This blog isn’t about any one thing specific but about my month as a whole in Cambodia. It isn’t too detailed so if you want to talk more please comment or email me! It is basically a direct journal entry out of a journal I have made to be generalities about each month and a way to express myself through art (something that I’ve never done before).
Cambodia:
-Our contact’s name was Chandra. She is one of the hardest working women I have ever met. She runs the girls home we worked with. Around 30 girls under the age of 18 who were trafficked or abused, were sent to these home for 6 months to 2 years and sometimes longer, if they are not ready to go back home. She personally fled Cambodia during the genocide that happened in the 70’s and grew up in California. Moved back to Cambodia in the last few years to obey the Lord’s calling to work at the home. She runs the home, a staff, helps counsel the girls, runs her own home where her mother, sister and other family members live, just to name a few. We were able to spend her birthday with her which was a joy to us and hopefully a joy to her. Her sister made us a traditiotnal Camobidan dinner, we baked cookies and swam in her pool. It was a sweet and simple time. My hope and prayer for her is that we were able to give her some rest. To take a little bit of her daily load off of her.
-We also lost our first quadmate. One of our guys stayed in Camobida becuase he deeply fell in love with the family he was working with. He is obeying the Lord’s calling on his life in a bold and courageous way, even though it might not be easy.
– Also, fell in love with the beach this month. Stayed at Otres Beach and Koh Rong Samoloem. White sandy beaches and clear blue water, like nothing I have ever seen before. There were tiny baby islands like you see on Survivor and on pictures from the internet and I was able to see them first hand. Never liked the beach before but seeing the beauty that the Lord created was incredible. The sunrise was stunning and swimming for shells with Sarah was such a joy. Swimming far far out with my team and still being able to see my feet was AWESOME. I tried to snorkel but it was weird so that didn’t last too long.
-My cousin got engaged in New Orleans. Super hard to be away from home, miss it a lot, but I know this is exactly where the Lord wants me.
-Saw Angkor Wat and ate (part) of a tarantula!
-Lastly, the sweet sisters we worked with. Saying goodbye was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Those girls forever changed my life. The gentleness, spunk, intelligence, and will that those girls carry is more than incredible. The perseverance and the joy is incomparable. Though the girls have gone through rough and unimaginable things, they care for each other like nothing I have ever seen. My prayer is that they know God. That they know He is a redeemer and lover. He brings restoration. He gives life. We did all we could but we have no choice but to trust in Him. It’s so hard not to have the desire to fix it but who better to trust than God?
