Some of my favorite memories from my childhood are from my family’s annual beach trips. Every year since I was a baby my whole family (by that I mean my grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, sister, and parents) went to Galveston, Texas for one week. Those vacations hold some of my sweetest memories.
One night out the week was my Uncle John’s famous fish fry. All of the dads and my cousins and I would pile in the suburban, blast some country music, chew as much hubba bubba as we could stuff in our mouths at once and ride the ferry to pick out the best fresh fish and shrimp. Then my uncle would boil shrimp and fry some darn good fish and we would all sit around one table peeling shrimp and dipping it in cocktail sauce.
My team arrived in Cambodia just a few days ago and the memories we have made here thus far have been incredible. Our host has gone above and beyond to make us feel at home. The first Sunday we were here our host Vuthy told us that instead of hosting church like usual, we would be taking the church to the beach. We all piled in two vans and drove and hour to the beach. When we got there we all sat around in hammocks and on mats and they fed us boiled shrimp and fresh fish.
As I was sitting around in a circle with people who have become some of my closest friends and peeling shrimp, this overwhelming sense of nostalgia swept over me. I was immediately brought back to my childhood. I sat there in that moment and was so thankful.
When you are living overseas everything is so out of the ordinary and nothing is familiar and then all of a sudden God gives you a little moment such as eating boiled shrimp by the beach and you are brought back to a sense of normal. You get to taste a little piece of home even when you are thousands of miles away.
Thank you Jesus for shrimp by the beach.
