I continue to be excited while in Cambodia, but at the same time find hard it to explain why in words. It’s more like a feeling that I can’t explain. It’s like God has given me this raw emotion that I have never felt before and it is so amazing (I wish I could explain it better, but that’s the best way I can describe it). Have you ever just made a noise that wasn’t a word or sentence or anything, but it really summed up how you felt? Well, that’s exactly what this is like. I am just so in love with this place and the people that it completely overwhelms me at times. How could somewhere that I hardly knew anything about, capture my heart so much? I think this just goes along with how great God really is and how amazing His plan is for us.
This past weekend was the Khmer New Year here in Cambodia and it has been really neat getting to learn about this holiday and how the Khmer people celebrate it. Just from talking with a lot of the guys here at the church, it is traditional for everyone to go back to their home village and meet up with family (I would kind of equate it to Thanksgiving for us, except their holiday lasts for 3 days). A lot of them that are Buddhist go to the temples and give food and money offerings to the monks there so that they can receive a blessing in exchange (side note: it’s really interesting to me that blessings have a price tag on them sort of). They also have traditional games (the picture above is one of those games; sort of like hitting a pinata, but it is a clay pot full of money, candy, and flour) and dancing that go on during the 3 days. I was very privileged during this time to actually get to spend one day and night of the New Year with a friend here at the church in his village.
My friend Seyha invited me to his house to get to experience New Year with him and his family. It’s weird because his whole family pretty much only speaks Khmer, but luckily for me, Seyha speaks very good English so that was very helpful as it should be no surprise that I do not speak any Khmer. I got to have a few traditional meals with him and his brother along with the rest of his family. We visited a few friends around his village and even got a chance to go to one of the local temples just to take a look around. It is so interesting how “religious” these temples can look. Sure, on the outside they look very unique and ornate, but on the inside they are of full of crumbling idols and people that really believe that good works equate to a better afterlife…thank God we were saved by grace and are not dependent upon works! Those kind of cultural experiences are great too because it helps me to see how the locals see. I was so blessed to get to spend that time with Seyha and wouldn’t change it for the world.
We also got the opportunity during the New Year to go stay and stay at a local church that also has an orphanage as well. Once again, it’s an experience that is really hard to put into words because there were so many great parts about it. I think it was easily one of the poorest parts of Cambodia that I have seen so far. There were people in the village that lived in houses that were made from bits and pieces of scrap metal and lived over this very dirty, polluted water. The family who ran the orphanage was one of the humblest families I have ever met. They fully support their orphanage on their own resources while supporting a family with 3 sons and other relatives as well. The father is also the pastor of the church there as well.
We were just so amazed with how gracious they were to us the whole time (we were the first group of foreigners that have stayed at the church)…constantly wanting to feed us amazing food or making sure everything was great about our experience there. They have about 20 or so kids there as well and they were amazing too. It’s funny how quickly they warmed up to us (the little boys were constantly wanting to play with Josh and my arm hair…apparently it’s hilarious). It’s crazy how infectious their joy was to us and how much that was really needed to recharge our group as we head into Africa next month. We were truly blessed in more ways than we could really say and it was so great to see a family going after God’s heart and supporting their ministry however they could.
I am just busting at the seams with experiences from this month that continue to show me how much love God has for his children. Even in the small things, God truly cares about His children that call on Him by name and have confessed Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:10-13). I wish this month could be multiplied because it has filled me with so much joy and strength I know I will need for the rest of this race. It’s crazy how quickly our time here is quickly winding down. In less than a week, I will be in Africa and can hardly believe it. I know it is going to be so hard to leave this place, but I really feel God will bring me back here in the near future (have no idea what that looks like, but just a thought on my mind). I am working on just living in the moment and thanking God for the here and now…not to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself (Matthew 6:34). Can’t wait to share more later!
