This was my last week of ministry in Cambodia and I can’t express it in words how amazing it was…
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Last Sunday, my team and I got to finally experience church in Cambodia. For the first two Sundays we were here, we had our own team church at the school because traveling to the city gets expensive. I learned a lot through our team churches, but it was exciting to see Cambodian’s come together to worship God.
We were slightly late arriving and came in on the midst of worship, but that song was one that my whole team knew in English and being able to sing with them and worship God in two different languages was an experience that I am still in awe of. I will not tire of it and how truly amazing God is that, though we speak two different languages, we worship the same God and can do so together.
The sermon, which was on Hebrews 11:23-40, was given in Khmer and though I do not know what the Pastor said at all, it was great getting to read through the passage and meditate on it during that time. One thing I truly loved about this church in what they did is at the end of the sermon they took time to get into small groups of 3-5 people and discuss what was taught. To learn from each other and what God taught them through the sermon.
At this church was another missionary couple and their family. At the end of the service, we got to talk to them and that was so amazing. The couple is from America and were homeschooled themselves. They now are missionaries to the Cambodia people with their (now) eight children. They have been here for the last five years and live about 7 hours outside of Phnom Penh. Their oldest child is 12 years old and their youngest was born this last week.
Living with them is a young woman named Brooke. She is serving God by serving with this family and serving them in particular. She helps care for their children and is their (homeschool) teacher, providing them with an education equivalent to what they would receive in America. She has been with them for the last 19 months and is planning to continue with them for 5 more years. Her desire is that after the next five years she will return to the States and open up an organization that mobilizes people to do what she is doing now.
Meeting Brooke was a blessing. She grew up in Greenville, South Carolina and went to Bob Jones University from kindergarten all the way through college. Her brother was also born in Roanoke, Virginia. To meet someone who knows where you grew up and can relate to different areas on the other side of the world is something that was very surreal. I am still amazed at how God brings people together and just how small the world is.
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One of the shops my team has spent a good amount of time in is a touristy coffee shop called Costa Coffee. It offers free wifi and so while there on Monday doing the things that I needed to get done with wifi, two young women came into the coffee shop. When I saw them I immediately was like “they’re world racers” and they were! Jordyn and Rebekah are from B squad which launched this past January and are in their final month of their race. Again, I am amazed at how God works in bringing people together.
Rebekah is from Charlotte, North Carolina and we soon realized that though we have our own differences, we have a lot in common as well. Getting to hear a part of Rebekah’s story and to see how God has worked in her life these past eleven months was so encouraging. She has this gleam about her and Christ is so evident in her life and in how she lives. She taught me so much in the day that she got to spend with me and my team. One of which was just how important it is to show grace to yourself, but the other was her modeling vulnerability. She chose to be vulnerable with me and I cannot be more thankful for her for that. I am so excited to be able to continue our friendship.
Jordyn and Rebekah both got to share about their Race, what they’ve learned, what was hard, and a lot of advice for us as we continue our Race. They just got to Cambodia from Thailand and were actually in Chiang Mai at the ministry which is where my whole squad will be next month. Getting to hear about the ministry and gaining insight on what we are going into and the hardships of the people there was really needed and made me excited for what’s to come, but also given me the desire to continue where these girls left off.
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Traveling back to the school Monday evening was a long ride because there was so much traffic. My whole squad was extremely exhausted and just ready to be back. One thing I didn’t expect however was how quickly our home could get overtaken. As I headed into the room that I share with two of my teammates to set my stuff down, I caught a glimpse of something in the midst of my stuff. It was in fact a scorpion and yes, I did indeed scream. My stuff had been invaded by a poisonous creature (and the smaller they are the more poisonous). And, after getting a picture of it (yes that did happen), Elise killed it. We then went into a process of going through every single bit of our stuff, shaking it out and such, to check for any more scorpions or other creatures. Thankfully we did not find anything else in our room and were able to just sweep it clean.
My other teammates in their room had their own adventures. My team leader, Rebekah, found a orange frog living underneath her sleeping pad (and apparently he likes it there because he came back… and hopped into her backpack to come to Siem Reap with us – She found him on our night bus ride).
Though, at the time it wasn’t very funny, I have found it quite amusing since and couldn’t help but share it with you all.
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On Tuesday morning, as some of us (whose students didn’t show up for class) were working on decorating our last classroom, Pastor Chinho came by the school. He is our ministry contact in Cambodia and helped to start Shalom Mission Cambodia, as well as Shalom International School. It was great getting to see him. As I mentioned in my last blog, Cambodians love to bless and serve others and Pastor Chinho is no different. He brought with him a bag full of pastries and bread from a little french shop in the city, as well as cans of coke.
Getting to see Chinho and talk to him, however, was a different kind of blessing itself. He shared with us the history of Shalom Mission Cambodia and through that parts of his own story. He has such a strong and powerful testimony and his heart for these people is humbling to me. But through the history of Shalom, Chinho shared with us how it has grown and how the school came to be.
In the area where the school is there are a few Shalom church plants, and two years ago, Shalom was blessed with the land where the school is at for free. They do tell their community that this is a Christian school and, though parents have feared their children will be converted to Christianity, God has continued to bless the school and grown it. One of the draws to the school is the fact that they have foreigners come to teach every so often. This is a draw for more students because in a typical Cambodian school it would cost $1000 a month to have just one foreigner come to teach. One of God’s many blessings is just sending mission teams to the school and I am glad I could be a part of one such team.
Pastor Chinho also shared his vision for this school. Right now there is only one teacher who is a believer and in the next couple of months she will be given responsibility of becoming the school’s principle. Pastor Chinho wants to see all the teachers come to a saving faith, and then through them be able to share the Gospel to the students and children who attend. They will then be able to incorporate Bible lessons or a Bible study into their curriculum. Please be praying for this vision to come to pass and that God draws these teachers to Himself in order for that to happen.
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As I said in my last blog, my team has been decorating four classrooms for the school and this past week we finished the last of the classrooms. This was as much fun as it was challenging. We got to enjoy the company of the teachers and work with them in their ideas and vision for what they wanted their classrooms to look like. Below is just a few pictures of the finished classrooms.
Classroom 1:
In this classroom, we made the alphabet train, the days of the week (and months of the year on a separate wall), as well as the stars above the train and the chain that hangs from the ceiling.
Classroom 2:
This classroom was already really well decorated so we didn’t have to do much. One of the decorations we did, however, was the alphabet.
Classroom 3:
In this classroom, we did the alphabet circles, the numbered flowers (and stems) and the days of the week and months of the year. We also did some smaller decorations like a big flower on their wall and pictures and words of classroom items (book bag, pencil, crayon, ruler, book, eraser, etc).
Classroom 4:
This I think is my favorite decoration that we did. My teammate Rebekah created this lovely globe decor piece and actually took the time to sew the pieces of paper together. Some of the other decorations we did were the “fish” days of the week you can see in the background and months of the year.
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We also were able to finish painting the three new (still unfinished) classrooms—both inside and outside. Painting was so much fun as it gave my team time to chill and get to know each other more while working. We would listen to music, talk and work together as a team and were finished before we knew it. We usually would do a classroom or half a classroom a night (because we only had an hour for painting at night before darkness would set in), but the time would always fly by.
Here below are the before pictures:
And After:
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One of the things we’d been asked to do was to leave our legacy here through a mural. My team at first couldn’t think of anything to do, but after two weeks we had this picture of leaving our burdens and what we learned at the cross. We wanted to paint a cross, with the sun shining behind it and at the bottom each draw a picture of something that represented what we learned or wanted for the school with it representing us leaving it with God.
However, between it being a little too much for this community right now, as well as not having enough paint to do that mural, we were unable to do so. I am sharing our picture, though, because that is still what my team has done in our hearts. We have taken our desires for this school and what we’ve learned here and given it back to God asking that He uses it to bless this school. One of those desires is that this school just be anchored to God and their relationships with God have depth.
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Teaching this week has been different than the last two. One of the reasons is because a lot of the students are missing from the morning session due to the Khmer school. So, Tuesday Rebekah and I did not teach our morning class, but instead helped decorate the last classroom. Wednesday, some of our students were back and so these last three days we have been able to teach our morning class (even though there were still students missing).
These last moments with the students were very bittersweet. I was fully aware it was my last week here with them and so the moments were definitely cherished. From having fun in the classrooms by teaching them how to do handstands and cartwheels to having spelling bee’s. From drawing pictures for them to guess to giving homework. Being present with these kids this past week has been filled with so many memories.
One of the many things I got to do this week was taking pictures with the kids and the teachers. These kids definitely enjoy getting their pictures taken and love taking selfies even more. They’re natural models. Here are just a few pictures that were taken this week:
This was Rebekah’s and my morning class. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get a class picture with everyone [normally 17 students] because this last week the majority of the class started going to the Khmer school for the week.
This is our whole afternoon student class. From 4 year olds to 15 year olds, they are all super precious. In order to get this photo, one of the teachers stood on top of the van.
These are two sweet little 4 year olds who definitely took a piece of my heart as well as all my teammates. You just can’t help but love them.
This was my afternoon class. The students range from 5 years to 9 years in this class and there are a LOT of personalities. This was for sure my loud class because these students love to scream their songs and answers.
I was also blessed my last day of teaching with some gifts from the kids. Heng Hour, one of the boys in my morning class, gave me a miniature Cambodian flag. It was the sweetest thing and has made me decide that flags are now what I will be collecting from each country because they will remind me of him.
The 15 minute break between classes have been filled with amazing memories as well. From doing yoga with the kids to swinging on the swing set with them to playing down by the banks a million times over. Here’s a few pictures of these moments as well:
So this picture above is one of a HUGE group Down by the Banks game. We probably played this about 50-100 times a day. By the time we left, quite a number of the students knew the lyrics themselves so they can continue to play it.
Yoga was something that I did with the kids in a spur of the moment this past week. It was something that caught their attention and kept them entertained and was a lot of fun to see them try to copy as well.
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I told you all about a student of mine named Srey Neang a couple of blogs ago. She and I have continued to build our friendship and I am definitely sad that I had to say goodbye to her so soon. She also blessed me with a farewell gift of a paper frog that says “I love teacher Kara” on it. Please continue to pray for her. She is so bright and full of knowledge and she is also full of creativity as well. Please be praying that through her creativity, God draws her to Himself.
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The hardest part of ministry I have found is saying goodbye. I am now all packed up and waiting to load onto a van to take us to Phnom Penh where we will then be on a bus for 8 hours (over night) to Siem Reap for debrief. Looking into my room here that is now clean with all of my stuff and roommates stuff packed away is definitely sad. It feels as if we just got here and we’re leaving already.
My teammate Emily put it best “This has felt like our home from the moment we stepped foot into the school.”
I don’t know if every month I will feel at home like I have this month, but I know that I am leaving a bit of my heart here in Cambodia with these wonderful people.
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I have learned so much here, and I know that if I were to stay I’d only learn more. I am so excited for them and what God has in store because He is so evidently working in this school and in Cambodia as a whole.
Here are just a few things that God has been working to teach me this month.
- God has given me a heart that desires to serve others and grow in that this next year. Seeing these people serve each other so well and give out of their lack is so humbling.
- Speaking of humbling, God has taught me so much on what that looks like. To receive and accept being served by others with humility and gratitude. We came here to serve, but I feel that we have been blessed and served by these people in a bigger way.
- I have learned about grace here and just how much it is needed in our daily lives. I am learning that I am to show grace to myself just as much as I show it to others. God shows grace to me daily and because of that I am to have grace for my own mistakes as well as others, but I am to learn from them as well. I have also learned that grace is a choice and not something that’s earned.
- One of the many things that we were taught at Training Camp was giving up our comfort. This month has not really challenged me in not being comfortable except really in one way. I found that my biggest comfort zone is my communication with people. The ability to know what is going on in their lives and being a part of it through that. This has definitely been an area where I have been uncomfortable this month.
- I am learning what it means to be intentional. Being intentional is a choice and one of the blessings that it has on others is that it respects and appreciates them and their time.
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Prayer Requests:
- Be praying that God continues to show up and bless this school. He has already done so much and I know that He isn’t finished here yet. Pray for Pastor Chinho’s vision and that God will go above and beyond it. I also ask for prayer for finances for the school. That they would not have to pay to constantly repair a broken van, but that God would provide a new van for them. That they would not have to continually fix the play ground shelter, but that God would provide a way for it to stand firm.
- Pray for this next month. After 5 days of debrief in Siem Reap, my squad will travel together to Chiang Mai, Thailand and work together in the Red Light District there. Be praying for what we are stepping into and that God will work through us and be evident in our lives.
- Be praying for my team as we are growing closer together and learning to live together in community. Pray that that will continue to happen and that we will be intentional this month as the dynamic will change because it is an all squad month.
- Continue to pray for growth—for the people, my squad, my team and myself. We do want to continually be growing in what God has for us. I am ready for what is to come and I am excited for it, I just ask for prayers that we allow the space for God to work in our own lives as well.
Till Next Time,
Kara Faber
