I guess you are all wondering where I am and how its going. So we left the states from San Francisco on Tuesday, Jan 8th for China. 13 hours later. We made our first stop in China. Well, only to go through customs, get a temporary visa, and back on the same plane. Loaded back up and another 4 hours in the air. Landed in another part of China for a 15 hour layover..yes, 15 hours! We slept in the floor that night at the airport. Well, most of us. Finally, on Thursday, Jan 10th, we get to Phnom Penh, Cambodia! We have been in Phnom Penh since then and completing our training before we are off on our own. So, now that you are all caught up, I will tell you about one of our days.
I am sure by this point, you all know how much I love Haiti. I love the people, the culture, the community, the love, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment I get serving them. So, you can imagine the slight heartbreak I experienced when we are driving through Cambodia and I have this sadness that I am not serving my favorite people. I know that the devil works in ways we never anticipate, and that was exactly what he was doing to me. Part of this next year is for me to learn where I am called and what kind of ministry or was I just called to the World Race or am I called to be in Haiti. Today, I cant answer any of those questions, and I know in His time I will be able to answer all of them.
So, we had an afternoon of free time. Several of my team decide to going to a mall and a park. We load up in the tuk tuk (Cambodia’s form of a taxi). We get to the mall and we were all not feeling it. We decide to walk around and saw a HUGE white building. We get to the door to find out its a wedding venue. Like a dozen of weddings could happen at the same time in this building. It was BEAUTIFUL. As we leave the building, we walk through the employee area. Saying hello, smiling, and waving. As we got closer to this man, I noticed he had got something in his eye. It was already swollen and severally red. I motioned for him to hold out his hands so I could give him some clean water from my bottle to wash out his eye. In that moment, I realized what it was to be a disciple for Jesus. Its not always about these HUGE moments when thousands come to know Christ but the simple ways of showing love. We didn’t speak the same language, come from the same place, but we can both love like Jesus.
We walk on, and I can’t stop thinking about the day a very similar thing had happened while I was in Haiti but with a little boy. I keep walking with the group and we get to a village. Lots of markets and children. We go in with no direction or plan, but to love. I find a small child playing in the dirt with a car. As we regroup to leave, I tell the others I would love to get some small toys to put in my bag so we can give them to the kids. We look over and we see a small market booth with balloons. Perfect! We had about 10 kids around at the time. By the time we had given the balloons out, more children. Of course, I go back for more balloons. Then bigger kids start to come over and I get candy for our group to give out. The lady at the booth hadn’t spoke a word of English to me, but she very clearly said to me that we had made the children of Cambodia very happy today. My heart melted. I felt as if I had found Haiti in Cambodia.
