I woke up this morning thinking, “Where am I?” only to be greeted outside by a beautiful rainbow. Even though I know it, rainbows always remind me that God is with me. As I sit here, on a bamboo table, under a tin roof protecting me from the rain, in a village I can’t pronounce or even remember, I needed that reminder. The beginning of each country is always a little difficult for me, and Cambodia is proving no different.
I would say the beginning of each month is difficult because we generally have no idea what’s going on; we don’t know where we will find food or if clean water will be available. We have to set up a new pattern and schedule, as well as adapt to a new country’s cultural norms. We don’t know how we’ll be received or if we’ll even be acknowledged by the natives.
With a new team change that took place only two days ago, I’m very excited about getting to know my new team. There are seven of us on this team, five girls and two boys, and we’re sharing this ministry location with another team of seven. We are staying in a two bedroom, one bathroom house. Many of us have set up our hammocks in the hallway and common area. We have our own kitchen, and the church is right out in front of the house. We’re still not sure what our ministry looks like exactly. We have a few days out of the week set aside for teaching English. We also will be traveling to a few far away villages. Today (is Sunday so) we will be teaching children’s church then attending the service at 9:00. I’m excited for what this month is going to hold, and anxious to get it started.
I really can’t believe that I’ve already been on the race for five months. Well, this is the beginning of month five, but you know what I mean. It has flown by at times and, at other times, trudged by so slow that I thought some months were going backwards. It’s so strange to look back and see that, wow, I’ve been in four countries in the last four months. I have just started to treat it as normal. Walking through the airport yesterday, I wish I would have had more of a spirit of anticipation about me, but I feel like I’ve gotten to a point where I’m just like, yup, this is my life. I travel to a new country each month where I build relationships and share the love of Jesus with anyone who will listen. It’s really, pretty cool. And it’s right where my heart is supposed to be.
As I’m writing this, I’m surrounded by mosquitoes. I ask that you would pray for protection over my team this month. We are in a country where catching the dengue fever from mosquitoes is a high likelihood. Malaria is also a very real concern here. We are in a village, about an hour or so from Phnom Pehn. I’m not sure where the closest hospital is, and I don’t want any of us to find out. Please keep us in your prayers.
