Who Walks Beside Me?

         People may plan all kinds of things, but the Lord's will is going to be done. (Proverbs 19:21, Good News Translation)

I know I’ve written about this before, but now that I have finally returned from my dream trip to Cambodia, I felt I had to share this one more time.

I first learned about the temples at Angkor Wat when I was in sixth grade—fifty years ago. I was mesmerized, and though the dream wasn’t always at the forefront of my mind, I knew that someday I had to go there.

Flash forward to January of 2020. On a whim, I googled volunteer trips to Cambodia and came across the cultural immersion trip for grown-ups over age 50 with Projects Abroad. I sent the information to my friend Denise, and it didn’t take her long to get back to me with a big smiley face. She was game, and after a little more research, we signed up.

Then COVID-19 hit, and we had to cancel.

The fall of 2021 held potential, but the pandemic was still causing enough uncertainty and inconvenience, so we canceled the trip a second time.

The following year, COVID-19 had abated enough that it was safe to travel, but my daughter wanted to return to Kenya, so Denise and I joined her.

It looked like 2023 would finally be my year until my back went out in April, and the rest of my body fell apart after that. We canceled just weeks before our intended departure.

Ahh, 2024! Fourth time is apparently the charm.

I had been thinking that God simply didn’t want me to go to Cambodia. And I get that—this wasn’t going to be a volunteer trip, mostly just a vacation to an almost entirely Buddhist country. There would be no Sunday morning Christian church service and certainly no sharing of the Gospel (not that God has blessed me with that gift!).

Would my fascination with all the Buddhist and Hindu temples lead me spiritually astray?

The answer is that no, it did not. Quite the opposite. This fantastic trip reminded me that I serve an amazing God who will never leave me or forsake me. For some reason, God wanted me to complete my dream trip this year and not any other.

And as you will see as I continue blogging about this trip, He walked beside me every day.

And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8, New King James Version)