After 3 long days of travel and countless hours in the airport, we are officially in Cambodia at our ministry location. If you haven’t seen my “Ministries” blog post, my team and I are serving at New Hope for Orphans in Kampong Thom. Kampong Thom is about 4 hours away from Phnom Penh and 2 hours from Siem Reap. My team arrived to the site around 7:00pm and was warmly welcomed by 25 beautiful children running up to our van squealing in excitement. It made my heart ooze with excitement and joy. Being 2 days in, it still feels surreal that I am finally here.
The next day (January 31st, 2019) was our rest and introduction day. After eating a wonderfully prepared breakfast with a side of field rat (I reluctantly took a tiny bite), we met with the director, Mr. Sitha, and his wife, Petra. The ministry site is in a village so we are really living among the people and diving into their culture. There are 25 children in NHO ranging from age 2 to 16. There are 4 girls who attend high school a couple miles away from the orphanage and the younger children attend grade school about a mile away. The kids took us to their school which was a simple two-story building with 6 classrooms, one slide, 2 teeter totters, and 4 swings. We ran around playing tag, exploring the grounds, and playing on the structures. As we sat in the shade to cool off, the children began to pick flowers off the trees and give them to us. Some of the girls even put them in our hair and created an extravagant prom-style updo. One of the boys made and gave me a flower crown out of the branches and twigs he found, I was amazed at his craftsmanship. Later we found out that in Cambodian culture, wearing flowers in your hair mean honor and royalty.
When we got back home, we went out to the main town/shopping area which was full of food stands, open markets, and clothing stores. The host’s wife’s little sister who lives and helps in the orphanage came with us as our translator. Eden is 14 years old and lives in the orphanage to get an education. She is so full of love and has such a servant heart, always putting others before herself. As we drove in the tuok tuok (10/10 experience and so cheap), we got the see more of how people lived in Cambodia. Many of the houses here are two floors: bottom floor is open without walls where they have their kitchen, hammocks, and living area. Upstairs was a closed off room. Our host told us that the houses are build like this for flooding, letting cows walk under, shade, lice picking, storage, and keeping their sleeping area clean. It was so cool to see how people here live but also very difficult because although it is seen as normal here, in America their living conditions would have been considered incredibly poor.
We arrived back around 6 and as they were preparing for dinner, all the children started showering and changing into button ups and dresses. I was so confused as to what was happening but I later found out…THEY WERE GETTING READY FOR MY SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY!!! My lovely team bought a cake and soda for all the team, kids, and staff to enjoy meanwhile, I had no idea that this was all happening. Honestly, on my birthday I was feeling a little bit down since most of it was spent traveling and away from close family and friends with limited communication. I didn’t do anything to celebrate and didn’t say anything about it to my team until one of them checked facebook and asked. I am so so soooo thankful the Lord always knows where I’m at and gives me glimpses of His eternal love for me in surprising and perfect ways.
—Steph from Cambodia
P.S. Thank you for all the birthday messages and love from across the globe!!
