Our Journey so Far...
Some of you may still be wondering, why are Josh and Gretchen going to Cambodia? Well in my first official blog post, I'm going to try and explain this long, but awesome story about how God has brought us to the place we are at now.
My freshman year of college I went on a fall trip to Peoria, IL for "The National Missionary Convention (NMC)" (Now called "The International Conference on Missions") with Campus Christian Fellowship (CCF). My friend Kait Hall and I went to a break-out session about sex trafficking that was being put on by Rapha House (if you haven't heard of them, you should definitely check out their website: http://www.raphahouse.org/). Rapha House's mission is "to love, rescue, and heal children who have been rescued from trafficking and sexual exploitation." They have a safe house and a half-way house in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. And yes, that is the same city where we will be going this summer. That break out session was the first time I had ever really heard about sex trafficking/exploitation and I was completely shocked and overwhelmed. I remember walking through the streets of downtown Peoria that night in a complete daze. How could I have gone my whole life and had never heard about the millions of children around the world, in our own country, who were sex slaves? God completely melted my heart for these victims, I knew I had to do something, I could not continue living my life in ignorance to this injustice going on in the world. God did not call me to sit around and do nothing, in Proverbs He calls us to "speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; [to] ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes [to] speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice."
After this conference, my life at college started to become a battle. My original desire to become a Speech Language Pathologist seemed so insignificant to this new desire to rescue and bring hope children who are sexually trafficked/exploited. Somehow teaching children to stop saying "wabbit" didn't compare to the fact that there were children out there being raped for a profit. I'm not trying to say the work of SLP's is insignificant, obviously I do love the work they do because it is my major, but God had directed my heart towards a different calling. I can't even tell you how many times I wanted to drop out of college. I knew getting a degree was important, but I felt like I was wasting precious time that I could be using to do something meaningful, something life giving. As hard as it was to stay, I knew God put me at Truman to finish my degree, so here I am today 10 weeks till the finish life.
Since Freshman year, I have wanted to go to Cambodia because it was in through that country that I first heard about this problem. I had checked multiple times for different summer trips through Rapha House, but the timing never seemed to work out. Kait, my friend who went to the NMC with me, actually went to Phnom Pehn with Rapha House after her Freshman year. I saw the ways God had used that trip to completely changer her life. I will never forget something she said about her time there. "These kids who have been sexually exploited are so broken, so lost, and so hurt that no amount of therapy, counseling, doctors, or training could ever bring healing to these kids.The only thing that could heal them is something supernatural, it can only be God." This has really stuck with me since because as much as I want to help these kids find hope and to show them love, it is only through the power of God that these kids can be healed.
So here I was, having a great burden for these girls and feeling like I could do nothing about it while I was waiting on finishing my degree. I had thought about doing missions after I graduated, but once Josh and I started talking about getting married, I knew I would probably have to give up that dream. Josh wanted to go to grad school and we would probably try to start a family after that. Then last semester, God started to put on Josh's heart to wait a year before starting grad school. Initially I didn't want to him to wait, I'd rather him start as early as possible so he could finish as early as possible. At this point I hadn't even thought about doing missions because I let that go once we decided to get married. But God, being God, and being quite awesome knew more than I did at that point in time! Fast forward a few months from then (we are now talking about this December), Josh and I go out to get coffee with Ally Tucker (my maid of honor) and she starts to talk to us about how she applied for an internship at this cool place called "The Hard Places Community (HPC)" in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. What?! Yes, this is crazy that she applied to go to the same city I've wanted to go to for years AND work with victims of sex trafficking. Gosh, God is legit! During that conversation there was just something deep down saying, "this is right, this is good, you need to look further into doing this...". So that night Josh and I started talking and really considered going overseas this summer to do missions. The only reason this worked out is because we had recently just decided for Josh to wait a year before going to grad school. All of the sudden we had an entire summer to use however we would like. We had no obligations of school, mortgage, rent, jobs, etc. We spent that evening exploring The HPC website (hardplaces-community.org) and loved everything God was doing through this organization. In one of their videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3_qHMHoq-k) a Cambodian man talks about his involvement with HPC and says "I feel like this is my passion, this is my calling. I used to be a hopeless person, but God transformed me and God gave me new life so I can help other people, help the kids to have a new life as well." Josh and I loved this man's testimony, his story. It was so simple, yet so full of truth: he was once a hopeless person and through Jesus Christ, God gave him a new hope. It summed up exactly why we want to go to Cambodia: to bring hope to a hopeless people because that is exactly what God did for us (Hence, the title of our blog). After much prayer and thought, we decided that this is where God was calling us to go this summer. So we applied, and God faithfully got us in! We are so EXCITED for this opportunity. I smile every time I think about it, which is pretty frequent, so I've been smiling a whole lot more! Thanks again for all of your support, prayers, and encouragement. Josh and I will not be able to do this trip without you!
-Gretchen
My freshman year of college I went on a fall trip to Peoria, IL for "The National Missionary Convention (NMC)" (Now called "The International Conference on Missions") with Campus Christian Fellowship (CCF). My friend Kait Hall and I went to a break-out session about sex trafficking that was being put on by Rapha House (if you haven't heard of them, you should definitely check out their website: http://www.raphahouse.org/). Rapha House's mission is "to love, rescue, and heal children who have been rescued from trafficking and sexual exploitation." They have a safe house and a half-way house in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. And yes, that is the same city where we will be going this summer. That break out session was the first time I had ever really heard about sex trafficking/exploitation and I was completely shocked and overwhelmed. I remember walking through the streets of downtown Peoria that night in a complete daze. How could I have gone my whole life and had never heard about the millions of children around the world, in our own country, who were sex slaves? God completely melted my heart for these victims, I knew I had to do something, I could not continue living my life in ignorance to this injustice going on in the world. God did not call me to sit around and do nothing, in Proverbs He calls us to "speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; [to] ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes [to] speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice."
After this conference, my life at college started to become a battle. My original desire to become a Speech Language Pathologist seemed so insignificant to this new desire to rescue and bring hope children who are sexually trafficked/exploited. Somehow teaching children to stop saying "wabbit" didn't compare to the fact that there were children out there being raped for a profit. I'm not trying to say the work of SLP's is insignificant, obviously I do love the work they do because it is my major, but God had directed my heart towards a different calling. I can't even tell you how many times I wanted to drop out of college. I knew getting a degree was important, but I felt like I was wasting precious time that I could be using to do something meaningful, something life giving. As hard as it was to stay, I knew God put me at Truman to finish my degree, so here I am today 10 weeks till the finish life.
Since Freshman year, I have wanted to go to Cambodia because it was in through that country that I first heard about this problem. I had checked multiple times for different summer trips through Rapha House, but the timing never seemed to work out. Kait, my friend who went to the NMC with me, actually went to Phnom Pehn with Rapha House after her Freshman year. I saw the ways God had used that trip to completely changer her life. I will never forget something she said about her time there. "These kids who have been sexually exploited are so broken, so lost, and so hurt that no amount of therapy, counseling, doctors, or training could ever bring healing to these kids.The only thing that could heal them is something supernatural, it can only be God." This has really stuck with me since because as much as I want to help these kids find hope and to show them love, it is only through the power of God that these kids can be healed.
So here I was, having a great burden for these girls and feeling like I could do nothing about it while I was waiting on finishing my degree. I had thought about doing missions after I graduated, but once Josh and I started talking about getting married, I knew I would probably have to give up that dream. Josh wanted to go to grad school and we would probably try to start a family after that. Then last semester, God started to put on Josh's heart to wait a year before starting grad school. Initially I didn't want to him to wait, I'd rather him start as early as possible so he could finish as early as possible. At this point I hadn't even thought about doing missions because I let that go once we decided to get married. But God, being God, and being quite awesome knew more than I did at that point in time! Fast forward a few months from then (we are now talking about this December), Josh and I go out to get coffee with Ally Tucker (my maid of honor) and she starts to talk to us about how she applied for an internship at this cool place called "The Hard Places Community (HPC)" in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. What?! Yes, this is crazy that she applied to go to the same city I've wanted to go to for years AND work with victims of sex trafficking. Gosh, God is legit! During that conversation there was just something deep down saying, "this is right, this is good, you need to look further into doing this...". So that night Josh and I started talking and really considered going overseas this summer to do missions. The only reason this worked out is because we had recently just decided for Josh to wait a year before going to grad school. All of the sudden we had an entire summer to use however we would like. We had no obligations of school, mortgage, rent, jobs, etc. We spent that evening exploring The HPC website (hardplaces-community.org) and loved everything God was doing through this organization. In one of their videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3_qHMHoq-k) a Cambodian man talks about his involvement with HPC and says "I feel like this is my passion, this is my calling. I used to be a hopeless person, but God transformed me and God gave me new life so I can help other people, help the kids to have a new life as well." Josh and I loved this man's testimony, his story. It was so simple, yet so full of truth: he was once a hopeless person and through Jesus Christ, God gave him a new hope. It summed up exactly why we want to go to Cambodia: to bring hope to a hopeless people because that is exactly what God did for us (Hence, the title of our blog). After much prayer and thought, we decided that this is where God was calling us to go this summer. So we applied, and God faithfully got us in! We are so EXCITED for this opportunity. I smile every time I think about it, which is pretty frequent, so I've been smiling a whole lot more! Thanks again for all of your support, prayers, and encouragement. Josh and I will not be able to do this trip without you!
-Gretchen
Beautiful Gretchen! You make your mother proud!
ReplyDeleteIt was so wonderful to meet you Sunday and I absolutely loved reading your testimony. You are in our prayers! May God bless you and your time there.
ReplyDelete