“Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.” (1 Samuel 12: 24)

I had only heard stories about STSM, the experiences in which people were moved, and the grand ways God had been moving in the countries, but I had never gone myself so I didn’t understand the extent to which it was being talked about. To learn more about each country and the urgency of missions, I attended Kingdom Come to hear about the STSM missions experience a little more in detail and that event provided me lots of information about each individual country and more of the logistics. However, it was during the presentation times that I realized once again that everyone is called to missions. However, it didn’t process in my head that I was also part of that everyone and tried to brush this feeling off. That same night, having come back from Kingdom Come, I could feel a subtle yet prominent tugging at my heart from God saying “I’ve given you this chance and it’s up to you whether you take it or not.” One could say it was impulsive and I was truly just driven by the heat of the moment, but I took it as a sign from God to go. 

Through this entire experience, I learned a lot about both myself and God, but I would like to highlight these things: Fear of God and dedicating life to glorify Him.

Fear of God was a large theme in our team devotionals which was based on 1 Samuel. We as a team had gone through the entire book and almost every morning, we would dissect the truth together. The introduction to this theme led to a mindset of fearing the Lord on the missions field. I would constantly think to myself, “God, how are you going to use me? How will you speak to me today? In what great ways will you move the people of this nation?” By keeping these thoughts constant, God called me to place Him at the center and truly let Him take control of how the days would flow. No matter how repetitive ministry got, how tired how bodies grew, or how absent He felt, the fear of God kept me in place to trust that He moves in mighty ways. 

Dedicating life to glorify Him in all ways is something that I got first hand experience of and I was truly so blessed. In doing ministry with ITCS seminary students, I was able to see how these brothers and sisters are able to dedicate their entire lives to evangelizing and spreading the Gospel in this broken nation. Cambodia is only 3% Christian, but through these students who had surrendered their lives to the Lord, God has given them power and strength to save the lost souls. Also, in seeing how Missionary Stanley at Tim school lives his day to day life looking at the Lord was another example of how a life should be lived to Glorify His name. It brought to light once again that Jesus did not come in vain, but that his people are so faithful in trusting him.

In learning about these things, I was reminded once again the power of bold prayers and being rooted in the word. Our team really emphasized prayer during this trip and tried our best to keep this habit. On coming back home, I was so encouraged by our team while doing devos even while in the states and I could only pray that these habits and the rhythm that was built in Cambodia would be brought back home. Not only praying about it, but also living it out back at home was something that God really pressed on my heart.