Month one is officially over. Only about 228 days or less left of the race.
228 days to soak in so much of the Lord so that I never fall off track again. Or when I do, I know exactly how to get right back on track.
228 days to learn how to effectively bring kingdom in my daily life so that I can carry that into life at home.
228 days to love on the lost and the broken-hearted overseas and a lifetime of loving the lost back home in Minnesota.
So. Much. Time. 228 days is just the beginning of the rest of my life. My wonderful squad mentor, Deb, told us that the race is the training camp for the rest of our lives.
We are here to bring kingdom in countries across the world. However, we are also here to have a set-apart time with God so that when we get home, we are in a place with God where we know who we are and are able to overflow from our intimacy with Him to the kingdom around us.
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Debrief last week was so good. I was able to process through everything that I just stuffed in during month one. I was able to sit at the feet of my Father and hear from Him. I will be writing a more in-depth blog on what exactly He told me while I was at debrief, however, just know that it was an excellent time that God set aside for us to meet with Him. In Acts 7:33, God says to Moses, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is Holy Ground.” When I arrived in my sanctuary with God last week, I took my shoes off at the door and met with Him on Holy Ground. And it felt so good. Thank you, Lord.
However, on the other side of things… Siem Reap is very good at breaking your budget. We had SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. There were tons of bakeries, western food restaurants like Mexican restaurants and Vegan places and Italian restaurants and of course, amazing cafes. I spent waaaaaay over my budget… my poor wallet. Also, I was able to see Angkor Wat on my adventure day. But, thank God that I am back in Battambang and ready to REALLY live with a budget and realize that money is a gift from God and it is not to be used to bless myself all the time. Sorry stomach, no more expensive coffee and yummy food. Now, I am really learning to budget so that I can be effective with my money and not spend it all like I do at home.
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So yes, I am back home to Battambang after a refreshing time at debrief and like the title of the blog says, it is so dang quiet here now. Instead of 50-60 people in our home here in Battambang, we have about 15 girls in one building and about 10 boys in the other building. It is way to quiet because half of our squad has left to go to other places in Cambodia. One team stayed in Siem Reap, one team went to Kampot, and the other team went to Kampong Thom and then three teams are back here in Battambang.
My ministry this month is cooking!! Today is the first day of that and I love it so far. Three of my teammates and I work on cooking ministry. Cara and Savanah do half-days and then Victoria and I do full-time cooking ministry.
Here is our schedule for ministry:
5:15 – Wake Up (Time with the Lord)
5:45 – Start Breakfast
6:30 – Eat Breakfast together and do Devotions (Led by Sharelle, our wonderful host who is playing as our mother during our time in Cambodia).
SIDE NOTE: Sharelle is amazing!! She never fails to make you feel welcome and loved. She always walks up to us, plays with our hair, and tells us that we are beautiful. She is a wonderful woman of God who loves people with her whole heart and points them on the right path always.
7:00 – Bike to the close (small) market to get our daily vegetables and fruits
(Mondays — Tuk Tuk around town to get the stuff for the week’s meals that are further away and thing that last longer than fresh produce).
*This is the time where we get to make relationships with people at the market and really be intentional about not just shopping for food, but finding people to love on everyday. I am excited for this!
8:00 – 11:30 – Clean up breakfast, do morning chores, make lunch and set-up
12:00 – Everyone returns from their morning ministry to eat lunch together
12:30 – Devotions together (we all sit in the same room and each spend time with the Lord in our own way).
1:00 – Clean up lunch, do the dishes and sweep and mop our eating area (other teams help us on their scheduled day).
1:30 – 4:30 – Rest time // Ask the Lord // (This is the time we get to ask God what He wants us to do that day. He may tell us to go out for ice cream with someone we’ve met or go bake cookies for the neighbors or go workout in the park with locals… we will see) // Personal chores and cleaning (like laundry).
5:00 – Prepare dinner
6:30 – Eat dinner together
7:00 – Clean up (Whoever is scheduled)
7:30 – Team time (We get together with our teams and really dig into processing and having intentional time together every night. This will especially be helpful now that our teams are all doing different ministries).
8:30 – WORKOUT TIME!! My team and I are working on running every night together to prevent the World Race 15 (where you gain weight because of baguettes and carbs). We ran together the week before debrief and I LOVED IT. We also bought matching Steph Curry jerseys for $11 and went to ball on the court for exercise… but thats a story for another day.
9:00-9:30 – Take a much needed shower!!!!! Cambodia is hot and your clothes real stinky real fast. Once you hop out of the shower, you automatically start to sweat within 2 minutes.
10:00 (or earlier) – BEDTIME!!
And… start it all over again.
Life here is precious. The people are genuine and always kind. They love to talk even though language barriers are a real issue. I have quickly learned that smiles go a long way. I cannot wait to see what God does through cooking ministry. Sure, we get to serve our wonderful squamates and love on them. However, we also get to love on the locals and get to know them by going to the market daily and spending time doing ask the Lord ministry in the afternoon.
Thank you Lord for every waking moment I get here in Battambang. Being gone a week, I missed home. I cannot imagine what it’ll be like when I have to say goodbye in 2 months. But, until then, we get to grow precious relationships and really be intentional with people here.
