I love you, Cambodia

I’m writing this wondering if it’s possible to fit all of the goodness of Cambodia into one blog.
I came into this month with no expectations. We just don’t hear much about Cambodia usually. When we got into Phnom Penh and learned a little more about our ministry, I expected us to be in Kampot City and it also described where we would stay as a guesthouse so I was thinking it might be pretty nice. I fell asleep on the drive to our ministry and woke up on a dirt road. We were pretty far from a city and when we drove up to our ministry sight the first thing I saw was 2 grass huts. On the race, we say you’re either a bush team (meaning your in the middle of nowhere) or your a city team or sometimes you get to be the beach team. My team always seems to end up in the bush- no Internet, no city, no grocery store, cold showers, no air conditioning. Realistically the last 2 are hot commodities even if you aren’t in the bush. Don’t get me wrong on this though, I love the bush. Being away from everything makes it easier to focus on where you are, who your with, what your doing, and what this life is really all about- focusing on the Man Upstairs. But for some reason I just wasn’t very thrilled when we pulled up. It took me a solid 30 minutes to adjust and say “well, there’s that”. No expectations, they say it all the time and yet somehow, they creep in and they let you down. I am so pleased to have been let down.
We spent our month teaching English 4 hours a day and building a church and harvesting rice. We formed relationships and friendships with some of the greatest people with the biggest hearts. Vuthy is the man that runs Mercy House/ Light of Hope. He has such an incredible passion for what God has done for him and what God can do for others especially this country. All of the boys that live there are awesome and so loving. I should really call them young men. They are just incredible. Everyone jumped in. Everyone formed real friendships which is really a huge deal when there is this knowledge that you only have one month together. It would be easy for us as racers to not get attached and easy for them as our contacts to keep a business relationship with us. But, no one wanted that! I am so grateful. So so grateful. I could really go on about them forever.
So, 80% of Cambodia’s population is under the age of 30. The Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot executed half of the population of Cambodia in the 70’s. The population was actually cut in half from the genocide. What that means for this country is huge. 80% of the population is at their most influential and vulnerable ages. They are at the time in their lives when they are learning what they want and what they believe. Touching this place with the Gospel will do so many big things. God has plans there.
All of the kids we taught are awesome. I don’t know that teaching is my calling, but I loved my students. Teaching at mercy house was great, the kids were pretty well behaved and so sweet. The kids in my public school class were just a little more rowdy. The first couple days there I didn’t have a translator with me. It was rough. One kid got pantsed in class, one crawled around acting like a dog (and would not get up no matter how stern my voice got), and 5 jumped out of the window and left. I would have just let them go out the door. But, it got so much better once my main manslator (main man and translator) Sokhon came with me. I have a new found appreciation for teachers. It’s really not easy to come up with lessons and decide how to teach and then hope everyone is picking up what your putting down. Plus the students are taught to cheat here so test Fridays were frustrating because everyone cheats. But, we were breaking that habit. Overall, teaching was not my favorite, but the students were awesome. Tricky tricky.
Building the church was a great time. It went up in like 10 days. Our job was to make sure the floor foundation was strong. It was so awesome to actually be putting down the real life foundation for a church that already had a pretty solid community foundation. We moved so much dirt and mud and got so strong from all the lifting of rocks and bricks and dirt and cement. We broke the church in with 3 christmas celebrations followed by huge dance parties. On the 22nd we did a children’s christmas, there were probably over 100 kids there it was incredible. We ate so much bread and coconut curry. Christmas curry. And gave each kid a little school goodie bag. Then on the 25th we had family Christmas. I couldn’t have been more blessed by God to spend christmas with my camfam. We did a gift exchange and everyone danced and we just had so much fun. Everyone that is part of this mercy house family wants more. They want more of God, they want more people to know God, they want more for the ministry. We had a youth christmas party on the 28th. Never ending Christmas. Christmas away from home wasn’t easy. 10 days before, we were going to the Genocide museum and killing fields and I realized it was only 10 days to Christmas and I started laughing, then crying. Sokhon was sitting next to me and he looked over and said “I’m going to move to the back seat.” It’s always nice to have someone keep me in line.
Helping harvest the rice was actually fun, it was a bit of an arm workout and I’m still trying to figure out how in a sea of rice fields they know exactly which one is theirs… Pektra told me “they just know.” We literally were surrounded by rice fields there. We made plenty of biblical references to the harvest being plentiful and the workers being few.
The last night we had an incredible worship time together as a family and we walked through the fields praying and singing. Vuthy wants a university and a clinic on the land we were walking through. As I was praying I was just thinking about how cool it was that the land the ministry is built on used to be rice fields and that God is just transferring the harvest to people and just how plentiful the rice harvest was and how plentiful the ministry harvest will continue to be as it grows. We had a fire in the middle of the fields and other teammates just had visions of the fields all catching fire and the fire spreading so quickly and just how that could be Cambodia with the Gospel. It’s awesome.
Leaving was not easy and I am just waiting for the day The Lord calls me back even if it’s just a short time. Cambodia just came up out of the wood works and was the most beautiful country with the most beautiful people and just a beautiful blessing from above.