Today (Friday) is my 24th birthday. I have missed my family a lot today, and gone through a large stretch of wanting to hug my mom and dad and younger brothers and sisters.
However, on this birthday, there is no place I would rather be than right where I am. I am in the middle of Cambodia (about 2 hours Northwest of Phnom Penh) serving our contact through manual labor. Currently we are working on fixing their barbed wire fence to keep cows out of their base. It is hard work, but also rewarding when we see the fence up, and the cows staying out. (These two can happen separately, by the way. We watched cows go both over and through a fence we thought was good today.)
My team has also made this a day I will never forget. Our cooks made three awesome meals today, with my evening birthday meal being fried chicken, French fries, and green beans (all Cambodia style over the fire), with dessert being mango sticky rice. This delicious dish is cooked rice soaked in condensed milk, with chunks of mango on top (a recipe I will be taking home with me!!). After dinner, they took me on a surprise scavenger hunt, in the dark, and my prize was sparklers!! That may seem pretty lame, but we had looked everywhere for these for the Chinese New Year, and I was a little disappointed when we didn’t get them.
Also, my ministry host made me something called Roteeboy. It is an Indonesian dessert, and tasted like the best butter/sugar roll with sugar glaze I have tasted in a while!
This is officially the best birthday so far! Also, it will last 36 hours, because my family will be 12 hours behind me, so when I call them tomorrow morning, it will still be my birthday in Michigan…
There is no place I would rather be, than right here with my team, in Cambodia, letting Father take care of my worries and plans! May he be praised!
