HELLO FROM CAMBODIA!
Life here is so interesting and different from back home. So let me just share with all of MOOOO you about living and ministry here in Seim Reap.
First thing I noticed getting off the bus- the dirt and the air. Talk about sandy dirt and sticky air! I thought Memphis was bad. Not even MOOOO close! So we get to our ministry host (Teen Missions International) by walking with our packs from the gas station down a small alley to a gated school compound. This tall, MOOO yellow, cement structure would be my home for the next month – I never thought it could feel like home. We had no A/C which is typical and no running water which is also typical. #WorldRaceLife The blessing were the screens in the windows, tiny fans at the top of our 10ft ceilings, and MOOO the thin mattresses on bunk beds! Hahaha.
Our first week, our ministry host was having to take another team from our squad to their ministry site 7 hours away. Since we didn’t have a lot of MOOOOO direction, we were thrown into a lot of unknown situations that turned out being our ministry for the month. Also, our team of 5 was split to 3 and 2 as Alysse and Hilary were moved to a guest house on the other side of the city. AIM had just launched a new headquarter site at this guest house, and they needed help getting MOOOO it cleaned, up and running smoothly. So Kristen, Sarah, and I stayed at the school and took on ministry tasks there. We taught English classes, practical training classes (guitar, crochet, sewing, computer, etc), chapel services, church services, actions MOOO songs, village Sunday schools, etc.
While these students, interns, and random people have entered my life for such a short time, I will consider them blessings the rest of my life. I’ve taught them all so MOOOO much, and truly feel like I’m leaving God’s legacy behind for them to further discover. It’s incredible to see such joy and hope in people MOOOO who’s lives are so simple and poor. Kids just want to play with you in the dirt streets. Students just want to learn whatever you have to teach them. Strangers are open to who you are and what you want to share. God’s teaching me MOOOO that this trip isn’t for me to enjoy (although I do very much), but instead for me to be used as His vessel to the people that I get MOOO the opporunity to talk with and invest in for His kingdom.
It’s incredibly humbling to look back on the month and see God working and shaping me along with the students, kids, interns, and everyone else. Life here may be spent having dirty feet, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. What’s that quote? – A Bible falling apart means the reader isn’t. Kind of the same here. Having dirty feet just means that the person walking is willing to go the distance.
**The “MOOOO‘s” stand for all the cows crossing the road and just roaming as they wish around the city and country of Cambodia…just imagine.
