Hello from Cambodia, the land of sweating my butt off, showering with brown pond water, eating rice with soy sauce every meal, bugs crawling all over me at night, lots of animals everywhere, wearing a couple of outfits over and over, and praying every night before bed that I don't get lice or have a rat run across me while sleeping. BUT also the land of precious kids, beautiful scenery, beautiful people, lots of sweet alone time with Jesus, waking up to kids laughter (one of my fave sounds), lots of fruit, and sweet times with my team.
That's just a little glimpse of my life these days. At first, I was not excited to be here. To be honest it was the first time on the whole Race that I was ready to get back to America. We are literally in the middle of nowhere. Last month we were spoiled with getting to spend a few days at a beautiful beach and the month before that we were in Bangkok-a huge city. This month we have nothing around….literally. At first I thought that was a bad thing…but the longer we are here…the bigger the gift I see that being here really is. When I am ever going to be living such a simple life like this again? Not saying never, but there is a good chance that I won't ever be at a place like this again for a chunk of time. I had a choice to make at the beginning of the month. I could either sit and complain and wish my time away here or embrace where I am, choose joy, take advantage of every second, and be a blessing to those around me. Well I'm choosing JOY people!!!
We really are blessed to be here. Yeah some days are rough. BUT where we are is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. We have free time between classes and I have had some of the best quiet times with Jesus that I have had on the whole race. Something about being out in nature and having nothing around, living the simple life teaches me a lot about the Lord. One morning I decided to have what I like to call an "alone morning". I just had a lot of frustrations that were ridiculous and totally from the enemy so I took a chair, went and found a tree and sat with the Lord for a few hours. Reading the bible, listening to worship music, and letting Him turn my frustrations to peace and my bitter heart to a joyful heart. It was for sure one of my top highlights from this month 🙂 He gave me lots of sweet revelations and refreshed my spirit, getting it back to where it needs to be. I'm so thankful for that morning.
some of our beautiful surroundings and our church
This month we are working with a really cool guy, Vuthy, who used to live in the city as a tuk tuk (like a taxi in America) driver and through driving people from YWAM became a Christian. After thatGod called him back to his hometown where he now offers free English classes to the village kids, started a church here, and is soon moving into a house close to the church (Mercy Home) where he will be taking in 24 kids and being their Dad 🙂
We are working with another team this month and we have English classes several times a day. We take turns teaching and in the morning some of us switch off between doing house visits and working at Mercy Home, helping sand the walls to get ready to paint. Also preaching at church, which is always a given. The kids are precious, several of them have stolen my heart. They are sweet, excited, and ready to learn English. They melt my heart. This weekend before we leave we get to take them to the waterpark two hours away in the city, everyone is so excited!
　some of my favorites
　
　
　
So that's a little summary of my time here in Cambodia so far. We have about a week left until we head to the Philippines for month 11. CRAZY! I can't believe the race is almost over and I will be back in America in 40 something days! Crazy. Although the end coming is sad and bittersweet, I can't wait to see you all and share in person what all I have experienced this past year. Blogging just can't do it justice!!
