Better Late than Never

My blogging skills are wretched! I'm so sorry. Consequently, I'm not totally sure where to start this blog.

My days became pretty routine once we got back from Phnom Penh. I was busy, sure, but at least it was routine! :) I taught English at the learning center, I taught math at the children's home, and I helped in what other random ways I could. The summer has been great. So, I'll just hit the highlights!

I love Khmer people! I have built amazing relationships with the kids at the children's home and they have forever impacted my heart. Today was my last day with them and I'm slightly heartbroken. I have seen them almost every day for the past 10 weeks! I will miss their smiling faces. I've also been able to build great relationship with the older kids at the children's home! It has been so sweet. I pray that my time here and the relationships I built with these kids would be used to strengthen their faith and their relationship with the Lord!
I spend a lot of time at Common Grounds. The food is great (as proven by my massive tab I just paid last night) but the employees are even greater! Some of them are strong believers and some are still figuring things out. But what a great time I've had with them all! Many hours of laughing and joking around with them have passed in the 2 months I've spent here!
Julie (the director here in Siem Reap) has become a sweet friend. I'm so thankful for her stability and constant encouragement in my life!
Solin is making a great recovery! After the accident he had some bleeding on his brain. He stayed in the hospital for a few days and then released after his brain seemed to be healing itself. He's looking great and feeling better and better every day. Thank Jesus!!

Please pray that God will continue to work in the hearts of the people I have met here. The country is in need of strong Khmer believers to change the foundations of the country. Pray that a great harvest of souls will come in Cambodia!

I pray that a return to Cambodia is in my future. I am almost sure it is. I'm sad to leave, but excited for what the future holds! I trust that our Almighty Father knows what's best, so I'll continue to seek His guidance. Please pray for me as I return to Thailand for a quick trip and then make my way back across to the great state of Texas!

Love you all!

Phnom Penh

This week has flown by! We left on Wednesday afternoon to make a quick trip to Phnom Penh. There are two PCL offices in Cambodia: one in Phnom Penh and one here in Siem Reap. During the summer they have a youth camp for a few days at the end of June. I'm so glad that I'll be here for it this year! We went to Phnom Penh so that we could hold a meeting with all those involved with running the camp this year. It was a good trip and the meeting was beneficial.

For me, this trip was amazing! Many of the youth from the orphanage were there as well a few of the young employees here at Common Grounds. It gave me the opportunity to build relationships with them and I am very thankful for the time we spent together!

On Wednesday night we all went to dinner. There is a young (probably around 8 years old or so) girl named Neang who Matt has seen the past 4 times he has been in Phnom Penh. Each time he goes, he gets a little closer to this little beggar girl. He even met her mom last time he was there. Towards the end of dinner, Neang and her friend came up to our table and Matt had them sit down so he could buy them some dinner. Before the food even got there, several police officers came around the corner. A big, burly officer walked up to the girls and spoke to them in Khmer. He grabbed Neang and started to take her away. Matt tried and tried to assure him that he knew her and had even met her mom before. The officer said that she had no mother and that he was taking her away. He manhandled this precious little girl and threw her into a tuk-tuk to be taken away to God knows where. Matt was furiously trying to stop him and Neang was screaming and begging the officer to let her stay. It was one of the most horrible things I've ever seen. Matt asked around to find out if anyone knew where they were taking her. A Khmer man with excellent English explained that they were "cleaning up" the city and they were supposedly taking her to some unknown orphanage 20 kilometers outside of town. I am certain that these are corrupt police who are selling these innocent little girls into the sex trade. As we were leaving, the girl's mom came around the corner on a motorbike and Matt jumped on to try and help her find Neang. They went to several police stations each one telling them they didn't know where the girl was. Finally they came to this sketchy looking building with a gate closing off the entrance. No way to see in or out. The mother told the police that they had her daughter and she wanted her back. They argued for a while and kept insisting that the girl was not there. Eventually, the little girl heard her mother's voice through the gate and stuck her little arm out through a hole and started yelling for her mother. The police could no longer deny that they had her. The daughter and mother were finally reunited but the police took their pictures and said that if they ever saw either of them again, they would take the little girl and she would never see her daughter again. Matt knew that if he didn't get the family some help, they would for sure be caught again and separated forever. He got in contact with a man who is starting a ministry with street children. The man was willing to help and so Matt took the mother, Neang and her baby brother to meet this man. When he saw them, his face lit up with recognition and so did the mother's. This same man had helped her out two years ago and had been looking for her since. He had searched and searched and thought that she must have died. God faithfully put people into this family's path to keep them from harm. I know for sure that He has an amazing plan for this mother and her two children. If you think about it, please pray for them and for their continued safety.

As amazing as this story is, it's also heartbreaking because I know there were many other young girls in that building who weren't saved that night. This little girl was rescued from a life of prostitution, but there are many that aren't. Cambodia is well known for being a huge part of the human trafficking problem. Pray for those who are working against it and pray for the girls, boys, men and women who are unwillingly sold into a life of prostitution or forced labor.

Starting a Routine

I have no idea how to begin summing up the past 10 days. For those of you who know me well, you know that summarizing is not a skill I claim to posses. However, I cannot begin to write everything that I have experienced in the past 10 days. So I will do my best. Be patient.

What I'll be doing

After talking to Julie (the director of PCL Siem Reap) we have mapped out how I'll be able to help PCL for the next several weeks.
-PCL has a learning center where they offer English and computer classes. The English sessions run for 10 weeks which happens to be the amount of time I'm here. It is a perfect fit. I'll be teaching 12, one hour classes a week consisting of intermediate and advanced students. Thanks to some interns from Lee University, there is now a curriculum for me to follow. I'm really looking forward to teaching and to learning more about my students. Hopefully I'll be able to build relationships with a couple of them. I'd love to develop a relationship with one of the girls in my class and spend some time with her outside of class. I'm not sure if that is going to be possible, but I'm praying for the opportunity to open up.
-As I shared in the last post, I'll be going out to the orphanage every day to help the kids with their math skills. I'll probably be spending a couple hours out there every afternoon.
-There is a village about 45 minutes outside of Siem Reap called Takam. Julie goes out there every Tuesday to have a Bible Study with the villagers. I'll be going out there with her mostly to start working with the kids. I think that her hope is that we can build some kind of program for the children out there. We are just going to start with a few games and songs after she has finished her Bible study with the adults. I'm extremely excited about it though! I'm good at playing with kids!!! :)
-There are a group of youth here that have a passion for the Lord. The group consists of some older kids out at the orphanage, youth that live around the orphanage, and some of the youth that work at Common Grounds Cafe. They have youth group on Sunday night and I'll be helping out with that. The youth are pretty amazing. Many of them obviously love Jesus. Julie wants them to start developing a desire for sharing that love with others. For outreach, the youth will be going out to start a children's program in the slums. I'll be helping with that as well. Mostly planning and helping the youth organize games for the kids. Again, right up my ally.

What I've done the past 10 days

-This week I taught 9 classes. Wednesday was a holiday so we didn't have any classes. But I got to meet all my students. I'm enjoying teaching so far. I've forgotten how much I love teaching ESL classes. I loved teaching grade 5, but ESL is different. The only downside is that I have a 6am class on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday!!! I don't do mornings well but it wasn't so bad this week. By noon I've already put in a full days work!
-I also tutored two girls out at the orphanage. They are super fun girls. We had a great time this week learning our multiplication tables! In S.E. Asia skin color is a big deal. The darker you are, the more you are judged. They love white skin and see it a sign of wealth. If you have dark skin then your family must be poor and work out in the sun. These two girls have darker skin and have very low self-esteem. I'm thankful for the opportunity to help them because I can use it as an chance to assure them of their beauty, both inside and out. They are precious girls and I pray that God can help me inspire them to find their identity in Him rather than the color of their skin.
-Takam: I went out to Takam (the village) on Tuesday. I got to go there back in October while I was here and some of them actually remembered me!
-On Wednesday the youth group went out to the slums and played with the children. It was such a special time. The kids out there are so cute but you can tell that they are already hardened. They are tough kids. They have to be. Most of them are left alone all day to fend for themselves as their parents go out to beg or dig through the trash. About 50% of them are Vietnamese and are not recognized in Cambodia or Vietnam. This is the hand they were dealt and they have hardened themselves to be able to accept it. Julie wants the youth to start a program similar to a backyard Bible school program; singing, games, skits and a short Bible lesson. This week we went out there and played with the kids. Next time we go out, we'll have a program planned.
-I feel like God is reminding of some things that I have forgotten in the past couple of years. I've forgotten my passion for Him and for people. As busy I am here, I also have a lot of time to spend in the Word and listening to the Lord. I feel like I'm at a turning point in my life (one of many, I'm sure) and I don't want to miss what the Lord has planned for my time here. I realized that for a while this past year I lost my joy that I had in the Lord. I'm not sure why and I can't pinpoint when it happened. A couple weeks before I left Thailand I started seeking the Lord again for the first time in a while. I feel like the Lord is really starting to heal my heart and reminding me that in Him there is JOY. I'm thankful for His faithfulness to love me and keep trying.

Finally, as you may have noticed, I have revamped my site a bit. I've changed the layout and I'm trying to add some pictures and videos. I've actually been taking lots of pictures (insert applause)!!! I've spent the past 4 hours trying to download them but the internet and I are not on good terms right now. So, hopefully I will get some pictures up soon. I was able to upload a few of them to Facebook if you get a chance to check them out.

One long trip later...

After getting a later start than I had expected, I found a bus that would take me to the border between Thailand and Cambodia. The bus ride wasn't so bad. It was about 4.5 hours, but it was half empty (or half-full:) and I was lucky enough to have an empty seat beside me. I spent the hours reading, listening to music and anxiously awaiting my arrival to the border. Maybe it was the cup of iced coffee (on an empty stomach) that kept me from sleeping or maybe just the excitement of getting to Cambodia. Either way, I was extatic when I saw the signs for the border. When I got to the border this sketchy guy kept offering to help me. I was a little weary of his "help"... cautious of the cost of the "help" once it was all said and done. But, I had four bags, two full of books for the kids at the orphanage and I needed help lugging it from place to place. So I kept a close eye on him and gave him my two heaviest bags. If he was gonna ask for money at the end of it, I wanted him to work for it. :) He ended up helping me all the way through the Thai border and on past the Cambodian border. It was nice to have the help. He took me to his taxi driver and gave me an okay deal on a ride to Siem Reap. He ended up being quite helpful and not trying to rip me off or take any of my stuff. It was a nice surprise considering all the horrible scam stories I've heard about the Cambodian border. He passed me off to the taxi driver and we embarked on our 1.5 hour ride from the border to Siem Reap. The driver didn't speak a word of English and he ended up taking his sweet time getting to the city. What should have been a 1.5 hour trip at the most took us 2+ hours. Matt (my friend in Siem Reap) was worried and trying to figure out where I was. Thank God I got here safely and with very few hiccups along the way.

Matt got me all set up in my new room for the next few weeks. It's a comfy little room above the cafe that PCL runs. The cafe is great! Lots of good food and coffee and free internet!!! Whoohoo! After announcing my safe arrival to the Facebook world and sending out a few short emails, I called it a night. I slept very well in my new humble abode.

Today, for my first day in Siem Reap, Matt took me out to the orphanage to hang out with the kids for awhile. It was great. I was able to help a couple of the girls with their math and talked to Matt about spending more time with these two specific girls, Hannah and Sarah. They are little behind in their math skills and just need a little special attention. I figure I'm just the person for the job. The girls are sweet and so cute. They are about 11 years old... perfect age, if you ask me!! I'm excited about spending more time with them through the next couple months.

I'll be finding out more during the next day or so about what my scedule will look like for the next two months. I'll definitely keep everyone updated about what I'll be doing. Hopefully I'll remember my camera and post some pics too. Fingers crossed. :)

Almost There

After spending several days cleaning and packing and planning, etc... I'm finally ready to get on a bus for 5 hours and go to Cambodia. I'll be heading out in the morning and arriving in Siem Reap sometime in the afternoon. I'm really excited to get to Cambodia and start loving on some cute little kidos! Once I'm there and get internet access, I'll update and put some pictures up. Yay! :)

Oh and please forgive my lack of blogging skills.

Okay... Cambodia... Here I come.