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Hey friends!!! Life in Kampot has been rustic and blissful, a combination of exciting moments and chill vibes all intertwined in Jesus. Instead of telling you one story this week, I thought I’d show you one day in the life. Here’s what I did on November 1st.
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My first stop in the morning is the bathroom. There are four in my home- two like this and two squatty-potties. There aren’t any mirrors and you can’t flush toilet paper, but we have running water and locking doors. All in all, I count it a win.
?Every day my team starts our day together with a half hour of quiet time. I like to make myself a cup of instant coffee, sit down at the table, and look at whatever the Lord put on my heart that day. Sometimes I read the Bible, sometimes I listen to spoken word, sometimes I read Jesus books, sometimes I just talk with God. In any circumstance, I always write down what the Lord reveals to me in my journal. After two months of chatting with Jesus, I just finished my first journal and have begun writing in a new one (thanks Bernie and Tim!). I have found that these quiet moments with Jesus make or break every day, so I make it a point to sit with Him as much as I can.
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After quiet time, my team will send two people into town to pick up breakfast, so Panda (Hannah) and I decided to go. For some reason we had to drive some students to school today, so our tuk tuk was full of little kids.
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The market is always busy in the mornings. Its impossible to catch all the sights, sounds, and smells lurking from each stand. Sometimes I wish i didn’t catch as many smells. Every day my team gets waffles so that we can build relationships with the local waffle ladies. The one pictures above is my favorite, but some of my teammates disagree. Either way we bring Kingdom through waffles. We also got oranges and pillows (a tasteless donut) today, but Panda and I couldn’t find any condensed milk (you can’t have pillows without condensed milk).
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Across the street from our house is a little cafe. Panda and I went over to get some sweet condensed milk, but our team usually goes over for the coffee and tea. The ladies there serve their drinks in plastic bags stuffed with ice. They’re a cheap nice treat on a hot day.
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Breakfast is served!!After breakfast my team goes out on house visits. You can’t see him very well in this picture, but our homie So Phea is leading us to a new house. We got to new houses almost every day. Today we visited a divorced woman who lived alone with one child and grandchild. There is a lot of divorce in Cambodia, more than I’ve ever seen before. I didn’t take any pictures of the woman because I was too focused on her, her beautiful face and lovely smile. My team learned about her six kids and four grandchildren, how she lost her first husband and was left by the second, how she has felt Jesus comfort her soul but didn’t understand salvation. We spoke to her about Jesus and how he heals the body and soul, and we prayed over her. She felt immediately better afterward (all praises to God), and then Ashley told her even more about the Lord. House visits are very special, it is an opportunity to meet people where they are at and share with them the good news. The people of Cambodia are hungry for good news, all our team has to do is speak. I wish I had a picture of the woman, but I think we all have someone we can picture in her place. Someone we ought to reach out and give good news. I encourage you to pursue your house visit today.
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My team makes it a point to minister to a woman names Ruth. She is a cousin of Vuthy (our ministry host) and we visit her almost every day. Ruth has two kids, a baby boy and a little girl. I remember hearing that her husband never helps her, but they may be divorced as well. She is a busy body in every way, always running to and fro throughout her cafe. This woman works every single day of the week, even when she is sick. My team has shared the good news with her a few times now, we’ve brought her both the Old and New Testament. Some of my teammates are planning to share with her the story of Ruth, but I serve her from the shadows. Today I got to serve her by washing dishes in her cafe. It wasn’t an alter call, but I’ve found that ministry is more of a lifestyle than a set program. Freeing Ruth of work allows for my other teammates to teach her more about Jesus. Please pray for her to continue to learn and understand who God is and how much He loves her.
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My team cleaned the house when we got home. We usually do this once a week to bless our hosts and ourselves (the house gets gross real fast). This includes cleaning our room, the bathrooms, the hall and kitchen area, and the church. I was on bathroom duty, luckily there were no visitors from the drain today.
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Lunch!! I forgot to take a picture for lunch, so here’s all the chickens in the kitchen in the morning. Jeff has been missing for a week now, Vuthy said he took him to another farm. I didn’t believe him either.
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One of the best ministries of the day is construction. Today for some reason Vuthy wanted us to move a bunch of tables around, so here is the construction crew taking four table desks in the back of a pickup truck. There are no ropes, no nets, and no place I’d rather be. Construction has looked like destroying a gazebo, building a motorbike garage for the students, and cleaning up trash. We basically do whatever Vuthy says needs to be done. During this time the rest of our team teaches English to the local children. They have some crazy kids so the construction team tries to love them well.
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After a brief break period, I start my class at 5:30. It is a class that teaches the local kids ages twelve to eighteen about English and Jesus. Paige and I are front and center every night pouring out on these kids. They spend a lot of time speaking in Khmer and laughing but we’re not fazed. Tonight was one of my favorite nights of teaching. I taught the students the words height, width, tall, short, narrow, wide, giant, and tiny. To better explain the words I got to draw a diagram of a tall narrow, tall wide, short narrow, and short wide cat. Then I made all the students draw one, and the room was filled with giggles and students asking me to look at their drawings. It was amazing!! Then Paige told the story of David and Goliath while I drew pictures on the board. It was a hit, the kids understood and liked it, and I was pumped.
Later today my team had dinner, swapped some fire feedback, and received som major love from our leaders. It was a beautiful and intimate time with the Father, but I’ll save that blog for another day. For now, thats it! That is a summary of what a day looks like on the field. I wish I had less writing and more pictures, but if there is a choice between capturing a moment and living in the moment, I would live every time.
I hope this gives you some insight on what I see each day and how the Father is ever present in Cambodia. Please remember that I am still fundraising and need to be fully funded asap, so if you feel lead to support me please do!! The Lord still needs to raise me about $2000 so that I can remain on the field serving Him across the world. Any and every donation is appreciated, and I want to thank everyone who has brought me this far. The Father breaks my heart by your kindness every day, and I am honored by each any every one of you. Thank you all!!
~CLS
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