Our brief summary of travel to Cambodia: We arrived in Bangkok at 4:30am, moved to a caravan of three minivans, and left the city by 5:30am. We arrived at the Cambodia border at 9:30am, and took about 90 minutes there, heading toward our Cambodian destinations at 11:00am on Sunday. Our team headed to Siem Reap, spent the night, had a day off, spent a second night, and continued on the our ministry site at 6am the next morning.
6 of our team members spent 7 hours in the bed of a light duty pickup truck. We stopped three times, twice for gas, and once for lunch.
Our ministry site is a property about 30mins outside of Kampong Chhnang. It is a huge ranch about 150 United States acres large, with five small buildings and two bathhouses. Our ministry is helping them do repairs and projects around the base, and going to an orphanage and church to work with the kids. There are only two people on the land, so they have a lot of projects to get done for their organization.
Our lives as disciples of Christ look different in every circumstance. This month, we are living in our tents, pumping water by hand, taking bucket showers, and digging holes to use as our toilet.
For me personally, so far, being a disciple has meant holding and electrical wire up with a wood pole to prevent rice chaff from weighing it down and breaking it. It has meant spending several hours of one day digging a pool for cow manure water to flowing away from where the fence posts were being set. It was meant doing dishes with half a bucket of water because the pump is broken. It has meant embracing the physical exercise of carrying buckets of water to the outhouses, lifting cement fence posts into their holes, and spreading dirt to raise the level of the road.
Being a disciple has also meant looking at the stars with a teammate, commenting on the greatness of our God. It has meant laughing so hard I can’t breathe at the stories and antics of my team. It has meant learning some of the Khmer (phonetic “ka mai”) language to greet those in the area. It has meant talking with our ministry contacts about their lives and stories and hearts for the area. It has meant embracing every possible moment because there is no way to be sure we have the next one.
And this is only one week of time. May God continue to teach me more about being his disciple!
Listen to the meat and throw out the bones. Search scripture for yourself.
