Deep Deep Down In My Heart

JOY

Today was filled with joy. 

Sarah and I recently read a devotional out of "Jesus Calling"

Here it is:

"I am creating something new in you: a bubbling spring of Joy that spills over into others' lives. Do not mistake this Joy for your own or try to take credit for it in any way. Instead, watch in delight as My Spirit flows through you to bless others. Let yourself become a reservoir of the Spirit's fruit. Your part is to live close to Me, open to all that I am doing in you. Don't try to control the streaming of My Spirit through you. Just keep focusing on Me as we walk through this day together. Enjoy My Presence, which permeates you with Love, Joy, and Peace."

That's probably infringing on the rights of the author or something about the copyright or plagiarizing or something. But this is me giving credit to the devotional book "Jesus Calling." You should go get it, it's incredible. 

Okay I'm done. 

Anyways. 

My days here are long and tiring, but they are absolutely and without a doubt bubbling over with joy. I'm constantly finding myself laughing and smiling. It's like my core is so happy it can't contain itself. You know that feeling you get when you can't shut your mouth because you're so happy and you just look stupid grinning from ear to ear? Yeah that's a daily thing when I'm teaching. They probably think I have something wrong with my face. 

But seriously. God is absolutely filling my heart with joy everyday and it is so wonderful. 

So I decided to dedicate this post to all the joyous moments of my day.

EnJOY. *Yes, that is a lame play on words* 

1. I Have Concluded That Teasing Is The Universal Love Language 

Everyone here makes fun of everyone else. It isn't out of hatred or disgust. It's done completely out of love and it is HILARIOUS. One of my students, Tetchya, has trouble communicating with me and it takes me a few minutes to understand what he's trying to tell me. So naturally that situation gets made fun of. Cham Nam wore a girls' shirt yesterday and he was immediately referred to as a beautiful girl. Srey Nam's laugh is incredibly loud and my students mimic her loudly from the other room. I have a bad habit of getting too excited when my students get something right and I tend to burst with a "good job!!" So of course, the boys say it right back to me in the same tone of voice and everything. But I still love them. My students always volunteer Chen to go first when we're writing sentences on the board and he never has any idea what is going on. So he gets made fun of. I could go on and on, but the point is that we all love each other and enJOY laughing with and at *kindly* one another. 

2. Penguins Make The World Go Round

This is completely random, but it made me happy today. We were talking about animals and I taught them what a penguin was. They still weren't quite sure after I showed a picture, so I looked up a video. It took me to a video of a penguin falling off an iceberg on YouTube. We all know what the golden rule of YouTube is.. You can never watch "just one" video. So we spent about 8 minutes watching videos of penguins falling. We could not stop laughing. I love laughing with people. Or should I say that I enJOY it?

3. Cheating Never Seemed So Sweet

I have to brag on my students again. They face every challenge I give them with a smile and do their best to complete it. Today I made them go up to the board, one by one, and write sentences about the animals we had just learned. The fifth student to go up to the board was writing his sentence when I looked over at Veasna and he was writing words down on his hand. He looked up and saw that I had noticed and nervously laughed, blushed, *didn't know Cambodians could do that* and hid behind his desk partner. I laughed too and told him that I didn't mind. Seriously, I have never loved a cheater that much before. He always works so hard to understand the material and he was just trying to remember it before it was his turn. It made my heart so happy to see him working so hard. I enJOY watching my students try. 

4. I Can Join You?

The students love learning about food and hearing how it is different in America. Today, one student wrote a sentence that said "I want to kill dog and zebra and eat it." Everybody kind of laughed and made fun *see, making fun of people is an all-the-time thing* of the word choice. And then Liq (the class clown) shouted "I can join you?" I laughed and asked if they had ever eaten dog and they all shouted back at me "yes!" Then Liq asked if I wanted to try it. Afraid of what might happen if I said yes, I quickly responded with a "no no no no" and we all had a good laugh. I enJOY talking about cultural differences with my students, and getting to know each one of them. 

5. Jesus Loves Me

My favorite thing to hear, at the end of each lesson, is the sound of my students singing Jesus loves me in English. Seriously. I cannot stop smiling. I absolutely enJOY their sweet voices and the emotions that they put behind every word. They mean what they are singing and it's such a sweet sweet sound. 

The list could go on and on but I'm getting sleepy. 

Sure, these seem like really silly things. God didn't give me a gift of penguin videos. But He did give me a gift of joy. Just being with these wonderful people and sharing laughter, even if we can't speak to each other, is so incredible. Joy is understood by every race, every culture, everyone. 

And I just wanted to let everyone know how incredible this God-given joy is.

And the best part? He is creating it in all of us. We are all being filled with His spirit and His joy. Because of Him, we get to bubble over and share this with everyone we encounter. It's the best feeling ever. 

So go forth and be joyous, it's the best.

I enJOY you all, 

Cassie

*sorry, had to throw one last "enJOY" in. You know you love it*