As of Thursday night, my time in Cambodia has officially come to a close. My last week at the school was filled with the most fun I have had up to date. The kids and teachers for whatever reason were more relaxed so I mostly hung out with the students and built relationships with them. The very last day of class was the most relaxed I had seen it. I sat in the back of the class and made origami boxes with the students! I started by teaching one boy in the back row how to make one and the next thing I knew, there were 15 other students learning how to make one. By the end of the day, it felt like every student in the school, as well as some of the teachers, had a box in their hand. They picked up how to make them very quickly.
This was a very sweet ending to a very sweet time in Cambodia. This month has been filled with laughter, love, awkwardness, sharing the Gospel, and more! It was also filled with growth for me personally. This growth came in the form of letting go of pride and being willing to mess up when I am asked to do something I am not good at.
When I first heard we were teaching English, my stomach kinda did a flip-flop, my heart rate got a little faster, and my palms got a little sticky. As some of you know, I have dyslexia. Because of this, teaching English is the last thing I consider myself qualified to do, let alone want to do. I honestly can’t spell to save my life and regularly miss words when I am reading. As I imagined, this made teaching pretty award at times. The students would snicker until I noticed what was wrong, or the teacher would kindly point out what needed to be fixed. There were many days when I really didn’t want to teach in the mornings when I woke up. The awkwardness and feeling that the students in my class got the short end of the stick because they got me as a teacher felt like it outweighed the joy of teaching the kids most days.
By the end of the month, though, I can say God did some work in my life and the lives of the students and teachers. The biggest display of this was the last day when all the children were telling us goodbye. One of the older girls who sat in the back of the class and snickered at my mistakes a lot came up to me and gave me the longest hug I received that day. I had never really talked to her other than a good morning or so, yet I had to literally pry her off of me so she wouldn’t miss the van. That made it really apparent to me that while it was really uncomfortable for me to teach and I did mess up, God still used me to show love and teach the students. It was a big moment for me.
Once we got on the vans to leave and headed to debrief in Siem Reap, I had time to process just how much God had done for us, with us, and to us this month. We touched the people and shared the Gospel with them, yet they changed us, too.
Debrief was a good time for me and my team. It was five days that we got to spend in sessions and processing what had happened over the past month. Both of these were much needed. We also threw some fun in there and saw one of the 7 man-made wonders of the world, Angkor Wat. At the end of our five days, we headed to Thailand on a 20-hour bus ride. I am now sitting in Thailand writing this blog to you. We will find out soon what our ministry will be and I will pass along what I can!
We did have some interesting bus trips this month. For you Harry Potter fans, I got to ride on the Knight Bus! Well, they called it a sleeper bus, but it had twin beds on one side and double beds on the other. That was our transportation from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. As you can see from the pictures, our bus from Siem Reap to Chiang Mai was quite beautiful! It came with a dog and had a disco ball inside it!
Some things you can pray for this month are that Thailand would be ready for us to share the Gospel. Also, please pray that my team will be attentive to hearing what God has to say. Hearing what God has to say is always important, but this month there is more of a stress on it.
Thank you for your prayers and support through this past month and the month to come!
In Christ,
Elise Swepston
