For a long time now I have felt God calling me to Asia. I was able to answer the call recently by going to Cambodia. As most of you know my family and I traveled there in 2010. This second trip to Cambodia with the Grace Christian mission team changed my life.
We landed
in Cambodia after fifteen hours of flying pan-pacific. As I looked out the window on our final
approach I had a surge of adrenaline and excitement. I was back in
Cambodia. I couldn’t believe that I was
back in one of my favorite places in the entire world. We stayed in Phnom Penh for a few days to acclimate
to the culture and time change. While there,
the team and I toured the city and visited some temples. At the central temple, Wat Phnom, two Buddhists
monks came over to us and wanted to practice English. Mrs. Bouman and I were amazed that the monks approached
us and started to talk to us. We were amazed because monks rarely talk to foreigners.
I thought that was a cool way of God introducing
the team to Cambodia.
After
spending time in Phnom Penh we drove south to Sihanoukville and the orphanage
where we would be teaching. I had no
idea what to expect, mostly because I had never really been around orphans or
been in that kind of environment. As we
stepped out of the bus, little Khmer kids came running towards us. I was immediately engulfed with kids pulling
on my arms and screaming in Khmer. After
things settled down we had a little futbol (soccer) match. It was team Alaska versus team Cambodia. We
thought it was going to be a fair matched game but the
Cambodians basically destroyed us. It was still a lot of fun.
On Sunday, we went to Church in Sihanoukville. All of the songs were in Khmer but I could
still feel the presence of God there.
When the preacher started to speak a huge monsoon storm blew out the
power. Still the pastor continued with
his sermon while God showed his power outside, pouring down sheets of rain onto
the little church.
When the school week started the team and I went to our designated
classrooms to teach. I thought teaching English would always be easy, just sit down
and start talking. Oh no. Since they know hardly any English you have
to talk about .01 mph, it’s slow and very testing. I explained the game to the kids but all I
got was a bunch of blank faces. At some point
patience is rewarding and after three days the kids started to understand what
I was saying. After school was over I would hang out with the kids at the
orphanage. It’s amazing how joyful they are.
A lot of these kids come from horrible backgrounds yet they still have
an ever-present joy radiating from them. Sadly the week came to a close. I was
surprised how hard it was to say goodbye to the kids I befriended. I didn’t expect
to become so close to them as I did in just a week. Two of them wrote me cards
and about a half dozen more gave me bracelets they made. I can’t remember how
many hugs I received or the number sad faces I saw. As we loaded up into our shuttles all of the
kids ran alongside us to the end of the drive way and then waved a last
goodbye.
From
Sihanoukville we flew to Siem Reap. We went to Angkor Wat, Tonle Sap, and a
boarding house for kids who come into Siem Reap for school. I have been to Siem
Reap before but it was still amazing to see everything for a second time. After Siem Reap everything was a
whirlwind. One and a half days back in
Phnom Penh, three days in Takeo and then back to Phnom Penh to catch our
flight. Our last stop was Takeo, a small
town about 25 miles from the Vietnamese border.
There we taught English at a Church and a village school a half hour
outside of Takeo. By the time I was done
teaching, I was so exhausted I didn’t even want to say, “Hello my name is
Taylor, what’s yours?” to a single soul. At the same time I was sad that we
were leaving Cambodia and all of my new friends.
As I stepped
up to the customs counter, in Seattle, I had a flashback of everything that happened
half a world away. It was bittersweet, bitter that I had to leave, but sweet
that I was home. I’m already excited to go back next year.
