and then we'd open the front door and off they would go, baskets in hand, straight to the places they last found an egg. It was funny to watch them race past other eggs scattered on the ground beneath their feet as they bee lined it to that special spot they had always found an egg before. I suppose a life message could be drawn from this also but I'll leave that to ya'll to figure out.
In addition to the egg hunts leading up to Easter, Beth would also make an Easter Egg Tree. I would go and hack a small leafless branch off a tree and spray paint it white. Beth would then stick it in a little Easter clay pot she had, put that green plastic grass stuff around it and hang small Easter eggs from all its little branches. She would set it on the buffet in the dining room and then spread more of that green grass around the pot. She'd nestle a couple of ceramic bunny rabbits into the grass and then sprinkle it all with some jelly beans for the rabbits to forage on. All in all it was a very pretty little pagan alter.
On that Easter morning when we came down the stairs into the dining room we found that the Easter Tree was in full bloom. Unknowingly, I had clipped a branch from a dogwood to serve as the Easter Tree. That branch, for all intents and purposes, should have been dead. I had cut it from its source of life, coated it in a hard acrylic paint, stuck it in a dry pot for a week and hung dead weight from its branches. Yet on Easter morning, of all mornings, it refused to give up the purpose for its existence and it pushed out its tender petals through an unnatural shell that constricted it.....and it bloomed.
Was it a miracle, serendipity, a process of biology or just happenstance? You could make a case for any of these as the reason the branch bloomed on that Easter morning. At the time when it happened I was in the, "Wow, that's amazing." camp. But looking back on it now, through the lens of what I have seen and experienced in my life and in Cambodia, my opinion has changed. I have seen miracles in Cambodia. They were real and they were tangible. And now that I know what a miracle feels like I can look back over my life and realize that I walked right past a lot of miracles. Miracles that touched me or those I love. Miracles that changed a heart or charted a different path. Miracles that became obvious in hindsight or miracles so small I didn't even recognize them when I saw them. Like a small little Easter branch that bloomed.
Christ's resurrection could have been God's miracle to end all miracles. After all how do you top Jesus overcoming death, not for his own sake, but for ours. It was the miracle of salvation and redemption. It was such an enormous miracle that it couldn't possibly be ignored, dismissed or misunderstood. But it was and it wasn't. All at the same time. God understands that more people can grasp the finality of the Crucifixion than the hope of the Resurrection. It is for that reason that he still showers this world with miracles both large and small. It is this constant presence of miracles that gives faith the framework to build upon. It is said that all things are possible through faith in Jesus Christ and I believe that God rewards and nurtures that faith with miracles.
I don't know what miracle we will be blessed with in Cambodia this year. We may know it immediately when it happens to our group. It may be with a kid in an orphanage that takes comfort in our love for him. It may be when we get home and God uses the sharing of the experience to touch someone we know. He may use our trip to spread miracles to people and places beyond our comprehension. But every miracle, no matter how small, has the chance to open a heart to faith, then to understanding and then to acceptance of the miracle Christians have been celebrating for 2000 years. That, in itself, is the miracle.
Happy Easter,
Billy Dale
Friday, April 22, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Human Trafficking...
Can you imagine what it would be like to be sold as a child, by your own parent into prostitution? I cannot imagine it. I have read stories of individuals that lived through this ordeal, and my heart breaks wide open for them. Read this story of “Not for Sale”, and see if your emotions flare up.
Did you want to scream at the injustice of it? Did you want to reach into the story and do anything that you could to change it?
Recently, Tad, a fellow team member of mine, shared information about Human Trafficking in Cambodia with me. Cambodia is at the epicenter of this epidemic as a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking.
Although it is difficult, if not impossible, for some of us to come to grip with this reality of evil, it is a very real issue. Children live a life of captivity. They live a daily routine of beatings, starvation and then ultimately forced into prostitution. Women are also trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor in factories or as domestic servants. Men are not immune, as they are trafficked for forced labor.1
In some cases, children are sold with the reasoning “that a life of emotional and mental pain is better than starvation and homelessness.2” In other cases, a single child is sacrificed for the betterment of the rest of the family; a way to secure funds to feed the family left behind.
There is an estimation of 1.2 million children are trafficked each year (world wide), 1/3 of sexually abused children in Cambodia are boys, and human trafficking is the second most profitable crime in the world.2
According to ECPAT International, "Cambodia is a country where social inequality, poor access to land, limited resources for families to meet the needs of their children, low-quality education, deficient social services and weakened institutions-problems exacerbated by 20 years of war – have contributed to the high vulnerability of Cambodian children to commercial sexual exploitation."3
This is not just a Cambodian issue, nor is it an issue that just affects “other” countries. We are not immune here in America. The United States was ranked for the first time in 2010, ... documenting human trafficking and modern slavery, by the Department of State. The report found that in America men, women, and children were subject to trafficking for “forced labor, debt bondage, and forced prostitution."4
We serve an awesome and powerful God. We serve Him with the knowledge that He is the Alpha and the Omega. He has a plan, and it includes you and I. Although sin brings death and decay to this world, our God is more powerful. Pray for these children that are victims of trafficking, pray for those that help them, be BOLD and Shine the Light!
Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV)
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
Links to sources & additional information:
Friday, April 8, 2011
What I See...
I am sitting on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and I see God’s majesty as I look out upon the ocean. This massive body of water, of life; a world in of itself. He holds all of it back with a simple shoreline - an AMAZING display of His power!
I look out as far as I can see. I see beautiful birds that soar above the water. I see a marvelous painting in the sky of clouds and sun. What a beautiful piece or art. I see a wide open sandbox, waiting for the imagination of a child. I see the delight in a child’s face with the accomplishment of kite flying. I also strain to see past the sand, past the waves, past the birds, past the horizon. I strain to see a country that I have not seen; a country that lays past the horizon.While I am not able to see the destination that my Lord has planned for me. I can see Him all around me. He is in all things; He is my Creator. I place my trust in Him, and I submit to His authority. I eagerly look forward to the day that I get to embrace the children that I have heard so much about in Battambang, Cambodia. Although I cannot yet see them, I know that our Lord and Savior sees them. His love places a yearning upon my heart for them as He prepares me to meet them.
“When I think of all of this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower [me] with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in [my] heart as [I] trust in Him. [My] roots will grow down into God’s love and keep [me] strong. And may [I] experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then [I] will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” (Ephesians 3:14-19, NLT)
Let’s work from God and find out what new things we get to see!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The Adventure Awaits...
The 2011 Cambodia construction team will be embarking on a journey to Battambang Cambodia this May. We will endeavor to complete multiple construction projects at an orphanage filled with 38 amazing children....The Adventure Awaits.....
Adventure is often defined as an exciting or unusual experience...or may be defined as a bold, often risky undertaking, where the final outcome remains unknown. Traveling to the other side of the planet, in and of itself, is an adventure. The same could be said of working on multiple construction projects in the extremely hot, humid, tropical environment of Cambodia. For the team members, leaving family and loved ones... leaving the comfort of our homes and everyday existence could also be defined by the word adventure. The word 'adventure' fits and defines a journey to Cambodia in many facets......
But....'Real' adventure will be defined in the journey of our hearts. Experiencing love and acceptance pouring out of the children is beyond exciting....it is intoxicating, it is extravagant! Witnessing joy, that can only radiate from God, reflected in amazing clarity, through the eyes of a child....to say the least, is unusual. Embarking on a journey into our heart is bold, it is risky, and the outcome is unknown. When you experience extravagant, intoxicating love..... When you witness pure joy emanating from the heart of an orphan that surpasses all depths of your understanding, .....When your hand is held by a child .... and that simple embrace from a tiny hand crushes the very fabric and understanding of your own soul....That is where the adventure begins....that is where adventure is experienced....that is where life change happens.... that is where you begin to experience true purpose. The Adventure Awaits.....It is hard to be satisfied with existence, once you've tasted PURPOSE
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