Here are a few words to describe this past month:
Bus, Soccer, Pop Collar, Girls, Tired, Well Rested, God Speaking to Me, Facetime, Future, Cambodian Friends, Thanksgiving, Angkor Wat, South Africa.
Took a bus from Bangkok, Thailand to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 18 hour bus ride. Stayed at a hotel for a few nights. Went to play soccer with a group of people on my squad against some locals at a small indoor field. We were surprisingly good. Found out that everyone’s teams were changing. My team (Team Pop Collar) now consists of Rye, Maddux, Christie, Kayla, Sydney, and myself. New team is awesome. We are very relaxed around each other. Took a van to our orphanage in Kampong Cham. We are here with another team (Team Silver Linings). They are an all-girls team. That means my living situation is 3 guys and 10 girls. Shoot. The orphanage has been extremely refreshing. I have never really played with kids before ever in my life. I didn’t want to play with kids here. There are 36 of them. They wear me out. I was absolutely exhausted after the first few days. I got sick on our first day off. Then I realized that kids aren’t that bad. They are actually really fun. Now I enjoy playing with kids. They are funny. I quickly realized that I would need to take time for myself in order to be able to play with these kids and not hate myself while doing it. The result of this was me spending a fair amount of time thinking, praying, listening to music (Julien Baker – “Sprained Ankle”), reading the Bible, and reading a few other books as well. This rejuvenated me and gave me the strength to spend time with the kids and enjoy it. God has revealed a ton to me in the time I have been spending with Him. He is telling me that he knows me. That he really knows me. He knows my joys and passions, but more importantly, he knows how to use those things for His glory. That following him does not mean forgetting about anything and everything I enjoy. “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” 1 Timothy 4: 4. It is a matter of trusting God when He tells you to let go of something. Knowing these things has made me so thankful for what God has blessed me with and it pumps me up. Back to my choppy sentence structure. I have wifi here. I get to facetime my friends and family. It is super fun to catch up with everyone back home. If you want to facetime then shoot me a facebook message. God has showed me big things about what he wants from me in the future and I am pumped. Austin and I have some big plans for the future too. He is a cool guy. Here at the orphanage I have become pretty good friends with Pi Yo and Piarrum. Pi Yo is 22 years old, on staff at the orphanage, and was the first orphan that this place received. Piarrum is 18 and will be leaving the orphanage soon to attend a trade school in Phnom Penh. He has been here for 8 years I think. Both of them speak pretty good English. Really funny guys. For Thanksgiving, we took a van into town and ate pancakes at an American style coffee shop. I got two orders of pancakes, a chocolate peanut shake, a chocolate chip cookie, and a burrito. What a treat! I leave the orphanage on December 1st to meet up with my squad in Siem Reap. We will go to Angkor Wat. It is an unspeakably massive temple. Bus back to Bangkok on the 5th. Fly to South Africa. My team will be in Muizenberg, a suburb of Cape Town. We are a few minutes from the beach. We will be working with New Chapter Foundation. New Chapter has an after school program that helps struggling students with school work. New Chapter also helps develop careers for people who are lacking a sense of direction in their lives. In order to give these people a sense of direction, we will be pointing them towards Christ. My team is paired with two other teams. Both of those teams have other guys on them. Soon it will be 9 guys and 9 girls. Nice. I am super pumped. I can’t wait to speak English to locals. I can’t wait to have access to grocery stores.
Jack Sentz
