So, 24 days were spent living, breathing and *gasp* teaching at Agape Christian School in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
I came into Month 3 knowing I would be teaching English to Cambodian children ages 4-16. I didn’t come into the month being prepared for this task. I was (am?) a teacher back in Arizona at my home church and have been doing so for about 9 years; BUT what I haven’t experienced (until now) is being thrust into a classroom of 1st-6th graders, with no curriculum, no experience, AND a room of mostly Khmer (the local language; pronounced Cam-I) speaking kids looking at me in expectancy.
It was intimidating to say the least.
Our team taught in shifts this month, meaning, there are 6 of us who, for the most part, rotated in and out of the English, Bible and Gym classes. Scott was consistent in teaching Gym for the month, which I am extremely grateful for, because we sweat, all day, everyday even when we were just sitting in our room. Megan mostly taught the 7th-9th grades English but filled in for us when we needed breaks. Mandie, Rick, Josh and I traded off teaching English and Bible to the 1st-6th grades.
Our daily schedule looked like this:
Monday-Friday we woke up around 6:30am, ate breakfast, went to morning devotional with the school children, where one of us shared encouragement each day, and then at 7:30 began teaching our first class. We had a lunch period daily from 11:00-1:00 and then would resume teaching until 4:50. We would enjoy some relax time until dinner around 6:00 nightly, move on to team time and feedback and then at 7:30 we had a nightly evening devotional with the Principal of Agape School, the Pastor of Bethel Church (the on campus church), some of the school staff and the 17 students who live on campus. Each night one of us took turns sharing encouragement or our testimony and we would enjoy a few worship songs (sometimes in English and other times in Khmer). After the evening devotional we would enjoy a little personal/quiet time and head to bed sometime shortly after.
I reminded myself daily of a motto/quote most World Racers have heard at some point during their Race:
“God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called”
Because, truth is, most days, I didn’t feel qualified. I felt very, very, unqualified. It was super strenuous to jump from classroom to classroom, age group to age group, advanced to beginner and be prepared to teach each of the individual kids on their level.
I put thought and research and LOTS of prayer into my days, and God blessed this. It made me realize that God doesn’t ask us to be prepared for every single stressful situation that COULD be thrown at us. He asks us to trust Him, to look to Him. He just wants us to be dependent on His perfect will. He knew I was qualified because He called me here.
Just because I was learning this lesson doesn’t make everything perfect, but it did give me peace. I gave my days to the Lord. I gave my unrest and uneasiness to Him and He gave me a double portion of peace.
And this month was awesome because of that!
I spent breaks playing thumb wars with the kids, teaching them how to whistle and lots of high fives all around. I loved on the kids. I found ways to reach them on their level, I showed them the love of Jesus. I taught them how to tell time and how to talk to Jesus. I had fun taking selfies with the kids and singing ‘My Heart Will Go On’ one of their absolute favorite songs. I loved on the kids who visibly had lice (and had a few hours of panic thinking I also had lice, but thank Jesus, I didn’t). I learned as much from the kids as I taught them.
I witnessed in the evening devotionals what “child like faith” looks like. Kids of all ages bringing their prayer requests to God with 100% trust in His ability to answer them. Eyes squeezed tightly shut and audibly praying to Jesus what was on their hearts; sick family members, financial troubles, anything and everything. More than once I remember tearing up at the sight of their trust in God. It’s something we do not experience in America.
Cambodia was a month of new things, new foods, new insight on teammates and new revelation from God.
It was a good month. And now it has come to an end.
We are still in Siem Reap but only for 2 more days; the team leaders are having a couple of days of LDW (Leader Development Weekend) before heading to Vietnam, so we get a few sessions, some group worship and time to relax, crash at nearby hotel pools, and write blogs! I am enjoying this down time before heading into Month 4…MONTH FOUR!??!? How did that happen? I’m certainly not sure but I am ready!
This month is going to look very different for us. Vietnam is a closed country and is run by a Communist government. One thing that the government is currently looking to prevent the spread of is Christianity and because of this Vietnam is filled with mainly home or underground churches that are unregistered to the government. Because of all of this we are not going to be titled as “missionaries” while in Ho Chi Minh City, we will be “volunteer teachers” or “students”…we will be evangelizing in a very, very different way. The government also controls what is posted online so I will maintain a much broader spectrum of what we experience in Vietnam, I will post on my blog but there will be a password you must use to read any blogs I post. I will also still post on Facebook but nothing ministry or location specific, it will probably seem like I post only about off days and food, because that is going to be just about all that is “safe” to post. I will give much more specific updates once we leave Vietnam.
I mention all of this because I must ask for your discretion as well as my own, please do not post things on my page or tagging me in a update of what I am doing or where I am. Please pray for our ministry, our contacts, our team and N Squad as a whole. Pray for Vietnam. Pray for guidance and protection and God’s blessing in whatever we do.
Thank you all for reading and please pray that I can meet my final financial deadline soon as well.
Love and Blessings,
Katelyn. XO.
