I know we’re a little bit into October but my squad right now is in month one debrief! We moved locations from Battambang to Seim Reap for a week just to take time to rest and process and have fun.
On last Saturday I realized about halfway through the afternoon that it was the last day we could truly listen to September by earth wind and fire. Needless to say, we jammed to it a good bit that night.
Let’s do a little 09/17 recap:
Wellll I left America not really sure what to expect – met all 43 of my friends in GA and we up and moved to Cambodia after a few hectic travel days. Since being here, I’ve turned 18, seen so many shooting stars, met the sweetest Australian/ Canadian friends ever who also happen to be our ministry hosts, painted murals in school gyms, on playgrounds, have biked absolutely everywhere, slept in hammocks each night, explored temples, hiked mountains, held crocodiles, swam in dirty lakes, and eaten more rice that I could imagine. I could list things forever but the most prominent and the most exciting thing about my time here is how much the Lord has revealed about himself already through this place !!
Cambodia- I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t know much about this country before moving here and I did minimum research on history and culture. All I knew upon arrival was that their religion was primarily Buddhism and their language was Khmer.
After being immersed in the culture of Battambang, we discovered some things about Cambodian history. The country as a whole has a dark past. In 1975, the Communist Party of Kampuchea, or the Khmer Rogue, took control of Cambodia.
The Khmer Rogue’s goal was to create a “pure, master race” through social engineering. They deprived people of their basic rights and forced Cambodians out of their homes and into agricultural work camps that served to turn the country into a massive detention center, a rural classless society. Around 2 million innocent people were killed from overwork, starvation, abuse, or executed simply because they were educated or intellectuals.
Wow. I know that’s a lot but time hop back to today for me~~~
Everyday, I get to teach elementary school kids English with my friend Laura. We’re at a school called Ezra, which is actually run by the host family we stay with, out of the bottom floor of their house. It’s completely non- profit; the kids don’t pay anything to come and learn.
Cambodian children are the absolute sweetest. Language boundaries don’t exist to them, they embrace such a beautifully simple concept of loving people and looking past all the walls between us. Their families have come from darkness yet they are so full of light and eager !! Joyful, ready to embrace anything we present to them. They love games, they love competition, and they love to yell even though they can’t completely understand Laura and I. Its chaos, it’s the best.
This is Laura. And Sok.
This is Pahnya. He used to come to class but doesn’t really want to learn anymore so he just hangs out. He loves chalk and he’s learning the hand jive.
Laura and I have done numbers one to twenty !!! nouns and verbs !!! days of the week !! weather !! And most importantly lots and lots of games.
These are some more of the kids who come to Ezra (yes its Sok again and his twin brother Sal)
I’m so thankful that we get to look at these cute faces everyday. The Khmer people are still affected by what happened in the 70s- the long term effects of the radical changes the Khmer rogue forced into Cambodia are one of the main causes of the poverty that still plagues Cambodia today. Getting to be a light and a safe place to these kids and being able to tell them about Jesus is such a special thing to me.
Somebody recently told me that Jesus’s classroom is the road. As much as these kids are literally (I hope) learning from the knowledge we have to teach them, I’ve realized that getting to be here, I’m learning just as much from them- something along the lines of learning to better walk in the simplicity and pureness of loving others fully and well.
Love you all,
~ i
