Hi from Cambodia!

     Hi everyone! Sorry for the delayed update, but life has been crazy over here on the other side of the world. We left training camp one week ago, on Saturday the 14th, and my team officially made it to our ministry in Serei Saophoan, Cambodia on Wednesday night! Serei Saophoan is a small city 2 hours outside of Siem Reap where we’ll be teaching English classes at a private school to kids ages 5-17 and doing house visits to pray for families in the community. Our hosts are absolutely phenomenal with the most hospitable hearts, and the utilities of AC, toilets, and home-cooked meals are such a luxury after the tents and porta potties we left behind at training camp. My team consists of 8 wonderful young women: Lydia, Megan, Faith, Sydney, Clara, Sophie, our leader Alyssa, and me. We have many different personalities but we’ve been working really well together so far. 

     On Thursday morning we went to two homes in the community to pray over families who attend church at our ministry host’s church (please also keep the people from my stories in your prayers). The first was a woman who was bedridden and couldn’t speak. It looked to me like she had some form of dementia, but her diagnosis wasn’t clearly communicated to us because of the language barrier. Her daughter had been taking care of her every day for many years and often wasn’t able to attend church because of that. We prayed over her and her daughter and many tears were shared both from them and my team. 

     After that, we went to an area of town where the homes were built out of scrap material and had recently become flooded. We walked through waist-deep water for about 50 yards to get to their homes. The family of 4 we prayed over had moved across the street, now standing water, into an apartment building that was never fully finished. The building only had 3 sides and was stripped of everything besides the concrete, no walls, flooring, electricity, or amenities. (picture attached below). We prayed over them and their request was only that they’d be able to save enough money to buy new land on which to build a new home. If you’re interested in donating specifically to them, reach out to me and I’ll find out how that would work!

     We went back to our ministry home for lunch after that and then taught the days of the week in English to our class of 11 six through nine-year-olds. The language barrier is so difficult but it makes us be more creative and deliberate with teaching which is actually pretty fun. We played a lot of games to help them stay engaged and active while also learning. I’ve never seen kids so young with such an eagerness to learn and get it right. I can already tell I’m gonna cry when we leave them in 6 weeks.

     The elementary class ended at 4, and then at 5, we taught phonetics and new vocabulary words to 4 different classes of teenage students who are at a higher level. After that, it was time for dinner and a well-deserved night of rest.

     Friday was the same schedule but with different home visits. We’ll be doing home visits every morning so unfortunately I can’t write about all of them but I’ll continue to throw in the ones that were extra meaningful to me. Saturday we ate breakfast at a ramen place in the market and it was so good. We pretty much slept and rested all day besides meal times and a coffee shop break. After dinner, we played uno with our host/translator/bestie Rebecca, her brother Peter, and her little cousin Umi. It started pouring rain and we decided to go dance and play soccer in the storm. It felt so freeing and was honestly the cleanest I’ve felt in two months. 

     But just some basic info about day-to-day life, we’re living on the top level of a new building that will eventually be used as a classroom. We’re sleeping on our sleeping pads on the floor but it’s actually pretty comfy. Every day our pastor’s wife cooks us traditional Cambodian meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The food is incredible. It’s so fresh and I’m almost never hungry for lunch even though I’m sweating buckets and running around because the food is so nourishing. And before you ask, yes it is very hot here. Friday was 97 but with humidity felt like 104. That’s only a slightly above-average day as far as temperature goes. The city we’re in feels very safe and like one big community/family feel. I feel very safe walking through town and around the neighborhood especially since I’m always with at least 2 other people. Everyone is so friendly and kind, but we are definitely the only Americans for about an hour in any direction so we do get stared at everywhere we go. But not in an icky way at all, it just feels like genuine fascination or curiosity. I can’t wait for the relationships we’re going to build here in the next 6 weeks and the stories we’re going to have afterward.

     As always, thank you so much for all the support through prayer and donations. I am not yet fully funded so please continue to share my adventure with friends and family, and if you feel led, donate here!