This is my first official blog I’ve ever done. But I figure my trip to Cambodia is a pretty good time to start.  My team – which is made up of 7 amazing girls who are totally in love with the Lord – and I have yet to actually leave for Cambodia, as we’ve been at an intense training camp in Toccoa, Georgia, the past three days.
Upon arrival at training camp, I have to admit I was a little nervous, okay a lot nervous about not knowing a single person here, leaving behind my family, friends, and the comforts of things like a bed that I take for granted, and just not fully knowing what I was getting myself into.  All I knew is that in a country called Cambodia, almost all hope is lost, and they desperately need to hear that just the opposite is true – that there is hope unlike anything they’ve ever experienced in the name of Jesus.  So I packed up my stuff and headed to training camp, knowing that I would need to trust God entirely, and am actually already experiencing that dependence on Him more than I ever have.
For starters, training camp has not been what I would call a breeze.  We never know what we’re doing until our leaders tell us right beforehand (already causing us to trust our leaders and to trust God), I’m brought out of my comfort zone on the reg, and they throw surprises at us that we have to embrace.  For example, we were told that we would not be sleeping indoors one specific night, but that we would be camping outside.  They gave us two tarps, some rope, and said “Alright, go for it.” 
 
 

This is my team under the tarp we slept in that night.  From left to right: Emily, Lauren, Emily, Courtney, our fearless leader Brittany, Ansley, Tiffany, and me 🙂

Another surprise involved everyone on staff who was told to be a tribe that had never heard of Jesus, role-playing in the tribe’s customs, and we were told to try and assimilate into their culture and tell them about Jesus.  Oh yeah, did I mention they didn’t speak English?
 
Training camp hasn’t been easy, but it has been so good.  God is already showing me that in surrendering everything to Him, in exchange He wants to give me something even better (Luke 18:29-30).  Unless we give up the familiar, we will never know what God wants to teach us in the unfamiliar.  It was on the first night here that I said “YES” to God more confidently and boldly than I ever have.  And sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage, because there is no limit to what God can do with it.  So Cambodia, we are coming.  And we are coming to declare FREEDOM in the name of Jesus!
 
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.”   – Isaiah 58:6,8