I am having a much better month in
Cambodia. We are living in a place called House of Love (aka the Tree
House). We call it the tree house because when you go upstairs where
we live…it feels a lot like a tree house. We sleep in our tents!
Cambodians really like to crank up their tunes and pump a jam at
around 5:30am. So we usually wake up around 5:30am 🙂 Along with my
fellow tenting teammates, I live with a few tokie geckos. If you have
time…google them. They are huge…almost the size of my forearm. No
joke. And they make the most ridiculous sounds all through the night.
I believe there is one living in two of the corners of our tree house
and they talk to each other all night. Theory is: they are doing
their mating calls but neither one of them is bold enough to go over
to the other one and get the job done. So for now, we have to put up
with the flirting. I really should name them Jim and Pam. They are
extremely aggressive so naturally Kirsten is trying to catch it.
For ministry this month we are teaching
English in a few schools. In the morning we teach 3 classes. Then
there is a class at the House of Love and 2 in the evening at a
nearby school. English is a difficult language to teach, especially
since I’m not a teacher. BUT, Kaka Amosi (brother Amos in Tanzania)
you were right when you prophesied about me being a teacher and
working with lots of little kids. One of my classes I have little
little ones. They are soooooooooo cute!! One of my classes I teach
with elementary- middle school agers. They are lots of fun to play
games with and I see them all the time since they are part of the
House of Love community. Two of my classes are with teenagers. We
work on pronunciation with them. Basically the language spoken in
Cambodia and English are really tough to mesh. There are sounds that
they have extreme difficulty saying- like th, sh, ch words, because
they do not have those sounds. I related to them very quickly when a
group of them started teaching me their language. Without a doubt-
hardest language so far on the race. There are some sounds that I
just can’t make.
I’m loving working with the kids. I’m
loving playing volleyball with them during free time. I’m loving
teaching them and having them teach me as well. Teaching builds
relationship. I really feel like we get to spend quality time
together when we are teaching each other, and really get to build
relationships.
This month is a month to recover joy.
Last month I completely lost my joy and my patience. The first night
we got here was New Years- so they put on a performance for us. They
did traditional Cambodian dance and the Hosanna team performed the
Lifehouse song Everything skit. (link below to video of original Lifehouse skit)
We also worshipped and just got crazy
with the kids jumping during worship. It was incredible. The next
night- dance party with all of the youth, which is the majority of
the church. It was a blast dancing with all of the kids, and they
taught us traditional Cambodian dancing!!
There is such an overwhelming sense of
joy with these kids and it is exactly what I need to get me back up
and going after last month. I’m hoping to suck up as much joy as
possible here to refuel me for the rest of the Race.
Praise the Lord!!
