I am in the midst of Cambodia. I live in a duplex-style apartment with my team, and my hosts live just two apartments over. These large apartments are designed in such a way that they have left a large piece of land in the middle as the apartments surround it. I wake up to cows grazing on the grass there in the mornings, either a quite chilly or very hot morning, and morning devotionals all together with my team and hosts over breakfast.
I teach an English class to Khmer and Korean children, ranging in ages from seven to fourteen or so in the mornings. Shortly after this, I head out shopping with Taylor and Darcy (one of our hosts’ daughters who handles all the cooking). We go to “Western style” stores for certain items and the rest is bought at the market or bakery. I love that I can smell fish, herbs, fresh baked bread, and fresh air outside.
We come home and prep for lunch, eat and spend some time together as a team. Then we quickly split to go to our hosts’ library cafe that they’re in the process of renovating. We clean and cover books and paint for a few hours. The delight on our host’s face as all of this comes together is overwhelmingly sweet!
We then go back home to eat dinner; and as of late, this has included some kind of treat or drink that will feature at the new cafe in a couple of weeks. It’s fun to overhear and discuss this process with them about food, decorations, and atmosphere. After all of this, we clean up yet again for the third time since we’re in charge of cleaning after meals.
Sometimes we retire quickly to beds. Other times, we run to cafes, have watermelon seed spitting contests, sit in rooms laughing SO hard that it should be recorded, or watch movies. Sleep usually comes early and so do the mornings. We repeat this Monday through Friday.
While my weeks will continue to look like this for a bit, I struggled with it at first. I called it mundane and realized that developing a routine in another country while doing missions will probably look kinda mundane.
During the midst of this consideration, I also realized that this is not something that is glamorous. It’s sometimes and often routine and even mundane hard work. I will do that probably twenty days to show people or see for myself that one interaction and one moment that is considered a “great” story.
So here I am telling y’all about what this is really like for me. At first, I cringed when I understood this. Then it clicked in my mind while chopping vegetables one day – I’m doing this as an act of love and to serve my team and my hosts well. And though it’s not glamorous, it is beautiful.
I’m thankful that I’m learning now about the beauty in this, in what appears mundane and that the Lord is removing my lens that quickly assumed that missions has to be compiled of these grand and honestly romanticized moments. Those will happen and they’re great, but really they’re only a part of a bigger story.
So how do we respond when it’s mundane or doesn’t meet our expectations? I’m coming to see that the best response looks like a combination of remembering that my hope lies in the Lord and the life I have with Him and that the purpose in things is grander and simpler than I realize but makes sense with Him. He gives what appears mundane purpose, and I love that!
From my heart to yours,
Kim
