Day 37

    Had a greattttt day! :)

     Today was so good! We learned a lot about cultural differences, and the importance of trying foreign foods. Not liking their food can make or break their openness to hearing what you have to say. If you don't like it, fake it. Smile. If it stinks, put on a big smile and dig in! This is a MUST, and is non-negotiable on the mission field. Even if you are allergic, or gagging. Is it worth to lose souls over your temporary allergic reaction? You reaching this one person in the village could mean the entire village getting saved. You cannot play around with this! Good thing I am loving the food here at Alma- not too much of a sacrifice to eat this while we are here! ;)

Grilled zucchini with ground meat and cheese, with beans and rice.

And chocolate cake with gingerbread cookie crumbles!

 

    After class, me, Bliss, and Jenn went over to Meygan's house. We had a post 4th of July party! Hot dogs. Barbeque chicken. Chips. Homemade chocolate chip cookies. Yum Yum! Then we went buy Pitch Perfect at the Russian Market and watched it all together with a few more people. Such a great Friday!

Cute baby sleeping at the Russian Market! Wanted to take him home!



Our hotdogs and chicken and chips.

Not exactly American style, but the best we could do!



 

 Watching Pitch Perfect

Day 36, Happy 4th of July

    I started feeling really sick yesterday. I woke up still not feeling very well. Nauseous and light headed. I skipped our regular breakfast and had something that I knew would settele well with my stomach. Praise Jesus by lunch I felt back to normal. Just a 24 hour sickness.

 

Breakfast of champions (or the sick): goldfish, coke, and pepto.

 

     Class was fab as usual. We go to class for 6 hours, and we learn so much I cannot possibly fit what I learn and my feelings and responses in a blog post. I am so blessed to be here and learn all of this. I am learning more in these 3 months than people learn in a lifetime. This is sooo saturated!

 

Class

 



Lunch: As American as I could get! Burgers & Fries

 

    Since we don't have a/c during the day, we went to the coffee shop a few blocks over to do some Bible reading and studying. I love talks about the Bible with fellow Christians. When we all read the same chapters, at the same time, we can talk about them amongst each other and share our revelations! I will be sad to go back home and not have someone there constantly by my side to share with. For dinner at the coffee shop, I ordered the American breakfast set again (to show my American patriotism haha). It was great! On our way out, we saw an old record player-ish thing. And it worked! The guy let me crank it and taught me how to use it. Pretty cool!

 

 

   Came back home and got to see some of my favorite faces on Skype:  Mary, Hayden, Grace, Ali, Nanny Donna, and of course my Chloe girl! I miss my family, but am glad I am living out this once in a lifetime chance!

Pictures from Areyskat Village

Ferry to get across the river to the village

 

 Our ride: big tuk-tuk

*We fit 22 adults successfully on this! Nothing is impossible!

 

 

 Kalaty said this is the local Khmer girl face ;)

 

 

 Coming up on the village

Little girl walking alone down the dirt road

 

 

The kids in the village waiting for us to arrive!

Such sweet faces!

 

 Playing games! They had so much fun!

 

 The teens and leaders playing a game!

 

 

Singing with the kids!

*Sadly, this video only seems to work on desktop/laptops.

 

Sunset over the river on our way home

 

Phnom Penh is just across the river, and they are living secluded like this in hut homes. Crazy. Phnom Penh is still very much 3rd world, yet is absolute luxury compared to these villages. Phnom Penh has buildings, yet this village doesn't even have a store aside from a hut on the side of the road selling cokes. These people grow and live naturally, with what their hands can produce. But they have so much joy. I could sure learn a lesson or two from these sweet people.

 

Day 35

     Todays breakfast was amazing, pancakes and fruit! I really miss pancakes! :) Class was also amazing! We learned about how to interact with others as missionaries, how though you are not getting a steady salary it is better to sow into your givers lives, because you will reap! Don't think of yourself as a poor missionary, with your palms always open. That's a taker. We are called to have a balance, and we must do giving as well in order to reap. We also learned a lot about different governments, and how we must be careful to realize that though we are free in America, when we leave the state, so does our rights. We have no rights in another country as an American citizen. Do not become cocky thinking you are unstoppable because you are an American citizen. Many countries will kill you out right BECAUSE you are an American. In places where they have issues with Americans, the government will look the other way when locals gang up and murder one. This is happening every day. It is so easy to think you will go to dangerous places to spread the gospel, however, unless God calls you very specifically and clearly, you very well may end up as a martyr. Be careful!

Lunch! Chicken. Beans. Homemade tortillas. Salsa, Salad.

Amazingggggg!

This food at Alma is incredible!

 

 Our table is never finish with lunch until we order desert.

Tres Leche cake! My favorite cake, yet!

    After class, it started to storm. The drainage here is terrible. Water in the streets were up to locals calves after only minutes of rain. Ironically, our room started to flood. We are on the 4th floor, but the water was coming down so fast and so hard, it seeped under our balcony door! What a mess!
    After that, a few of us went over to Catherine's home to watch the 30 children while she is out of town. How sweet they are! I seemed to have caught a stomach bug sometime in the afternoon, so I didn't get to play and interact with the kids as much as I would have liked, sadly. Some of the girls braided my hair, we played "ninja" which is like air karate chops and hand swords but no physical interaction, then we did the nightly devotional of praise and worship and bible time. So sweet to see all of the kids so into it! 

 

 Playing games on the rooftop

 

 The family dog/ watch dog: Samson

He is a lovable sweetheart, and looks out for the kids!

 

Praise and worship with the kids before Bible study

Day 34

     Today was a typical school day. Breakfast downstairs was bread pudding! Class was great. We talked about our leaders in error, how to respond, and how to move forward. I learned that leaders in error is the main reason ministries are not successful. People lose hope in leaders the minute they are in error, and disregard every doctrine ever learned by that person. We must realize that everyone is human. Everyone on this planet is walking in error, in one way or another. Forgive them and move forward. Matthew 18:15-17. Very useful. But before you ever, ever approach that person, you must pray. Usually this is all just a misunderstanding in the first place, and what you think is in error actually isn't.
     After class, I took a nap. Woke up to do my daily Bible reading. Read about 8 chapters, then fell asleep again. I was exhausted!
     Went to dinner at the Russian Market. Me and Bliss wanted friend rice, so we separated and ate across the food court alone. Unfortunately, the people at our booth didn't speak a lick of English. So we pointed and motioned until we ordered. But because of the language barrier, we did not get drinks. As we were trying to pay, we couldn't understand what they were saying. Sitting behind us was a table of American guys who chimed in to help us! Thankfully. After we got to talking, they are from Arkansas and are here for the summer as well on a mission trip. They are also affiliated with Water of Life Church, as we are, so maybe we will be seeing them again.
     After dinner, we came home and cut up a bit before we finished our reading and started our sermon outlines. Hard to believe I have already written 16 sermons!
     I am really loving my time here. Things are not perfect, like no A/C during the daytime, but life isn't perfect. We must make sacrifices. What kind of blessing do you think you will get when there is no sacrifice? You must get out of your comfort zone and lose a bit of yourself in order to gain so much more. The Word says in Matthew 10:39 that whoever loses their life for the Lord's sake will find it. How encouraging!

Banana, cranberry & oats bread pudding

 

Beef fried rice & soup!

Day 33, "Khaming, Khaming"

     Today was another busy day. We woke up and spent most of the day at the coffee shop spending time together and doing our bible readings. We got there about 10, and left about 3:45. Ate breakfast and lunch there, for $2.90 each. What a steal!

    After lunch, we went to Catherine's home. She is a tiny 26 years old and is raising 30 children on her own! We are working with her while we are here in Cambodia, and are splitting into 4 teams and will each take a day of the week to go for the next few weeks we are here. We will break it up into 1 boy, 1 American girl, and 1 Asian girl to have diversity to our group. She is single, young, and is raising them alone. She does not use the 'O' word and it is not allowed in her home: orphan/orphanage. These are her babies that call her 'mom' and that she treats as her flesh and blood. How amazing! She speaks Khmer well and the kid absolutely adore her! I am so glad we will be able to work with them while we are here. I met a few today that I really seemed to click well with. For safety reasons, we cannot take pictures of them or use their names on Facebook. This is not Facebook, so I will wait and see when I go the specifics. She owns two 5 story homes side by side, a boy side and a girl side. Ages 4-19, but because of hormone issues, once the boy reach 14, she sends them down the street to the boys home for older boys that is connected with Water of Life Church (the church they belong to and we area affiliated with while down here).
     I love speaking the little Khmer language I know with the kids. They think it is soooo funny white girl speaking their language. "Khaming-Khaming" means children. Love that word. It is fun! :) Let the little khaming-khaming come to me said the Lord!
     For dinner, we went back to the Lebanese restaurant that we went to earlier in the week, and it was just as fabulous!!! While there, an older white man came in with a very young local Khmer girl dressed in short skirt and tank top. As she was sliding into the booth, he was rubbing her butt and slapping it. How inappropriate! In public to be humiliated like that, but she was a prostitute and must deal with that on a daily basis, to be only seen as a sexual object. She looked so broken in her eyes, but had to be nice and show him attention since he paid for her. You could tell she was miserable, but kept a fake smile. My heart breaks for her.
     I know it is easy to write her off saying it is her choice. And it is. But after being here, and seeing how these people live and how helpless they are, I sympathize for them. They have nothing. They are poor mostly living in dirt floors. Dirty floors. Dirty water. Defecate on the side of the road. Making big money by selling themselves to foreigners who come here specifically for that seems like a brilliant idea when you have nothing!!
     I learned today that when some of these prostitutes get pregnant, they don't abort (as what I would have expected), but go through with the pregnancy so that when the child is about 5, they can sell them for lots of money (especially when they sell them the night they are virgins, as expected, sick twisted people like young little virgins). Not all, but some. It is not uncommon for parents to prostitute out their own children, or permanently sell them off for a large lump sum. When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.
    Please pray for Catherine's children, who she rescued all from the streets. No telling where they would be now if it weren't for her taking them. And for these lost souls selling themselves for money. This is what they know. And it is wrong. Please pray for divine appointment for each one to be reached out to, and for open hearts when the time comes. This life cannot be easy, nor easy to get out of. But all things are possible through God. He is waiting to rescue each of them from this life!

Small village in the city along the sewage line. Makeshift shacks lined up.