When I think about the past month in Cambodia I describe it as yellow. It’s just like the Coldplay song. If you’ve never heard, it look it up, right now. It is a combination of beauty, melancholy, happy, and somehow a love song.
It was all yellow. That’s how I see Cambodia. It is green, lush and alive. The city is bustling, a blur, full of movement- yellow lights, yellow buildings, yellow temples. The yellow sun- so bright in the sky, even when the rain was about to come down. The countryside where we lived was slowpaced, unhurried, and full of rhythms. The color was everywhere.
It was beautiful. The people. Their smiles, openness, hand holding, and welcoming hearts. Our incredible hosts, the kids we taught English to, the young men and women in the orphanage. The tea lady down the street. My team of godly women who have grown so much in the past month. These people are beautiful.
It was melancholy. It was not an easy month. I’m celebrating the fact that our teams made it and survived the hard things we walked through. I’m glad we experienced thI’m but I look forward to the coming months. It was a month of goodbyes. Every week we said goodbye to something or someone, and it was hard. I felt this deep sense of melancholy and as a four on the enneagram its a place I feel comfortable in.
It was happy. I savor the little things. Pancakes for breakfast. The sound of a downpour on a tin roof. A wall covered in our drawings, notes and prayers. The sound of laughter while we play poison dart frog. High fives from little ones in the middle of my runs on the brick red dirt road. The taste of matcha green tea from our lady down the street for 50 cents. Holding hands in a circle praying for the person next to us. Karaoke for English class- good old Tswift was sung more than once. Dance parties on our porch. Endless card games.
This is what happy feels like.
It was a love song. Every place I go the Lord brings me to love it. Even in the midst of hardship, he romances my heart. When I first arrived I wept with the Lord, asking him how I was going to love so many people. I told him- my heart isn’t big enough on its own. And so I asked him to expand my heart and to give me space to love people well. I asked for an abundance- and he gave me just that. From the overflow of the love that he showed me, I was given the gift of love .
//and so Cambodia was all yellow. Beautiful. Melancholy. Happy. Love song.
Blessings,
Liz Bredberg
