I have officially been in Cambodia for a month and 3 weeks (I think). About 2 weeks ago our Squad split up into teams and headed all across Cambodia now we are in Preah Netr Preah. It’s the beginning of week 3 and I thought I should give you a little overdue update (sorry about that) about what we are/were doing. We got here on a Monday and the first few days I stayed back because I was quite sick so I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was back on my feet on Wednesday. We had breakfast at a local restaurant where we eat all our meals. The owner is soo nice. We pay them our weekly (minus the weekend) food budget and they feed us meals we hopefully enjoy. We never know quite what we getting, they just serve us food. They are constantly asking if we need more food, giving us free coffee, and if they think we’re sick they usually give us a bunch of food and/or a smoothie. They do take our laundry to a laundromat because we don’t know where it is and sometimes drive us to and from the Restaurant so we don’t have to walk what I believe is about a half mile. They just treat us so well and we get to pour into the owner and hopefully have meaningful conversations about what it means to be Christian or what it looks like for him to be Buddhist.
We then either help a local church with various things cleaning, talking to church members, or sometimes there’s nothing planned and we have to figure out what we are doing till 11 where we try and help teach English to a bunch of Seniors. Sometimes he gives us a ride to lunch, and sometimes we walk. Then we usually walk back to the school for our post-lunch nap or other activities planned. Some of us started our own little English class at 2 with some of the locals every day at 4 we teach another English class. We then play various sports with the kids normally basketball, but sometimes we play volleyball or soccer. We then walk to Dinner around sunset, we either walk back or the restaurant owner drives us back. That is what our week normally looks like and our weekend plans always change, we always get a surprising amount of free meals/ food and save a decent amount of our food money if we spend it at all unless we buy snacks. Plus on Sundays, we get to eat with the English teacher and just pour more into him. The first week we made him American fried chicken with french fries, and the following week he made us Cambodian roast chicken with soup and rice.
The 2 weeks have felt quite slow at sometimes but overall it’s been quite great. Being able to build relationships with people has been surprisingly easy and hopefully fruitful. The students all treat us like celebrities and always want a picture with us. And they just treat us so much better than we deserve. The small community of guys is just amazing. Now I just have a few things to ask for and that is prayers. Prayers for all the Cambodians we encounter but I especially the English teacher we work with and the Restaurant owner. Pray that we can plant seeds that will be protected from any harm and that will bear fruit. Pray for us and that we will continue to walk strong in our faith regardless of what happens and that we would bring all back to the Father— that we would hear him clearly and let him guide us always bringing the Kingdom wherever we go. Pray for support if I truly should be on this trip. Finally, just pray for protection from any harm including dengue. Again thank you for all your prayers.
