I realize it has been far too long since I’ve written a blog, so I’m going to try and condense the past couple of months into a brief summary.
February was our final month in Asia and also my final month with team Boxcar Children. We spent the month in the capital city of Phnom Penh, where our ministry included teaching English classes to university students. Our hosts were Ango and Asui, a couple originally from India, but who now work with YWAM in Cambodia. They rent out two houses for a girls’ and boys’ dormitory, and they live in the house that is used as the boys’ dorm. Our team stayed in the girls’ dorm, which was a short walk away from the boys’ dorm where we ate lunch and dinner each day prepared by our wonderful hosts. There are about twelve students total who live in the dorms, and most of them come from impoverished rural villages. Our hosts have been discipling the students over the past couple of years. They have a fellowship/Bible study two nights a week, which we also participated in during our time there, as well as a church service on Sunday mornings in the dorms. Most of our team ended up getting sick with typhoid, (and other similar unidentified illnesses) so we spent a lot of the month resting. It was pretty rough, but I was thankful to have a decent living arrangement and plenty of time to rest.
On Valentine’s Day we decided to visit the historic Killing Fields and S21 Prison. Ironic, I know. It was heartbreaking to see where some of the darkest events in Cambodia’s history occurred only about 40 years ago and a reminder of how badly the world needs Jesus. At the end of the month a group of us also took an overnight bus to Siem Reap to visit the temples of Angkor Wat. It was exhausting but so much fun!
We had a debrief with our squad in Phnom Penh at the end of February, where we had our final round of team changes. Team End Zone is my new team, and I can’t think of a better group of people to finish the Race with.
So we left Asia and headed to Africa at the beginning of March to begin month nine in Swaziland. I was in the town of Manzini for the first week for the Parent Vision Trip, where I got to see my parents for the first time in eight months! They came all the way to Africa to spend the week doing ministry and getting a small taste of the World Race. Spending the week with my sweet parents was just what I needed, as I was starting to feel pretty homesick. We had a great week together, and of course my dad’s plethora of Africa-themed t shirts were a huge hit among everyone! 😉
At the end of the week, I said goodbye to my parents and was reunited with the rest of my team at El Shaddai, an orphanage on a mountain with one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. We spent the month with two other teams and stayed very busy! The ministry varied a lot. Some people taught at El Shaddai Primary School while the rest of us did various manual labor projects. I mostly worked in the garden with the exception of a few days spent cutting tall grass with a machete behind the school. And yes, cutting grass with a machete is about as much fun as it sounds. We also had “buddy time” each afternoon, where we were each assigned two or three kids from the orphanage to tutor and help with their homework. My buddies typically hid in their room to avoid doing homework, but they did hang out with me on a few occasions! It was honestly a little heartbreaking to see how badly a lot of the kids struggle with school. It seemed that no matter what I did to try and encourage them, they just didn’t care. But it was otherwise a very refreshing month and definitely one of my favorites. Being surrounded by such beauty up on the mountain brought so much peace and served as a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness.
So after leaving Swaziland, we came to Botswana where we have now been for the past three weeks. I’ll try to post another blog soon to catch everyone up on what we’ve been doing in Botswana, but it has been a great month! I can’t believe how quickly the end of the World Race is approaching. In less than a week we will go to South Africa for our final month of ministry before returning home on May 23. Wow! Please continue to keep us in your prayers during our final month. Thanks so much for all your love and support; it is greatly appreciated!!
