December 23, 2016. Christmas Eve Eve. It’s hot and muggy. I haven’t showered in 6 days. I have bug bites everywhere, including a fresh one in the middle of my forehead. I’m sitting in a little café in the middle of our village, while watching what seems to be a Cambodian spin-off of the Avengers. I just received a Cambodian proposal as my friend Na Vy translates for the man sitting at the other end, “He thinks you’re 19. He says you’re beautiful.” “Do you like Cambodia?” he asks me in Khmer.
Christmas in Cambodia. It’s not what I expected, but it’s all that and more. Here are some highlights from this month.
1. This month our squad was placed into new teams. As you can imagine, the anxiety was building among us as we anticipated who our new teammates would be. It was what was on everyone’s mind as we entered debrief, and it was a hot topic of conversation until the last day when new teams would finally be announced. Leadership had us sit in a circle facing outward, and all I remember is this super dramatic moment as I sat with a pit in my stomach wondering about all the things.
“Amy, Kailaa, Mariah B., Kimmy, Julie, Lindsay”
I didn’t really know what to expect as I read the names in our new team list. To be honest, I hadn’t bonded a ton with each of my new members, but God whispered “unshakeable force” as I read each name. I knew that we would work well together, and we each brought something so different and fruitful to the team.
As we discussed our new team name and talked about what we want our team to be known for, there was so much joy and laughter in the room. These would be my new soul sisters.
We are rooted in love, joy, peace and wisdom. We seek truth and we fight for it because it’s buried deep within us. We act in love because it’s who we are. We are wild and free because it’s in our roots. We are all of these things because we are Rooted in Christ.
Here’s my new team of gems:
2. I had the privilege of visiting the Killing Fields of Phnom Penh. This experience was truly breathtaking in the most tragic way. In the late 1970’s Pol Pot and his Khmer soldiers were on a mission to make a truly disgusting vision become reality. Pol Pot sought out to recreate his nation. He was on a hunt to kill “new people” meaning any educated civilian and/or those who didn’t agree with his evil ways, to create a community of vulnerable “old people” in other words those who worked in the land and those who were often impoverished. Approximately 1.7 million Cambodians were killed in a span of 4 years during his reign. He was known for saying “To keep you is no gain, to lose you is no loss.” I walked the streets where the innocent suffered and thought about what must have been going through their minds. Confusion, heartbreak, bitterness, rage. I thought about what was going on in America during this time, the “love movement.” I pictured a bunch of hippies fighting for “peace” with probably little to no clue about what was going on on the other side of the world.
Despite the thoughts, despite the feelings- one thing was true then and is true today. My mentors’ words keep coming to my mind “the gospel is urgent.” Where were Christians in Pol Pot’s life? Were they fighting for peace in a field, or attending some church revival reciting a prayer or two?
Where are Christians in Syria today? Are they re-posting every YouTube video of the latest news of social injustice and calling it a day?
The gospel is urgent. We NEED to let that sink in. Conviction is a beautiful thing, but we can’t just feel it and move on – we have to DO something about it. I’m not saying that everyone is called to Cambodia, or everyone is called to Syria. But we have to fight for the Gospel, we can’t just sit back comfortably. My prayer is that we would be doers of the Word, however God calls us to. May we follow the apostles beautiful example of this in Acts.
“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” – 2 Timothy 4:1-2
3.“Pick me teacha, pick me!” –every single one of my Cambodian students after asking for raised hands.
Students will be students. I still hear the hum of whispers as I’m teaching English. I still hear giggles of those passing notes and glances back and forth behind my back during class. I still, yes still, have to tell that one kid to put his dang phone away when I’m teaching. Ya’ll kids are kids. Everywhere. I love it. I love them.
4. I bought a guitar. It was $35 in a ghetto shop and had a “Yamaha” sticker plastered at the top. It sounds like it’s worth $35, but I have a guitar. And I know 5 chords. And in amateur guitar land that’s like a billion songs. It’s hard to sing and play at the same time and I have no clue how to strum with or without a pick. But I’m learning to play, and that’s something I’ve always wanted to be able to say. Now I can say it. CHECK!
5. I have a Cambodian best friend and her name is Na Vy. She is beautiful inside and out. She just recently gave up her Buddhist beliefs in exchange for Jesus. She loves Him with her whole heart. She wants to please Him and she’s hungry to know everything there is to know about Him. I have the privilege of hanging out with her this month. We are reading through the gospel of John, and we share stories, knowledge and just get to be friends with the foundation of Jesus at the center. It’s great.
It’s easy for her to get discouraged, however. Her husband is still Buddhist, and as you can imagine, it brings some difficulties in her personal life and walk of faith. I wasn’t really sure how to encourage her, but God reminded me of His faithfulness so I shared about that instead.
“By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.” Hebrews 11:11
One of my favorite scriptures about faithfulness. You see, when we are faithful, God is paying attention. His faithfulness never changes, but our faithfulness is something special. He stays the same, but when we show Him that we’re standing with Him too, no matter what- no matter what our circumstances might make us feel- He’s watching. And He rewards that.
Here’s a picture of God reminding Na Vy of His promises:
6. There’s a boy named Liep. He has 4 missing teeth, all up in front, and his smile is the sweetest. He melts our heart.
It was a few days after we arrived that our host, Ra, brought him up to us and pointed to a large lump on his underarm. He asked if we had any knowledge of what it might be. We had no idea of the severity of the lump, but it was evident that he needed medical attention. At that point, my team was concerned because a doctor visit requires going outside of the village and into the city. Transportation alone would be costly, not to mention the doctor visit and whatever medication or surgery that might be needed. So my team came together and decided to bless Ra and pay for Liep’s doctor visit, no matter the cost.
It was a pretty inexpensive visit, much less than we were expecting. Liep received the medical attention that he needed and whatever the lump was, it was harmless and removed in a few short hours. Days later we saw him running around with the puppies and a huge smile on his face. I love that little guy.
7. This month is a month of learning new things. Guitar, chess, whatever comes my way, let’s try it. I’m basically a chess playing rock star. Na Vy’s husband, Chan, is Buddhist and he knows about why I’m here. I read the Bible to his wife everyday and pray with her. He doesn’t agree with her beliefs, and I’m here to encourage her in them, but he still loves to hang out with me. And I love that.
So he taught me chess one day. At first, I sucked, but then I got pretty good. I stumped him with a few moves and he kept laughing and saying “you’re smart.” His friends would stop in and out of the coffee shop and he would chat with them and they would laugh. He was probably telling them how bad this poor American girl is at chess. But now I know how to play, all thanks to my Uncle Chan.
8. Phnom Penh is kind of our place. It’s where we had debrief and where we spend our free days. I’m officially a loyal customer at a few places in Phnom Penh which consist of, but are not limited to: Relax Hotel, Starbucks (duh), Angkor Wat Spa and Coldstone Creamery.
In all my life, I don’t think I’ve ever craved a donut. In all my life I’ve never had the urge to pay for a massage. I was never that girl. But, here I am having had 4 massages all 4 days in a row, and a few dozen donuts later, I can say that I’m a girl who loves donuts and massages with absolutely no shame.
9.Our days here in Kempong Speu consist of mostly teaching English and playing with the kids, my specialties. Not showering is really easy when there’s no manual labor or getting dirty involved. Except for that one-day when we picked rice.
I already wasn’t feeling very well, and it happened to fall on one of the hottest days we’ve had so far. “Wear long shirts and pants” our host said. “Excuse me?” I thought as I walked out of my tent feeling the sweat beads drip down my face from the humidity.
He drove us to a road, dropped us off and told us to meet him on the other side. We walked through marshy water, mud and probably some poop in the mix. We finally arrived to the rice fields and were told to start picking.
What would have been an amazing experience if I had been feeling 100% and if the sun wasn’t blazing turned into a teachable moment.
I took a rest to sit down and the words “gather the harvest” came to my mind. God told me that as I was pushing through my attitude, my negative thoughts and my complaints, I was physically gathering the harvest. But I was metaphorically as well. My “spiritual” harvest was growing because I was learning to push past myself and choose what He wanted for me and from in the moment instead.
When we choose what He wants, even when it doesn’t feel good, we are reaping a great harvest because His plans always rock way better than ours ever could anyway.
10. Let me introduce you to my village. I sleep in my tent inside what we call our “tree house.” It’s a rickety old house and it sucks to walk up the cobwebbed little creaky stairs. I wake up to one of the 3 things: having to pee, the smell of manure or the smell of myself. If one wants to bathe, one can go into the spider-infested bathroom, fill up a bowl with the film covered brown water from the bin and cleanse oneself. I prefer to bathe with Deet. 100% Deet, it burns the flesh, so it must burn the germs too, right? I reek of it, which is actually a good thing because it covers up my body odor nicely. I write this as I have a mosquito bite literally in the middle of my forehead, along with a million others dispersed all over my body. Clearly, it’s working.
We eat rice with chili sauce everyday. It’s pretty good actually, I’m not complaining. It’s usually paired with meat of some sort; my assumption is one of the millions of chickens or ducks running around the property. We have one large bowl. We call it the “community bowl.” I’ll explain how it lives up to its name: animals are slaughtered in it, animals are fed with it, dishes are washed with it, puppies sleep in it, and dinners are cooked with it. Community bowl.
In other words I’m immortal because I haven’t gotten sick yet. *knocks on wood*
Our team motto is “some people just walk in the light.” *wink*
All that to say our host is incredible. He gives and gives and gives, never intimidated by the lack of resources. His family thrives off of their faith in Jesus and they are people who have some of the most joy I’ve ever seen. I love watching the kids get creative and play outside all day. It’s so simple here.
I type all of this on my last day here. I think to myself “man I can’t wait to shower,” but another thought comes to mind simultaneously “yeah but then I can’t play with Liep? Or see my students? Or go see Na Vy? Or play chess with Uncle Chan?
The silly comforts will never, ever, ever equate to the relationships and experiences. Ever.
11. It was our last day of ministry, and we were looking forward to celebrate Christmas with the village by putting on a play and cooking dinner. No small task when the expected head count is 100 children. So our team came together and decided to cook spaghetti.
Spaghetti in our village consisted of Thai noodles, tomatoes and ketchup. Yum. Ra butchered two chickens for us and we called it a day.
The kids started arriving about three hours early so we played games to keep them occupied. We had three people in the kitchen mashing up garlic cloves, boiling water and trying to keep the mounds of noodles contained. When we were set and ready, we acted out the nativity story and shared the gospel with over 150 children. It was a blast. We finally served the spaghetti and only a few kids said they hated it (win!) Most of the students commented with excitement “we’ve always wanted to try American food!”
I mean… if you can call that American food. Maybe on a college budget? Oh well, I’m just happy that everyone was fed.
It was really a beautiful day. Everything was smooth. God was definitely present. I guess that’s why they call Him Emmanuel.
Christmas in Cambodia. Who would have thought?
It’s crazy that for 2,000 years the world celebrates a day because of a Man. It’s crazy that people travel all around the world to tell people about Him. It’s crazy that people all around the world live for Him, and die for Him. He is Joy, He is Peace. He is the Reason for all of it.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
Isaiah 9:6-7
