“I’m fine sanks, and you?”

I apologize for the lack of blogs in November. We did not have much access to internet, but it was honestly really good for the soul. Here is a summary of our amazing month in Cambodia.

At the beginning of the month, I was switched to a new team (Team Relentless) which is a normal part of the World Race experience. AIM seeks to create a healthy environment where we can all thrive and continue to grow. It was hard to leave my old team, but I feel very at peace with this switch, and so far so good! My new team and I spent the month living in the middle of a giant sugar cane field. We lived in a village called Kampong Cham, which is about two hours outside of Phnom Penh, and we shared a beautiful home on stilts with a sweet couple and their precious new baby, Martin. We taught English to the village children by day and slept in mosquito nets by night… and I loved every second of it. My heart was bursting with joy all month.

We woke up to a number of sounds in Kampong Cham. Rooster crows and lizard croaks were quite normal, but so was waking up to Utry playing guitar and singing Khmer songs to baby Martin…. or waking up to little Powleang tickling my feet through my mosquito net. I don't think I ever woke up in a bad mood. Every moment was filled with so much joy. Even when we had to hand wash our laundry or take bucket showers with water that was somehow always freezing despite the hot temperatures we lived in all month. There was so much happiness, so much laughter, and so much peace in the village, and part of me never wanted to leave.

Teaching English was an amazing experience for me. One of the first things I taught my students was all the ways you can respond to "how are you?" Needless to say hearing "I'm fine sanks and you" a hundred times a day got old fast. But it was cute. Later in the month I started to incorporate the gospel in my classes…

At 5pm every day I taught a class at the private school. The dilapidated classroom looked like it was straight out of a horror film, but the students were sweet and it was exciting for me to think that I could potentially have one of those scary looking classrooms all to myself one day. Maybe not in Cambodia, but the more I taught there, the more it made me want to teach internationally. It's so fun to dream. Anyway, one day my students and I were working on their English by playing a little game of hangman.

"E," one student guessed. "J," said another. We went through most of the alphabet, and they still couldn't figure out the word. Only one letter remained to complete it: C _ R I S T I A N. The man was officially dead and our game ended with me filling in the missing H. I will never forget their faces as they tried to read it.

"Christian," I said. "You know… like Jesus?"

They stared back at me.

Then it hit me. They've never heard this word before.

God picked ME? He picked crazy ol' me to be the very first person to introduce Christ to these precious teenagers? The sheer weight of that responsibility had never felt so glorious. What an awesome confirmation that I am indeed cut out to do work for His Kingdom!

As a missionary surrounded by several other missionaries who seem much more cut out for this job than myself, I've been really struggling with feelings of inadequacy and insecurity these past few months. But what an awesome way for God to show up and prove to me that He wants to use me in powerful ways as long as I continue to say yes to Him.

But learning to say yes wasn't always easy for me. Especially when a group of girls kept coming to our home to play. Girls that just so happened to have lice. One of my biggest worries in regards to the race was getting lice. I know it's not uncommon in the States, but I've never had it and always viewed it as a very dirty and embarrassing thing. And it was really hard for me to say yes to playing with these girls and loving on them in a very tangible way. And I failed repeatedly. But little did I know that some fingernail polish would help me conquer my fear of lice.

Earlier in the month I had watched my teammate, Kara, love on these girls with all of her heart. It really inspired me to dive in and not be fearful of a few little bugs. On our last Sunday in the village, I finally felt ready to take a very teensie-tiny step, and I offered to paint this little girl's nails. She was ecstatic. But she was even more thrilled to paint my nails after I had finished hers. As she leaned against me, thickly coating my nails in polish and then lovingly wiping off the smudges, I began to look into her eyes instead of at her hair. It was so freeing. For the first time I was able to see her as a precious child of God. I hugged her tightly and was finally able to love on her without fear. After all, if God can view me as a pure and clean daughter after all the crap I've done, why should I not extend that same love to someone else? What makes them more unclean than myself? Certainly not lice. It's lessons like these that help me wrap my mind around true unconditional love.

In between classes, we helped Nary cook, and I sang baby Martin to sleep more times than I can remember. My month was full of growth and laughter and community. It was good for me to give and receive so much love, and I learned so much through all of our experiences.

We also went on fun adventures during our free time. We rode water buffaloes, learned to fish with a net, swam in the Mekong River, ate fried tarantulas, played with a python, and visited Angkor Wat. I will truly never forget Cambodia and the life-changing experiences I was blessed with.

Blessings to all of you from Asia! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.
 

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I also want to thank you all so much for helping me reach my December 1st deadline! I still have a few thousand to raise before I'm fully funded. If you would like to partner with me, please let me know. Thanks!