There are just a few weeks left on the Race until my squad and I split up and take our next steps when we arrive home. Currently in Cambodia, I am called “Teacher Madison” at Eli International School. I am in a classroom Monday-Friday; 8am-3:30pm helping 6-12 year olds with their work. On Sunday mornings we make our way to Road 60 to sing, play and teach english to the kids who live on that road.
A lot of people ask me what the greatest moments of the Race have been. There have been some big and powerful stories throughout my travels; which I assume are the stories people are expecting to hear. But honestly…it’s always the little moments that have captured my heart.
I have countless stories, and I could go on for hours filling you in. But here I have summed up only a few tiny moments that I hold so dearly:
- My kids come into class and ALWAYS make a pitstop to give me a hug before getting to their seats. (which they actually get in trouble for this)
- I always make my students read to me. When they reach a hard word they will look up at me with their big, brown concerned eyes. I’ll say something like “you’re so smart, I’m listening to everything you just read, you got this” and they’ll smile and sound out the word perfectly.
- Sometimes I’ll sit with the kids while they read or draw and they’ll casually tell me the truths of the Gospel.
- When my kids are working they’ll wait for me to look over at them to give me a wink or a big smile.
- During their break time my students will stay back in the classroom to invite me to play tag with them. And when I say yes they’ll merrily skip down the stairs holding my hand.
- Sometimes after break my kids will surprise me with hand picked bouquet of wild flowers.
- Before lunch my adorable kids pray out loud for their classmates, the teachers, the food and the day.
- When my students finish their goal/work for the day they will grab a huge pile of books and read them all to me until class is over.
- My beautiful host and her awesome kids always make us feel like family. Her sons are like brothers to us.
- My favorite tuktuk drivers will remember me and I get to sit and talk with them for hours if they catch me during my free time.
- One time I was cleaning the alleyway to the school and some tuktuk drivers noticed me. At first they laughed but the next minute when I looked up they were helping me pick up dirty trash with their bare hands and chatting with me.
- After ministry, my teammate and I will go to a coffee shoppe to talk about our day and have a bible study.
- Each girl on my team has a different ministry at a different time of the day. But at the end of the day we all get together and connect, and sometimes have a spontaneous adventure.
- I love watching my teammate high five and talk to every tuktuk driver we see as we walk the city.
- It was such a sweet moment seeing the street kids faces light up when we talk to them and style their hair in the middle of PubStreet. (where most tourists won’t even make eye contact with them)
- On Sundays we pile 6 people into a 4 person tuktuk and go to Road 60 to do ministry with the kids in the village. They sing the cutest Khmer songs. Laugh at our skits. And their eyes sparkle with joy as they show us their masterpiece of crayons perfectly colored outside the lines.
- We taught the Road 60 kids the “Banana Song”. We learned how to sing it in Khmer and it’s a hilarious monotoned chant. (BTW if you were curious “banana” in Khmer is “che”).
- One girl in the village will always sit and share her crayons with me. She uses her broken crayons to write to me in khmer. (no, I do not know how to read Khmer). She also endlessly tells me lively stories and asks me questions as if I was her best friend who spoke the same language. (yeah, I don’t speak Khmer either). I always wonder what that cutie is trying to tell me.
- It’s truly a thrill riding a bike with broken pedals and broken breaks across the sketchy Cambodian streets to make bracelets in a village (it’s ok mom it won’t happen again). It was all worth it; apparently one of my girls from my Eli class goes there and when she saw me she tackled me with hugs.
- Some of us went to a bridge in the city to paint with worship music playing. Not even five minutes in we saw that we effortlessly opened a loving and welcoming environment. All the kids and women with babies will join us to paint with us and talk to us and we get to love on them for hours.
- It’s so great to find familiar faces all around Siem Reap and chat with them about their lives when we run into each other.
These are just a few special moments put into a summary. So many moments have brought me joy, but there are also countless stories that have shattered my heart. God has definitely put me on a journey that is one of a kind and I am so blessed to have experienced it and take note of the joys.
The funny thing is that God can take us across the world to experience the big and the little things in a powerful way, but he also does the same at home or wherever we are. We can easily become numb to the environment around us and forget to notice the small joys in our days. (It even happens here when we live in the same place for 3 months and live with the same people for 9 months). Sometimes we need to take a step back and look for the little moments that spark our heart.
What small moments have captured your heart today?
