My squad has spent the past four days relaxing and debriefing at a hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It has been a time filled with rest, worship, enjoying air-conditioning for the first time in four months, and sightseeing. A few of us girls got up at 4:00 a.m. today to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. The temple is either the 7th or 8th wonder of the world, depending on the list. My friend Kathryn said it best, man may have made temples, but God made sunrises.
The past few days have also been an opportunity for me to process my last month in Thailand. If you haven’t been able to tell from my blogs so far, Thailand was hands down my favorite country, although I already get the feeling Cambodia will give it a run for it’s money.
Lessons learned in Thailand….
- I love Thai food. Pad thai, cashew chicken, mango sticky rice, smoothies, rotee, fried rice, coconut water, meat on a stick, spring rolls, crazy fruits. I love it all. It was such a blessing this month to be able to choose what we ate and when we ate it, something I had certainly missed the first three months of the race.
- I don’t handle the heat well. Thailand was HOT. Over 100 degrees most days. I felt tired constantly because of the extreme heat and humidity.
- The Lord has unexpectedly given me a heart for human trafficking victims. I like the way the film Nefarious defines sex trafficking as the exploitation of vulnerability. Sex trafficking is the fastest growing industry in the world. My heart broke for the women I met and I know that this is not the end of my work fighting human trafficking.
- Our world has taken what was supposed to be a beautiful gift from God, and turned into it something so sick and twisted. Imagine how many of the world’s problems could be erased if we just followed God’s formula for sex? No more prostitution, no more AIDS, no more trafficking children, no more abortions, no more affairs and broken marriages.
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Real men don’t buy girls. I realized this month how blessed I am to be surrounded by such strong men in my life. I am thankful for my Dad and for Caleb and for all the other male role models in my life who have set such a good example of what it means to be a man of God.
- I never could have imagined how much I would love being on an all women’s team.
- I will be back to Thailand. Not sure how or when or why, but I promise you, I’ll be back.
- Spiritual warfare is real. There was a lot of darkness and evil in that place and we were fighting a spiritual battle that could only be won in prayer.
- This month was a preview for what re-entry will be like. We had beds and hot showers (although I rarely took one) and McDonalds and Wifi and plenty of distractions to keep us busy. And it was hard to prioritize time with the Lord. I easily filled my free time with elephant riding and shopping and Skyping or Facebooking. And oftentimes I slacked in spending time with the Lord. It was a wakeup call for when I finish the race.
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I’m not as adventurous as I once thought. I am with some CRAZY fun people. My teammates have eaten bugs, jumped off high cliffs into way too shallow water and gotten spur of the moment tattoos and piercings. I did go with them into a tiger's cage though.
- Everyone deserves love. Even dirty old men in bars buying girls. The Lord showed me a lot about grace this month.
- And my biggest lesson this month was that my family is everything to me. It has been tough not being able to be by their side this past week but the Lord has proven that He is so faithful and that He truly does answer prayers. Thank you Jesus! I love you Dad!
