WOW!!!

WOW! What a past week this has been. It has been so busy and incredible and just an overall incredible experience.

We started off the week on Sunday going to a church service at the Centre where we teach. It is mostly high school age kids with some college age teachers also. Our very own Justin lead the service in worship, and then showing his versatility turned around and also did the teaching. He is truly a very gifted teacher. People where captivated by his lesson. At the end of the service, we celebrated the birthday(well…it wasn’t quiet his birthday yet, but almost) of one of the older students there. It was the first time in his life that he had a birthday cake. They had an awesome game at the end of the celebration that I will now be making a tradition at any of my future parties. People challenge each other to rock paper scissors and the loser gets icing smeared on them by the winner every round. It was so much fun! That night we had an insane dance party at the house we are staying at for the staff and a few of the students. All I can say is I made a 100% complete idiot of myself. But! I had fun while doing it. I really cannot dance at all. They however, where absolutely incredible. I have no idea how they can control every single part of their body so fluidly. All in all, it was just a super fun night.

Throughout the week, we continued to teach. Ange and I teach our class from 11:30-12:30 and then from 4-5, 5-6, and 6-7. The classes are getting bigger and we are really starting to build relationships with the students. They are in general just such a silly fun group. We have a blast in our class for sure. Our morning class mostly has just monks in it. We are really building strong relationships with them. I never ever would have guessed monks would be so hilarious and just so much fun, but they really are. They are probably some of the biggest teasers, practical jokesters and most competitive of all our students. They have also taught us so much about the culture and history and traditions of Cambodia.

Through this week I’ve also been working a lot on the self discipline thing. I even got to give a ‘teaching’ about it on Wednesday. I have been able to just be really consitant with my time with God and just feel a lot closer to Him already and it’s just neat. Also, being more self disciplined on the health side of it has me feeling really good also. The self discipline of communication has me writing back people much more quickly. It also has had me making better priorities and getting what I need to get done in a lot more time efficient and productive manor(for example, writing this instead of watching a movie with some of the team).

The past 48 hours though have been absolutely insane and so much fun! Yesterday morning we taught class as normal but then came back to the school at 3pm to set up for the evening festivities. The school was hosting a talent show. It was so much fun and we all had such an incredible time watching the students perform. They all had a fun time getting to show their skills in singing, playing guitar, and dancing. The dance class did a dance together and I just kind of stood in awe of how good they were. Justin’s guitar class also did a group act. They were so nervous, but got up there and made it through the song anyways! I got to help run the sound and then was in charge of helping find students and getting them ready to perform and getting everyone numbers as well as other misc errands. At the end, the DJs starting some crazy music and the team along with the teachers and older students had another dance party. I even learned one of their dances (very poorly I might add). Overall it went really well and everyone walked away smiling. It ended around 7:30 and we ran home to go eat and get back to the school for a prayer night. We hung out there and worshiped with them till about midnight and then headed home for a few hours of sleep. We all got up around 4:30am and headed out to Angkor Wat to watch the sun rise over the main temple. It was so so incredible. We spent the day exploring many of the different temples. I really cannot explain the sheer majesty and glory of the places, even being so broken down. And something really interesting, on one of the walls, there was an engraving of something that looks like a triceratops. At one of the places, we were one of the first people there and it was just so peaceful and yet powerful. I got the chance to read Psalms 148 out lout there, and it was just so cool. Even though it was a temple built for Buddha, the sheer glory of it pointed straight to God and His ultimate majesty.

A couple prayer requests. The first is tomorrow I am teaching at church. I’ll be sharing basically my testimony and how I got to Cambodia. Please pray that the Holy Spirit just really speaks through my weaknesses in talking and gets His message across. Please also pray for our last week here in Cambodia. Pray we can really touch the lives of the students in an unforgettable way and just really point them to Christ. Pray for our safety on our trip this next weekend to Vietnam. And for the preparation of the hearts of the people we will talk to there. Also, please pray for my time I’ll be in Thailand. Just that everything would happen that needs to happen during that time and that I just use that time as God would have me in the most effective way to glorify Him in all I do. I also am going to try to raise about $400 a month as support for living in Thailand. As I am not coming back to the states, I’m not sure how I’m going to do that. Doing everything through the farm I’m working at, I should be able to take on enough extra lessons and trainings there to make the money to live. However, the more I pray about it, the more I’d really like to be able to spend that time building up the therapy program there as well as getting to minister and mentor all the young girls that come there. Thank you all so much for your continued love and prayers!!