I know ya'll liked my Southern slang title 😉 As they say "you can take the girl out of the south but you can't take the south out of the girl" Haha
Sorry for not writing more blogs before now about ministry this past month in Cambodia, but ministry took up most of my time. What was my ministry that kept me busy you ask? Well, I thought you’d never ask! Let me tell ya about it.
This month in Cambodia we stayed in the capital Phnom Penh and worked through YWAM teaching English classes at a local Wesleyan church through our contact Jeff and his wife…oh and his adorable son Caleb.
Somehow I got wrangled into teaching the last class of the day with the more advanced students. I have never taught anything before much less someone that speaks a language I don’t know and try and teach them English. Let’s just say Teacher Tabby learned a lot this month along with her students. Haha
Teaching was fun and challenging at the same time, and I of course was nervous getting up and teaching English. The students were amazing! We had about five kids that spoke good enough English to help translate for us. We ended up teaching about 60 kids on average in our intermediate class. I was suddenly neck deep in relearning grammar rules and planning lessons for each class. With some prayer and strength from the Lord I was able to each class to the best of my ability.
We taught every day from 3:30-7:30 or 8:00. We would start the day off with a Bible reading lesson on John then we would do discussion class, the intermediate class, and the advanced class. The cool deal for these kids was that if they really wanted to learn English but didn’t have the money they could stay for all of the classes and then be able to go for free. Jeff has a great school going with plenty of students eager to learn. There was a core group of about 20 that went to english classes and to youth group. I love each and every one of them dearly! They were all so welcoming and excited for us to be there and teach them, and of course just to be friends and get to know one another.
Not only were we responsible for the English classes but also Sunday services. We were in charge of the two Sunday school classes, worship, and the sermon in the morning and youth group in the afternoons. We would take turns with the lessons and I preached this last Sunday on having Joy in the Lord. With the Lord’s guidance we took charge of all of those needs and spoke life into God’s people in Phnom Penh!
Oh and there was one surprise thing that I wasn’t expecting to learn this month, and that was how to play guitar! I’ve always wanted to learn but never had money for a class or a willing free teacher. Randomly I decided I would learn how to play the old electric guitar the church had sitting in the corner. With the help of my amazing teammate Anjali I started to learn how to play “How great is our God” which is a very simple 4 chord song. A week later I’m up in front of the church with my awesomely supportive team playing the song. Now, what exactly possessed me to decide to go in front of the church a week after I picked up the guitar for the first time to lead worship? No idea. I agree it is a crazy. I’ll give God all the credit for that one! I practiced for about an hour and a half every day for a week and then went for it! Haha. I know He gave me the dedication and concentration to learn in between planning and teaching classes. I know the song wasn’t perfect but it was all for the glory of God and that is all that matters right? 🙂 I’m hoping to save up for a guitar, and be able to find a decent one, so I can keep playing while in Malaysia.
Welp, that’s all for now folks. Be looking out for a picture blog soon (yay!) and hopefully a blog about the killing fields if I can put it into words.
