This month
in Siem Reap, Cambodia my team and I taught English at the University of
Nations, which is affiliated with YWAM. We stayed at a YWAM base that was a 15
minute bike ride from the school.
This was
my schedule Monday through Friday (Saturdays were off days & Sundays were
spent at church):
7:25 –
wake up & brush teeth
7:30 –
8:30 – rush outside for breakfast and bible study / worship with my team
11:15 –
bike to school
11:30 –
12:30 – teach computer class with Leslie
12:30 – 4
– have lunch at the YWAM base & (most days) go to common grounds cafe for
internet & to visit friends there
4 – 5 –
teach conversation class with Michael
5 – 6 –
teach grammar class with Chelsea
6:15 –
come home & eat dinner at the YWAM base
6:45 –
play with puppies
7 – shower
8 – knock
on my teammates’ doors and ask questions & share life while laying on their
beds
9 – team
meetings
10:30 –
bed
I have to
admit that at first the idea of teaching English to a bunch of people my age
(my youngest student was 14 and my oldest was 29) intimidated me quite a bit. I
didn’t feel equipped. I didn’t feel like I had anything to offer them.
Last month
in the Philippines I felt like I was in my natural setting, where I feel most
comfortable, with children. Switch to Cambodia where I felt completely
inadequate considering I’ve never really taught anyone anything (on purpose). Surprisingly enough, I was thankful to be in that mindset. Part of the reason I chose to come on the race is because I felt God calling me out of my life at home, where I have all of the comforts I could ever want; the most wonderful of beds, air conditioning, hot showers, 3 squares a day. I can choose in and out of relationships depending on how I feel about certain people that day. I can spend my time doing things I am comfortable doing, like napping, or taking care of kids. On the race, most of these don’t exist. When I’m in need and feel incapable, God is the only person I’d want to carry me through. Where I end, He begins and continues on. Though that’s not to say that God only fills in where I lack, because even my strengths were given to me by God alone. He has made me perfectly and given me a perfect need for Himself. And thankfully, so.
“Three
times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that
Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in
weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For
when I am weak, then I am strong.” – 2 Corinthians 12:8-10
some of my computer students & i
