Can’t believe it’s Christmas. Also can’t believe that I’m spending it in a place hotter than hades with a bunch o’ nut bags (including myself) on this world race gig. So cool to have two teams here- we’re singing Christmas Carols, eating Christmas spaghetti dinners, exchanging white elephant gifts, and somehow getting to see Home Alone in an air conditioned, all to ourselves movie theatre, thanks to some new friends we met here-thank you Steph, Meredith, Elise and friend.
I miss my family, my friends, coldness, snow, hot chocolate, Christmas lights, Christmas trees, and just comfort in general for a lot of reasons, but I will say that I’ve been blessed to get to be here now. God’s given me so many people in my life to help me in different seasons and it’s amazing how He’s provided a “family” for me here half way around the world for such a time as this. I’m thankful that God isn’t just in the U.S., but that He’s here too. That He’s enough for my family and friends at home who I miss more than mint chocolate chip brownies.
I’ve taught English now for the second month in a row, and I’ve realized more and more what a constant struggle it is to not make this whole race about me. It’s easy for me to be discouraged by the mundane- to feel useless and get bummed about not performing up to what I expect. It’s when I take a step back that I realize that this life I’m living is such a unique, insanely challenging, but awesome, experience that’s still growing, stretching, and shaping me, even in the monotonous. It’s not about me feeling like I’ve changed the world, but it’s about day by day decisions to be here while I’m here and give, serve, and love like I know how to do in hopes that obedience to what God asks will be blessed and more will be revealed to me- more about who I am, more about who God is.
I’ve been given so much to be here- crazy amounts of money (God bless ye everyone who supports me), unexplainable grace (I don’t deserve to still be used by God), and huge blessings (just extra stuff- it would be enough that God saved me from my pit, but He gives me life and life to the full… i.e.: hilarious stories like my teammate Sarah falling asleep in the class that she was supposed to be teaching this month and falling over from dead sleep leg in front of her students)
So, Merry Christmas from Cambodia- know that I’m thinking of you and thankful for you. The other team here made us stockings and I may, or may not, have spent way too much money on some candy canes I found, so I’m sound as a pound, and thankful that I’m here- that I have a long way to go still in more ways than I could explain-that I could retell my favorite Christmas story to Cambodian teens(my sister crushing our cat Spooky’s pelvis on Christmas Day)- and that we’re performing a candy cane God skit at church on Sunday(p.s.-learned that the inventor of the candy cane is from Indiana)
