Of Cambodia that is
Where I am bringing the Kingdom of God to the people of Cambodia in any way I can (or trying to at least)
Anyways, my squad and I arrived in Siem Reap on Feb. 2nd where we settled in for our month 4 debrief for 5 days before heading to the AIM base where we are living this month as a whole squad.
2 key things about this month:It’s All Squad month 2.0 & team changes happened.
First off: Month 4 Debrief
This time around debrief was so much better for me as far as handling it all, and actually realizing that I do need this time to R&R before heading into this month’s ministry. We were encouraged & lifted up by our squad mentor, Madie & our awesome coaches Jimmy & Sharon. We had our (final) team debrief as Team Surrendered & we also met one on one with the leader of our choice. I met with Sharon this time, and it was a great conversation as I got to know her better & she got to know me better as well. Besides that we had alot of free time and I manage to go out and explore the city a bit. I discovered the awesomeness of Pub Street which is the street that is famous for vendors selling interesting snacks such as snake, crickets, trantulas, scropions, and lizards on a stick to eat. I did eat all but the lizard, and they really weren’t as bad as one would think it would taste, and eating the crickets at training camp def help to prepare me for something like that.
The squad all stayed in the same hostel this time, and we literally took up all the rooms on the 4th floor. Our new squad leaders were announced as well, and I am so proud of all 3 of them especially one of them in particular as she is one of my good friends on the squad. All 3 of them will do such an awesome job of leading all of us as a squad.
But then things changed……Team Changes happened
I am not gonna lie, I thought that I was prepared for team change, but no matter how much I pepped talked myself into being ok with it, I wasn’t, and when I time came to receive the paper with our new teams, I took the paper without looking at it, and immediately went outside and just started crying hardcore as I felt like someone had just sucker punched me in the gut (Read my blog Dear Team Surrendered to understand why). Needless to say I was an emotional mess for a few days afterwards. Don’t get wrong I have come to love my new team, but I didn’t love them at first and it was all out of me being selfish and stubborn and not wanting to accept change.
So Team Surrendered has morphed into *drumroll please* Team Schondraggey Connection!!!!!! I am on a team with 5 “new” gals, and they are Aundraya, Ashley B, Hailey, Schyler & Maggie-Go and follow their blogs as well! (story behind our name & meet my teammates more in depth in a later blog)
After debrief, the whole squad moved into the AIM base here in Siem Reap called Overflow Guesthouse, so it is essentially all squad month 2.0, but instead of all of us going to the same ministry like we did while in Honduras, we all have our separate ministries each day & different days off too.
My team ministry for this month is getting to stay at Overflow (as that’s what we call it), and serve both the staff & the rest of our squad during this month.
Some of our duties are: serving meals & cleaning up/washing dishes after meals
cleaning the house/rooms
help clean/photograph/write up descriptions of items to sell on the local facebook by/sell page
pickup trash around the neighborhood
prayer walks
clean the pool
Various workshops on various topics such as Cambodian culture/history/ one on one time with the staff so that we can also be growing in our walk with God
Night security- which is pretty much just locking the place up at night (this is my job as I am the last one on the whole squad to go to bed at night but I take pride in this job for my p word was protection & this is a way to make good on that word. plus it makes me feel good too)
attend and volunteer at the nearby churchespecially with their youth program
Evangalism around town
Personally I have been living the “Life is ministry & ministry is life mantra these 5 months as I have a feeling that God is trying hard to teach me a lesson as this is the 4th month out the 5 months of my race so far that I have been both living and serving at the ministry, and it has been a struggle as I feel like I tend to get burnt out quicker every month then my other squadmates. So prayers for that would be appreicated as I need to find that line, and be able to turn off when I need too.
I am also got an adventure day trip planned to go visit Angkor Wat, so I am very excited about that as seeing that site is on both my life/historical bucket lists.
Fun fact: Scenes from the 2001 movie Tomb Raider were filmed at the Ta Prohm Temple, which is part of the Angkor Wat complex.
Til next time your fellow sister in Christ,
Bonnie
Team SC
P Squad
Psalms 18:2
YOLO
