Cambodia.
Oh, Cambodia…
Before coming on the Race, I felt my heart being pulled to Cambodia and now that I'm here I feel like my heart may have been here all along, and it doesn't seem as if it will be coming with me when I board the plane at the end of this month.
Ministry:
This month, we are sleeping and living in the nursery of a daycare called "Feed My Lambs". It is a free daycare specifically for kids whose single mothers chose to keep their children and have received the help needed through a sister organization. At night we go between teaching English for free to anyone in the area who wants to come and going to the night centers which care for the children of sex workers in the area (that's for another blog). And twice a week, we go to local villages and give meals to the children as well as formula to new mothers who can't breastfeed because of HIV or supply.
It's a bit overwhelming at first–going to the villages. Most of the kids are partially clothed or completely naked. They are so dirty and tiny, and behind these "villages" (which are more of hidden slums within the city), runs a river of sewage that also looks like it serves as the city's trash service. There have been two times that we have run out of food before all of the kids were fed. I have thought once or twice in my life that I knew what heartbreak was (more than a couple since the Race), but in those moments… it undeniably broke. I had wanted to share pictures and stories that would help bring it to life for you but the fact is that you and I could probably Google something about poverty right now and find millions of pictures of little shacks so high and tight that it feels like walking in the dark and the sad, dirty faces of millions of children. And as much as those pictures made me sad and aware of the hurt, I didn't really get it until their dirty hands were yanking at mine, begging for a meal before we ran out of food. I didn't truly grasp it until a woman handed me her tiny, naked newborn and thanked us as we filled her formula container and gave clean bottles of water, because her baby would now be able to eat and grow.
I pray that everyone reading this will not only be "touched" but broken. Because this is not something that I can bring understanding through pictures or even the words I'm writing; it's a heartbreaking and wonderfully uncomfortable place. The place where you realize that all your broken pieces fit perfectly to fill someone else's need. YOU are near to people each and every day who have need; who are hurting emotionally or maybe even those who are truly starving or dying.
This month, I won't have any pictures of our actual "ministry", but I challenge you to take your own! And that's completely literal! Do something out of the ordinary, something that may be uncomfortable to you whether it's through an organization in your area or making friends with and ministering to the cashier at the gas station or coffee shop! SO much good is happening here and now but I can't be satisfied with just sharing stories and pictures…. I want you to SHARE in this experience! In this life!
Upload a picture and your story with #prismliving!!
Or maybe, you will be led to make so many more stories like this possible by donating to the rest of this mission. I currently need just under $4,000 by December 31st! You can hit the "Support Me" tab to donate! Still post a picture and hashtag it!
Thank you!!
