Its been about a week since I arrived in Cambodia, and it has been quite the adventure so far. For those that don’t know, my first time on a plane was Wednesday night, and it was from Atlanta to San Francisco. Flying was weird to me, but it was also exciting and like a big step towards starting the race. We then left San Francisco at nearly mid-night to begin the almost 15-hour flight to China. With the time changes that happened the entire day of the 13’th was spent on a plane and we landed in China on the 14’th, which meant that my first time out of the country just so happened to be on my 19’th birthday. I was pumped here I am rolling up into china on my birthday, I was feeling good at this point, it was like I was the man. After a few hours in the China airport we were boarding again to head on to Cambodia, so here I am 19 feeling good and then we add in a second country to the list which was awesome. I had been riding high all day feeling so happy about what was going on, but come later that evening, I came to the realization that I had actually left my family for the next nine months, and that this was the first birthday that I wasn’t with them. It hit me pretty hard and I struggled a little with it at first and fought some home sickness that had begun to rise up. After a bit I began to feel better, and it really helped when a couple days later I got a card and a cake from the squad, and after that it made me feel a whole lot better. They might not have realized it but after that I was like I began to feel more at home and feel like they were more so my family than just my squad mates. After we got in, Saturday and Sunday were days off to be able to explore the town, and get a feel for the area that we will be staying in. It was crazy as we got to go around town and see all the different people and the difference in the culture that they have than what I was used to in America. We got to see the market, eat local food, and try a local coffee shop. It was so cool. Sunday night started our first team time, which was worship, I got to play my cajon and my teammate Brendan played guitar and there were some girls that were singing, and it was so powerful. I got pushed out of my comfort zone because they wanted me to help lead the sing on one of the songs, and I’m not very confident in my singing voice so it pushed m e but it was good. On Monday we had cultural orientation, so that we would be able to act, speak, and dress the way that we needed to so that we wouldn’t hinder ministry. Then Tuesday was the big day, the day that we started our ministry. My team is all guys, so we were given manual labor at a church. The man who has been there with us is named Sano, and he is truly a man after God’s heart and has some amazing stories that he tells us. He was so happy when he saw us there on Tuesday because he had help to clean up the church, and we have cut weeds, cut down trees, moved dirt, burned the stuff that we cut, and sanded and painted. It has been so awesome to get to see the transformation of this building and the joy that it brings to Sano. And just over this little bit that we have been here my relationship with God has already gotten deeper, and I’ve been studying more than I did before.
