Update #4 Southeast Asia

Hello family and friends!

This is Brittany here with an update from Southeast Asia. There have been many blessings so far on our trip and we have definitely seen God move here.

Our first project was to support our partners‘ school with a beautiful mural for the students and the staff. In four and a half days, our team was able to see the mural to the finish. The past couple of days have consisted of tracing the designs on the walls, painting them, and going back and touching up. The biggest blessing of this project has been seeing the staff join us in painting. It truly brought our entire team much joy and happiness seeing how excited the staff and students were.

We also had the opportunity to have amazing coffee each day. We always looked forward to stopping by this store and get an iced coffee because the shop owners were so sweet and kind to us. Hannah drew them a picture of iced coffee to give them for our last day in the area.

On our last day at the school, the staff surprised us with a special blessing where they sang to us reminding us we are all part of God’s family. Then they gave each of our team members a scarf, which is traditional to this country in Southeast Asia. It was a beautiful surprise and we have been so blessed to witness their happiness and joy for the mural. We couldn’t have asked for a better end to our time at the school.

On Saturday, we had another culture day. Our driver, B, is truly another blessing to us and brings our team so much joy and laughter. He is not only our transportation each day, but a history and tour guide, teaching us about Southeast Asian culture. We always laugh at his jokes and stories, and we also make him laugh. He especially likes my (Brittany’s) laugh.

For our culture day, we started at the Russian market. It’s huge!  This is where the team got most of our personal souvenirs and gifts for family and friends. There were things like palm sugar, coffee, dried mango, varieties of pepper, handmade shirts, bags, etc. The team had a lot of fun there and spent almost 4 hours wandering through all the shops at the market. It was an incredible experience.

We then stopped for lunch and had some amazing fried rice, sweet potato fries, curry, stir fried noodles, cookies, and shaved ice. We then visited the National Museum where again our driver, B, filled us in on the history. We saw many religious statutes and artifacts belonging to the country.

The team then visited a Buddhist temple, Wat Phenom. It is a very important place for the people here and they measure distance all over the country from its center. It was a powerful and challenging experience for some of us. Going into the temple gave us the opportunity to pray for the people there.

After visiting the temple, we took a boat ride on the river. Our driver, B, once again was a wealth of knowledge about the Mekong River and the surrounding geography. During the river cruise, it started pouring and we all embraced it while blasting worship music on the boat. The experience was peaceful and exciting all at the same time. Some of us did get super wet, including myself and Jenna who loved the rain.

After going back to the hotel to freshen up, we ended our Saturday night with Mediterranean food. We tried hummus, which was amazing. Although I (Brittany) typically have never liked hummus, last night changed my perspective! We also tried some chicken skewers, ground beef skewers, and mini shawarma’s. We also had a little friend visit at dinner, a cricket. It kept jumping from any point until it landed on our table which made a couple of us jump. We ended up placing a cup on it before it could continue jumping from table to table. It was an exciting dinner experience. 😉

The team also recorded a video of reading a Psalm for Brittany’s church.

On Sunday, we packed up our things to take a bus to our next destination. We had a bit of a bus delay but ended up getting into a bus to take us on a 6 hour drive to our next destination. We are excited to see how God is going to continue working in our team and the amazing things He is doing in Southeast Asia.

We started our day very early on Monday taking Tuk Tuks at 4:30AM to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat (one of the 7 Wonders of the world!) It was worth losing a little sleep to see and experience such a beautiful sight. It was such a special time to pray together for this place and for our field workers. We also visited 3 other temples and prepped for Kids Club tomorrow. 

We have been immensely blessed by the opportunity to serve in Southeast Asia and we continue to ask for prayer in health, safety as we travel, and prayers for this country and the people here. That’s all for now and thank you for praying and supporting our Southeast Asia team!

– Brittany