This is where I am

It has been a while since I’ve blogged…so I am sorry for no recent updates, but I am going to try to convey my day here in Cambodia on a daily basis. We wake up, sweating, to the rooster crowing at least 10 times every two minutes. The breakfast bell is rung and I crawl down out of my bunk bed that is wrapped in mosquito nets. I shuffle outside down the wooden steps to a table with fresh fruit and eggs. After sweating all through breakfast, our team meets upstairs on the porch to have our daily worship and prayer sessions. And today, I must say I was in need of this time. Sometimes I wake up so grouchy here, because I can’t sleep through the night. Because all I have is a small fan, and literally I am sleeping in my sweat. So after team time, we start the day. We play with kids all day long….and I mean up until we go to bed. We do things from play little Cambodian hand games, to spoons, to making bracelets and jewelry. Sometimes we just all curl up on the wooden floor and I get my laptop out and we watch a movie. Other times they might be in the mood for a game of tag or musical chairs. Now you can imagine from the second I get up….I begin to sweat, so cuddling and hugging all the time, sometimes doesn’t sound all-appeasing. So after a long day of playing all sorts of games…we shower off and try to cool ourselves down before the night. Now…when I say shower off, imagine a spicet sticking out of the wall, with a bowl underneath it. The water comes out of the wall….falls into the bucket,….then I take a cup scooper thing and try to splash myself as best as possible.

Now to those who have read the above, you might think that these are all complaints about this place. But let me be clear…..God has been teaching me lately to live in the present. A lot of times people live in the past or they are always looking to the future. And God is teaching me, with all these things, to be here. You can never get to where you want to go, if you do not understand where you are. So this is where I am. I am in a house with rats, lizards, and mosquitoes, and no air condition. We don’t have a shower, and get woken up by a rooster every morning. I sweat all the time, and am never dry. But this is where I am. This is where God wants me. This is where I have seen people be so joyful despite their circumstances. This is where when I get down about something stupid like living in 98-degree weather with no air…a little girl comes around the corner and gives me the biggest hug. I am here in this place with reason and purpose. This is where I am….this is Cambodia.