"A Father to the FatherLess"

Wow! I have only one week left here! I have so many wonderful experiences and have seen so much.  I have such a wonderful time, but each day I miss home a little more.  

I will be arriving back home late evening on Tuesday July 23rd and look forward to spending time with friends and I have a few things at the top of my list I would like to do shortly after returning.  

1) Eat a meal without rice!  I actually have been craving Mexican and a Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew. Can you believe I have not had one ounce of Dr. Pepper?

2) Rest at home in my own bed.  Our beds are really uncomfortable and I wake up with a soar body.  Also it would be nice not having to look around for giant cockroaches before I enter the bathroom. LOL!

3) Visit the chiropractor.  This would be due to point #2.  A facial also sounds very nice:)

4) I would also love some Starbucks coffee since there are none here in Cambodia!!! I couldn’t believe it either!

     This week has gone by incredibly fast!  It seems like yesterday we were just halfway through and now just a little left.  We called this Wednesday "Western Wednesday."  We eat lunch after at the school after teaching and occasionally they will make something we are a little more familiar with.  So that day we had pasta!  It was so good but we could tell that we were the only ones that liked it, but we have had some very interesting stuff here.  We had that afternoon off to rest and relax, so we ordered bubble tea and went swimming.  We stay really busy around here so it was nice to have that time to refresh.  Later that evening, we watched "Up" (which I have never seen before...so cute!) and then our house helper made us chicken strips!!  Two Western meals in one day! We were stoked!  

Thursday presented a very long day.  We teach in the morning, after lunch we go to New Life school and teach there for a couple of hours, and return to Logos school for the VBS kids that evening.  I taught my students about rockets and they got to make rockets and fly them.  My kindergartners learned about adjectives and we described our rockets, and my preschoolers learned how to countdown from 10 to Blastoff!  

We had about an hour before VBS started and Deanne, Hannah, Amber and I walked up the road for some iced coffee. We had a good time just talking and I got to know them a little better.  I was still dragging even after the coffee, but the neighborhood kids have so much energy it’s impossible to stay tired.  I spent most of the evening in a tickle war with a sweet little girl. 

The team decided to go to a movie Friday night.  Despicable Me 2 just came out here.  It only cost $5 to watch a 3D movie and $3 for a drink and caramel popcorn!  We walked around City Mall and many of us purchased some movies for only $1 each!  Here the only way to purchase them is buying the copy.  It isn’t illegal here. 

Saturday was the best thing this week! We traveled to an orphanage outside of the city called “Place of Rescue.” A woman named Marie Ens was a missionary in Cambodia for many years before returning to Canada because of the Khmer Rouge.  Her husband had passed away and she returned to Cambodia with the desire to start an orphanage.  She is 78 years old and has a passion for the Lord.  Unfortunately, we did not get to meet her yesterday, but the pastor showed us around the orphanage.  There are women and their children who live together in a small home.  They also house AIDS families and help with doctor’s visits and medicine.

A house mom stays in a home with 10 boys or 10 girls and they live there as a family until they are old enough to go to college.  As we walked by each orphan house, the pastor told us their stories.  They aren’t just providing food and shelter for the precious ones, but they know and love them.  Smiles and bright eyes were at each doorway as we passed.  We saw little babies and got to hold them.  I wanted to take all of them home!  My heart broke to hear stories of how they go there.  One little girl had a severe handicap and did not have hands.  She is considered “unlucky” and so they didn’t want her.  Another little girl could not walk because her parents strapped her to a cart to beg for money and she never got to walk or exercise her legs. Many children are there because their fathers killed their mothers.  “Place of Refuge” even provides a place for grannies that have no one to take care of them.  I am so inspired that Marie is such a servant of the Lord and a testimony that you are never too old to be used by God! 

Please check out the website at  www.placeofrescue.org

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”

-James 1:27

Brave

I will jump into what we did this past weekend.  Saturday was a busy day and drained us pretty quickly.  First, we went to the National Museum.  A group of us kind of breezed right through it.  There were many similar statues representing Buddhism and Hinduism.  It all started looking the same to me.  Don’t get me wrong, I love museums…but it wasn’t very exciting for me. We walked to a restaurant called Friends.  The owners teach street kids a restaurant trade that they can learn and have a successful future.  Aaron said we could order tarantula and bugs there.  I decided before I ever left the U.S. that I would not touch or even eat a bug or spider!! The waitress brought a bowl with 3 live tarantulas to our table.  I cringed at the sight of them sitting there.  A few of my teammates, who barely think twice about doing strange things, just picked them up and let them walk around in their hand. 

I was shocked when I let the words “OK, I’ll hold it” came out of my mouth.  It really wasn’t as terrifying as I envisioned.  It was soft and just walked slowly through my hands.  I think I was still panicking a little inside.  I even got the courage to eat a tarantula leg!  It was crunchy, a little salty, and hard to swallow.  A couple others even ate bugs, but I stopped at the spider.

Next, we went to the Russian Market.  I have been looking forward to going to buy some gifts and souvenirs. One thing we discovered quickly was the Russian Market is H-O-T!!! Outside in Phmom Penh is hot but inside where all the vendors are packed like sardines and no airflow takes the heat to a whole new level.  I did have the most amazing iced coffee, though.  They like to put in condensed milk to give it that extra sweetness.  I had fun haggling to get a good price on gifts. 

  

Last, we went to the Royal Palace.  I wish I could say I was really impressed but I certainly did not think it was worth $6. The buildings were interesting.  We saw several Buddha statues where people would bow down and pray.  It was so sad to see as they were putting all their hope and belief in this false god.  I wanted to tell all of them there is a God who is alive and He loves them!  The coolest part about visiting the palace was seeing monkeys.  There was a building under construction and all these monkeys were on the scaffolding just looking out at us.  They were so cute!!! We got home early evening and were so exhausted that we put in a movie and crashed! 

Our plans for church on Sunday was to visit a traditional Khmer church.  It is the church that Vibol, our tuk tuk driver, goes to.  They do a lot of filming there so he called to tell us church was cancelled.  My team and I decided to get together for a devotional and debriefing time.  Each Sunday at 4:00, the school we teach at has a church service in English.  Many missionary families attend and students from the school.  This week, we had communion and a fellowship time afterwards.  They were having “Fuh”.  They called it “Fuh”lowship…Get It? LOL! It is like a soup with noodles and meats and tends to be a favorite of the locals and tourists.  I have to say that I am not a fan.  I certainly am missing Western food.  The first meal I will want when I get back into the states will definitely be Mexican and a Mountain Dew! 

Monday was a bit of a rough day for me.  I did not want to get out of bed, or be at school that day.  Several of my students speaks very little English, and so they usually spend their time bothering one another.  They are a very chatty group as well, so it made it frustrating to try to teach something that they didn’t seem to care about.  We also had a long day and I think I was just in a mood.  But school went very well and they kids did a much better job at listening.  Most of them are use to me now and me them so we have fun and are silly together.  Between school and VBS, we went to visit another school where we will be teaching at a few days a week.  There, I am teaching the preschoolers and helping with a 7^th grade class.  I still love seeing the VBS kids.  Even though there are over 150 kids that come everyday, the same ones that I have a connection with will still find me and I continue to form new connections each time. 

Today, we travelled to New Life School.  The preschoolers are learning the letter Rr this week, so we made rainbows with fruit loops and practiced writing sight words with rainbow writing.  They are so adorable.  Most students call us teacher and they are in awe when they see white people.  All they want to do is hug you and waveJ I want to take them all home with me!!!

Prayer Requests:  Pray that God will continue to give us rest and energy to love on the kids and to shine for Him.  Strength for one of my teammates.  She hasn’t been feeling well the last couple of days.  As returning home approaches, I don’t lose focus of why I am here.

I love you all! 

Blessings,

B 

Opening the Eyes Of My Heart

I am near the end of my second week here in Phnom Penh.  It’s hard to believe that in a couple of days, my journey is halfway over.  There are so many things to write about and I hope I don’t miss anything.  We went to church on Sunday morning and the missionary church at the school that evening.  Aaron took us to a place called P-Na BBQ where we assumed it would be like beef or pork….um…no!  This place had a grill where you cook your own food at the table.  The interesting thing is they bring our squid, shrimp, cow tongue, heart, liver, and bosom.  I tried a few things, but could not bear to taste the tongue.  A few things were chewy.  A couple had some tummy problems the next day because they were so adventurous. 

On Monday, we started helping with VBS.  The neighborhood children come to the school and play games and learn about Jesus.  It was overwhelming at first because there were 100 plus kids and few could speak English.  The language barrier made me wonder how we were going to invest in these kids when we couldn’t talk to them and they couldn’t speak to us.  Our group is in charge of games, so we played games like “Red Light, Green Light, Four Corners, Freeze Tag, etc.” The kids had such a blast and they were smiling and laughing and would grab our hands and stay real close or wanted to be picked up and twirled!  Even though we couldn’t communicate with them with our words, we could connect with them in other ways like physical affection. It still felt just as rewarding and it had to be the best experience I had so far here. Every evening, they are so excited to see us and they run up and hug us or jump on our backs.  Several new kids will get attached and it’s such an amazing feelingJ  

Deanna(my roommate) and I went for coffee and the little shop a street away from our house.  The iced coffee was pretty American and tasted really good!  It’s nice to have familiar things when in a place so unfamiliar. 

One of my favorite days of this week was Wednesday.  Our team visited a place called Daughters of Cambodia.  It is a place where women who are involved in the sex industry can choose to be free and be taught a trade to earn money for themselves and their family.  They are taught skills like sewing, baking, massage therapy, nail art.  You can go DoC and receive a mani or pedi, a massage, enjoy tasty treats in the Sugar n Spice café, or purchase handmade items in the store.  I got a neck and shoulder massage, along with some yummy food from the café and found great finds in the shop.  Our money goes to help the organization as they seek to help more women who want to set themselves free.  The sex industry in Cambodia is unbelievable.  I have noticed on our way to different places that there will be rows of seats filled with women outside of locations where men come and “use their services.”  I get a huge pit in my stomach every time I see them because for these women they believe it is their only option. 

It was strange being overseas this 4^th of July.  I remember watching fireworks in NYC last year and now I am in a foreign land.  After teaching in the morning Deanna, Sybil(another housemate) and I went to the coffee shop again.  We also invited our tuk tuk driver, Vibol, to come.  I must tell you about Vibol!  We met him our first day in Cambodia and he takes us to school and picks us up everyday.  Sybil told us a little of his story and that he was a Christian.  Every time we get out of the tuk tuk he says, “God Bless You.” So he told us of how he came to know Jesus Christ.  He has such a beautiful family that he is raising up in the Lord and gives God all the credit for the blessings he has given his family.  He is such a hard worker and amazing person!  He finds joy in serving those who are his brothers and sisters in Christ.  I am so inspired by him! 

We decided to teach the VBS kids some backyard games in celebration of the Fourth of July.  We had games like watermelon seed spitting, sack races, and tug-o-war, three-legged races.  The kids really enjoyed it.  

Afterwards, Aaron took us to Mike’s Burger House.  It’s a place that everyone here recommends you go.  Mike is Cambodian and lived in California for 30 years.  He is very passionate about his burgers! His guarantee is “Two bites, don’t like. Don’t pay.” He has one that is called the Lion Burger with 6 beef patties, eggs, and all the veggies.  It is about a foot tall!  Crazy! They even had Mountain Dew there, so of course, I had one! 

I am now caught up to today.  I have to write about our karaoke experience.  Our team went to a place where your group gets your own room.  It’s really cool because you aren’t looking like a fool in front of a bunch of drunk strangers.  We had lots of fun and everyone sang something.  I sang a little of some Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. 

It was a good week and I look forward to next.  I have a few prayer requests.  One of my teammates lost an uncle this week.  Pray for her and her family during this time of loss.  There are a few of us that have cold and allergy symptoms like sore throats, congestion, sneezing, etc.

I love you all!  Blessings, B