Cambodia was a month full of kids, teaching, fried rice, and so much more. We started this month by heading to a village area in between Phenom Phen and Siem Reap. We got there and jumped right into teaching at the local school next door. Our host was the principal of the school. I ended up helping to teach in the 4 and 5 year olds class, or what they called K2. I taught 3 classes in the morning and 3 classes in the afternoon. In between the morning and afternoon classes we had a 3 hour period of what the Cambodians refer to as “nap time”, where you can eat lunch and take a nap. Nap time was the best and something I definitely think America should introduce!
In my K2 classes I usually read a book to the kids and then played with them during play time. We read many books about animals and colors and people. They loved to point out the different animals in the story and what color they are. Sometimes they were right, sometimes they were wrong. But it was so much fun to be able to teach them and help them learn english. Play time was wild, but my teammate Brooke and I took on the masses of children wanting piggyback rides, playing soccer, or just sitting down eating snacks with them. I also helped out in the night classes teaching english to the older kids there.
Around the second week my team and I started to get hit with a lot of different sicknesses and personal things we were going through. Life quickly kicked our butts as health and mental issues came into play and our ministry got busier. We relied a lot on the Lord during this time and clung together as a team.
Aside from life coming at us from all different sides, we loved being able to help out at the school. The kids and teachers there were amazing. We loved being able to get to know them and spend time with them every day. We were able to host a game night for them, which was a ton of fun. We also were able to hike a mountain and visit some ancient temples with one of the teachers one day. It was nice to have somewhat of a routine every day. We went to school, got huge coffees at the same place, ate fried rice at what we called the corner restaurant every night, it was simple.
Our time there seemed so short. It was a hard month for sure, but we saw God moving throughout. At the end of the month my team and I left our village and headed to Siem Reap. We got together with our squad and a Gap Year squad for what is called Awakening. Awakening was a mini conference that we got to help put on. I was so fortunate to be able to lead worship for all 4 days of the conference. I was assigned as one of the worship coordinators which meant I got to put together, sing, and play guitar for 7 different worship sets. Those 4 days were amazing. We saw the Lord move in incredible ways and I felt so blessed to be a part of putting it all on.
After Awakening, my squad and I had our own debrief for a couple days. We then headed to Laos. My team and I are currently in Don Det for the next couple of weeks before we head to Thailand. Laos is a closed country so please pray that we are able to do what the Lord has for us here and that he guides us each and every day.
