Cambodia was hard to transition into for a couple of reasons. One was my love for Thailand, whenever we arrived in Cambodia I was still grieving the loss of the experience of Thailand. It was an amazing month there and I didn't want to leave. This made the transition into Cambodia extremely hard. The second reason was that as soon as we arrived at our ministry site, I got a bacterial infection and major headaches. I was stuck in bed for about 10 days trying to recover from everything and spent about 4 days in Phnom Penh seeing a doctor and trying to recover a little more there.
I started to dislike Cambodia and it lead to me not wanting to participate in ministry. Wishing that the month would just fly by so I could skip this country. There were a couple times while I was sick that I thought to myself, "Maybe I can just fly back to Thailand to see doctors and then meet the squad back in Malaysia after the month is over." I was finished with Cambodia, the sickness was destroying my attitude and desire to continue.
I didn't even give the ministry a chance.
Then, I finally overcame the sickness and was able to be myself again.
The month took a huge turn for the better.
I finally had enough energy to start teaching English, joking around with the guys and workout. It feels good to be back to normal and just enjoying life to the fullest.
God has been doing amazing things in my heart. While I was sick I was able to finish the book Fathered by God by John Eldredge. It talks about the stages of a man's life. Then I finished Captivating and Wild at Heart by John as well. Both of those books rock my world every time I dive into them. They just opened my eyes so much to the image of God I was created in but also to what the devil is doing in our lives to steal our strength.
The devil stole my strength at the beginning of the month. Physically, yes. But mostly spiritually and emotionally.
21st Century medicine in an amazing gift from God, but what we often miss is that sometimes a physical problem is from the spiritual realm. We try to logically explain problems that aren't logical. We have a diagnosis, yes, but we often miss the spiritual aspect as we try to explain everything.
The devil stole my emotions at the beginning of the month which in turn stole my strength. The strength of my prescense, my joy, my adventurist spirit and my love for the children we are teaching English. He did all that through making me sick, and thankfully God used it for the better to do some serious heart work.
As I say goodbye to all the guys we have been doing life with the past month here at YWAM – Kampot, it isn't easy. I thought it would be easy to say goodbye at the beginning of the month, but I am connected to these guys. We are good friends and they say that we are now family.
It's hard leaving family and I have done it 12 times now since the Race started. It's cool that we will be united again one day.
