So I know this post may seem a bit outdated. I was in Cambodia in October. But I felt like I haven’t fully given y’all a taste of that month quite yet.
So when I left Thailand, I was almost beginning my struggle with something of an identity crisis. Why was I here? What was God’s plan? Did I really want to do missions for the right reasons? We bussed from Bangkok, Thailand, to the border of Cambodia around October 1st, where we put our packs on our backs and walked across the border. After getting out passports stamped, it was back onto the bus for another 4-5 hours to the city of Siem Reap, where we would have debrief.
Debrief was amazing. Siem Reap was such a great city for tourists, and our guest house was a hop and skip away from Pub Street, the main tourist hub of the city (kind of like Thamel in Kathmandu. Not very authentic, but a nice taste of home.). There were restaurants and tourist shops and bars with live music and lots and lots of foreigners. We spent 6 days there, debriefing the last few months and catching our breath. Questions of identity and purpose were abetted for the week. Instead I focused on buying souvenirs for my sisters and finding the cheapest fries on the street.
And then ministry began. My team was once again placed with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in the city, about a 10 minute bike ride from Pub Street. We would be joining YWAM’s University of the the Nations, teaching English, music, and computer skills to Cambodian teenagers and young adults. The classes were held in the evenings, after school or work for most students, so we spent our days as a team praying, painting and cleaning the YWAM base we stayed at, and I even got the task of helping update their website. This left a few hours in the mornings and mid afternoons to find something to do. I biked a lot. And went to the local cafe for wifi. And thought and prayed. Hence the ensuing identity crisis.
It rained a lot in Siem Reap. And not the happy, good smelling rain either. This was polluted city rain, filling the cracked streets with muddy puddles and staining your clothes with brown droplets. God used the rivers of Thailand to demonstrate the action of His will. But what about here? How do I follow God’s directions when things seem pretty quiet on His side. YWAM is pretty big into the Holy Spirit (lots of praying in tongues and laying on of hands) which got me thinking more and more about my personal experiences with God and the Holy Spirit. What does God speaking sound like? How do I distinguish between His will and something that I just think is a pretty good idea? How do you follow His lead when He’s not exactly handing you the color coded map. How do I float when all I have are puddles?
But God comes through in the end, without fail. It still isn’t clear, but as ministry continued into the month, I began to see how God speaks to different people in different ways, and how he uses different people in different ways. My experience with his will looks very different from how other people (even racers on my team!) experience the Lord’s will. I cannot compare my journey with someone else’s.
Overall, Cambodia was a bit of a tough month in many ways. Living in the city was hard to get used to, but also easier sometimes. The ministry was great, even if the hours were kind of different. And my team got to spend a lot of time in devotion with one another, which was a really great direction for us. Cambodia was a short month. We only spent 20 days at ministry before we left for Phnom Penh, the capital city, where we were given new teams and a 30+ hour travel day. Hopefully I can fill you guys in on all of that very soon. 🙂
