Hello all! Sorry for the delay on another blog. We have safely arrived in Cambodia and have been serving in ministry for about a week.
(Pan–the Intern from Zion)
Thailand was wonderful and full of many friendships. Friendships with different monks during monk chat the first week, friendships with the different women we met at the bars, and friendships we made with the women who work at Zion cafe while we helped out in the kitchen. Shoutout to my friend Pan, one of the ministry interns who is studying English at university. Pan traveled with our team the first week to help us translate along the way and we also spent plenty of time learning English and Thai. For example, a cross walk in English is translated to Zebra Crossing in Thai because of the stripped paint on the road. Also her new favorite word I taught her is Exuberant.
(Pi Neuk and I with our Pink Prayer Bracelets)
The head chef and our host Emmi’s partner is Pi Neuk. Pi Neuk and I became close when I served in the cafe the last week. She let me help her with the coffee and we spent most of our time laughing. She nick named me Nung Chang (which means little elephant) because I would walk around saying the word Chang. She said she would be Po Chang (Auntie Elephant) and I could be Nung Chang. At the end of the month I gave my pink prayer bracelet to her and told her about all of the people in America praying for her.
(The Hip Hop Struggle Bus…parked outside the mechanic)
Our travel from Thailand to Cambodia can be called Complicated. We hopped onto “the hip hop struggle bus” (a giant double decker coach bus that had 50 seats—for our group of 54 and all of our packs, which make us a group of 108 and day packs the size of toddlers …. so 54 people, 54 people sized packs and 54 toddler size packs….And on the side of the bus was art that had hip hop painted on it and fun pictures of cartoon hip hop people) and began our 18 hour journey. We traveled through the night and at about 4 am I woke up sweating. The bus was turned off along with the AC, I was surrounded by people and packs, and the doors were closed with no driver in sight. Someone started tapping on the window to try to see if the driver was around. They came and opened the door so the few of us who were awake could get out and stand outside. Turns out the bus was broken and they were in the back fixing it. As two hours passed more people trickled out of the bus and we rested on the highway. Yes, I said we rested ON the highway. I have successfully taken a nap laying on a highway in Thailand. The wind from cars passing us (don’t worry we were pulled off the side and it was an 8 lane road at 4 am so there weren’t too many people out and the cars were all in the far lanes) definitely felt better than the 95 degree bus.
A mechanic pulled up around 6 am and we loaded back in the bus and drove back the other direction for 20 minutes and pulled into his ‘shop’ (a small building made of bamboo on the side of the road). We then took naps in various places—some on the gravel parking lot, some found the two trees around and hung their hammocks, and others leaned against the bus. Two hours later we climbed back into the bus and drove for about an hour, stopping every 10 minutes so the driver could pour water into the back of the bus. We pulled into a gas station and found out we were switching busses. When that bus arrived we finished our journey into Cambodia. An 18 hour trip ended up taking a total of 33 hours, but we were thankful that the border was still open when we arrived (it normally closes at 8, but for some reason that night it was open until 10) and we all made it safely into Siem Reap. Our team arrived at our host’s house at 3 am last Thursday.
(This is the house…the girls on my team stay on the second floor. The school is across the yard)
This month our team is serving at a ministry called Eli School. We teach during the day. Kris and Robert are in the Preschool/Kindergarten room, Sean and I are in the 1-4 grade room and Laura and Kyla are in the older kid room. Once a week we visit a drug rehab facility and play games with the people who are staying there. And then a few nights a week and Sunday mornings we go out into two villages near where we are staying and teach english, pray, play with kids, and preach on Sunday mornings.
(This is Eli School–where we teach. The guys on our team sleep in one of the classrooms here)
Continue to keep our team in your prayers. Pray that we would not become sick. Pray for our focus to remain on Jesus. Pray that the blessing of wifi in our living area would not distract us from resting and from being present where God has us. Thanks everyone! Don’t forget to switch to the black bracelet for Cambodia!!
With Love,
Shelby
