Our team with Roger, Deb, and company
I often tell people in jest that my greatest spiritual gift is long-windedness. Maybe it’s the hour-long sermons…or talking so long in the car with friends that the windows steam up… or the late-night spiritual talks accompanied by Taco Bell!
In any event, writing concisely is no easy task for me! Nonetheless, in what follows I will try to condense a month’s worth of life-changing experiences into a single blog! Here goes:
Best Experiences
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Serving Christ amidst an unreached people group; 90+ percent are Buddhist
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Building relationships with incredible disciples of Jesus Christ—Roger and Deb (the Filipino missionaries); Yi, Bunna, and Sophorn (interns and translators in their 20’s); Sri, Hok, and Veasna (teenage believers who live with the missionaries)
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Learning about Cambodian way-of-life and becoming a full-time student of culture
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Long talks with Roger and Bunna about Scripture, Buddhism, and Cambodian culture
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Preaching cross-culturally for the first time
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Learning how to live in Christian community with our amazing team
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Leading Bible studies on evangelism with new believers
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Learning about what fatherhood is like in Cambodia, seeing that biblical truths about fatherhood and intergenerational sin are equally applicable here, and then leading Bible studies on Malachi 4:5-6
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Attending a multi-national English-speaking church in Siem Reap
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Taking in the breathtaking temples in Siem Reap—including Angkor Wat, the largest manmade religious structure in the world—and praying for Cambodian revival
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Conversing with and sharing the Gospel with Niet—a one-time Buddhist monk
- Debby’s amazing cooking (see photo below)
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Weekends in Siem Reap with the team
New Experiences
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Regularly praying “Asian Style” (everyone prays aloud fervently all at once)
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Eating “balut”—18-day old duck embryo in its egg (look it up!)
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Eating fried frog (not too bad, kind of salty)
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Eating rice every meal (what did I ever do without it?)
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Cracking open and shaving a coconut, and then eating practically every part of it
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Shaving with a razor blade and cutting myself like a teenage boy (I normally shave with an electric shaver)
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Waking up at 5:30 or 6:00 every morning
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Running 3.2 miles
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Living in constant Christian community
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Roosters crowing at 2 A.M.
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Man-eating ants, scorpions, and centipedes
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Preaching through a translator to believers from a completely different culture
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Teaching English to those for whom it is not a first language (see picture below)
Funny Experiences
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Being called “Momma Beej” because I am the hand sanitizer dispenser at every meal
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Marin feeling ill and going to a medical facility called “Da Hospital” (think: “Da Bears”)
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Listening to my teammates’ most embarrassing stories
As I post this blog I am sitting in a hostel in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We arrived here yesterday after two bus rides and approximately 20 hours of transportation! For the next five days, Lord willing, we will be “debriefing”—reflecting on the past month, and gearing up for the next month in Thailand. This month, the entire squad of 39 will be serving alongside Emmi, a Thai believer, who manages a business called Zion Café. Some of us will be ministering in the slums, others of us will build relationships in the bars of Chiang Mai, and still others will try to befriend and strike up conversations with monks in cafés.
In the next few days I hope to post some more blogs. I have been learning fascinating things about Buddhism, Asian culture, and how Scripture speaks to them. God is good!
