1. Papa’s rest is not passive; Papa is resting in His activity. Now as you probably know, this has been an entire year of my being told to “rest”; when I was leading there was a month where I was told to take an additional day off per week than my team. Then, I seem to have been one of the most prone to random and freakish tropical illness (*2), and these have slowed me down even further. Yesterday, Papa was in one of those moods where He wanted to show me just how much He loved me, so, He gave our team the chance to go for an all morning elephant trek through a rain forest (*3)!
So during this adventure, I meandered through some deep thought waters tossing around thoughts on rest, and realized that when I truly re-center myself in His presence and am filled with His peace, it moves me into action. He fills me with this energy and vitality to seize the day, to seize my future, to conquer things that I normally avoid even thinking about. For example, I have been avoiding even discussing the possibility of pursuing any sort of higher education since I graduated. However, yesterday after this elephant ride, I spent a few hours researching EXCITEDLY the possibilities of my future…And it was only joyful because He had first given me His peace.
All this is to say that after a full year of being told to “rest”, I am finally beginning to understand His peace that surpasses understanding, and I am learning to enter into His peace restfully and quickly during the storm. I am learning that “rest” and “peace” are not synonymous with “sit still” and “don’t move”, but rather “Go be with Him, Hear what He is speaking. Then come back recharged in His strength, joy and energy!” His peace has changed and continues to change me.
2. Only He Can Bring Meaning and Fulfillment to Our Lives. (straight from the journal). “If there were such things as moments of true doubt in my life, they could only last for only a moment because I lead this wild, unimaginable life, but standing by itself I feel hollow. In the moments where I take my eyes off Him, I find no lasting joy or satisfaction in any day–even the best of days. My life has been anything but quiet. My life is spectacular! Papa takes me on the craziest adventures, provides bountifully, leads me into wild stories with some of His favorite children. My team will tell you that if you ever need a source of entertainment, throw me any random word, and I will conjure up some laughable story from the past 23 years of life. I have been abundantly filled with memories that will last a lifetime. But, truth be told, this year has shown me that on the quiet nights, there is no warmth in reliving a memory in a natural capacity, but only His supernatural Presence in the story actually made the moment worth living to begin with.”
3. CAMBODIA IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER! (*4) Basically, that will be the remaining content of my blogs for the rest of the race. I am finishing my race where my walk with the Big Man Upstairs first began almost two and a half years ago…and I am AMPED. I cannot currently put into words the redemption story Papa is writing there. The only thing that keeps crossing my mind in speaking life over Cambodia is this CS Lewis quote: “They say of some temporal suffering–no future bliss can make up for it, not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory”. And in a post-genocidal society where three year old children are regularly prostituted throughout the capital, the ONLY hope is the power of Someone’s blood and Someone’s Resurrection. I know with every spine-tingling feeling, with every goosebump that Papa is Romans eight: twenty-eighting that nation. Yes, I just used a verse as a verb. That’s how excited I am for what Papa is doing there. 
Hurrah! I wrote again! Back on the horse! Get ready for Cambodia by reading the blog I wrote on my first trip there–in my first few hours and days of being a believer! Oh, He is wild.
*1. I’m on code mode for this month out of protection of self and the organization with whom we are working. Hopefully my encoding isn’t that complicated, just complex enough to not be detected in word checks. Life on the Race, right? That being said, even after this month, there will be very little we are able to relay on the internet about our experiences this month.
*2. Thank you Nile River for your beautiful gift of “leptospirosis” that arrived one full month late upon arrival in Asia. Luckily in being so delayed, I got to spend three days in a Thai hospital instead of in a dismal African hospital…(And I’m doing much better now–that was last week’s adventure). 
*3. Elephants are no small obsession in life. They are one of my love languages, and they fill me with a joy that I am still unable to put into words.
*4. In addition to EVERY amazing thing I can say about Cambodia, one of my FAVORITE restaurants is in Phnom Penh…and I will be there in eleven days eating Greek Salad and hummus.
