I Walk By “Face” (that’s Cambodian English for “Faith”)

I thought I would begin by quickly saying that everyone on our team is healthy and has been for the whole trip. A headache here, fatigue there, but all-in-all everyone has been doing great. We’re probably a bit dehydrated, but we’re good!

I’m not sure what we’ve told you yet, so allow me to give you a quick picture of what a typical day has looked like for us this week at English Camp.
• We are staying in what the Cambodians call a “guest house,” but you would know it better as a small motel. We have been soooo thankful for our accommodations as there are only 2-3 people/room, we each have our own bathroom, and there is air conditioning!!! You have no idea how nice it is to come back to an air-conditioned room to sleep after a full day in the 90+ degree heat and more humidity than you can ever imagine.
• We start every morning together as a group @ 7:00 AM, meeting together with our Daybreak peeps to sing and focus on God’s Word and just get charged up for another day. Breakfast is served with the other 25 volunteers from the US and Canada at the English Camp Venue.
• Our English Camp Venue is only a 6-minute walk from the place where we are staying, so most mornings we walk over together to make it to our 7:30 AM breakfast. There are days, however, when Scott decides to drive this covered truck thing, and we all pile in the back cab for a quick trip.
• Breakfast is much like lunch and dinner… there is not much of a difference between what is served at the different meal times. There is always rice, and then some kind of meat with some kind of vegetable in some kind of random sauce. You just pile it all in one small bowl and either use chop sticks or these Asian spoons to eat. Except at lunch and dinner you also get fruit for dessert. Everything has been quite tasty, actually, and we have eaten well (when we don’t feel too hot to eat.)
• Our 90 students arrive at 8:30 to start camp, so we need to clear out the breakfast tables and get all of the chairs set up for our opening service. Each day begins with loud chants from each of the five teams (each team has five or six teachers and about 15-20 Cambodian students). We sing a few worship songs, have a few competitions, share a few testimonies, and tell a Bible story.
• At about 9:30 we break into our teams, where students learn and practice English through games, smaller group times, and conversation. After breaking for lunch around 12:00 (see above meal description for details), we head out on a field trip of some sort. We have taken students to the Royal Palace, the Russian market, a water park, an orphanage, and a zoo. The goal of these times is to continue to build relationships with students through conversation that will also increase their English speaking abilities.

We have been so blessed by the kindness and enthusiasm that we have experienced with Cambodians. We have come to know and love many of them, and look forward to sharing with you some of the stories of those we have met. Please continue to pray for us as we spend our last few days here and prepare to return to the US. We hope and pray that the changes that God has made in us will continue as we pursue Him back home.