I can’t find my car keys!
Call me please because I can’t find my phone!
Oh my gosh, I broke a nail!
45 in a 35!…This is the worst day of my life!
There are so many choices that I can’t decide what to eat!
It’s too cold! Turn down the AC!
My boyfriend won’t text me back!
I don’t feel like driving to the grocery store!
Man, Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays! Now where am I going to go!?
Okay, who didn’t flush?!
The remote is missing!
I’m having a bad hair day!
Who used all the hot water in the shower? Can’t believe my water got cold after 30 minutes!
I’m too tired to load the dishes in the dish washer!
Or wash laundry in the washing machine!
I spelt something on my shirt! Can this day get any worse!?
I can’t find my high heels!
Hey can you get me a glass of milk? I don’t want to get up and walk to the refridgerator!
8am classes are too early for me!
I hate studying!
Hunny, the neighbors dog just pooped on our yard again!
I don’t have enough closet space for all my clothes and shoes!
The pizza delivery man should have been here 10 minutes ago. What is taking him so long!? I’m starving!
After traveling the world, I realize that all the things I used to complain about are just first world problems. They are petty things that you would never hear a Cambodian say. Outside of the capital city, air conditioning is almost non-existent. When you ask a twelve year old boy what his favorite thing to do is he responds with “studying…English”! Cows are literally everywhere and if you don’t watch closely they’ll be stomping through your front door. Hand washing laundry takes hours in the hot sun. There is no Chick-fil-A. You have to kill and pluck your own chicken. The nearest little outdoor store that sells a few items is miles down the road and you don’t have a car to get there. Every day around 5pm you’ll see hundreds of people standing up, jammed packed against each other, in the back of large trucks that are taking them home after a long day’s work at the factories-factories that make the clothes that you and I buy in America, factories that have terrible working conditions and pay hardly enough for a family to get by. And, what is a toilet?
Kampong Speu, Cambodia.
“We share our home with a rat, who made his nest up in the rafters, a number of cool spotted lizards, a billion ants that get into everything, and of course the mosquitoes. I’ve moved outside in my tent, both for the cooler night air, and more reliable mosquito net. And it’s so beautiful! I love watching the amazing sunsets and falling asleep gazing up at the stars. I’m enjoying my time with God before bed, talking to Him and worshiping Him as I marvel at His handiwork.”- teammate Alysa
We have to walk down the street for water. Showering this month will involve scooping water out of a big cement tub and dumping it over our heads. Or, going for a swim in the near by rice patty bog. And, I prefer the bushes rather than the mosquito infested squatty potty. Haha!
Praying before meals has taken on a whole new meaning to our team.
Let me just say that basically everything we eat is questionable.
The eggs sit outside in the heat before being cooked – and 8 out of 10 of them are already cracked.
There is no refrigerator for anything.
The rice is scooped up off the floor where the chickens have been walking all over it.
The dishes are washed in the same pots the chicken was just plucked in.
Flies cover everything the second you set it out in the air.
The ice we drink from is the kind that our ministry contact warned us to stay away from.
With this knowledge, I REALLY do pray that God bless this food to our bodies!
Our dishwashing center
The Kitchen
Laundry time!
The road to our home.
The new neighbors that just mooooved in.
On the way to our ministry location in Kampong Spue, Cambodia I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Literally, I didn’t know where we were going, staying, or doing for the month. As we drove further and further into the countryside it felt like we were going further back into time, you know?- like before television and microwaves were invented. I thought for sure that another month of primitive living and off the beaten path adventures would be exciting. I grew up in the woods and streams of the mountains. Plus, I love camping! But, within 24 hrs after arriving I had my first break down. I’ll spare you the brutal details, but for the first three days I cried every single morning as the sun woke me up at 5am because I was tired, hot, filthy dirty, uncomfortable, sick, itchy, and all around miserable. I did NOT want to be here.
And then I met Sing. On my day off my team traveled to the capital city, and as Alysa and I were crossing the street, we saw Sing. He was in the middle of a traffick jam on a dangerous four lane highway, trying to wheel around his wheel chair with one hand. He allowed us to wheel him through the intersection, weaving in between the cars and moto-bikes. I saw a few dollars in his worn out pocket. His tapped up umbrella kept falling off and breaking every few minutes. I knew he couldn’t walk or do much of anything on his own. He had a large scar over his stomach and one of his arms and legs seemed to be amputated. I honestly couldn’t figure out how he had gotten so far without getting run over. Even still, he just kept smiling at me. It was like it was the best thing ever that we took him home. We prayed for him and even though he didn’t know English he said “amen” when we were finished. His family says he “runs” away from home because he wants freedom so badly.
Reality check: It doesn’t matter whether or not I’m in a first world country or I’m in the middle of nowhere, Cambodia; complaining is complaining. The fact is that most of my annoyances and problems are nothing compared to what the majority of this world has to deal with on a daily basis. I have everything in the world to be thankful for. I take my life for granted so often. I don’t need anything but the love of God. Nothing!!!!!
Thankfully, God didn’t allow me to spend too much time focused on myself. He used Sing to convict me of my bad attitude and ugly heart. I was being a spoiled brat. I was wanting the very things that mean nothing in this life- comfortable living and lots of nice feel good stuff around me! Have I not learned anything in the past nine months? You see, it’s easy to get wrapped up in wanting more. You give a Lauren a pillow and she’ll want a bed. You give her a bed and she’ll want someone to bring her breakfast to it. Okay, I’m not that bad. But, my pitty party is over. I only have one chance to have an amazing month living life in Cambodia the way the Cambodians do it. I can choose to allow my fleshly desires to rule the month and make this time be about myself or I can choose to let the joy of the Lord be my strength and let this time be about Him and His kindgom.
I’ve decided that I do NOT choose myself. I choose Jesus. I choose loving
the ministry and the people and kids in it. It may be month 10. I may be tired and hot, but I choose to enjoy lesson planning and teaching kids about English and the Bible(These kids are ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING, by the way!). I choose to prefer my teammates, give them the fans even when I’m drenched in sweat and wash their dishes even when the dirty water grosses me out. I choose to read my Bible and worship even when I don’t feel like it or feel God is near. It won’t be easy, no one has promised me that, but I know
it’ll be worth it.
“This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!” Psalm 118:24
