Oh my gosh, you may have thought I fell off the face of the earth this past week. It kind of feels like it since traveling from Chaiyaphum to Bangkok, Thailand then from there to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and finally to middle-of-nowhere Cambodia. Seriously, I don’t even know the name of this place, it’s like a six word sentence. It’s like one of those places where you think you’re dreaming until you realize that this is in fact real life.
Anyways, I don’t know too much about the Bermuda Triangle aside from the fact that it’s somewhere in the water that swallows up ships … well basically we are in somewhere, Cambodia and it has swallowed us up. This month Team TUFF is paired with Team Awakened by Choice, so that makes 14 of us here. This is definitely what I expected for The World Race to look like in Africa, but as I joke with my new teammates, “This was NOT my Africa!”
This month has been rough so far. It’s a short month, we only have two weeks left … we arrived in Phnom Penh on Sunday after a 17 hour travel day with bus rides, border crossings, and waits. We were blessed with a hotel room for the night (oh how we didn’t realize how much of a blessing that was at the time), then Monday morning we loaded 14 people and 14 massive packs and day packs and a guitar in one 15 passenger van to travel a couple hours outside the city to our humble abode.
Let me just give you a glimpse of some of my raw and real uncensored thoughts on where we’re at this month, written on the first day:
“I don’t even know where we’re at in Cambodia. It’s hot. We’re sprawled out on the floor of this relatively large room – there’s not really much airflow. It’s kind of like a sauna. Hold on, let me redefine “relatively large,” basically you can still see the floor with ten girls and their crap. Our four men are in a side room (well Drew isn’t here yet, but he will be after the fight with Chinese visas) without a door connected to our large room [update: the side room breeds mosquitos so we now have tents set up in the back room and in the front yard]. The flies and mosquitos are insane. There’s a cow eating grass RIGHT outside the door, like we could stand inside, reach out, and touch it. I can’t even make this up. I am sweating through my clothes. We have NO electricity and NO running water. We have a squatty potty that is a little bit of a hike from where we sleep and a “pool” of water for flushing and showering. I foresee a lot of sitting and chatting for entertainment because our electronics will probably be dead a lot. We may get a generator to get some electricity, but no promises [update: after several days of being broken, the generator has been able to cut on in intervals but sharing with 14 people with one 3 prong plug in means … you plug in if you get lucky! Luckily several people have 2 prong plugs, wish I did! Hint Hint: future racers who plan on buying electronics for the Race]. It’s the cool season here – second coldest month of the year and it’s the dry season [though it did pour that first night], ahhh! We are even more in the middle of nowhere this month … this is going to be rough.”
Oh, and … left my pillow in Thailand … perfect! Hello balled up clothing pillow!
Yep, so that’s life in the Bermuda Triangle of Asia … we have three main ministries this month:
1. Playing soccer in the morning at the school
2. Teaching English classes to kids and some adults at the “coffee shop” (the place where we eat our meals and the contact’s family owns and it has a TV and coffee for the locals to buy while they hang out)
3. Gardening at the orphanage and playing with the kids after school
Physically this is a hard month. Emotionally this is a taxing month. Spiritually though … me and Jesus are getting real close as I continue going through the Old Testament. It’s kind of cool how God works. He brings us to our weakest point so we can see Him the most clearly.
With that being said, I am seriously in need of seeing Jesus so much more this month, especially because we have our final support deadline coming up on FEBRUARY 1ST [11 DAYS!]… I have barely any internet access and nothing to do but pray this month that God brings in the last $3,242.38 to keep me on the field. I NEED YOUR HELP more than ever right now! Communication is limited this month, but I can’t continue and will be flying back to America in 2 weeks if the money doesn’t come in. This month is hard. This Race is hard. But I have been called to ELEVEN MONTHS and ELEVEN COUNTRIES … I have more places still to serve. Through all the trials and struggles and hard days, there is purpose … all of this … the good, the bad, the ugly … it’s all worth it. I’m fighting for this, would you fight for me too?
Please help keep me on the field.
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