Leahaey, Cambodia!

I know, I’m two, almost three, blogs behind.

I will be honest, I have been procrastinating on writing blogs. It feels as if there isn’t really much to say besides just giving an overview of each week. But recently I felt like the Lord reminded me that it’s respectful and honorable to Him and my supporters, to let you know what we are doing even if we don’t have some awesome and crazy testimony!! So here’s what’s been happening for the past four weeks:

Four weeks ago, we taught on the topic of clothes for two weeks. So we introduced the English words hat, skirts, jacket, pants, socks, shoes, and t-shirts. We then introduced puppets to the kids with a simple song in English about getting dressed for school, and they were so entranced. They have never seen anything like it before and they loved it! For the Bible stories, we talked about when Samuel almost killed David because of his jealousy. Then we talked about Proverbs 14:30 “A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones.”

Ministry With the Boys

Two weeks ago, we actually had the privilege to have one of the boys teams with us. Their main ministry is being a teachers assistant at a school, but since the kids were out of school that week we got to take them into our ministry in the villages. With the kids, we reviewed from last week and then started teaching them English action words such as jump, run, swim, hop, stomp, and turn around. For the Bible portion of the teaching we started talking about Micah 6:8 “No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Last Week Of Ministry

And last week was our last week of ministry in Cambodia! As you know thanksgiving was last week, and Cambodians don’t celebrate thanksgiving, so we cooked them a HUGE pot of a dish they love. We all enjoyed eating a meal together with the kids and loved seeing them get 3, 4, and even 5 bowls of food, making sure they were all stuffed! While we were waiting for the food to be done cooking, we sat around and played with the kids. Throughout the week we also enjoyed doing house visits to check on some of the older ladies that we do bible studies with, and also checking on them to see if they are listening to the tapes we gave them.

The Tapes

The tapes play a super special part in helping them grow in their knowledge of the Lord. Since most of the people who had an education were wiped out 40 years ago by the genocide, most people aren’t able to read, at least in the generation above us (the generation that we are teaching now is the first generation to get an education since the Khmer Rouge). The first tape has about 40 lessons on them from Genesis to Revelation that covers creation to Christ. All about sin and God’s redemption plan. Last week we also finished measuring the kids for school uniforms. The AIM base there is currently fundraising for that! Here’s a link for more information, and if you would like to give!

https://give.adventures.org/story/Cambodia-Base

The Water Festival

This week was the Water Festival week, which is why last week we finished our ministry. Water Festival week is a very well known holiday in Cambodia. It’s celebrated over the span of three days and commemorates the end of the rainy season as well as the change in flow of the Tonlé Sap River. Their harvest season is over and they are thrilled. They work extremely hard by hand to gather the rice from the fields, separate the grain from the stem with a machine or by hand (which is the traditional way), and to lay the rice on tarps in the sun to dry, and then store. Some of the activities that take place at the festival are dragon boat races, fireworks, and evening concerts.

As for me and my relationship with the Lord. He’s been showing me how important it is to build relationships. THAT is our ministry too. He really has knocked down my small little view of what ministry truly is and has broadened my perspective. Even though this isn’t what I wanted it to look like necessarily, I’m still learning that ministry is many different things.

Going to Thailand

WE ARE GOING TO THAILAND SO SOON! We leave Friday morning at 5 am and we are riding in a bus for 20 hours. We have been given our ministry:

Team YADA will be with Team Israel working in the villages of northern Thailand. The people that we are working with have a vision to create an environment in which children are cared for and brought up with Christ. Their goal is to help educate and love them, so they will grow to be leaders in the tribal communities and teach the love of Jesus while being self-sustainable in their lives. Our teams help with educating the children and stay with the villagers to become a part of their lives while sharing God’s love through action. Their main objectives are to preach the gospel to children, teach, train and build them to grow in Christ and follow Jesus, give children the opportunity to go to school to be able to read, write, and speak Thai. and for children to experience a warm Christian family and atmosphere that shows love for one another.

We will be doing ministry in Thailand for three weeks with a week to debrief what we have seen, heard, and learned through being on the field this far.

With all that being said,

IM STILL FUNDRAISING. I NEED YOUR HELP. I NEED YOUR PARTNERSHIP! I’m currently 71% funded and I need to be 80% funded on December 15th. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GIVE, CHECK OUT THIS LINK WHICH IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE:

https://adventuresinmissions.servicereef.com/events/adventures-in-missions-3/2023-world-race-gap-year-route-3/participants/lexiblatt

Please share this link so that other people will have a chance to fund the Gospel! Your reward is in Heaven! YOUR DONATION AND PRAYERS DON’T GO UNNOTICED BY THE LORD!

Cambodia, leahaey! (good bye)

Until next blog,

LOVE YOU LOTS,

Lexi B