Part of the Race that you get used to (wow can you really get used to them?) are the long travel days. Sure, you might get completely nauseous and sick on the 80+ hour bus rides and feel like you are about to die or be bored out of your mind waiting at an airport, but it is all part of the Race so you learn to take it in stride.
At least, for the most part I was able to keep a good attitude about travel days and it is a bit nice thinking about how there are only a handful of travel days left till the end of the Race. Yet, I find myself getting agitated more and more with long bus rides, dirty bus stations, and being idle for long periods of time…
In particular we went from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh for one night and had orientation in the morning and were supposed to leave that day, but tickets were sold out and we had to buy tickets at another station and spend one more night in Phnom Penh.
I didn’t want to be idle or unsettled. I just wanted to be in Kampong Cham at the YWAM base and start ministry, but it would have to wait one more night.
Bright and early we went to the bus station and waited and I didn’t think we would have to wait long, but we ended up waiting for a while and even then it was a constant question of which one is our bus because we don’t know Khmer.
Finally, we got on our bus and a “3” hour bus ride tops ended up being 6 hours…
I was so relieved when we arrived in Kampong Cham and at the YWAM base only to find out that it was a holiday and real ministry wouldn’t be starting till after the weekend so we had 4-5 days of more “rest.”
It was frustrating at first because I was tired of not doing anything, but what I realize now is that I was exhausted and running on my own strength. It was in the days of rest that I realized that I need to let go of my own abilities and to let God be my strength each day.
So yes, travel days can be long and somewhat tiresome, but God still finds a way to show up and in the long hours God wants us to lean on Him.
