My last month on the World Race: Cambodia!
Well this is it, I am truly at the ending point of the race… well at least the ending point of the world race that is….
I am currently in the city of Siem Reap, Cambodia where we are having our week long debrief to prepare for the journey and adventure of transitioning back home to the states. I leave Tuesday night to fly to South Korea where we have a nine hour layover and then leave for the states! I land in L.A. at 10:30 am on Wednesday the 29th. I then will return back home after an hour layover from Chicago to Cleveland, Ohio late that night around 12 am.
So as this month ends, I wanted to share what my last month of ministry was like here in Cambodia!
This month was one of my favorite months! My team and I were very blessed to stay at a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base where we were surrounded by many missionaries who truly love and serve Jesus with all of their hearts and lives. I was so blessed to meet many Cambodia friends who live at the YWAM base who used to be Buddhist’s but now are people who have been transformed by the saving grace and love of Jesus Christ! They are now people who are sold out in living their lives to share the true love of Christ with so many other Buddhist people within their country.
Meeting these people and getting to learn about their stories and lives because so truly inspiring and awakening for me! We were blessed to work with our friend Naomi who was one of our main translators. She is 24 years old and her family has completely rejected her and kicked her out of her house because she has became a Christian. Yet she cannot deny the true love of Christ that has came into her heart and saved and transformed her life. So Naomi now lives a life completely full of faith relying on God to provide for her every need. Naomi has a heart to help people in the villages of Cambodia and to share the freedom of Christ with so many girls that are forced or sold into a life of human trafficking (prostitution.)
Naomi’s faith along with her friends Vandy, Rocky, Srey, and along with so many others from the YWAM base are people who have left their families to live a life not devoted to themselves, but to the one who has saved them and has shared His undeniable and never-ending love with them that cannot be forgotten or forsaken.
They are living stories that show the true redemption, hope, love, and life that Christ brings to all who accept his truth and love. They live these stories, not for their own fame or for their own name, but for the one who has saved them and filled them with His everlasting Hope and eternal life!
This month we were blessed to live in the city. We had a grocery store around us where I actually got to buy microwave popcorn!!! I was so excited about this!!! And then I found that they had Gatorade at the store too! Wow, anyone who truly knows me, (especially Seth Kujat) knows how huge this is for me!
I was very soon confronted with an issue though that is honestly hard for me even to talk about. I was forced on a daily level to see so many street children living on the sides of streets with no one to take care of them. They lived on card board boxes, with barely enough clothes to wear. All that they had to do each day was begging for food and hope for someone who would offer some food or money to them. Here in Cambodia there are so many people and orphans that the government cannot afford to help orphans who have no one to help them. This stirred something in my heart that I had honestly not experienced within the whole race…it broke me and made me think about what my life would have been like if that was me on the side of the streets…or what if that was my little brother, or one of my little cousins, or one of my children one day…
What would I have done if I grew up like that and who would I be? The biggest question that stirs and rattles my heart is what will I do to change and help the way things are and those who are truly in need of help?
Someone told me a story this week of a man entering into heaven and Jesus asking him…Did you love my babies? As he told this story, I thought of how joyous the thought will be to see Jesus for the first time face to face in heaven when I leave this earth. I then thought of that question…did I love Jesus’ babies, did I love Jesus’ people?
It is a stirring question that rattles me to the core of my being that I hope awakens me out of my day to day normal circumstances, worries, and stresses of life to remember my true purpose for being alive:
To Love!
“For this is true love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”
– 1 John 4:10-12
This month, our ministry was the ministry of teaching English to Cambodia kids that ranged from the middle school level up to their late 20’s. Some of you who may be reading this (Mom, Scott, and really anyone who knows me good might be thinking, wow, are those kids in trouble haha). Yes I am not the best speller and person known for my precise grammar, but with laughter and some mistakes, I think I got the job done! It was such a joy to be a part of these classes and we got to have a lot of fun along the way! This is a short video I recorded for my friend Megan who taught the class how to do the "Wave!"
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10101231434282830
It is very hard for people to learn English in Cambodia and most of the local schools do not have the teachers who can really teach the language. So an American named Jeff along with his Cambodia wife and a previous world racer Rachel run an English school at their church. There are four classes that go from level 1 to 4 for four hours a day. I was blessed to help out with two classes and then teach one class as the main teacher. It was a fun class where we had a lot of fun and worked on learning what adverbs were and the practice of the forming and the pronunciation of words and sentences.
Most of the kids that came to these English classes were Buddhist’s and grew up in all Buddhist families. Yet they come to the school that they know is Christian school so I had the very blessed experience to share Christ with them, which many of them do not know much about.
I even got to connect with some of the kids who once were Buddhist but now since coming to the school have fully committed, surrendered, and given their lives to Christ! My friend “Ya” had so much courage and I was amazed at his story. His whole family is Buddhist, yet when he heard about the sacrifice, love, and freedom that Christ brought and brings to all of us, he could not help receiving the true love that Christ has for him. Even though his family is not happy about it, he lives as a Christian amongst his entire Buddhist family and does not deny his faith in Christ who has came into his live to save him! It was a hard sacrifice for me to do this, but I felt like the Lord put it on my heart to give him my special cross necklace that my Grandma (Jem) gave me to encourage and inspire him to remember that He is not alone and will never be alone! I felt truly blessed to give something so special to me to him because he explained how he had nothing like it and often felt alone with his family all being non Christians.
Another student that I became really close to was named “T.” Well that’s not his real name, but that is what I and the others called him. T used to be really involved with gangs and got into a lot of trouble with getting into fights and trouble with the law. But then a miracle happened. T’s older brother’s heart got transformed by the living life and light of Jesus Christ in a real and life transforming way! T’s older brother shared Jesus with T, but T didn’t want anything to do with it. He told me how he would get so angry with his brother and tell him that he didn’t want his Jesus….
Yet T’s brother didn’t give up and through prayer and constant love for his brother. Now T has not only accepted the true love of Jesus Christ into his life, but T’s whole family (besides his father) are now Christians and have experienced the true heavenly Father’s unfailing, unending, and all abiding transforming love…
WOW….
I was so blessed to meet so many other students who came to the youth group on Sunday nights that we helped out with that were the only Christians in their families. Yet their faith was so strong and they had so much perseverance in their walks with Christ. Yet their hearts broke for their families that would not come to leave the traditions of their Buddhist beliefs. Yet the kids are not giving up and believing that God will too work through them to bring their families hearts to a place where they will accept, feel, experience, and know of God’s true life and love for them!
The kids understand that it’s everyone’s personal choice to accept and receive the free gift of God’s love…yet they are not giving up in hoping, praying, and loving their family and friends believing that one day they too will receive the freedom, life, and love that they have through the redemption of receiving Jesus Christ into their hearts and lives as their Lord and Savior!
So it was such a blessing this month to teach English, help out with the youth group, and get to play soccer with the kids from the school 4 days a week for an hour or two.
It was such a blessing to encourage current believers and build friendships with others who didn’t believe. It was a blessing to play soccer and share our stories of how Christ has saved and changed our lives. It was also such a blessing to go into the village once a week to wash children’s hair who live in a form of poverty that I have never seen before within my life…It was sobering, awakening, and so humbling to wash, play, and love on children that had so little, yet were so precious and beautiful!
Yet my favorite part of the month, and some of my most meaningful memories of the whole race, came in times of not so called ministry times, but came in times when I least expected God to move, yet was blessed by His true grace that enabled me to be willingly surrendered for Him to do yet what only He could do…!
The Tuk Tuk drivers who became friends who turned into family!
Since we lived in a big city we had about a 20 minute tuk tuk drive everyday to English class and soccer. So here in Cambodia there are so many motorcycles’s who carry mini carriages that can fit about 4 people in them as they serve as mini taxi drivers for people around the city. Well we were blessed to meet someone who turned into a great friend named Don. Don was someone that YWAM uses for many of their teams. He is someone who used to be Buddhist but who also has experienced the true life, freedom, love, and grace of Christ and is now one who is filled with an inexpressible joy and love that is so so inspiring! As we grew in friendship with Don, I was very blessed to have the Lord connect us into great friends. I also found the amazing blessing of meeting his best friend who was a Buddhist named Pooh!
Since we had 8 or so people on our team, we usually needed two tuk tuk’s and sometimes even three. Don and Pooh were our two main drivers and even though Pooh could barely speak any English, we soon found a common love in playing soccer. When Pooh and Don would bring us to the soccer field to play, instead of just dropping us off, I was so surprised how they would pass up business driving people around to come and play soccer with us. So they played with us along with the others kids from the school! They showed so much joy and happiness while playing! They were filled with a joy that you could see was so real and life giving!
We soon all became very close!
Don expressed to me how he was very concerned about Pooh because Pooh barely knew anything about Jesus. So one day Don asked me to sit down with Pooh where I was so blessed to sit in their tuk tuk drinking Cokes with them and sharing about the true love of my life that has filled me with a living hope and love that has truly transformed my life from the inside out.
This was not only a blessing that Don asked me to speak with Pooh, but I was amazed at how much Pooh wanted to know about Christ. He barely knew anything about him, only from what he saw on TV once in a movie. So I was blessed to explain the gospel of God sending his one and only Son to earth to die and save all of us from our sins, death, and all evil. I explained the freedom and gift of salvation that Christ brought us and brings us for after life on this earth, but also the life and purpose that Christ fills us with now while living on this earth by the power of His Holy Spirit coming into our hearts and lives!
"All who love me, listen to my teachings and do what I say. My Father will love them and we will come to them and make our home IN THEM."
– John 14:23-25
After sitting there for almost 3 hours I was amazed as I saw Pooh and Don willingly tell customers that they could not take them anywhere because they wanted to hear about Jesus!,
This is so amazing to me because Don drives his tuk tuk everyday trying to find enough customers so that he can provide for his family. It is very hard to get enough customers and income a day for many tuk tuk drivers because of how many drivers there are constantly looking and fighting for customers within the city. Yet out of true love and devotion for his best friend Pooh, Don willingly gave up making money, so that his friend could hear about the true love and hope of Jesus Christ!
WOW…simply amazing…
Pooh then asked Don to ask me to pray with him to accept and ask Christ into his heart! I explained to Pooh that he didn’t need me to pray with him to receive Jesus, that this was a prayer that was totally between him and Christ. I encouraged him to just surrender his heart to Jesus trusting him with all of his life while being totally real and honest with him. I encouraged him to talk to Christ like his true and best friend. I then said I would be blessed to pray with him and guide him in praying to Christ, but wanted him to know for certain that he was going to be saved not because of a prayer that I was saying, but because He was honestly, authentically, and truly asking and accepting Jesus Christ into his heart to be his Lord and Savior!
I was so amazed at this and how God blessed me so much to be a part of sharing the true freedom, love, and life of Christ with Pooh! Don later told me that Pooh said that he had this amazing feeling all over him that he had never felt before where he felt so happy and good all over. I then gave him a bracelet that I had that said best friends on it. I gave it to him as a reminder of me, but most of all as a symbol of his true best friend Jesus Christ who will always be with him and in him now and forever!
I was blessed to have many more adventure with Don sharing the love and hope of Christ with other tuk tuk drivers and people who have never even heard of Jesus Christ before. I met a man at a park that literally had never heard of the name of Jesus Christ before. He had no idea who he was…none
Yet God’s love and truth will not be held back from being told!
God’s light will not be stopped from shining into the darkness transforming darkness into Light!
“In Christ is all light, light that shines through all darkness that no darkness can ever overtake.”
– John 1:4-5
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of Light.”
– Ephesians 5:11
“Everything exposed by the light is transformed from darkness into light”
– Ephesians 5:13
There are so many Buddhist people in Cambodia, yet there was such a hunger and thirst to hear and know about Jesus…the people’s hearts of this country truly amazed me!
I was amazed and reminded that truly as Matthew 19:26 and Luke 1:37 promises…that truly
“With God All Things Are Possible.”
Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey with me! Thank you for reading my blogs, praying for me, and encouraging me! It means more than I know how to describe! Thank you!
Here below are some more pictures from my last month of ministry on the race:
