The past two months, I’ve been living in a small village about an hour away from Kampot, Cambodia. My team has been staying at a Youth Development Center that’s run by our incredible ministry host, Vuthy. We’re surrounded by cows, rice fields, dirt roads, and clear sky. Every morning I wake up to roosters crowing literally right outside our bedroom doors and eat breakfast from the market down the road. Kids from the village are constantly riding their bikes into the compound, excited to hang out with us, go find beautiful flowers or swing in the hammocks. Every day, this place began to feel more like home, and every day, the team surrounding me started to feel more like family.
I haven’t spent much time talking about this place or the things we’ve done here, but every bit of it has been life-giving. I have deeply loved each moment. We’ve taught and preached and painted and cleaned and built and prayed. We’ve visited homes in the community to encourage and love and pray for the sick and share the gospel. I’ve held so many kid’s hands, counted to 10 in Khmer a ridiculous amount of times, and laughed a lot. There’s no wifi nearby or much of anything, to be honest, so it’s been two months of really being present with my team and falling in love with them more and more every second. We’ve done the weirdest things and I haven’t been bored for a single moment. This place has been marked by joy, peace, rest, restoration, and love.
By the time I post this blog, I will have already said goodbye to this home. I’ll also be getting ready to move to a new home on a new continent. I’m really sad to leave this village, this country, and especially the people that I’ve built relationships within my 3 months in Cambodia. God’s been teaching me so much about releasing people to Him (since He will love and care for them so much better than I ever could) and living with my hands open wide. These months have taught me so much about His love and goodness and mercy and grace. I can confidently leave behind this place and these faces because I know that He will continue to be on the throne no matter where I go or what I do.
There are a million things I want to tell y’all about what I’ve learned and experienced here and hundreds to stories I could tell, but mostly I just want to share how grateful I am. As I’m ending this season in Cambodia, I want to close it with thanksgiving because every good thing that I’ve had has been straight from Him.
Thank you, Jesus, from this time in this place. Thank you for Vuthy and his family and the faithful work he’s done in this community. Thank you for his vision and passion. Thank you for the moments of connection and vulnerability with my team. Thank you for drawing us together and making this a place of safety and joy. Thank you for the freedom I found here. Thank you for the tender love and mercy you showered on me every day. Thank you for Corbyn and the way she loved and led us. Thank you for how she fought for me, loved me, challenged me, and called me into more. Thank you for my students and their hugs and laughter. Thank you for space to rest and be filled and restored and healed. Thank you for the stars and mountains and the green of the rice fields. Thank you for prank wars and Thanksgiving dinner. Thank you for the generosity and kindness that radiates from the people in this community. Thank you for making this place a home for my team. Thank you for the fact that it’s hard to say goodbye.
Thankful is an understatement. I’m feeling beyond blessed and loved. Something that I have really been grateful for these past 2 months is the people back home supporting me. I love getting messages and hearing about what He’s doing in the lives of my people back home.
Please pray for the transition my squad is about to go through. We’re moving to Ethiopia in a few days! Pray that we’re able to mourn the close of this season well, and enter into the next one with joy and expectation of what He’s going to do. Pray for my team as we move from being on our own for the past two months back into living with our whole squad. Pray that He’ll continue to deepen our relationships. Pray for urgency and against apathy. Pray for the fundraising process. Most of our squad is still fundraising, including me, and the final deadline is coming up soon. Pray for our new ministry and new home and new relationships!
Thank you for the encouragement and support and love. So grateful!
Next time you hear from me I’ll be in Africa!
