UPDATES

June 14th:

Sorry for the late update. After a three-day travel journey, we finally made it to Siem Reap, Cambodia, our first stop on this mission trip. We'll be here until July 4th.

Our schedule this week is pretty full. Monday through Friday we'll be traveling to different villages from 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM, teaching English and sharing the Gospel with kids and elderly people in the communities. Saturday is an ATL (Ask the Lord) day, and Sunday is our Sabbath day.

It's been awesome so far, and I already love the team I'm serving with. We all get along really well, and I'm excited to see what God does during our time here.

This week is our first full week of ministry, and while I'm excited, it also comes with some challenges. The heat and humidity here are no joke. I thought I was used to it coming from Texas, but Cambodia is on another level—it's around 90 degrees every day with very high humidity.

We would appreciate prayers as we adjust physically and spiritually, and that God would work through us as we serve the people here. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!

August 1 Trip Recap:

Hello everybody!

After months of traveling, serving, and experiencing a completely different part of the world, I'm finally home.

I've been thinking a lot about what to write for this last update because there is honestly no way to fit everything from this trip into one blog post. There were so many people, places, conversations, and little moments that I'll probably continue thinking about for a long time.

One of the strangest parts of coming home is realizing how quickly everything goes back to normal. The same routines are here, the same places, the same responsibilities, and yet I don't feel quite the same as when I left.

This trip gave me a much bigger perspective on what God is doing around the world. It's easy to think of missions as going somewhere far away to bring God to people who don't know Him. But that's not really what I experienced. God was already at work in Cambodia and Thailand long before we arrived, and He will continue working long after we've gone home. We were simply given the privilege of being part of it for a little while.

I think that's one of the biggest things I'll take away from this experience. Ministry isn't always about doing something big or seeing an immediate result. Sometimes it's just being willing to show up, love people, listen, serve, and trust God.

I've also come home with a greater appreciation for the people and things I have here. Being away made me realize how easy it is to overlook things that have become familiar. I missed my family, my friends, my church, and the ordinary parts of life that I don't usually think twice about.

I especially missed my church. Being able to worship in different places and with Christians from different backgrounds reminded me that the Church is much bigger than my own experience, but it also made me grateful for the tradition and community God has given me at home. Sometimes you don't realize how much something means to you until you're far away from it.

And then there are the people.

I don't know how many of the people we met I'll ever see again. That's probably one of the hardest parts of a trip like this. You can spend only a short amount of time with someone and still have them leave a big impact on you. I'm thankful for every person God allowed me to meet, even knowing that many of those relationships may only exist in memories now.

I'm also incredibly thankful for the team I got to experience all of this with. Traveling and serving together brought us close in a way that is difficult to explain to someone who wasn't there. I'm grateful for the friendships, the conversations, the laughter, the challenges, and the ways we were able to encourage one another.

Most of all, I'm thankful for the ways God used this trip to work on me.

I left wanting to serve, but I came home realizing that I still have a lot to learn about serving. I left expecting to give but I received far more than I expected. And I left thinking I was going to experience something that would change me for a few months, when really I'm beginning to realize that the point is what I do with what God taught me now that I'm back home.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for me and supported me throughout this trip. Every message, prayer, and encouragement meant more than you probably realize. You were a part of this experience too.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to have gone, grateful for the people I met, grateful for the things God taught me, and grateful to finally be home.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. 

June 28th:

Hello everybody.

A lot has happened. The highlight of this past week was getting to stay in one of the villages we teach at for three nights. It was such a unique experience living among the people we minister to instead of just visiting for a few hours each day. The kids would come see us early in the morning and again late into the evening, and it gave us so much more time to build relationships with them.

As a team we cooked meals together, always spent time laughing, serving, and simply doing life alongside one another. Being together in the village made it feel like we were becoming part of the kids daily lives, which is probably why it was so difficult to leave knowing we likely won't see many of those kids again.

Throughout our village ministry, we've had the opportunity to cook soup for each village, teach English and Bible lessons, walk through the villages meeting families, and pray with people in their homes. It's been incredible to watch God work through these simple acts of service and to see how open people have been to hearing about Him.

Personally, one thing God has been growing me in is learning what it looks like to live in constant fellowship with others. Being around people 24/7 has definitely been an adjustment, but I've been blessed with an amazing team that's made it easy to grow together. This past month has shaped me in so many ways and it's been just as encouraging watching God work in the lives of my teammates as it has been seeing Him work in the villages.

One thing I've noticed while being in Cambodia is just how different church can look around the world. (This is my view and experience in my three Sundays here!) 

Most of the churches we've visited seem to be non-denominational, and because of the language barrier and the need for translators, the services naturally feel different. There often isn't much preaching straight from Scripture that I'm used to, and the worship and structure don't always carry the same sense of intentionality or reverence that I've grown to love.

That's not to say God isn't at work here. He absolutely is. We've met faithful believers with incredible joy, generosity and love for Christ. It's simply reminded me how much I appreciate and miss my own church back home.

Being away has also made me realize how deeply I value the Anglican tradition. How its grounded in Scripture, the beauty and reverence of the liturgy, the centrality of the Eucharist, and the sense of participating in something that has been faithfully handed down through the centuries. Sometimes you don't fully appreciate what you have until you're away from it. But It's been a gift to worship with brothers and sisters from different backgrounds. 

We leave for Thailand next Wednesday, so we have three more days of ministry here in Cambodia before beginning the next chapter of the trip. I'm excited to see what God has planned, but I'm also trying to be fully present and make the most of these final days with the people here.

Thank you again for all of your prayers and support. Please continue praying that God would prepare hearts during these last few days in Cambodia and that He would go before us as we head into Thailand.