A whole month has gone by. The more and more that I am away and doing life as ministry I get this overwhelming feeling of love. Love for so many people and even learning more and more about myself and more about God. Learning that it’s OK to have fun when your on a mission trip. It’s not all hard work. Especially when you are gone for a year. Can you imagine working 24/7 for a full year. That is basically what missionaries do. I have so much respect for the ones that do this full time. It’s not easy at any means. We have it a little different because we are going from place to place and have some time to get away and rest when we need it. Also just trying to balance not having a performance mindset. I feel like my whole life I have always done work to be productive. This is work but its a different type of work and everyday looks so different. Some days we have no idea what we are going to do. we wake up and just start living our life. I would say every time God has brought us to someone or someone to us who we have been able to share God’s love to.
Full time travel is pretty exhausting though. It’s pretty crazy that it’s been a month! I feel like, wow a whole month has gone by but also, wow we have done so much in this month. It’s so crazy this whole entire year. I am just overwhelmed with love. I can’t even express the way I am feeling. I am so happy and excited to have these experiences and to meet these people and have connections literally all over the world!
Cambodia was so good! I’m so glad we have done Cambodia first. The people here are very friendly and so welcoming. You just meet people and they invite you into their homes. Kids are also so sweet and love to play! The food is pretty good too. The sad parts of Cambodia are hard, hard to see and hard to talk about. Cambodia has a high sex trafficking problem. I have seen young girls who never should have experienced the things they have experienced but they have and it breaks my heart. Not just young girls but young boys as well. One of the hardest things is it’s the family’s that put these young girls or boys into that lifestyle. Its almost like the culture is ok with it and it’s not a big deal. I think a lot of people have just gotten numb to it because it’s a normal lifestyle. It’s hard to hear these stories and hard to see the pain in the eyes of some of the girls.
But then you get to see the good, the people that see this, fall in love with the kids and adopt them as their own. Showing them the love of Jesus and showing them what healthy family really looks like. It’s not always easy but it’s worth it. That one little girl with the squeaky high voice, or the little girl who loves to dance. It’s all worth it just for their freedom and for them to feel safe.
Jesus is literally everywhere we go. I see beauty and light in the darkest moments. Some of the best moments so far of our trip have been very unexpected. One of my favorite times has been talking to a woman we met when we were in a hostel. She will be traveling for 6 months and has been having a hard time with life. We ended up sharing God’s Love with her and she even did a bible Study with us. She was unsure about God and did not know too much about it. I don’t know if she will become a Christian or not, but I know in that moment she felt love. She felt the Love of God and we did our job to share our testimonies. That’s all you can do. Share Love and share what God means to you and God will do the rest. Not only did we bless her but she blessed us so much! She even came along to watch us get tattoos. She just seemed like a part of our team.
So Cambodia has been great. This blog is kind of all over the place. But that is my life right now. I am all over the place! Can’t wait to see what God will do in Thailand.
