New Ministry!

Hi everyone! 

I first just want to start off by saying thank you so much for reading along. It is so humbling to see how many people read my blog every time I post and to receive so many words of encouragement. For someone who has often struggled to believe that their words hold power or that their opinion has value, it has been incredible to have this opportunity to share. If you asked me a year ago if I thought that I would be able to share about my life with people like I am now, I would’ve said that you were crazy! Your support just by reading means more than I can express. 

Life here has been super busy. I am finding that there is less time for rest than I thought before coming on the Race. I am having to learn to be really intentional with how I spend my time and in the things I am seeking to pursue. 

This week our ministry schedule has changed up a little bit. We are officially done cleaning the pool and it is FULL! We had a pool party on Halloween to celebrate being finished with deep cleaning and the opening of the guesthouse! There was lots of candy and frosting involved. Great way to spend Halloween – highly recommend it. Now we are transitioning into a new schedule since there will now be guests staying here with us! 

This is more of what our schedule will look like. It is way more loose than before which will give us an opportunity to find where we feel like God is calling us to serve as a team and as individuals. 

We each have receptionist shifts. We are not the actually receptionist but we sit with Bon Mom and Channea who are the actual receptionists. Our role in being there with them is to keep them company, help to communicate with guests, teach them more computer skills and to talk with and love on them! They are both such sweet woman and it is an awesome opportunity for us to get to know the staff.  

In addition to that, four of us are teaching English classes three times a week to the staff here at Overflow. My teammate Kae and I are teaching English to Bon Mom’s husband who is a tuktuk driver. We are super excited to get to make connections with more of the staff and to help them learn English since it’s a valuable skill among the workforce here in Siem Reap. 

Two of us sleep in the security room downstairs each night. This means locking up the gates once all the guests are inside and opening up the gate in the morning. People on security are also in charge of pool maintenance for the day. They put chemicals in the pool at night before they go to bed and vacuum the pool when they wake up.  

These are the only things that are scheduled for us. Other than that we have the freedom to go and find ways to serve the community. We are still working out what we each feel passionate about or called to in Siem Reap and there are so many opportunities for us. I’m excited to share more about that after we figure it out this week! 

A lot of these things seem super mundane. Cleaning the pool and sitting at the reception desk for a couple of hours at a time seems like it may be insignificant. Our team is being pushed to continue to find joy in doing all of these small things and to do it with a willing heart. The thing that I love to think about when the days start to feel long and like they lack purpose is that we are first called to take care of the house. For us, this literally means taking care of our home at Overflow. In the Kingdom of God, no job is discounted. Each job is just as important as the next. The reality is that we can’t go out and serve others unless we are first serving each other as teammates and are serving the people around us in our home. God doesn’t just give you the keys to the Kingdom right away. You have to show Him that you are willing to do the jobs that sometimes don’t come with any of the glory (like scrubbing away at the pool for hours on end). We are learning to do just that with a willing and joyful heart! 

We have had a lot of fun exploring Siem Reap and getting to know the beautiful and kind people here. We love that we know where our favorite restaurants are, where certain tuktuk drivers hang out, where the best street food stands park, and where the Western stores with the cheapest peanut butter are. We have spent a descent amount of time at ICF (the church we go to) either going to Sunday night services, oneighty – the youth program, or hanging out with the kids and swimming in their big lake/pool. We have also been spending a little bit more time biking around. While Siem Reap has a lot of places that cater to tourists, it is also home to many Khmer villagers. Since Overflow is a little bit outside of the heart of Siem Reap, we can easily go and bike on the dirt roads that surround us. It’s typical to be biking along and encounter one of Cambodia’s many white cows in the middle of the road. We are surrounded by rice fields and lily pad ponds and recently have found that there are often many water buffalo that hang out in the water or mud. Seeing all of the villages and kids running around makes my heart sing. There is something so special about being able to see how other people live their lives. Sometimes life is so much more simple than we make it. 

The other night we were invited to Sopheap’s home for dinner. Sopheap is one of the wonderful women that cooks at Overflow. She made fried chicken and rice for our team. The welcoming spirits of the Khmer people has been incredible to experience. They love us so well. 

It has been amazing for us to have Siem Reap become so familiar and feel like home. I kind of just feel like I have homes all over the place now which is huge a gift. Cambodia will always hold a piece of my heart for sure. 

-Elena