Chhuk

This month, our team’s month in Chhuk, Cambodia came to an end. Now, our home for the rest of 2022 is back in Siem Reap. While I have feelings of sadness that the time has ended, and excitement for the final chapter of Cambodia, I’ll focus on the incredible period that has been the 27 days in Chhuk. These three specific locations below are places that have held a particular importance over the last month. 

The Village

I cannot elaborate enough how kind, and hospitable the village of Chhuk was to us. Vuthy, and all of the staff at the school we stayed at were absolutely amazing hosts. They opened up their space and gave us a home alongside them. This place is especially sweet, and is clearly building and growing God’s kingdom. Through relational building, and showing love to the kids we were able to feel like we were truly making an impact. We made deep connections with multiple kids and it was heartbreaking to leave them. The ministry is definitely one that if I ever find myself back in Southeast Asia, that I will be eager to visit. Our seven guys loved this season and I am overjoyed that we were able to experience it. For more about this sweet village read my last blog.

The Lake

I searched around the internet, and never could find an official name for the lake we were able to spend a couple days at this month, (or at least one with English letters for it). Located approximately 10 minutes outside of Chhuk, it was an absolutely beautiful lake with bungalows, and a couple restaurants. We spent two separate days here and had an absolute blast. This is one of the places we were able to just rest in God’s goodness and have a good time as a team. The unfortunate reality of this lake resembles a lot of Cambodia. Absolutely beautiful, but covering up a lot of hurt and loss. This lake was the result of the Khmer rouge slave labor. Hundreds if not thousands of people died hand digging this massive lake, that now today is beautiful. This led to a lot of thought about how much we are seeing these beautiful things and not seeing the hurt of the people that it is covering up. It is so similar to how the Buddhist pagodas here are so beautiful, yet their appearance is covering up the falseness of their religion.

The Beach

Kep, Cambodia is my favorite place I’ve been to on the race thus far. With it also being a beach trip in the middle of living in a village, it was put on a pedestal. We were able to stay with a long term missionary who owns rental properties in Kep. We had a bungalow where we were able to rest and just enjoy the holidays together. Now, knowing we will be going to the gulf of Thailand once more in early January I am so excited to see the same body of water from the other side. 

Final Thoughts

• I would still love to be praying for all of you so please feel free to send me them to any of my social media platforms, my phone number, or my email ([email protected]). 
• The blog switch around mumbo jumbo is finished! My weekly blogs will be on this platform moving forward and will be around this size (which is smaller than my last couple), due to the next bullet point
• I am starting a monthly / bi-monthly newsletter through mail chimp starting in January, so if you are already subscribed to my blog you will get those. If not, first subscribe, and then send me an email so I can add you to the list.