(I wrote this blog right before we left & then had no wifi within 3 hours of where we are currently #worldrace; so here I am, posting it 1.5 months later, enjoy! )
After 3 months of 80% humidity, mystery meat, questionable street smells, laughter, tears, coconuts, and an ever-increasing love of Cambodia, we have officially settled into our next destination: Harbu Chulule, Ethiopia.
There are a lot of approaches my mind has considered taking when it comes to processing the last 3 months in Cambodia. One of them is getting caught up in things I could have done better while I was there: people I should have pursued, relationships I should have built. Another approach (my personal favorite) is to focus so hard on the good things in front of me that I don’t have time to feel sad about the things and people we left behind.
Unfortunately, the harder and healthier thing to do is to look back, grieve it, and then give the time and people we were with back to God. After all, they were never ours to begin with. That is where I currently am.
And per usual, my man JC has met me right in the midst of my grief with consolence in the form of five words.
“You left, but I didn’t”
This is where I find my comfort. His work is no where near finished there. We were simply His vessel for a brief period of time. He asks us to come alongside communities, empower them, serve them, and love them. And ultimately, love them from an overflow of what He has already given us, so that once we are gone, they continue to feel the same love we showed them; the only difference being that instead, it’s through His presence alone.
He is the reason love was there, and He is the reason love will be multiplied there. We can grieve the people we left behind, but we can also rejoice in the promise that He has so much more in store for them and that we got to play even a tiny role in His big, elaborate picture. The fact that we were sad to leave indicated that there was growth, love, and progress being made; and that in itself is something to thank God for.
And here we are now, in Ethiopia!
We have hot showers. I haven’t even had to inflate my air mattress because we have bunk beds and mattresses with bedding. It’s cold. Like, socks-and-beanies cold! Bliss. We have a BIG kitchen available to our whole squad and house moms who cook amazing meals for us three times a day. We can drink the tap water. This is the birthplace of coffee, which means there are coffee ceremonies daily and a consistently full pot in the kitchen. There are mountains surrounding us and the sunsets are absolutely stunning. The elevation is high enough that we don’t even have to worry about mosquitoes which means no malaria pills! Yay! Basically, when the Bible talks about taking away and then blessing tenfold, THIS is exactly what I imagined.
Check out my next blog to get an in-person tour of where we live & details about the ministry we get to partner with!
