So this month in Cambodia has been very different compared to our other months on the Race. Actually both Thailand and Cambodia have been different because we had a ton of down time on our hands.
To start it off, we bus into Cambodia from Thailand and arrive in the city of Siem Reap at about 8pm. Some of our teams stay there and the other half of us get on the coolest bus I have ever been on in my life! It was a sleeper bus, which means that it had actual beds that you could lie down on. After traveling all day and still having 6-8 more hours on the road, we were all ecstatic. We felt like we were a band on tour or something 😀 So, at about 2 in the morning we arrive in the capital, Phenom Phen, and to our hotel. As we walk to the checkin place I see two women sleeping on the ground behind the desk. I hated to have to wake them up in the middle of the night but we all needed rooms. A couple of “excuse me…hello”’s later, one girl woke up, saw me and rolled over again. But thankfully the other girl checked us in and we were set to go.
All of the other teams left in the morning to their different ministry sites but my team stayed put. You see, we hadn’t actually been able to get ahold of our ministry host yet. Usually the process is to email them several days or a week before we arrive and we communicate back and forth on where we need to go and how to get picked up and such. But alas, no such luck here. I emailed but never heard anything back. I emailed again once we got into the country but still no answer. I tried calling the number we had but it didn’t work. It was by far the weirdest beginning to any month on the Race that I had experienced. We laughed about the fact that it was a good thing that it happened to us who are month 11 racers instead of month 1 or newbies. They probably would have been absolutely freaking out, and with good reason. We on the other hand just kept trying to make contact but we were pretty content to be in a decent hotel with wifi for a couple of days. It more cracked us up at the absurdity of it all instead of worried us. But, finally our host did get in touch with us and apologized profusely for the lack of communication. She had had an accident with some stairs and fallen down them and hit her head and had a concussion. Needless to say she had been a little out of it for a few days…hence the days of our arrival. So, with that, we changed hotels to be closer to our ministry site (now that we knew where it was) and were able to begin the month. And yes, this month we actually lived at a hotel all month which was kinda fun and unusual. The housekeeping probably hated us though because we threw off their schedule all of the time due to our random comings and goings.
During our days before beginning ministry our host had us go to a place called The Killing Fields. For those of you who are ignorant, as we were before coming on the Race, there was a horrific genocide that took place here in the 70’s. Thousands and thousands of people were brutally murdered. Men, women and children. Guns were too expensive so they had to use other means. I wont even go into the details of how they were killed because it’s just too much. It makes me a bit sick to my stomach to even think about it. But to me, the worse part of all was that after the end of the genocide and when some form of balance again began to be seen in the country and government, a lot of the same governmental officials were allowed to stay in power and only in the last few years have those who are still living been brought to trial. The proceedings are actually still going on right now. Most of the men and women who were responsible for all those deaths got to live their life with very few repercussions. All of that to say, Cambodia is a hurting country that is still recovering from the aftermath of what so recently happened. The Killing Fields, where our host asked us to visit, is a historical site now but is where countless mass graves have been found in the years since its discovery. To this day they are still finding them and sometimes after the rain, remaining bone or teeth fragments can be found. It was a sobering visit, to be sure. But I’m so glad that we went at the beginning of our stay because it gave us so much better of an idea of where these people are and the mental, emotional and spiritual condition they are in. It gave me personally so much of a heart to pray for them.
This month our ministry was to work with an orphanage who was going through transition and trying to move houses. Our job was to pack everything up in the house the kids were in and box it up in preparation for moving. This got done relatively quickly however and so the rest of the time we just got to hang out and spend time with the kids. There were 11 of them in all, four of which were special needs. I’ll tell you what, all of those kids were so precious. Don’t get me wrong, they were a handful, but a beautiful handful. It took them a little while to warm up to us but after they did the real fun began. We got to go to some of their soccer practices, put lots of puzzles together, and play games and just talk. The jackpot of all discoveries however, was when we realized how much they loved to bake. I personally love to cook and bake as well and have missed it a ton on the Race so I was in my element now. The house actually had an oven, a very rare commodity in most of the countries we have lived in. It didn’t work very well, was almost impossible to light (it literally took two people working at it for several minutes) and tested my patience more than once…but hey, it was an oven, praise Jesus! So I got to teach one of the older girls how to bake an apple pie. As I’m writing this I’m seeing just how much of a God thing that really was. She had been wanting and asking for years to know how to bake a pie and then here I show up ready to make one for my teammate’s birthday one day and she gets to be apart of it and learn. She had a blast. It was so much fun to see her getting so excited about each part. Then the next day I got to get all of the kids involved and we made a cherry cheesecake (out of a box) that I thought tasted terrible because it was so stale but the kids loved. For our last day of ministry, we threw the kids an early Christmas party. We had the school room all decked out with Christmas decorations (both homemade snowflakes and paper garland and stuff they had already had) and Reliant K Christmas songs blaring as they came in. It was so much fun. We played musical chairs, told the Christmas story, decorated Christmas cookies and gave our presents. My favorite part of the night was seeing how generous these kids are. Almost every cookie that they decorated they would give to one of us to eat. I ate more than I possible should have but they were just so sweet and determined to bless us with them. (for those of you who know about my low sugar tolerance, you wont be surprised to know that I, more than once, had to make my way to the kitchen and find some salty chips to munch on in order to keep going haha). Then came the time to say goodbye. It was hard to see them leave and know that after all the work it took to get them to warm up to us, now we would probably never see any of them again. They were so cute as always though.
Cambodia has not been what I expected, but then again I didn’t really know what to expect. I have enjoyed my time here and enjoyed all of my downtime with my team. They have been a blessing from God and have helped refresh me and get me ready to come home. Now there is no more official ministry days on the Race. We’re about to be heading to Final Debrief for several days and then headed home. It’s crazy to think about but it’s also time. God’s grace has been on us while we have been away from home and His grace will be on us as we make our way back.
