A Better Country

Hello everyone, 

Things have been a bit crazy here for the last couple of weeks (hence no blog posts), but here's a little bit about what's been going on:

I mentioned the discipleship/vocation program in my last post. Two students in Angk’jeay, who will hopefully be going to Phnom Penh to study in a few months, are currently taking a gap year from school. Their names are Ouchea and Srey Sros. Right now, the goal for them is to be as well-prepared as possible for the challenges of transitioning from village life to college-in-the-city life. One common obstacle for villagers that prevents a healthy transition is a lack of the ability to use basic computer software.

Thus, for the past couple of weeks I have been helping them continue to learn the ropes of Microsoft Word (they’ve been studying with Sokha for many months now). Needless to say, columns are the bane of my existence, but I would like to personally thank Bill Gates for Ctrl+Z. If you don’t know why that is, try doing one of Ouchea and Srey Sros’s assignments – imitating a US Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization form in Microsoft Word. It was a party. Even in spite of some very hard assignments, Srey Sros and Ouchea learn very quickly and they have been an absolute pleasure to teach.

Luke took a bunch of the students and me to a local mountain on Sunday! Here’s some pictures:

A drunk guy really wanted to have a chat at the store.
No, Khmer is not easier to understand when spoken in
the midst of inebriation. 

                  

Yesterday, Samuth, the pastoral intern, and I met for the last time to practice English pronunciation. We've been meeting three times a week to go over some basic phrases for teaching and family life in hopes of building confidence in his English skills. He has noticeably improved even in the short time that I've been here and I am sure that he will continue to do so. Samuth helps with the classes here at the Smith's, but he hopes to start a similar ministry in another village sometime in the future. 

Finally, three of the students here (Darlin, Chandara, and Srey Nich) wrote out their testimonies in English this last week. I had the privilege of recording them and putting together a video of ministry going on in Angk’jeay. I’ve mentioned some of the struggles of Cambodian Christians in previous posts, but please take the time to hear it in their words.

I have three full days left in Cambodia. In all honesty, that is a wildly foreign thought. Am I really going to take off on a plane, spend 30 hours in travel, and just like that be on the exact opposite side of the world again? Will I actually be going back to life as it is in the US? In many ways, it's been hard to adjust to life and habits here (and I’m still very far from being “well-adjusted” if such a thing is possible), but now it all has become so normal. I expect to wake up with a beautiful village sunrise, a couple English and guitar classes scheduled for the day, and the faces of my new Cambodian friends. I expect that I’m going to have to ask some fourth graders how to pronounce the Khmer word for “color” for the fifteenth time. I presume that my day will end in basketball, worship, and prayer. The pace of life here markedly contrasts much about American life; there is structured time for rest that virtually doesn't exist in the US, especially in college. I will certainly miss Cambodia very much.

This is not to say that I don’t miss home. I'm excited to reunite with family and friends (… and certain kinds of food). But nonetheless, I am sad to be uprooted again - to be thrown into another season of changing and adjusting. However, this summer has served as a beautiful reminder of the transience of life. Christians are not called to be comfortable. This world is extremely broken by sin; we are called to live in that brokenness, to hold our own comfort and interests with open hands, and to place our hope in a future when the brokenness will be no more. 

"But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a city." - Hebrews 11:16

I am longing for a better country, for the time when there will be no more adjustment - when the comfort and peace of God replaces all anxiety and uncertainty. I would greatly covet your prayers during this transition, and I thank you for all of your prayers and support thus far. They are very precious to me.

In Christ, 

Caleb