I have reached a fourth way through my journey and it has been approximately three months since I have slept in a bed that is labeled as comfortable by an American, eaten a whole block of cheddar cheese myself, kissed Danski, driven a vehicle, or played hours of Solitaire Frenzy with my dad and the little girls before bed at the kitchen counter. I miss my family but I keep on trekking forward knowing that what God promises I’ll see, touch, taste, feel, and experience is worth my longing for what’s familiar.
This month I have not one bit of access to the outer world, no Wi-Fi, no coffee shop next door to bum some internet access off of, no grocery store nearby to buy snacks when my stomach is grumbling, and a whole lot of lizards baking in the blazing hot sun. Currently it is 3:32pm in the afternoon and I am sipping iced matcha on our little patio of the small townhouse we get to call our own. This blog will be posted by my squad’s content manager, dani, who we are blessed enough to get to have under the same roof as us for this week. For anyone that is lingering behind a computer or phone screen waiting to hear from me this month, live the next 25 days knowing you’ll probably NOT get any communication from me besides these blogs.
God placed my Team Hesed with an organization that is remarkable. It’s a breath of fresh air to FINALLY get to talk all about what they do, who they are, the missions, and what I will be doing here on my blog with me strategically hiding the actuality of things quite well. Praise God for getting to SHARE. Help Cambodia was started when a missionary heard the story of a girl who had been sold for three days for sex to a Cambodian official by her grandmother and was at risk of being sold again as a means of income for her family. This Christian man came to Cambodia with the intent to find and save this little child and he did just that along with start an organization dedicated to saving at risk children like her from falling into the hands of sexual slavery. Today it exists in different countries worldwide and God is moving beyond belief. Help Cambodia works in the prevention realm of helping children who are seen as a resource to their families because of the country’s emphasis on karma and the idea that it’s merely the children’s fate. Help Cambodia has built great rapport with the government whereas now the federal officials will call them with cases of children who need someone who cares enough to intervene into their lives. Because of this friendship and the organization’s willingness to step in, they have recently opened up a home for boys to take the brothers of these girls.
[If you want the website and a little more of the story of the organization feel free to message me and ask.]
Our living accommodations are so sweet I almost screamed that first night. After we had taken a 6 hour bus ride from Vietnam to Cambodia, then traveled another hour and a half to our month’s home in the middle of nowhere we were greeted with a dinner plate each of mountain high spaghetti with meat sauce, salad including all the veggies, and fresh out of the oven garlic bread. My mouth gaped open as I took in everything around me in that small little townhouse we’ve named “Refuge”- a fridge stocked with yummy, healthy food, an oven, electric tea kettle to enable iced tea making, two showers, a couch and chairs, a table on the back patio to have meals and teas and conversations, a WASHING MACHINE to not have to wring our clothes out by hand, bikes to utilize and ride around on, bunk beds with fresh clean sheets, comfy large bath towels, and the list goes on and on. We may be in the literal middle of nowhere, but Mark (our host) has stocked this house for first time missionaries to not have to adapt to “life without” certain things and we get to partake in the many blessings that means for us. Heck, last night we made a version of M & M cookies and we would all have told you it was a piece of heaven.
Our host is named, Mark. He has done time living just about everywhere and I plan to write a blog more about his story later to come. But the Lord called him and his wife to Cambodia where they life an hour and a half away from the property which means for us we get to expect him in his suite off our home every few days and what a treat that is. That man is a servant for the Lord and reminds me so much of my OWN dad with his wit, humor, jokes, and just natural ability to love whoever is in front of him. He eats meals with us, participates in team conversations and takes any opportunity he can to get a rise out of us. Walking into a situation with a step in dad for this month isn’t half bad and I am ever thankful for the leniency he has with what we will be doing and us. He’s stressed countless times to not get burned out, to love the kids to the best of our abilities when WE ourselves feel filled up, and the just take time to enjoy Cambodia. The other night (in search for a Wi-Fi café) we ended up taking an extended drive with no luck of contacting those we love. Mark drove us in the back of his pick up truck and we just gazed at the stars and talked deep thoughts out in the dark, we all looked at each other and agreed this was what we picture the World Race to look like. He stopped the truck at a bakery and announced that we could all get a sweet treat “on Papa Mark.” Needless to say, this man is a blessing to my month four family-less self.
Our work for this month is manual labor. Dad, if you find yourself reading this or my grandpas, you would be so proud. I am sweating in all crevices of my body nonstop and it’s harder work than picking rocks any day. My new best friend this month is a shovel as we make gravel pathways all throughout the property. This looks a lot like shoveling gravel into a wheelbarrow, wheeling the load to where it is best needed, and then going back to fill up another round in the skin charring sun. We can only work from 7-11am because it gets so miserable and exhausting, sunscreen sweats off our bodies as fast as we put it on. We actually have a rule that we HAVE to drink at least 2 packets of electrolytes a day to stay hydrated. The blisters forming on my hands from just one day and the color of my skin makes me smile, again missing home. After that task is done we get to garden and help start a little project for the girls in the home to copy.
Literally it feels like home. We are smack dab in the middle of the country with grassy fields all around us. There are even cows, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, and a country feel to the place. The animals roam around and find their ways to the back porch while I read my books or type out my countless thoughts. I joke that God must really love me because around this time my family is probably taking care of animals for the fair and Grandma Penny is recruiting Paris to help her plot and plan out her garden. Sounds a whole lot like what I’m doing here.
Mark is really big on utilizing the creation God has made and has a bunch of “when helping hurts” projects he maintains-basically good ideas that fellow Christians have come in and established only to leave him to pick up the pieces of it later (now.) So I have learned a lot about aquaponics because he is growing Tilapia in our backyard for the kids to eat. The goal is for the property to be self-sustaining in less than three years and with this man’s brilliance, he’ll do it. On top of the fish production he is passionate about compost via worms and via cow manure, again I am learning information that makes my mind at awe of how God created everything to function in a way that intertwines. To add to his many projects he grows banana trees with the nutrient-saturated fish poop water, shreds coconuts to till into the soil for better water distribution, and intends to start harvesting black flies to feed to his birds, all to lower cost, feed to kids organically, and to just take part in the miracles God is already doing within agriculture.
Realizing that I haven’t really written a blog like this makes me more aware of my need to always seem put together and polished, especially with writing. Would love feedback on if you all, my followers love this set up and fine detailing or not. God is good, nonetheless.
This month you can be praying for me to nestle into my teammates one last time because after this month’s team changes. You can be praying for my legs, which find themselves overworked and under rested to the point where I feel I am having shin splints and growing pain consecutively. And finally you can be praying for just me-my worth, my future plans, my contentment, my body image, and that my need to feel “chosen” would vanish.
