In eight days I will be heading to Malaysia. This month has gone by incredibly slowly, but it is strange to think that I will be leaving soon. We have two days left of ministry, and will be heading to Siem Riep on the 11th and will be there until the 16th. It will be a fantastic time of rest and relaxation, both of which I need.
This month has been hard in many ways, but also very enjoyable. The country is beautiful and I have met some great people! It has been awesome to see how God has worked here. Remember how I said I didn’t know how we would make it through this month with all that went wrong when we first got here? A lot of it was smoothed out: We met Sechun and he helped us with transportation to his church, a place to do ministry, and friendship. The Singapore school left us with some whiteboard markers, and when those ran out a pastor who teaches Chinese at the same place let us use hers. God has showed up in many ways this month. It has reminded me that he cares even about the little things in life, and will come through in the “big” things as well.
I am glad to have been in the middle of nowhere (even though any and all traffic that passes through Cambodia comes this way because we live on the only highway), and to just enjoy God’s beautiful creation; whether that be his people or the nature that surrounds us. I have gone to open air markets, ridden motorbikes, tuk tuks, and buses. I have walked through mud, preached the gospel in a school with muslims and non-christian, and shouted out “long-bean” in order to teach English. Many of these have been firsts, and I know that this will not be the last time this year. Overall it has been a month of contemplating, praying, and spending time with God. It has been good and do not have many complaints (other than the nights of plagues).
My last night in Baray was amazing. As usual, we walked back from school at 6pm and headed inside for dinner. Instead of what normally awaits us (a table with 6 plates and rice), I was greeted at the door by Vern (one of the kids who helped us out a lot this month) with a beautiful yellow flower. I headed inside and the entire staff was there wearing huge smiles. The table was set up for all of us to eat together. Before we sat down the presented us with leis! They were beautifully made and very quickly the cameras came out. It was an amazing send off, and a great last night to spend with the people that have lived in community with for the last 26 or so days.
After our lunch at 10 Am this morning the staff carried all our gear to the side of the road to wait for our bus to get there. Our squad hired a semi-private bus and we were told they knew where we were at. At 11:30 a bus goes by, and I see some confused looks on my teammate’s faces (I was in the café reading). It turns out our bus passed us! Carly quickly called and the bus turned around…well, another bus passed us and Tamara thinking it was ours flagged them down with a little dance…nope, it wasn’t ours. It was quite funny and the people looked very perplexed and just stared at us. Our bus did come back about 15 minutes later and all was well.
I am now in Siem Riep and am looking forward to sleeping a comfortable bed. My first stop as all of you would guess was the local coffee shop (Common Grounds). Soon I will be eating at the $1.00 market and then will be relaxing the rest of the evening. I am so excited for the rest of this week, and to have some much needed down time.
