Before reading, hit up this link where you can listen to “The World You Want” by Switchfoot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQevo3OfR4A
Man, I can not believe that this week is our last in Cambodia. It has been incredible. It’s had its challenges, and its celebrations. It’s been exhausting, and energizing at the same time. I’ve felt like I’ve totally been in my element… just hanging out with kids, being goofy, dancing, playing soccer, singing songs… with people who really are just like me. People who enjoy laughing, are open to learning, who have a desire to share hope. Who just want to love and be loved.
Last week when we stayed at the Methodist Church, we spent each morning visiting different families around the village and praying for members of those families. In the afternoons we spent time at a school (which was a tarp laid out with some benches on top, and a white board at the front, underneath a lean-to roof) teaching letters, numbers, and simple vocabulary. Most days we stuck around to play some soccer after our lessons, which of course (I know I say it SO often) is always a highlight for me. The most popular saying on the field: “DIE! DIE! DIE!” Don’t worry. In Khmer, that means “hand.” So as soon as one kid starts yelling that with his eyebrows furrowed, you know there’s about to be a free kick for the other team.
On our last day there, we went on a wagon ride to see the rice fields, and pretty much the entire school joined us. Many silly songs later, we made it back to the chuch and had such a beautiful goodbye. The children sat on the wagon calling our names, motioning for one last hug, making hearts with their hands and yelling, “I love you” in both Khmer and English. Our team was forced to strategize – to wave one last time, turn around and not look back. Or else we never would have let them go.
We left the next morning to our third and final church – Revelation Word Baptist Church, about an hour and a half from Siem Reap. It was a solid hour and half/two hour moto ride from the Methodist Church. The tuk-tuk with 4 of our team mates, a few of the New Life Church youth (who had come to pick us up and drive us to the next place) and our luggage, broke down only…four times… I think? So it was definitely an adventure. We were greeted with “Welcome Team Burning Joy!” signs at the Baptist Church. We’ve now grown to love yet another group of kids, doing a combination of yard work, teaching English (we’ve really established a rhythm for simple school lessons!) and meeting many people within the village who attend the church.
We went on probably a 5 km walk around the village for the pastor’s family to show us different rice fields and gardens – the sources of income around this area. Did I mention that all the children of the village came with us? The sun shone directly onto our backs, and there was little shade along the way. There was a child holding each of my hands the ENTIRE time. Despite my pruned skin from the unstoppable sweat, the kids held on. They would look up at me and smile before carefully guiding me around countless puddles and wads of mud. We’d take turns picking flowers to put behind each others’ ears.
…If the song has finished, start it from the beginning again…
Then I felt a constant breeze on my back. I turned to see my nine year old friend, Pona, fanning me vigorously with a giant leaf that I had noticed him picking not one minute before. It really got me thinking. This boy, whose gums had bled when we taught hygiene because he had tried brushing his teeth for the first time. This boy, who in the last week I’ve seen in only two different outfits (a Pikatchu, and Despicable Me T-shirt – if you were wondering). This boy, with “nothing” was taking care of ME and my “needs.” I would try to fan him in return, and he shook his head ‘no’ with a big smile, gently guiding the leaf in my hand back down to my side, and continuing to fan me…
It’s so hard to describe this all in less than 700 words…Scratch that. Even all the words in the world couldn’t adequately explain the crazy, incredible, heart-breaking, frustrating, beautiful experiences I’ve had so far…
“We think stories are about getting money and security, but the thruth is, it all comes down to relationships…Once you know what it takes to live a better story, you don’t have a choice. Not living a better story would be like deciding to die, deciding to walk around numb until you die, and it’s not natural to want to die.” This quote is from “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller which I’ve been reading. Man. I want to live a better story than yesterday.
As I started writing a draft of this blog post in my word document before bed, I was listening to “The World You Want” by Switchfoot…and have probably listened to it 15 times in succession since. These lyrics slapped me in the face:
“All my words they fail me, my voices don’t avail me. I’m trying to say the hope that’s unspoken…
Is this the world you want? Is this the world you want? You’re making it – everyday you’re alive
You change the world, you change the world, you change the world – everyday you’re alive
If you change the world for you, you change it for me…”
…If the song has finished, start it from the beginning again… 🙂
