Preface: I apologize. This blog is a bit belated and should have been sent out a couple of weeks ago. It’s been a blur, and I’m actually back in the states now, but more blogs are to come about our last month in Vietnam and an end of race blog. So, graciously read this like you received it 15 days ago. Enjoy!
Good afternoon Race Fans,
I am sitting here in a coffee shop somewhere in Vietnam (I’m not actually sure where we are because we’re between bus stops) and I thought I would share with you what we did last month in Cambodia.
Last month we were all in the hospital.
Now, we weren’t actually in the hospital due to injuries or illness, aside, of course, from the minor cuts and scrapes that is expected from living life on The World Race. No, we just slept in a hospital. We each all had our own hospital wheely-bed. It was pretty nice as the hospital was brand new and wasn’t fully operational yet.
Last month was also a little thing we like to call “Man Month” or more affectionately termed “Manistry Month.” And as many of you all know girls make up the majority of our squad. 31 girls to 7 guys to be exact. We love our Christian sisters, but some man time was readily accepted.
We worked with Solid Rock Baptist Church in Kampong Thom. They are a threefold ministry consisting of a Church, Orphanage, and Christian School. Dr. Castro, a medical doctor from the Philippines, and his staff help run the ministry. The three main things we were able to help with were maintenance tasks on the campus (painting, moving firewood, building shelves, and constructing a chicken-pen), teaching classes at the school (I taught an English Class and some of the other guys taught P.E.), and building relationships with the children in the orphanage. In addition we also got to go with Solid Rock Ministries to the feeding centers everyday where they feed over a hundred children from the villages nearby.
My favorite part of the month was getting to build relationships with the children in the orphanage. Because we were around them constantly, we ate with them, went to church with them, and played with them, we got know them pretty well. I even lead a workout every night with the older guys. All of it was a great opportunity for discipleship. In particular, I became good friends with one of the older guys. His name is Ra and he is such a cool guy. He’s 19 years old. and wants to attend a Bible college and afterwards serve as a missionary in Cambodia. It was cool to meet a young guy who wanted to make his life matter and be used by God. IHe and I are keeping in touch, and I am excited to see what God has in store for him.
Lastly, as you may have realized, The World Race, like most of life, is made up of a strand of many small moments, rather than one continuous, large sequence. Here is one of those comical moments that occurred last month.
A Day Our Taxi Driver Won’t Forget:
We had to take a trip into Phnom Pen, which is the closest (an by close, I mean 3 hours away) large city to where we were in Kampong Thom. We had to take our passports to get visas so that we could get into Vietnam. So we decided to make a day of it. On our off day, all seven of us piled into a Taxi and headed to Phnom Pen. Once we had safely handed over our passports, we did the most sensible thing that civilization-deprived individuals would do: hit up the mall. But instead of letting our taxi driver, who spoke no English, wait all day for us in the car, we invited him along with us. Obviously, the first priority of seven American dudes is to find food as soon as possible. We found Burger King, or more precisely, Burger King it found us (those of you who love Burger King can relate). We bought our friend a good ol’ American meal of a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a coke. We had to assure him he could pick up the burger with his hands. Then, it just so happened that that Jurassic World was playing at the movie theater in the mall, AND… this is the best part…it was playing in 3D! Yep, that’s right. Our friend, who had probably never been to a movie theater was going to experience his first movie three dimensionally. We also got him popcorn and a drink, which he didn’t quite understand since we had just eaten. As soon as the movie began it was apparent that watching our taxi driver was way more entertaining than the movie. He kept pointing at the screen and then making motions showing that things were looked like they were coming out of the screen. After the movie, we all celebrated with ice cream from Dairy Queen, and then ventured our three hour trip home. Once we arrived we thanked him and gave him a gospel track in the Khmer language. All in all it was a good day. A day, I suspect he won’t forget.
