The Beauty of Knowing Him
To my Beloved Supporters, Family & Friends,
Today officially marks 3 months since arriving in this special land of wonder. A quarter of a year! I can’t even begin to describe and list to you all the ways God has been stretching me, challenging me and humbling me; all the while helping me to experience His powerful presence and faithfulness like never before.
I officially took over all principal duties at AIM’s school in Svay Pak at the beginning of the month after a few weeks of shadowing and learning. I have the honor of supervising and leading about 25 teachers, teachers in training and aides that teach Kindergarten-5th grade. It is my constant prayer that the Lord would continue to pour wisdom, discernment, His love and grace down upon me so that I can share the overflow with all of the staff I am serving and who I’m responsible for at school. Each new day can bring challenges that are hard to face: culturally, emotionally, professionally and relationally, but absolutely nothing that His new mercies cannot powerfully bear.
We celebrated our first official day of the new school year last week on October 14th, re-opening our doors to all our students from the community after having a brief break when summer school finished for in-service and training for our teachers. Seeing all the adorable bright smiles pour into classrooms where Jesus’ love is being demonstrated and taught through our staff each day is a beautiful blessing. Please pray for our students; as many of them come from such hardship: poverty, broken families, abuse and pain. Pray that they would come to know Jesus as their unconditional loving Savior, and that this time in our school would bring them healing, would provide them a good education and open up new opportunities for their futures. Please especially pray for a few of our students who did not return to school last week due to difficult family situations. Pray that God would bring others who will love and care for them into their sphere of influence, and a hedge of protection around them from evil.
Last month I was really finding myself struggling. Amidst my transition to a very new culture, job, language, way of life, and missing Seoul immensely; my eyes had turned away from the ultimate goal of knowing Him better and how He desires to use me here. They unfortunately had turned and were faced toward myself. God gifted me with a few days to leave Cambodia during a national holiday, and there couldn’t have been anything better for my soul. He used those days away to remind me that there is no power in my effort or striving, but only in the knowledge of Him. There is no beauty we can display to others on our own, but only in dwelling with Him. Eugene Peterson wrote, “the prayers of many biblical writers were not prayed by people trying to understand themselves. They are not the record of people searching for the meaning of life. They were prayed by people who understood that God- not their feelings- was the center. Human experiences might provoke the prayers, but they do not condition them.” My prayers had fallen into a completely self-driven state as I took in all the new-ness around me. I was starting to become captive to my own selfishness. I was starting to serve out of my own personal need instead of out of the overflow of my relationship with Him. I had lost sight of Psalm 27:4, "One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple." Though a painful lesson, I am thankful that He continues to uproot these thorns within me so that I can better serve Him from an overflow of desiring to know His beautiful Spirit more, and not of myself.
Phil. 3:10 “That I may KNOW Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.”
Psalm 90:17 “May the beauty of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us- yes, establish the work of our hands.”
It is my prayer that I can increasingly be a living and visible portrait of the beauty of God to those around me here in Cambo. I’m so thankful for each of you and your partnership with me on this journey to bring more of His kingdom to the ends of the earth. Please email me and let me know how I can best pray for you as well.
Love and miss you all,
Shauna~