"Same-Same, But Different"

I know, I know. What kind of a title is that, and what in the world does it mean? Let me explain. "Same-same, but different" is a Cambodian proverb. I don't know exactly what it means to the people of Cambodia, but I know what it means to me. Today, November 13, is the 4-year anniversary of the day I suffered a serious ankle injury while on a missions trip to Cambodia. My husband and I spent 2 weeks with Ron and Tina Fruin in the Phnom Penh area, and it was a life-changing experience. Today I got out the journal I kept while we were in Cambodia, and relived some of the memories. I am so glad I kept that journal, because in reading it all the sights and smells and emotions that I experienced on that trip come rushing back to me as if it were yesterday.

 

From my journal, November 12, 2010 (4 days into our trip): "Yesterday was a long day - market and "grocery" shopping in the morning meant an hour-long ride into Phnom Penh in the tuk-tuk. Seeing the meat with flies on it in the market and some of the other sights and smells made me queasy in the stifling heat. When we went to the store, I couldn't believe the prices and the lack of selection, compared to the states. Back home after another long tuk-tuk ride, Bob went to the youth volleyball activity while I helped Tina in the kitchen all afternoon - washing and disinfecting meat, slicing and grinding meat, washing and sanitizing the kitchen afterwards, making food from scratch and improvising for missing ingredients, all in the heat from which there is no relief. She works so hard every day. I couldn't sleep last night and was thinking about what purposes God has for me being here."

Little did I know. The very next day was Saturday and we had planned a day of sight-seeing in Phnom Penh. We toured the palace and the grounds, and it was while in a restaurant for lunch that I fell over a drop-off of the floor and severely injured my ankle. I lay on the floor in agonizing pain, surrounded by Cambodian women chattering in Khmer and rubbing mysterious potions on me and pulling on my foot. Finally I was carried to the tuk-tuk and endured the hour-long ride home, only to have to again be lifted in and go out a second time for an x-ray. There was only one x-ray machine in the entire city, and there was no one there who knew how to operate it. In the providence of God, He sent a man who was able to operate the machine. In the providence of God, there was an American missionary doctor, Dr. Tom, to read the x-ray and determine that nothing was broken. I had suffered torn tendons and ligaments. Not having access to a walking boot or brace, Dr. Tom made the decision to cast my foot, ankle, and lower leg in order to immobilize it. In the provision of God, Dr. Tom had exactly enough materials to make an old-fashioned plaster cast.

And so it was that I spent the rest of that long-awaited missions trip in a cast, mostly confined to the house. Over the next couple weeks I had a lot of time to think, to read my Bible, to pray, to write. I came to the understanding that God's purposes for me going to Cambodia were very different than mine. I was unable to do many of the things I had gone there to do. I couldn't go to church or teach the children or conduct the craft classes because they met on a roof-top. I never got to see my husband preach or teach even once. I had to learn to trust God that when His plan is different than mine, that His plan is best. I learned to trust God that He would use all of it for a purpose. I learned to depend on God's strength - so many times I was at the end of myself. God provided crutches for me to use, which was another miracle in a 3rd world country, and our room was on the 3rd level of the house, and I had to crutch up and down all of those staircases. My foot and leg swelled terribly because of the heat. Over and over I had to call on the Lord for strength.

God put me on a very different journey than the one I envisioned. It was a journey of learning to trust and to depend on God. But it was a life-changing journey, and I will never forget the lessons God taught me. When I got home, I had to go through months of wearing a walking boot and a brace and physical therapy. To this day when my ankle hurts, I remember what God taught me in Cambodia. Truly I am "same-same, but different."

Gratefully,
Kathi