To all of my loyal followers, prayer warriors, and friends, I'm sorry it has been so long since I've been able to write a blog. I have the most amazing team of supporters, and I want to keep you all in the loop… so thanks for being so patient while I've done a poor job of this. To catch you up, here is a brief recap on our last two months in Asia!
Month SEVEN was a pretty calm month for my team. We were Unsung Heroes, which means our focus was finding new contacts to send Race teams to in the future. This is the same thing my first team did in Nicaragua, but there were two big differences this time. One, we had to stay in the same city for the month instead of traveling across the whole country like before. Two, we were in a closed country, so it's illegal to share the Gospel there. Being from that country is basically synonymous to being Buddhist; some people consider their nationality and religion to be the same thing. Native people who are Christians are persecuted by the government, often shunned by their families, and sometimes killed. There are native Christians there, but for many of them, it's like living a never-ending secret. If you're from America or many other western countries, they usually assume that you are Christian, so we didn't have to be secret about our faith, nor do the western Christian missionaries living there. But the catch is that while you can be in that country as a Christian, you CANNOT be there with the purpose of sharing the Gospel… so you cannot be a missionary. Like everywhere else though, there is a great need for missionaries and many people have answered that call, but they do so as teachers, business people, etc. who make their occupation seem like their purpose for being there when it is actually to share the love of God. In Nicaragua, finding contacts was easy. We researched "Christian ministries" online, we freely asked hostel owners and taxi drivers, we visited churches, etc… like a treasure hunt. In this country though, it was more like an undercover mission because you can't just walk up to people and ask because that would bust our cover of "tourists." So we had to get creative in seeking out these missionaries and learning how to recognize one when we saw one. When we found someone we thought might be one, we couldn't simply ask them for the same reason as before and because they would likely not tell us because they don't know who we are or who might be listening. So we learned to speak a sort of "code language" through the questions we asked and through the way we interpreted their responses. After a few minutes, we could normally read each other and decide whether or not we were speaking the same "code language," which would then develop trust and lead to more direct conversations. Because this was a slow process, we had a lot of down time… which gave us wonderful opportunities to invest in our teammates, build relationships with the local people, and stay very close to the bathroom when our whole team was taken down by the vicious monster of illness (it happens on the Race). It was a challenging month but a good one. We trained for undercover missions in the FBI (basically), met some wonderful people, learned again that actions can send messages when words aren't always an option, and had some good adventures!
Month EIGHT in Cambodia was one of falling in love with simplicity and the genuine kindness of the Cambodian people. Everywhere you go, people greet you and children run to catch up with you on the streets. We lived with a pastor and his family in a village outside the city of Phnom Penh and worked at a school about a forty minute walk away. We taught English all day to students ranging from age three to twenty-three and came home in the evenings to young kids waiting to play at our home. They were covered in dirt but had the best laughs, the sweetest smiles, and the most lovable spirits. The biggest challenge of the month was the heat… I've never felt that hot for that long in my life, nor have I ever sweat as much as I did this month. But as challenging and exhausting as this was, it was worth it. I had to remind myself again and again of the incredible blessing of a life I was getting to live in a village in Cambodia and that the heat happened to come with it. It was another wonderful month and a great way to leave Asia!
And since it's been so long since I've blogged and I want to clue you in, here are a few things I've been learning over the past few months…
1) Being a peacemaker doesn't necessarily mean making everyone happy. I've always brought peace by trying to diffuse situations so nobody is unhappy or upset, but now I understand that happiness and peace aren't the same. Confrontation is not a thing to be feared because sometimes the best peacemakers are those who have the difficult conversations well and challenge people in a loving way.
2) Never underestimate the power of joy. If you're someone who brings joy, keep bringing it and don't doubt that it makes a difference. It is one of the easiest things to overlook but one of the most powerful things to change a person's life.
3) Even though suffering exists in the world, we can believe with full confidence that God is good. I've spent several months working through this one, and I'll probably write a separate blog about it sometime soon… so stay tuned!
4) The most simply lived life can be the happiest and most fulfilling kind.
5) Growth doesn't just happen from your experiences alone. Experiences give you a reason to reflect… and it's that reflection, that choice to process what's happening in your life, that will lead to growth. Make space for this.
We are now halfway through Month nine, and WE'RE IN AFRICA!!! It's my favorite place… Almost exactly one year ago, Africa stole my heart and convinced me to come on the Race. I'll write a blog about Swaziland soon! Until then, here are some pictures from months seven and eight: my teammate Andrea and I overlooking and praying for our month seven city, the sunrise at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and a pile of Cambodian cuteness. Thanks for following the journey!!
