Chapter Two Coming To A Close

Welcome back, I know it’s been awhile but don’t worry, I am here!

Okay, so a lot has happened since the last time I wrote a blog. I probably won’t go into detail and this blog won’t be as wordy as usual, but there will be lots of pictures. To sum up the last 6 weeks that we have been in Cambodia I wanted to do something different. Instead of writing this long 2,000 word blog about everything that has happened I’m going to make this blog a scrap book of pictures and little lessons. Let’s get into it.

The first ministry week was spent at the fish farm. Lots of manual labor and sweaty clothes and muddy feet. This is when our team started bonding and we got to really see each other. This week was so hard and I honestly questioned so much while we were here, however looking back I am grateful for it. There was so much learned and I definitely came out of this week stronger than I was before. Now picture by picture: 1) Me and Grace were partners for the week so we did everything together. In this picture we took one of our many water breaks before going back to digging mud out of a reservoir. 2) The aftermath of me and Grace digging in the mud. But our sweet boss got us all ‘coffee’ ice cream so we got a sweet treat to ease the work day. 3) This is the actual fish farm where they grow the fish to sell. We had to feed the fish twice a day and check the water levels once a day. 3) This is my team after we swept all the dirt and dust out of the big room before a big group of people came to visit the fish farm.

Now our real ministry starts. We moved into Victory Church where we spent the last month serving. Ralph and his wife Jane are the pastors of this church and have different ministries around the city. They are from the Philippines, so there was a mix of a lot of cultures living at the house now. Anyway the pictures: 1) This is the church in the village that Ralph put together. Every Sunday we would go to the village at 7:30 am and teach the kids songs and simplified bible stories along with giving them snacks. Then we would have ‘big church’ with the youth and the other people in the village that would come. This is a picture of Ralph praying after his sermon. 2) We also got to teach english at a school every Tuesday and Wednesday. This is Paige teaching. 3) This is Ralph. That’s all, just Ralph on his moto. 4) While staying at the church we got to cook for ourselves, which means American food! We were paired up with someone from our team and were in charge of one days worth of meals. This was the pasta I was making for lunch after morning ministry.

More pictures: 1) We would prayer walk every Saturday. This was Paige and Grace when we found the exercise equipment in the park. 2) We had a friend living with us for a while. It took us a few days, but Emily caught this little mouse and had to take a picture with it. 3) This is my favorite Cambodian food, curry. I don’t even like curry, but this stuff was good. This restaurant was called Khmer Taste, and we went way too many times. 4) I figured out how to use my little packable espresso machine thing and made mochas daily. This was at 8pm before we watched a movie about the history of Cambodia (it was called First They Killed My Father it’s on Netflix if you’re interested in learning about where I have been the past 6 weeks).

This weekend almost all of our squad came down to visit the big temple that Siem Reap is known for: Angkor Wat. 1) Reunited with my bestie Lydia after not seeing her for 3 weeks. Much needed. 2) This is an overview of one of the many temples there. 3) Me and Lydia , mainly me, weren’t feeling going back to the temples after lunch so we decided to go swimming at her hotel instead. It quickly started raining which made the pool cold so we squeezed into the bathtub in her room and pretended it was a hot tub. 4) This is a picture Lydia took of me in the temple.

More More More 1) We hosted a youth event and got to play Jenga. 2) We were challenged with teaching a seminar at a college about Social Communication in a Digital Age. That was very interesting, I never thought I’d teach a college class at 18 but now I can check that off the list. 3) Our last day at the school Megan and Emily had a dance circle and taught the kids how to get sturdy. 4) My mental health started going down hill, so I made some cookies to feel at home. Disappointed they didn’t taste like they do at home, I still ate about 6 cookies that night.

Week 3 at Victory Church: 1) Sadie and I were assigned the challenge of going to the stationary store and finding cardstock. We did not find any, however I did get flashbacks of my childhood in China being in this store. There were so many pens and notebook and papers and everything wonderful for a crafty person like myself. However, I did in fact only walk out with a 25 cent pencil. #selfcontrol. 2) Once we got back from the store we were immediately put to work with restaining the front door. This is the doorway. 3) My mental health is draining me so instead of going to the village I stayed back and spent the morning with God and wrote all of my everything on this little piece of paper. 4) Baking has been a big comfort while I’ve been here, partially because it reminds me of home and partially because it make me focus on what’s in front of me.

This week we had the opportunity to stay in a different city at another Victory Church location in Battambang about 3 hours away. 1) This is my necessary travel day coke that I got mid road trip. The ride there was crazy. 9 people in one minivan along with all of our bags was definitely not the most comfortable ride, but we made it. 2) The first night there we went to a fellowship night with the church members and were welcomed with some yummy food. 3) The next day we had an adventure day we we spent the day eating and moving from coffee shop to coffee shop to get to know the town. This was a strawberry smoothie I had that tasted like a milkshake. 10/10 4) This is the river in the middle of the town. We lived on the road you see on the other side of the river, so anytime we wanted to go anywhere we had to cross the big bridge on the very slim sidewalk.

More to come 1) we went prayer walking at 6:30 am… too early, but it was nice. This is a big statue thing declaring independence in the center of the park we walked around. 2) Got to see Lydia again and we went on this Bamboo train thing in the country side. It was very interesting but fun. 3) Our prayer walk ended with a picnic breakfast of local coffee and sweet bread treats. 4) We had a kids church thing at the church one night and this is everyone dancing.

Always more food pictures 1) We were yet again in charge of cooking for ourselves while we were there, however instead of cooking we ordered in… for every meal. We loved it. This is what our common lunch or dinner looked like (of course with a $1 coffee).  2) Part of our ministry there was to teach another college class, but we got to use the same topic as last time. We had to tweek it a little and simplify parts of it, which means more coffee shops to do so. 3) After the college class we went to the same restaurant, every time, with the other teachers and people there. In the colleges we taught in the American Corner so it was more of a club so the people in charge spoke great english. 4) Another ministry we did was go to the park every night and serve the kids their with face paint, balloon making, coloring pages, ect. This was the little girl that was attached to my hip. She wanted to do everything I did, including using every color of face paint on my leg, as you can see.

Missing the holidays 🙁 1) Thanksgiving was spent with our team, the pastor of the church, Gette, and another staff member, Mary. This day was a really hard day for me, not because I wasn’t home for thanksgiving, but because of my mental health. We had a mostly American dinner table: roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potato casserole, cake and rice. 2) This is a picture of Sadie in a hammock that served as the seats at the restaurant we went to for lunch. There was only one hammock at our ‘booth’ everyone else sat on the floor, which I preferred. 3) This was the meal we had for lunch that day. It was interesting, but I bought myself 3 dragon fruit (the pink fruit by my bowl) before lunch so I was full on that. 4) After lunch we went on the ‘new bamboo train’ which had no bamboo on it. But there was a pretty garden at the end of the train.

More of adventure day 1) This is the garden at the end of the bamboo train. Of course I had to take a picture of the heart tunnel. 2) This is what the clouds looked like on our way back on the bamboo train, I just thought it looked cool. Everytime the sky looks cool I take a picture of it, not because I’m one of those girls who have to take a picture every time, but because my little sister is one of those girls. I take pictures of the pretty skies for Ellie <3 I miss you. 3) This is a coconut I was forced to buy if I wanted to sit down to watch the bats at a bat cave. 4) This is the bat cave. All these bats live in this cave and at 5:30 everyday they all fly out in this line. There are so many of them it take about 30 minutes for them to all fly out of the cave. Fun fact: I was halfway passed out when I took this picture, hence the horrible angle. I was still awake when it happened, but I could feel it coming so we called the Tuk Tuk over and I made it on before I was in and out of consciousness, or so I was told because I don’t really remember. But don’t worry, I am okay now.

Then we came back to the other Victory Church we were originally at. It was bittersweet leaving Battambang, but we had a great time while we were there and we met so many great people. These pictures are from the past few days. 1) As soon as we got back we walked in, still carrying all of our bags, we were welcomed by all of our students from the school in the middle of a youth event. We quickly dropped our bags and joined the kids playing games and the lessons. 2) Sunday morning we went back to the village church for the last time and Pastor Sam came back from the Philippines and taught. 3) The same Sunday we had regular church at 3pm as normal. Worship this day was so good. 4) I was having a really rough day Sunday, just mentally. I wasn’t very active in anything I did, but I forced myself to go out and watch a movie with some of my squad. We ended up seeing the new Hunger Games movie, ft. Megan’s excitement getting to see the movie she’s been waiting for.

Now for the deeper explanation on the mental health comments. I have been struggling with zoning out so much to the point where I don’t know where I am, what I’m doing, what is going on around me, who is talking to me, ect. It has been really hard to deal with, especially because it comes at random times and my mind goes completely blank when it happens. I also have picked up a lot of anxiety and anxious habits, from where I don’t know, but I can only assume not a good place. It has taken over my mind to a point where I am almost unable to do anything, from participating in ministry, have small conversations, talking in team time, going out in public, lots of things that aren’t me. It’s made me really sad and out of it. I hate it because it’s not me, I have always been happy and love being around people, but now I just can’t and it’s been really hard to deal with. I’m asking for a lot of prayer right now, specifically for this. I am trying my best and sticking with God, but prayer is definitely needed.

As of today, Tuesday the 28th, we have a rest day. Tomorrow we get to spend the day with Ralph and Jane biking around Siem Reap one more time. Thursday we will spend our last day in Cambodia packing everything up because Friday we will travel over the border to Thailand. Travel day is going to be very intense. We are bussing to the border, then carrying all of our stuff across into Thailand (which should take about an hour… but with all of our stuff, yikes), then get on another bus for around 13 hours and drive across Thailand to Chiang Mai, the city we will be in for the next month.

Prayers for my squad as we travel, my team as we say goodbye, my mental health, health in general for my team, lots of good rest these next few days, and high spirits for travel day and Thailand. Thank you all for looking through my scrapbook 🙂 I hope y’all enjoyed it!