Cambodia was one of my favorite months. The culture, the people, the ministry, the small-town feel, I loved everything about it. Don’t get me wrong, it was a tough month, but through the struggle I learned a lot about myself and grew in my relationship with Christ. We ended up staying in a small town called Kratie which was right on the Mekong river. We got in contact with a Cambodian man that ran an English school for Cambodian students. The school had been shut down for a couple weeks because there were no volunteers. He was so thankful that we came and because there were seven of us we really got to invest in the kid’s lives and help them individually. Every morning we would go to the Pagoda to teach young monk students. Then in the afternoon after school, students would come to our place for an hour so we could teach them English. I taught the basic classes, which was challenging at times because they knew very little English and it was hard for them to sit still, but it was rewarding because they were so eager to learn. They loved getting the right answers and after every question they would show me their answers with huge smiles on their faces. They were so proud to understand and they never wanted to stop learning. Through singing songs and teaching simple words I saw the joy in their faces. Teaching in Cambodia made me realize just how much Jesus loves His children and how happy He gets when we listen to His voice and obey His commands.
The coolest part about the time we spent with the kids was the day we took them to the soccer field and community pool. We took them out one Sunday so they could run around and play soccer together. After they got tired of playing, we took them to the pool to swim. I’ve never seen kids that happy before! None of them had bathing suits so they all just swam in their clothes. We got to connect with them outside of the classroom and that was an awesome experience. They were no longer our students, but our friends. It was hard saying goodbye.
Here’s a short video of what our month looked like in Cambodia.
