New Year: 2015
Month 5….hard to believe it’s been 5 months since I left on this journey called the World Race. This month has brought a lot of newness….my squad and I are in Cambodia this month, we’ve been divided up into new teams, and sent out to our new ministries for the month.
Before heading off to ministry though, my squad spent a couple days in Siem Reap and were able to visit the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat….WOW!!! Talk about a beautiful and historic place! Some of my squadmates and I woke up early to catch the ever famous view of the sunrise over Angkor Wat (built in the 12th century – see below). It was so crowded but totally worth the wake up and wait! Then we traveled around the park to visit other ancient temples such as the Bayon Temple with the faces in the stones (see below) and Ta Phrom, in which nature has taken over its rights there! The tree roots were so strong and, in many places, over powered the temple!
It was such a blessing to be able to be witness to the history and religious significance this place has, not just in Cambodian history, but in the world!
New Team: Radical Pursuit
Every World Racer is eager for what God wants them to experience and grow in….one way that this happens is through team changes. Change can be tough but knowing that God is behind it assures me that it has a purpose. And I can already see some of His reasons now!
Me, Samara, Hannah, Kayla, Taylor & Alexis
Radical Pursuit is our team name. These wonderful women are all new to me expect Taylor, our team leader, who was from my previous team (yay!). We decided upon our name after discussing our own goals for this month and what God had been teaching us the past 4 months. As a team, we want to fervently (radically) pursue the Lord in all we do this month. Daily spending time in His word, in fellowship with each other about what He is teaching us, time in prayer, and in reaching out in love to those around us here in Cambodia. As you may have noticed, my new team’s blogs are located on the left side of my blog, so feel free to check out who they are and what God is teaching them!
New Ministry: Unsung Heroes
Each team on our squad spends at least one month of their race doing the unsung heroes ministry. Unsung Heroes (UH) is a program within the World Race that focuses on finding ministries, unsung heroes, in various communities around the world that are sharing the love and Gospel of Christ with others. Adventures in Missions’ vision for UH is “to connect and network with these ministries in an effort to come alongside them and provide lift to their efforts to further the kingdom”. Finding these Unsung Heroes allows for a possible partnership with the World Race and potential ministry for future world race teams (many of the current ministries teams work with around the world were found through the UH program). So the goal for our team this month is to research and reach out to new ministries in Phnom Penh.
What that looks like on a day to day basis varies….we spend time daily as a team in prayer, devotions, and team time “feedback” (sharing positive and constructive things we see in each other). Then we formulate a plan for the day on what we need to do to follow up with contacts, find new contacts, meet with them, etc. Much of our time so far as been emailing and calling contacts and then waiting for their replies. We are also exploring the cities and coffee shops and restaurants that have been suggested to us as neat places for possible contacts….places like Sugar and Spice which is run through a ministry called “Daughters of Cambodia (http://daughtersofcambodia.org/) or Jars of Clay (http://jarsofclay.asia/about-us/) that provides work and job skills to troubled women from the community. These are just a few of the places we have visited that support the work of Jesus here.
Some examples of new ministries that my teammate Kayla and I will be following up with are… (as we have divided the contacts up among our team)
–Keylight Learning (http://keylightlearning.org/)
–Cambodian New Generation (http://cambodiannewgeneration.org/index.htm )
As we follow up with this ministries I’ll be writing more about them here on my blog. My teammates will be doing the same so as they update their blogs I’ll post them here too.
I’m looking forward to seeing how God crosses our paths with new brothers and sisters this month. He is the master coordinator of all and we trust Him to guide our steps each day here in Phnom Penh – for His glory!!
Thanks!!
Lauren
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Proverbs 3:5-6
P.S. Cambodia has some of the most beautiful sunset skies…..PTL!
