My plane touched down in Phnom Penh. I went through the airport with my new Khmer friend I had met on the plane. I then grabbed my luggage and headed outside. I parted ways with my new friend after meeting her family and then hopped in the tuk-tuk that awaited my arrival. It was my first time in Cambodia and I mentally prepared myself. I had done research and watched different videos regarding Cambodia. I knew, at least in my mind, what I was coming into. What I didn’t realize was how beautiful I would find it.

As I rode in the tuk-tuk to meet Andrea at the XP Missions Center, it was like I was seeing a before and after. There was so much light! It was like the Lord was showing me the impact in the spirit that our ministry and others have made in Cambodia. I just kept thinking how beautiful, amazing and light it was. I already knew this would be an amazing and different time for me.

I was in Cambodia for three weeks. I was in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Poipet, and Sihanoukville during that time. Each place we went to, I was in awe of the beauty of this country and the people. When we went to the slums of Phnom Penh we got to see salvations, healings, and sweet young pregnant moms wanting us to pray over their children still in the womb. In the dump at Siem Reap I saw a treasure trove of beautiful, precious people. In Poipet, children holding our hands and helping us out of the mud. In Sihanoukville the natural beauty of the land but also people we met there. In each place, I also witnessed the love, kindness, and strength of the team that was there for Operation Pray Strike.

I came prepared for all the hard and heavy facts of a nation that has been through a genocide. Instead, I was simply met with beauty. I know I’ve repeated that word now multiple times but I have no other way to describe it. It was the declaration I made everywhere I went while in Cambodia. Looking back though, I realize that in the natural it might not have looked all that beautiful. It might’ve looked like a country still very much on the mend and troubled from genocide.

However, I believe the Lord was giving me eyes to see and to call things into being. I believe that is something He is wanting to instill into every single one of us at this time. To be able to see what is not and call it forth. It’s time to shift our perspectives and align ourselves with the mind of Christ which has been given to us. Could you imagine if we united and called out the good, the beauty in what others only saw bad in? To see a country that has been through so much bad, but also see the good in it?

So let’s call forth what we might not currently see with our natural eyes. I know so many have been sowing their prayers into this nation. Let’s continue to call forth the beauty in Cambodia. It’s working. I saw it.

Written by: Liz Livingston

Published on: 10/13/2017