CAMBODIA.
Lucky for you I have included this handy dandy world map and I will now share it with you.
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| So here it is on the BIG map. PS it's the red thing. |
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| Annnnd here it is up close. |
So that's precisely 9,105.8 miles from Dallas, Texas y'all. Making it a whopping 9,278.8 miles from Grand Ol' Abilene. The farthest I've ever been away from home was on my trip to North Carolina. When I was 3 years old. The only thing I can remember from that trip was having to chew spearmint gum because my ears were popping.
That being said. This is a very new experience for me. Sarah has had the privilege of traveling to Thailand before and LOVED it. I unfortunately have not and I am SO excited.
What the heck are we going to do there? Well lemme just tell you about it.
Abilene Christian University started an incredible program in 2001 called WorldWide Witness. This is a program that has sent over 400 university students abroad to work under experienced mentors and help spread God's kingdom. It is a two month internship that allows students to deeply experience missions while being mentored by incredible missionaries. Students typically stay with their missionary hosts or a local family while they are there. Pick a continent and go. How about Africa? Asia? Somewhere in the South Pacific? Latin America? Europe? Or even the USA? Basically, you can go anywhere and learn, firsthand, how to actively love God and his people. IT. ROCKS.
I've always wanted to go to Africa. For two years I was dead set on attending Harding University; one of the main reasons being that they had a study abroad in Africa. I was at a block party my sophomore year and I told a neighbor that if ACU had a study abroad in Africa, I would be more open to going to school there. Little did I know that I was talking to one of the leaders for WorldWide Witness. He explained all the details to me and I nodded politely and pushed it to the back of my head. Tadaa, I'm at ACU and five months away from my internship with WorldWide Witness. GOD IS SO GOOD.
As I was deciding which country to go to, Africa was of course my first choice. Why wouldn't I choose it? I've always dreamed of going to an orphanage there and holding babies and just LOVING on them all day. But as I sat and listened to all the countries and continents and opportunities, I was instantly flooded with new feelings and suddenly, Africa seemed to be bumped down on my mental list. I heard about an opportunity in Latvia that seemed to stay in my thoughts for several days. It was a program that worked with girls that had been sold into sex slavery. I would have the chance to go out on the street and minister to these girls. How crazy, scary, and absolutely incredible is that? I was dead-set on Latvia.
Then I found out I couldn't go because I was a freshman.
It makes absolute sense, but I was still so upset. I was so confused. I was going to do God's work in an extreme environment and one that was completely out of my comfort zone. Why were all of these doors being shut in my face?
I looked back at my list and realized Cambodia was one that I had expressed interest in. I had just jotted it down because it involved working with kids. I had no idea where Cambodia even was. Plus, no one knew too many details in the meeting because it was a brand new site, as of this year. I talked Sarah (who was also struggling with deciding on a location) about it and we decided to go seek the wisdom of our fearless leaders. As we sat and talked about our predicament, the idea of going to Cambodia became more and more exciting. We listened to the story of the couple we would be working under and the more we listened, the more we fell in love (more on their story and the work that I'll be doing with them later). We left the meeting feeling absolutely at peace with our decision and completely ecstatic about what was to come.
So with all that being said, We'll be leaving for Phnom Pehn, Cambodia in early June and returning sometime in early August. We'll be keeping a blog starting right now and it will continue throughout our internship. It won't be an everyday post while we're here in the states, but you better believe we'll be blowing up this page with stories while we're 9,000 and something miles away. The dates aren't for sure yet, but we'll keep you posted. All I know is that we get to go and experience a culture completely different from our own, work under some incredible missionaries, learn life lessons, impact kids' lives, and share God's love with an entire country.
GOD IS SO GOOD.
We cannot wait.
Blessings,
Cassie & Sarah
Cassie & Sarah
