So I spent Cambodian New Year with Sadong. Cambodian New Year is a huge deal! I spent 3 days with her and her family in a village near the Vietnam border. It was beautiful to drive through the green green rice fields and mountains for the first time. We only have one mountain, singular, in our area, and its more of a hill. I had a beautiful time getting to know her family and village. I was welcomed with open arms and a healthy interest. We climbed 2 mountains! They were pretty difficult climbs but completely worth the time and effort. We found crystals on our first hike, and Rylee I am bringing one home for you, and you will freak! I know how you adore nature! In the evenings we went to the "Pakadah" which is the local temple. This is where the entire village gathers to have food and dancing. It was so entertaining to watch the boys fling their bodies all over the place, and the girls barely move due to their modesty. Ashley, Steph, KC, I wanted you there so bad. I know that we would have dominated that dance party. The villagers would have never forgot it. However, I could not be so bold without your presences. For most of the day we set and talked with the family and neighbors. This was so interesting, to get a peak at real Cambodian life. I got to share the gospel with Sadongs family and extended family. I also got to share with a neighbor lady that had grown quite fond of me. This was completely thrilling, because when I ask the neighbor if she had heard about Jesus, "She said, "I heard them talking about him before, many years ago, but I never understand." It was amazing to be able to present the gospel in a real and relational way for the first time!! Truly if you need adventure, talk about Jesus, in a different language, in a hopeless village, with the poorest of the poor! Tell them of hope and promise! Still when I think of these moments, Joy pours over me! I saw poverty on a level that I have never even imagine. There was a very poor grandma living alone on the top of the mountain. They lived there to serve Buddha and take care of the temple. They had to make the steep climb completely alone, I do not know how they are still alive. I watched as one grandma, walked down ancient, dangerous stairs, I asked her why, and she said, "mduck, knew." Which means water over there. She fell in her attempt. We retrieved her water for her, which was heavy and took all of our energy to make the climb back up. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. Grandma, all I could think about was you and how I am so thankful that you love Jesus, and that your God takes care of you! I also saw a 6 year-old tiny girl dying from Spina Bifidia. This was difficult, because I asked about surgery and her mother said that she was too sick and would die. Her head was huge and her body so tiny. The picture would urrk your insides, but I did not take one out of respect. This hurt me because I have so many friends that live good and healthy lives with this same disorder. Also I watch a Cambodian divorce, which is cruel and evil. Sadongs cousin is very poor with two children. She lives in a tiny hut, with little to eat, and her husband is never home. Well, he came home why I was there, and took everything. He took all of there money, there possessions, and wants to come back for the kitchen roof. He left nothing for his new born daughter and his parting words to his loving wife were, "I hope you get hit by a car." She was left with nothing and her only hope is to be supported by her family and village. There were so many sweet moments and so many terribly difficult moments. I went into the experience prideful that I could handle it with ease, but that was not the case. I have never seen poor like this, much less experienced in first hand. The food was dirty and water dirtier. Everything was dirty dirty. We slept in a hot, stuffy, room on mats with dirty pillows and blankets. We used the bathroom in a open field and showered by the well as the neighbors walked by. I was a constant show, everyone wanted to touch and feel me. Villages came to touch my skin and hair. They asked me to walk back and forth many times. If I left the house, people on the street would stop their moto's and just stare until I passed by. My every expression and motion was closely examined by the family and village. It was humbling because I mostly felt like a zoo animal on display. I had to swallow my pride many times to preform and entertain them out of love and hope for relationship. It is a very strange feeling to be constantly stared at, it kind of makes you want to hide in a hole. One of the neighbors would constantly feel up my skirt and ask to see my breast...this was a tad to far for me:) I would politely change the topic quickly. It was hard to see and hard to experience but so very life altering all the same. I got sick upon returning home, I thought I would never desire food again. My body just can't take that type of living. I had a high fever and thought my insides were falling apart. I have recovered quickly, praise Jesus. I learned so very much from this experience and left with Joy knowing that I know had another Cambodian family. They plead with me to stay a few more days and plotted to get me to return again. I hope to return and continue to water the seed of the gospel that has been planted!! Lots of pictures, I hope they allow you to fully understand the experience.
*Everyone! Every beautiful Cambodian that I got to spend time with. They are not sad, they just don't really know how to take pictures. They don't know that smiling is generally the norm. However if you look, the little one has a beautiful big smile. He loved have his picture taken.
*Sadongs family! I stayed specifically in there home. Her mother was wonderfully caring, she took care of us like we were her own.
*Cousins family that lives next door, and set of newly weds and now twice divorced mother with two children. Hope! Is what I spoke over this family.
*This is where the poorest cousin lives, alone with her two children, and no hope for remarriage. Without a miracle from Jesus she will know nothing by poverty and heartache.
*Our kitchen, were all meals were prepared. It was amazing to see how well everything is prepared with so little. However, difficult to eat because everything was so dirty. Many times cats would walk over the tables and dishes.
*My drinking water, dish water, shower water, cooking water, hand-washing water, the same scooper is used to wash the body as to take a drink. All sorts of bugs love to hang-out and die in it also!!
*Washing clothes:) The trees is were we kept any clothes that weren't on our bodies. The trees were our closet. I kind of liked this:)
*The well where we got our water, took a shower, and washed our clothes.
*The alter to a dead ancestor that was in my room.
* Me, Sadong, and Te-a bed. Mat on the floor. Also were all the sisters would brush out there hair in the morning. Which meant that sometimes I would wake up unaware that I slept in a pile of hair.
*At the top of the mountain..totally worth the effort
*The grandma we got water for. She lived in a tiny hut all alone. She shook constantly like she had some type of Parkinson.
*Another Grandmas home, near the edge of the mountain...as I said you can not imagine the poverty.
*The group of Sadongs relatives and friends that joined us for the hike. The smaller boy in the red shirt is Te-a and he came with me from the orphanage. It was the first time he has seen this part of Cambodia as well. It was so wonderful to share the experience with him.
* At the temple!! This temple is thousands of years old and still mostly intact. This temple was built, used, and left before America was ever even considered. Cambodia was once a great empire, how I wish I could have seen it in all of its splendor.
*Me, Sadong, and Te-a, at the temple at night. Sadong is so pretty and had many interested boys come for a visit in the evenings. However she said, "I think they are nice, but I don't want any of them to understand about me." Which means that she is completely uninterested in any of her pursuers, she is waiting for a faithful christian husband. I love her so much!!
*The last bit of climb to the temple, these stairs were so steep!
*Grandma , making her way down the horribly dangerous stairway, she fell half way down, and then she let us get the water for her. Oh, she has to do this every couple of days...it hurts me to think about it.
*This is the water she was risking her life to get!! There were many dead bugs floating on top of the water. I can not describe to you the color and smell of this water.
*What they give there life to worship, you can not see it but one of the images is of a frog. A golden frog. I now understand, "Jesus desire of the nations." I pray that Cambodia will come to desire a God that lives and breathes and is not restricted by temple walls. In fact when my God appeared to his people in temple form. He said, "If you touch it, you will die, if you think about touching it, you will die."
*This is a Cambodian favorite. This is a fetal chicken, that they crack out of the egg and eat whole. I could do nothing but say Oh My Gosh over and over again. It was an experience I will remember for a lifetime.
*Te-a eating his fetal chicken...I can not really put into words:)
*CUTE!! Little cousin of Sadong, that lived close by. He was mostly afraid of my white skin but loved having his picture taken all the same. He is holding a pop gun, that is the joy of every Cambodian child. They simply call this toy, "Pow."
*CUTEST! He is a naughty little one, but they tend to be my favorite. He was afraid of me as usual but to0 interested to stay away. He would poke and pinch me when I wasn't looking. He giggled beautiful every time. So stinking beautiful!!
*The newly married cousin. Her husband in the temple DJ. She told me about there engagement. She said, "I had many people that want to engage me, but I not love any. I only piety my husband because beg me like this (bended knee position) He said he would die without me. I piety him so I marry him. I love him now though, only one I ever love because He beg me like this." It was an interesting reason to get married but they seem happy all the same. I got to have a great long conversation about this women's hopes and dreams. It was so wonderful to hear such desire in such poverty. Most people have lost all hope, they don't really know how to dream.
So that concludes my village travels in was hard but beautiful. I am thankful that I got to live and experience first hand poverty that most have never even imagined. I now understand more fully the great need of the country that I have come to love so dearly.To friends and family at home. I will be home in 10 days. I can not thank you enough for your pleas for me to return. Truly they mean so much to me. I feel so loved by family and friends and know that I am returning to a unbelievably loving and safe community. I can not wait to be in your arms again and walk through life with you. The Lord has shown me that people are my Joy! This was a beautiful revelation, that I wish I had time to go into detail. However, to sum up. People and their hearts and souls are my Joy! I am always surrounded by Joy. I can not wait to be home with you because you are my Joy! As Paul says in one of his letters, "Don't you know that I long to be with you because you are my Joy!" These children are my Joy as well, so leaving them will be difficult but again as Paul writes, "I pray that by the grace of God He will allow me to return to you soon, to encourage you in your faith, and make my Joy complete." Not an exact quote but it means so much to me. All my kids have chicken pox's, the older boys are terribly sick. I set up with one of them with a raging fever until he fell asleep. Pray that will recover quickly, its terribly hot and a horrible place to have a fever. I love you all and will be home so very soon. God is so very Good!
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