This month has been crazy. We flew in to Cambodia and my I didn’t have a good attitude. I was ready for us to be leaving Asia. I was ready for Africa. I was in a bad mood because of conversations I had to have with people at home during debrief just a few days before. I prayed for the duration of our flights that God would change my heart posture – that He would allow me to be all in for Cambodia.
I screen fasted this month (well not the entire month…). I went in to the month screen fasting primarily to dig in to relationships here on the Race. I wanted to rely on my team and the relationships that I have here instead of relying primarily on people at home. It was tough. I didn’t like talking about what I was dealing with sometimes for many different reasons. I didn’t like being vulnerable.
We met our contact, Sam, and he is super awesome. He is doing a great work by running a store called The Lord’s Gifts and providing Phnom Penh, Cambodia with great t-shirts and other souvenirs that all speak to Jesus. He also runs a ministry in Ratanakiri Province, which is where we were headed.
We arrived in Ratanakiri and met our permanent/local contact, Pong. He introduced us to the owners of the house where we’d be staying. They are a Buddhist couple with a few kids. It was great to see them allow us to stay with them even though they knew we loved Jesus and were there to spread His name.
That day the students of the English class drove us to a nearby waterfall and lake. They were so beautiful and incredible. It was quite relaxing and a great time to get to know the students and Pong. We ate lunch with them and sang some songs and had an overall wonderful time!
The following week we went to a village where we helped a man named Sim, who is a carpenter and makes items for The Lord’s Gifts, construct desks for his English school as well as build a fence at his new house. We were supposed to help him finish construction on his new house but he wasn’t able to acquire the necessary tools quickly enough. When we arrived in Sim’s village, the girls soon found out that they would not be helping with construction because they are women. Laura and Cathy pressed in and helped anyway and Michelle and Erin took it as the Holy Spirit telling them to spend time with the villagers.
At the end of the week, we had a party at Sim’s village. There were over 100 children there and even a few parents. We were able to share the story of Jonah through a drama that the kids thoroughly enjoyed. Sim told us later that over 50 people accepted Christ that night. He also told us that his class enrollment went from 70 students to around 200 students. It’s pretty incredible because Sim doesn’t really even speak English but he wants to help his village in any way he can and spread the name of Jesus.
The second week was a little less exciting. We were asked to do many administrative tasks for the ministry. This included writing a grant proposal for a hostel that will house students from far away places to save travel time and decrease chances of abuse and danger on the trips, a situation analysis report on the number of Christians in the Ratanakiri Province, another grant proposal for Pong to be able to teach full time and not charge his students very much, and new designs for Sim to use to create wood carvings that will have high demand at The Lord’s Gifts. We were able to start each of these projects and leave them with a good foundation to add to later.
Overall the month ended up being great. I went in to the month wanting to leave and the feeling disapated throughout the month. I actually thoroughly enjoyed Cambodia. I might even be able to say it was my third favorite month of the Race so far! God taught me a lot of things about myself and showed me a lot of areas where He wants me to grow in the next four months. I’m excited about debrief and I’m even more excited that I’m going to be in Kenya in a week! 🙂
