Remember my last blog Miserary or Missionary. At one point I said some of us are called to rough it more then others… Well I got the month of roughing it more then others!
Let me introduce you to Kampong Spue. Goggle maps described it as “off the beaten path for the more adventurous traveler.” Given that description, our expectations were LOW coming. We figured no electricity, no Internet, no nothing. But we were pleasantly surprised by the 4 fans we found in our small cement home. Granted they do not change the fact that it’s blazin hot, but they are welcomed nonetheless.
We share our home with a rat (who made his next up in the rafters), a number of cool spotted lizards, a billion ants that get into everything, and of course the mosquitoes. I’ve moved outside to my tent, both for the cooler night air, and a more reliable mosquito net. And it’s so beautiful! I love watching the amazing sunsets and falling asleep gazing up at the stars. I’m enjoying my time with God before bed, talking to Him and worshiping Him as I marvel at His handiwork.
We have no running water or bathroom in our home; those modern conveniences are located across the street. My first experience using said conveniences left me with numerous mosquito bites in unmentionable places. I was an easy target to the 20 some misquotes hovering in and around our squatty potty. I have since bought one of them bug zappers and am determined to lower the mosquito population in this area.
Showering this month will involve scooping water out of a big cement tub and dumping it over our heads. Or, going for a swim in the nearby rice patty bog.
Praying before meals has taken on a whole new meaning to me.
Let me just say that basically everything we eat is questionable.
The eggs sit outside in the heat before being cooked – and 8 out of 10 of them are already cracked.
There is no refrigerator for anything.
The rice is scooped up off the floor where the chickens have been walking all over it.
The dishes are washed in the same pots the freshly killed chicken was just plucked in.
Flies cover everything the second you set it out in the air.
The ice we use is the kind that our ministry contact warned us to stay away from.
And the thing that almost put me over the edge was mosquito larva swimming in our drinking water. This discovery was made after half my water bottle was already downed. And with the heat of our location water is a constant necessity, sooo larva and all the water must go down!
With this knowledge, I REALY do pray that God bless this food to our bodies!
Our dishwashing center
The Kitchen
Originally I was so excited to find out that we had the most primitive location on the squad. I had been waiting for a month like this! But now, after a week of living in the heat and bug bites, the glamour has worn off a bit. Sometimes you just gotta laugh. Like the other day:
It’s the afternoon; we’re in our home for feedback. Kaitlyn is sprawled out on the ground sick as a dog, Lauren is covered in ant bites that look horrid (she’s allergic to them), the rest of us are sweating like hogs and trying to get as much of the fan’s breeze as we can… AND then the power goes out. There’s a few seconds of silence, and then I start to laugh. Everyone else joins in as I say, “This is our life”. We’ve dubbed this “the month of laughs”. 🙂
Our ministry includes playing soccer, going for prayer walks, teaching English class, teaching more English class, doing individual English lessons with students, and teaching a Bible study at night.
The first day on our prayer walk we stopped by the home of a man we called Leelo. After talking to him for a while I asked him if he was a Buddhist. He said yes. I then asked him if he knew what Christianity was. He said no not really. He’s heard the name before but doesn’t know what it’s all about. My team and I were more then happy to explain the Bible to him… from Adam to Heaven. Leelo had many questions along the way and was really interested and wanting to grasp it. He kept thanking us for sharing with him.
Pray for Leelo, he was really open to the gospel!
