Romans 12:2 will be what I will focus on, I'll fail at it more than once but He'll keep showing me what I saw during my time in Cambodia. I saw brokenness in a different way, but I also saw what looked broken on the outside, whole on the inside. I saw Jesus living through his children. I saw Emily, Lacey, Alex, Carol, Tracy, Elizabeth, Joe, and Evan be His hands and feet to everyone they met and to me ;) We felt the prayers of his people (YOU).
I'll do this Alex style and give you a brief run down of what our last 3 days in Cambodia looked like:
Saturday: the 5 hour van ride to Siem Reap was not something were looking forward to but because our team got along so well, the ride was filled with sharing stories from the week, ideas to raise money for the orphanage, watching our slide show from the week in pictures on Carol's lap top, and of course a little entertainment from Joe Mckown aka "Cambodia Joe". We came to our first rest stop along the way where we were mobbed by children selling pineapple, jewelry, and fried spiders. This was one of my least favorite memories, children working instead of playing. Joe, Alex, and Evan had a craving for some fried tarantula, one word... sick. This was also an opportunity to use the public restrooms, personally I chose not to drink any water on this voyage so I would not have to use the squatty potty. For those of you who are not familiar with the squatty potty, you squat (duh) and it's BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper). Besides we didn't want to waste anymore time when there were elephant rides to be had, monkeys to mingle with, and ancient temples to explore!
Finally after arriving at Angkor Wat, we stood at the tree plat form and waited patiently for our elephant to pick us up. We rode 2 by 2 up a mountain, this was simply amazing. The elephant driver (?) guided the huge animal by gently pushing on the back of the elephants ears with his bare feet as he sat on her head, he also played us a beautiful song using a leaf between his lips. When we got to the top of the mountain we took turns taking a photo with our elephants, when it was Elizabeth's turn our elephant sneezed all over her! Poor Elizabeth, the mosquitos loved her and even the caterpillars found a way to sting her. She was a trooper though. We watched the sunset on top of an ancient temple built in the early 13th century, made friends with a couple of monks, and took tons of pictures. As I took in all I was seeing I remembered the scripture I read that morning: Acts 17:24-28 After our elephant ride we headed to the night market for some souvenirs and a $2 foot/leg massage... this was worth way more than $2!!! What a great way to end a great day.
Sunday: we attended church, this would be our second Cambodian church experience. I didn't gather much of what the sermon was about due to the language barrier but something big happens in your heart when you experience worshipping through watching people who live day to day so differently. The fact that you are both worshipping the One True God is a sermon in itself. That afternoon we were able to find a somewhat American brunch (at this point we were all ready for some "regular" food). Lots more exploring to do before heading to the airport. We encountered some monkeys along our way through Angkor Wat, they kind of just acted like they were one of us ;) One last Cambodian dinner and of course we couldn't end the night without a last minute stop at the night market... I needed a new Cambodian tea set anyways!
I am filled up and broken down at the same time from my experience in Cambodia, but in a good and useful way. Everyone on our team will take what they experienced and use it to bring Heaven to earth.
Good night ;)
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