Hey everyone!! Sorry I have been off the grid recently here in Cambodia preventing me to post a blog. This month has been crazy, in all the good and bad ways. So here is a little about this month.
There is so much pushing me to hate this month in Cambodia. Going into this month I knew it was going to be hard. I came in with the understanding this was going to be my least favorite month of the race. I came in with a bad attitude of what was actually going to come out of this month. To be honest I didn’t want to come to Cambodia, didn’t feel it had anything to offer me at all. I went into this month with it wrote off that is was going to be difficult, to exhausting, and too much to deal with.
Coming from a country where all the luxuries were provided to us at an arm’s reach into a country where I would soon learn that I would survive on the bare minimum of comforts was hard to deal with.
But in all honestly this is the month that God realized that I needed to have. This month is where I realized where my focus is and where it should be.
So Cambodia is beyond hot. An always sweating, high 90’s-low 100’s and the humidity is probably close to 100% every day. We have squatty potties, bucket showers, over 80 pigs, countless ducks, roosters, chickens, and geese. We are in the middle of nowhere Cambodia.
Ministry has been very relaxed. Allowing countless amounts of free time. (This can be good and bad) Our team separated ministry up between morning and evening. So on a normal day I will go to ministry for about 3 hours tops. We are teaching VBS style to children in the community. The children are adorable and have a burning desire to learn, be loved, and to have fun.
Through all the difficulties there have been some really amazing moments:
- Tuk tuk troubles
- Adopting a little brother
- Fun times at ministry
- Holding a little boys hand all throughout Sunday service.
- Crazy dance parties and baby powder.
- Sugar cane juice.
- Chocolate ice-cream wifi rewards.
- Little art dates with kids while getting wifi
- The authentic sounds of Cambodia
- The friendly smiles, waves, and hellos.
- The freedom to go on 2 mile walks around the community.
- Team time activities
- Joshua team bible study
- A new found love for podcasts- Thanks Jordan…
- The food grandma makes for us.
- Culture shock of the waterfall
- New year’s, interesting music, and new dance moves
- Free time and some amazing God time.
I say all this so you can see my situation and see how this could be turned into a negative, suffering, victim mindset attitude around Cambodia. But looking back I see a lot of joy.
Sing with me for a bit.
“I have the joy joy joy joy down in my heart. Where?”
Or
“This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made, I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it, and be glad in it.”
It can be very hard for you heart to sing these songs when misery is your closest companion.
I am a person that holds joy as something that is necessary for me to keep on going on the race. To find joy in the little things.
However you could very easily look at the words joy, cheer, and delight as only being words for children and people with simple, easy lives.
However I have seen children, and people in some of the most difficult, uncomfortable, hard lives with more joy than I can even imagine.
So the question is?
How do you rejoice in suffering and misery? How do you rejoice when everything around you is driving you crazy and farthest thing away from you is comfort?
Could it be that joy is more than a reaction to a situation?
We can’t deny that scripture demands us to have joy. And the funny thing is it says we should have joy in what… Our suffering.
Could it be that joy could be an act of faith?
This month I got a horrible rash, upset stomach, lungs problems and wasn’t feeling good health wise. However my first thought wasn’t to rejoice in my pain and suffering that something good will come out of it. Instead my first thought was to run to a doctor because I have faith that they will bring me to a point of feeling better, they will bring me back to a point of ‘joy.’
So in this we should have faith in God to turn to him when we are suffering and in pain. We should run to him when things are not looking the way we wished they had looked, or when things just become too much, too hard. Then in this your heart should find joy in the comfort of running to Him.
Our joy can remain constant because of our faith is in who holds our days.
I trust in something that is bigger than my days and my situations.
A quote I stumbled upon this month said it perfectly:
“Live by faith, rejoice in true faith in the Lord. It is the neglect of this exercise that will allow discouragement to erupt and allow Satan to interrupt your happiness and spiritual cheerfulness. It will cast you into the dumps and mourning. If you keep your faith then you will keep your joy. Show me your faith by your joy. Use your faith and have joy. Increase your faith and increase your joy.”
So I walk in faith that my honest confessions of a racer can be still held as joy.
