Hello, everyone from Phnom Penh
Cambodia. After a calculated 82 hours of travel by plane, bus and
tuc tuc we’ve finally arrived. It’s really hot but I’m very excited
about the oppurtunities we’ll have here. We’re hoping to visit our
ministry site tomorrow and learn about the various oppurtunities
we’ll have. So I’ll update you more on that in the next blog. This
blog is more about our layover then Cambodia really.
As most of you might know we had a
long layover, about 15 hours, in LA. There was a lot of mixed
feelings surrounding this, because usually on the World Race you
leave and 11 months later you come back to the states. But there are
the rare occasions when it can’t be avoided. This was obviously one
of those cases. Team Manna was obviously pretty excited because we
had an entourage. We had the opportunity to meet Terri’s mom, Nate’s
mom and sister, Sammie’s BF Jose, some friends of Steph, and then I
had a mystery guest of my own who turned out to be Eddie! Eddie is a
close friend of the family and was my Sunday school teacher when I
was in youth. God completely orchestrated it too, because he just
happened to be in LA on business. So it was great to see him and
talk to him. He brought a great card from his wife Kim and a DVD
that Jessica made of the youth and a bunch of my friends in the
church that completely rocked my face. It was amazing to see
everyone and hear them, it made me miss everyone so much. And then
there was also a tin of magic cookie bars from my mom that I did a
terrible job rationing. It kind of felt surreal to be sitting in my
hotel room talking to Eddie. It’s hard to explain but it was just
hard to comprehend, I guess because I knew I was still on the race
but I’m in LA and I’m with Eddie. Haha it all feels kind of like a
dream. But once everything was caught up we needed to stock up at
Target and then of course eat at Chili’s to get my chicken ranch
sandwich. Terri’s mom was awesome enough to wash all our clothes for
us, so now we all have clean and soft clothes.
On an introspective note, I was very
curious what our purpose was for coming to LA. I know that this
whole trip is in God’s hands and He has a purpose behind everything
we do. And awesome enough, by now I know exactly what God was trying
to teach us by bringing us back to the states for a brief stint. You
see, I was pretty frustrated that night, mostly with my team. It
just felt like things were far more difficult then they needed to be
and people were changing things up and everyone had people they were
entertaining…it was overwhelming. But at the root of the
frustrations was the ugly truth that I had expectations of what we
were going to be doing in LA and I felt that I had the right for
everything to happen just like I expected. I had worked so hard to
surrender my rights and expectations while I was overseas, but it
just seems like as soon as my feet stepped back on American soil a
switch was flipped. Almost like I gave myself permission to be
selfish again. And through it all, God with His infinite patience
and grace, is telling me to be careful. It will be so easy to flip
that switch in November when I come home, and if I allow that to
happen then this trip is nothing more then a cool thing I did one
time. My prayer’s have been changing a lot, a new addition is that
the change that happens to me in this next 9 months would be a
permanent and lasting change.
Thank you everyone who is keeping me
in your prayers and following my journey. Please pray for us as we
settle into Cambodia. Also pray for our squad and their loved ones.
Recently we’ve gone through a lot of spiritual attack. At first it
was just against us, but now the enemy is turning on our loved ones.
There have been many deaths and illnesses and even job layoffs. So
please, lets create a prayer cover so thick that the enemy can’t
penetrate it. Also communication might be a little harder this month
because there is no internet at the YWAM base we’re staying at and
there’s also a 12 hour time difference between here and North
Carolina. But we’ll make it work and I should be able to check my
email and facebook regularly.
