So much happens in so few days. It’s crazy really. Several noteworthy things happen and in retrospect they seem to have flown by, but during the day sometimes we feel like the days are long since we wake up early (and it’s hot). But that is all a-okay! Especially since our God is the one who provides us with strength, we don’t seem to have to worry about running out if we rely on Him. Now that may be the tricky part, but it’s definitely attainable. “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Well thank you Galatians 6:9, I think you hit the nail on the head.
So as we have been soaking up the love of the people here and experiencing this great culture, we are pressing ahead with the good we are doing. Often times I have to remind myself of this because it can be overwhelming when you look at one city of one country and see the need- as you see children playing in sewage water outside their house, trekking long distances to school, hungry for food, and hungry for attention- and then say “Oh goodness, there is so much pain and evil in this world, where is the hope?” But we HAVE the hope! AND just as Abba has a plan for each of our lives, He most certainly has a plan for each of these kiddos’ lives, and if that involves me getting to hug or feed them, I’m not complaining. But obviously I can’t reach the whole world so I’ll have to leave that to the One who made this world, the One who uses us to reach this broken world He has made and loves.
So Saturday we went to breakfast with the Welch’s at a little cafe called Sisters. It employs women and makes some pretty excellent pumpkin pancakes, if I do say so myself. Then the gals headed upstairs for pedicures (I hope our often barefoot feet weren’t toooo bad). Following this treat, we took a short rest and then Mal and I took Theary to her first ever movie at a theater. We saw Superman and she really enjoyed it! It’s so fun being able to hang out with her and see a few things through her eyes.
But to top off these past couple of days, we had plans to visit Cassie and Sarah (two other ACU interns in Phnom Penh, but kinda on the other side of town) at Sokohm’s church. They teach English to students there and welcomed us as we worshipped in Khmer, with the exception of one song in English. Amazing Grace was led by one of Cassie’s students and she beamed like a proud mama as he trekked right on through all five verses of the old, yet beautiful words. It was so wonderful to catch up with them and hear about their experience, which is surprisingly different, but also fairly similar, culture-wise and everything. We decided to make plans to hang out together the rest of the day because we were just enjoying our time together so much! After a lunch of mushrooms (fried mushrooms, mushroom fried rice, a mushroom hamburger- it was a vegetarian restaurant and yes, it was all great), we headed back to show off our humble abode. Mal and I felt like quite the experienced tour guides as we then took them to Russian Market and haggled for them and later took a tuk tuk to the Riverfront for some much-needed Mexican food at Viva. Everyone devoured it and then we pretended to work it off before proceeding to eat ice cream as we walked the street and watched Mallory and Cassie join in on some street aerobics. After showing off our favorite little ice cream parlor we arranged tuk tuks and parted ways. Needless to say we both kinda made a few wrong turns as we broke out about every word of our limited Khmer that we know, but hey, we made it so no biggie right?
I think that a few wrong turns are inevitable in pretty much every aspect of life and that as we work to give up our mindset that we can attain perfection, we allow room for God to walk with us through these times. I keep up with Cassie’s blog (http://calledtocambodiaa.blogspot.com) and the other day she said “Life is full of peaks and valleys. But God is present at every peak. And He’s holding your hand in every valley.” I mean I think it’s pretty cool that the God who formed the mountains walks them with us (literally and figuratively).
So climb on, because God is present in all parts of the journey,
Shanleigh
P.S. More blogs to come, still trying to catch up!
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