Homesick for a country that’s not my own

Hey!! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a blog and I thought an update would be some good reading to start your week!

This one’s a doozy so buckle up! It will be a little all over the place but nothing short of an update!

I’ll unpack the 80+ hours that was our travel “day” first. We were supposed to leave Vietnam on January 11th and get there late in the night. However after our 11 hour bus ride from Da Nang to the border we got denied… turns our foreigners can’t exit Vietnam through this border. Luckily W-Squad has been absolutely blessed with 6 amazing squad leaders who problem solved! The next plan was to drive another SIXTEEN hours to Ho Chi Minh overnight to try and exit through the border there. We arrived at 6:45 am the following morning (Jan. 12) and after a little break tried to cross… here we were informed that we have overstayed our visas and will not be able to exit until we get an extension. Yet again our amazing squad leaders got together to debrief this is figure out plan 3. They told us we would drive 1.5 hours to the city area of Ho Chi Minh to go to the Immigration office to extend our visas (which could take anywhere from 5-7 DAYS). At this point we also were booking a hotel for the night as we knew we would not be leaving Vietnam that night. After arriving at the hotel we loaded up the bus one more time to drive to the Immigration office. Upon arriving we sit down not even for a full 10 minutes before we are told as a squad to load back up on the bus to go back to the hotel. So as you can assume… no visa extension. Our leaders were told the only way we could exit the country would be by buying a plane ticket and flying. We had the rest of the day off to explore, sleep, do whatever we need until we had further updates.

The following morning (Jan. 13) we find out we will be flying out at 8:00am Jan. 14th to Siem Reap, Cambodia! That means leaving for the airport at 3:00 am… but it wasn’t long into the day that we found out we will actually we leaving THAT NIGHT for the airport to figure out visa requirements and we will camp out on the airport floor. We all got packed up very quickly and headed to the airport. This is still Jan. 13th, most of the time in the airport consisted of long deep conversations, walking around, and sleeping for the last 30 minutes.

Finally, on January 14th we boarded our flight to Cambodia. It was a quick 45 minutes which I find quite hysterical!

Upon arriving to Cambodia we made our way through customs. I will say they really take up their space in your passport with a whole page sticker and a stamp.

Fast forward, let me fill you in on our ministry!

We live at our ministry location, which is a public high school here in Preah Netr Preath, which is about 2 hours away from Siem Reap. We teach English, sometimes play sports, and hangout with the other teachers who live here at the school. Since it’s a public school and we are in Cambodia it is primarily Buddhist which can make it very spiritually difficult but like Vietnam we are simply to be lights and we sprinkle in the gospel whenever we can! While our actual ministry host lives about 30 minutes away and we only see him every once in awhile we have a teacher who we work along side everyday named Sokum. He and his family are Buddhist so prayers for his salvation and for Jesus to encounter him in a miraculous way would be amazing!!

Funny side story: We attended a Cambodian wedding ceremony with our ministry host!

Here’s a recap of the day:

3:00- in class teaching English when Ally gets a call from Dara (our ministry host) saying he is picking us up at 5 to attend a wedding of one of his friends

5:00- a 19something Toyota Camry pulls up and all 6 of us plus the driver fit in this car and make the drive to Sisophon

5:30- we get dropped off at a foreign language school and are told to wait

5:45- Dara arrives and pulls Ally outside

5:50- we are told to get into the car and are driven to a Cambodian dress shop to pick out ANY dress we want to wear to this event

6:00- we walk into what looks like Barbies closet filled with dresses

6:50- we now pile into 2 cars to go to the wedding since our dresses are so big and fun!

7:00- arrive and are seated at a table

7:00 until 9:45- we eat the 6 courses that were placed in front of us, as a team of 6 devour 14 cans of Pepsi and dance to Cambodian music (we also taught them the cha cha slide)

*somewhere in there we also are told we aren’t going back to the school tonight and will be staying at a hotel nearby (none of us have anything packed)

Definitely was a world race moment! 😊

I will say, while Cambodia has been amazing and we have been well taken care of, I do miss Vietnam very much! And I find myself becoming homesick for a country that isn’t mine, but feels so much like home. The way the Lord revealed so much there about going back long term, all the family I gained with my brothers and sisters in Christ (and seeing one give their life to the Lord and take the first few steps in his relationship with Jesus!!!), and knowing how many people there don’t know the Lord. The friends I made there I still talk to daily, and we talk about everything we are going to do when I return to Vietnam or when they come visit the US. That doesn’t mean I’m not excited for Cambodia, I’m so excited to see all the ways Jesus is going to work here, but I’m just missing Vietnam a little extra. And to think that we weren’t even supposed to go there originally, BUT we actually were and God knew the whole time that we needed to make a stop there.

Something the Lord has been teaching me is that even though we all go on the same race, with the same route everyone experiences it differently and the Lord uses each country for everyone in different ways! While Vietnam was very eye opening for me, for others it was very challenging.  Backstory: I was supposed to visit Vietnam this past summer but ended up not going and I don’t think that Vietnam getting added to our route was a coincidence, but 100% intentional just like everything else that comes from the Lord! The Lord made me fall in love with Vietnam which is crazy for me to say considering the first 1.5 weeks of Vietnam were very mentally and emotionally challenging for me. I walked into the country thinking it would be my least favorite, however it was so hard to leave.

It’s crazy to think we are already 1/2 way through the race, we hit the halfway mark while in Vietnam. I’m trying to soak in every bit I can before it’s over, but I’m also so excited to see what the Lord has in store for everyone post race!

I told you it would be all over the place, but I hope it was as life giving as it was entertaining! 😆

As I end this blog I want to ask you all for some prayer:

1. That the Lord would open doors for me to go serve in Vietnam full time and that I would know it is from Him, but also the patience in knowing it’s all in His timing
2. That the seeds planted in Vietnam would continue to grow and flourish and plant new seeds!
3. That the Lord would work within my team to be lights in the darkness here in Cambodia, that He would give us opportunities to share the gospel even when it seems challenging

Also! If you don’t follow me on Facebook you totally should for more consistent updates and pictures!

I love and miss you all!! Talk to ya soon!