Teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) in another country, with vastly different customs, taught me something interesting about how we use the English language. For example, one day when teaching a class the word “take” I translated it to the word “yok” in Khmer, which is used in the tense “Please take this food.” Later on, we were talking about different rooms in the house, and upon learning of the bathroom, I explained, “The bathroom is where you ‘take a shower.’” Well, I used an idiom that we use almost on a daily basis and found out how confusing the English language can be.
Idioms are odd things, and every language has them. If you are considering learning a new language, just learning nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs will not be enough, because grammar rules and idioms will throw a wrench in your process… hey look, another idiom.
Here are two more idioms we use: “starting a new season in life” and “moving on to the next chapter.” These two idioms have been on my mind lately for obvious reasons. Have you ever thought back on your life and realized it pretty well divides into chapters and seasons? Some longer than others, but there are definitive moments of change throughout our lives.
Kelsi and I began our story together in 2010 when we started dating, and continued that story into our marriage in June 2011. In June 2012 we felt God calling us to a short term mission trip to Cambodia (nine months), and little did we know that this would turn into the next four years of our lives and include growing our family from two to five (and growing our faith exponentially). I’ve told the story so many times and the details are found all throughout this blog, so all I will say is that if our life were a book, that chapter would be the curve ball.
Some may have already realized that this is going to be our last blog on Mission Cambodia. I do not presume to know God’s plan for our lives (one of the many lessons we learned in Cambodia: not to make definitive plans), but we are back Stateside, and are settling into our next chapter. I have enjoyed chronicling what God has done in our lives over the years, and it is a treasure to have all that written down (even the moments of imperfection), as a testament of God’s grace and faithfulness to us.
Kelsi and I are so grateful for all the support we have had and continue to have. There were moments during our time in Cambodia in which our faith in God’s provision was matched by your obedience to pray and support us. You have all been such a blessing to our family!
In all this, our prayer and mission is the same: to bring glory to God and honor Him in our words and actions, and to make disciples wherever God places us. As I have emphasized in other blogs, this is a mission we all share. I hope this blog has been an encouragement to any and all who have taken the time to read it, and again I just want to say thank you to everyone for your support.
BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens.
