The Day Family Blog

There is a little shop here in Phnom Penh ’s touristy Russian Market that sells these beautiful embroidered banners. The labyrinth of stalls in this market, which we unashamedly frequent, is often very repetitive. A whole row of jewelers; there are your North Face backpacks, there’s your Cambodian-tourist parachute pants… the items go on and on. This one stall in particular is a one of a kind. It is backed by a local Christian NGO and helps at-risk women with employment by teaching them the trade of screen printing. The result is these beautiful banners they sell which display scriptures from the Bible. Gretchen and I put our order in a couple weeks ago for a customized banner. We wanted to get the first verse from a passage of scripture in the book of Romans which memorializes many of our experiences here. Romans 8:18 is the verse on our banner. The text speaks the promise God gives us for persevering through the pains of the present world. It urges us to consider the present ...

We have been here for two months and we have one more month to go. Lately I've been feeling emotionally drained.  There is so much suffering, pain, and brokenness here that we encounter everyday. One of the little girls this week told us she has been raped, luckily we already know about her story and our staff at Hard Places has been working hard to get her into a safe home. I saw a man beating his 3 year old child with a stick and there was nothing I could do about it. We consistently see older men (40s-60s) with younger Khmer girls (12-20s) at restaurants we eat at, we all know what is going on there. " For my thoughts are not your thoughts,      neither are your ways my ways, declares the  Lord . 9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth,      so are my ways higher than your ways      and my thoughts than your thoughts." -Isaiah 55:8-9 This verse has been an incredible comfort ...