Four days.
Its been four days since I left America. I flew from Atlanta to San Fransisco on Wednesday, spent all of Thursday on an airplane, and landed in China on Friday. Then on Friday I flew in another plane to Cambodia, took a four hour bus ride and arrived in my new home. Right now I am in Battambang, Cambodia. Everything here is new and different, from riding a tuck tuck to buying food and even sleeping. This place is… incredible.
It would be very easy for me to look at Battambang and see it as a city of poverty. A lot of the houses are built from metal sheets, theres garbage everywhere, and many people make their living through simple shops. I have so much back home, and yet I can’t bring myself to pity these people. I look forward to loving and serving the Cambodian people, but their lives aren’t just sob stories. They just live, and their way of life is pretty intense.
Yesterday I went on a bike ride through the city with some of my teammates to find lunch. The leaders let us loose to explore, and so we went out and saw the sights. All of the streets are lined brim to brim with shops and businesses, each displaying their goods. Sometimes you’ll see two or three shops in a row selling the exact same thing. There are elegant wood carvings and coconuts and flip flops, and lots of food.
It was such a freeing experience to bike down those streets and see these people. However, Cambodians are not known for their proper driving. Honking has become a constant warning that another person exists. People park wherever they want, even if it parks in their neighbor. And the lines?
“More like guidelines anyways”
The food here is pretty good. I have fallen in love with Cambodian bananas. They taste like American bananas, but have the texture of a kiwi. Definitely my favorite food so far. The noodles are a little more tricky. Sometimes they’re simply delicious, other times they will burn your tongue off.
The most profound thing I have learned here so far is open hospitality. Many of the Cambodians I’ve met so far are generous and kind. When my bike tire broke, a man stopped his motorcycle and helped me. When my bike chain fell off, a tuck tuck driver came over and helped. The poor people wave at us Americans, especially the children.
Today I attended my first Cambodian church service at a YWAM base. Most of the attending people were Cambodian, but there were a few others. About thirty of our squad went, and the people immediately left their moment of worship to make sure that every one of us had a chair and a place int heir church. They even have these radios with ear buds for their english people. As we watched the sermon in Khmer, a lady would speak into the radios and translate what the pastor said.
Even the worship slides were changed. They had english words and the Khmer pronunciation on the screen. One of the songs we sang was the one that begins, “You are my strength when I am weak, You are the treasure that I seek”. Singing such a familiar song in English as the Cambodians sang in Khmer was an experience that physically brought me to tears and mentally brought me to my knees. I have never experienced such a lovely union of voices lifted up in worship before.
I am constantly inspired by these people, their tenacity and hospitality. My squad took Saturday and Sunday to experience the culture of Cambodia first hand. Tomorrow, we will start our first ministry day, in which my team will be incognito christians serving in a Buddhist school. We learned at church today that many Cambodians believe in and are afraid of evil spirits. Please pray that we will be able to show them the only Ghost that is Holy and the overwhelming love of Jesus Christ. Thank you all for your constant prayers for me and this mission. I have perfect confidence that the Lord has placed me right where I need to be.
I am about $5,000 away from being fully funded, so if you feel led please donate to this trip. All of this is just the tip of the iceberg, there is so much more for me to share!! I need to be fully funded ($15,800) by the end of 2018. There will be a garage sale at Lakes Free church on September 22 from 8am to 4pm. Its gonna be massive (I hear its taken over my house) so please come on by. All of the proceeds will go towards funding my Race. Again, thank you for everything you’ve done and will do. I appreciate all of you supporters so much, and I look forward to telling you my story 🙂
~CLS
