So today is one of our last days in Cambodia. This month was drastically different than last month in Vietnam, but I loved them both so much. I learned very valuable lessons that I could not have learned in any other situations.
Vietnam, in many ways, almost felt like a vacation. We lived in a very nice, brand new hostel a 5 minute walk away from the beautiful beach. In Cambodia, we are sleeping on the floor of a classroom at an orphanage. In Vietnam, we “worked” at a café where our only job was to help locals improve their English skills in hopes to develop relationships and then lead into more God centered conversations. In Cambodia we are also teaching English, but this time in a church at our orphanage to a rowdy bunch of children that we live with every day. They know and love the Lord. (so much so that we all wake up at 5:30 A.M. for morning worship) In Vietnam, we could go wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted. In Cambodia we live on the outskirts of town a tuk tuk ride away from everything. In Vietnam, we had beautiful showers with hot running water. In Cambodia we have a small hose that sometimes works and a bucket and scoop for when it doesn’t with a whole colony of spiders in their webs in all of the corners.
Vietnam sounds nice, but it made me lazy. It made me complacent. It made me take things for granted. (don’t get me wrong, we did some awesome work for the Lord here. My team even had the rare opportunity to talk about Love (and God’s love) in a closed country… that’s huge!) In Cambodia we have the roughest living conditions I have had all race, but I am immensely thankful for it. It made me rely not on my own strength for comfort, but on God’s. It made me turn to him instead of all the comforts we already had in Vietnam. I needed Vietnam to fully appreciate just how good I have it now. Does that seem backwards? I hope it does… because I don’t mean good as in the comforts of life. I mean good as in the goodness of God. I know Him so much more now. I needed Vietnam and its comforts to realize now how much I rely on those instead of Him.
Do I miss those hot showers? Eh… not really. It’s too hot here anyway to take one. The cold water feels nice.
Do I miss that super comfy bed? Yeah, but I can sleep in my awesome hammock here J
Do I miss the freedom we had in Vietnam? Yeah but here I have gained more freedom in Christ.
And that’s eternal.
