Well I think first off I owe everyone an apology for not blogging as much as i had been previously (my three per week has dwindled drastically lately). I will try my best to get my numbers back up to par! Between not much internet during Manistry, being busy, being lazy, and just a handful of other [weak] excuses, I neglected my blogging. So, in an effort to rectify the situation, here is the first of a few!
So, that “Other Exciting News” is this : I am the new team leader for Team Jubilee!!! Katie, our original leader, was asked to move up to the Squad leader position with Jory Billiot and Weston Belkot. During every World Race, usually around this time, the present squad leaders (former racers themselves) retire from their position and invite a couple of team leaders to replace them, and of course those teams whose leaders move up must have a new leader. Long story short, during our past month in Thailand, our squad leaders, coaches, and WR staff prayed about who should rise up, and finally decided upon Katie, Jory, and Weston. From there, they all prayed about and decided who should take their own place as the new team leader – Celeste Johnson is now leading Team New Song, Tim Carlson for Team Increase, and myself for Team Jubilee! It is an incredibly exciting time, and I am HONORED to now be leading my team. I know that it will be a fantastic opportunity, and that I will grow closer to the Lord and understand more of myself and my identity in Christ than ever before. However, I also know that this new role will be very demanding on me in every way, and that it carries a great responsibility with it. Please, especially for this first month, say an extra prayer for me and the rest of Jubilee! I am sure that we will all need an extra measure (or two) of patience, grace, and unity!
Ok, so, we are in Cambodia this month (hence the title). If you don’t know much about the recent history here in Cambodia, I would highly suggest (I’d force you to if i could) reading up on what has happened here in the past century. I won’t go into details, but basically there was a massive genocide in the 1970s by the Khmer Rouge government – all in all they killed a third of the population of Cambodia in about four years. PLEASE inform yourself on who the Khmer Rouge was, what they did, why they did it, etc. And make sure you take note of American involvement and the part the government had in bringing the Khmer Rouge to power (this wouldn’t be a matthew-blog unless i brought that up, would it?).
War and politics is a nasty business, people.
So, past the depressing facts that I have just mentioned, there are some truly great things afoot here in this nation. One of these great things is the New Life Fellowship church in the capital city of Phnom Penh. They are our ministry contact for this month, and have some incredible dreams and visions for this country, and their (several!) ministries are top-notch. Please visit their website if you have a chance. As a World Race team, we will be working with them at their churches planted in the provincial villages. How it looks for this month is : we will spend about five days living in a village and working with the local pastor (doing whatever ministry he wants us to do, including English teaching, evangelism, children’s outreach, cooking and hygiene, etc), and after those five days we will come back to Phnom Penh and spend two days here, resting up and blogging/emailing. Then the process repeats itself, and we will go into another village for five days, back again for two, and finally out again to a third village before leaving Cambodia on February 5th. The first village we will be in is called Samrong Yong…that is about all i know, ha.
Wish us luck! Peace and blessings upon you all!
