Planting seeds and moving concrete

Sorry we haven't written in awhile. Needless to say, it's been pretty busy and we conk out every night before getting a chance to write.

In a nutshell, things are going well here and we thank you for your prayers. Each day, we are building bonds with the staff and BGU students here and it's been a blessing for us, hopefully for them, too.

This post might be a bit long, but it's going to cover a lot of things, and not in chronological order.

2nd Kontrak Graduation
The kindergarten at Kontrak village just had its 2nd graduation ceremony. You can easily tell from the parents faces that it's a special event for them. The kids proudly wore their makeshift graduation caps and sang their songs that they practiced. Guests included members from a sponsoring church in Korea, Dongbaek Church, Handong professors Ezra Kim and SK Lee, NIBC president John Lee, and the Commune leader (ie. mayor) for the village.










The graduation is another sign that NIBC is still making inroads to the village and establishing itself as a safe and nurturing place for their children. All the families that attended seemed to be really happy. And in the midst of it all, Jesus Christ is being introduced to this village.

Professor SK Lee
We also ran into Professor SK Lee, someone the past two teams have been fortunate enough to meet. He was in Siem Reap for only two days and we were lucky enough to spend an hour with him after lunch. I (George) was also able to have a short conversation about the latest news about NIBC and ministry here.

SK zeroing in on Richard

The long and short of it is, SK is an amazing person with an incredible testimony. After retiring from a long career with Bell Labs and Motorola as a General Counsel, he has devoted his life to trying to redeem Cambodia spiritual and economic plight, usually trying to combine both in the same projects. The latest initiative involves a U.N. sponsored program that is encouraging entrepreneurship that engages the global markets with local resources, like rice, mangos, and other plentiful resources within Cambodia. Ask me about it if you want to know more.

Helping the harvesters
The Richards, Philip, and Sarah have been meeting with the BGU students throughout the time we've been here, starting on Saturday. It's a blessing to see their desire to learn more about God and also serve the NIBC ministry here. It was really easy to get to know them.

Each BGU student has a neat story and I hope that future blog posts will share them with you. According to Operation World, Cambodia's population is about 1.5% Christian. These young believers represent the future of the Cambodian church and their strong faiths will be needed to reach the rest of the country. We'll definitely be sharing more about them later.


Richard and Sarah's class: (L to R) Rotanak, Soken, and Pong. Soken was one of the students in our English camp last year.


Rotanak and Pong discussing the New Testament during the morning sessions.

Lastly...moving concrete
One of the ways we were able to help out was help move some consruction materials for a new school building. The story behind the building is that now that they are graduating children from their two kindergartens (Kontrak and Rainbow), where will the kids go? It was a burden for the NIBC leaders to see their kids leave, so plans were quickly made to establish a primary school a couple of years ago.

The building is a work in progress, and just like many other projects involving Cambodian labor, it's a T.B.D. type of situation. The hope is that the construction can be finished by late Fall 2009 and they will be able to welcome students for the new year starting October 2010. In between now and then, this project will need a lot of prayer, because construction is the easiest part. Staffing the primary school with Khmer teachers, finding the right leadership for a school, and financing it all will require God's hand. If you are interested in helping, please let me (George) know at missions@sfkcpc.org

The fun part of construction was serving with the BGU stduents. These women are built tough (the guys also). Each concrete sack was 112 lbs. We ended up moving about 6,200 lbs of concrete to the second floor to help out.




A view from the second floor of the not-yet-finished building.


Sarah and Eun-Sook enjoying the fruits of our labor.


Group picture in front of the 6,200 lbs of concrete we just lifted.


Richard assuming a squat position while Soken and Philip gladly dump the concrete sack on his back.

Lastly, I leave you with this funny shot. One of the missionary's dogs, Harry, is feasting on a dinner of thai curry and rice and whatever leftovers they had from that day. Not a bad dinner, if you ask me.


This meal would cost about $9.99 back in California. Eat up, Harry

Thanks for praying

We had a pretty good day and I don't know if some of you started to immediately pray after getting the email, but within an hour, Eunsook, who was feeling the worst, was ready to go.  The human part of us wants to praise Aleve, but we give all glory to God.  We are reminded that God's grace is made perfect in weakness.  Everyone else was feeling better by the afternoon, too.  Please continue to pray for us and the ministry here.  We've been having a good time working with the Riainbow School staff and students, as well as the interaction with the BGU students as well.  Tomorrow, we'll go into greater detail.

In a couple of days, we should be meeting up with Pastor John and hopefully will have a meet and greet with one of the NIBC leaders that has always challenged us in the past two years we've come (Prof. Lee).  One of the best things about coming here is being challenged and having our eyes opened by the staff and workers here.

It was sad to see Jongmin go (or as some of the team called him, Uncle Jongmin), but it was a blessing for us to fellowship with our brother who is now living in Singapore and get an update on how life has been the last few months for him.

-George

cambodia in pixels (guest blogger: Jongmin)

team

jump

rainbow

sweep

work


class


street no.9

Prayer request

hi everybody,

This is George.  Right now, it's Tuesday morning in Siem Reap and everybody has woken up sick to some degree.  Symptoms include sore throats, fevers, and body aches.  Ugh.  Please pray for a quick healing and the strength to be as faithful as possible.  Despite being reminded this morning that God's grace is sufficient in our times of weakness, it's still hard.  By God's grace, I'm feeling okay, so please pray that I won't fall to the viruses in two or three days, also.

-George

The Last Four Days...

in pictures:







Summer cleaning at Rainbow School


















Angkor Wat covered in rain







Angkor Wat


















Chum-Reap Soo! (Hello in Khmer)


















Richard trying to figure out how to say "Where is your friend?"


















Group picture at Tonle Sap River (home of the floating villages)
















Playing with children after Sunday service
















Bikes of church-goers
















Bible study
















Children's ministry service
















Marketplace


Chum-leap Lea! Good bye!

Living with a High Fever (guest blogger: Jongmin

Hello there KCPC. This is Jongmin saying hi to you guys from the other side of the world. I had a little trouble of my own after I arrived in Cambodia and spent the first night here on my own before joining the team (minus George at that point) the next morning. It was a quick hello before we hopped on to the van to NIBC for the first English class we were assigned to teach. Yet, meeting the KCPC team really made me excited. I kept saying to Phil and Eun-Sook that "I am so happy to be here right now". I think what I meant was one part "I'm happy to be in Cambodia" and two parts "I'm happy I found you guys", but for the most part what I meant was "I'm really happy to be with KCPC again".

I have been in Singapore for about three months now and have had a difficult time finding a spiritual home there. I have visited several churches and have been blessed while worshipping with Singaporean Christians but I found that I was not fully satisfied with the churches I have visited so far. Was I becoming a "church shopper", I worried. What have I been looking for? I would tell God that I wasn't looking for anything fancy or nice, just something familar. I was looking for a church but was shopping like I was shopping for a car. I was looking for a KCPC replacement.

So fast forward to Sunday morning in Cambodia. I had heard that we would worship at NIBC today - a children's worship and worship for adults. Children's worship was typical in someways with fun songs to keep their attention and a nice illustrated message by the local pastor. But I want to speak about what God spoke to me today during the adult service.

Eun-Sook was under the impression that the adult service would be in English and when we found out that, in fact, the worship will be entirely in Camodian translated into Korean (for some Korean guests, not Richard Lee), we were a bit surprised. Then I said something like this under my breath to Eun-Sook. "We can worship in ANY language". Ah what wisdom from someone who had spent three years in the Middle East. I knew what I said to be true from experience. But just as quickly as I blurted that out, doubt creeped into my heart. 'But I have had hard time finding a body to worship with every Sunday!' I thought to myself. What right do I have to say something like that to the team?

I prayed a quick prayer of confession of my doubt. I also prayed that God would be glorified by the worship by His body, which was made up of Cambodians, Thais, Koreans and us. All in all, this body represented four languages and cultures, at the least. We started with some hymns, which was projected on the screen in Camodian. There were Camodians on either side of us and Korean ladies behind us, who sang very loudly. We all tried hard to recognize the hymn and remember the words. And I don't remember which hymn it was we were singing, but I had recognized the tune and started singing it in English. Then it hit me. I had learned that hymn in Arabic before and had sang that old hymn many times during my time in the Middle East. And here I was singing that same old hymn with worshippers who knew it in Cambodian. God reminded me then that God rejoices as He hears this hymn in many many languages. He created many tongues and He crated them so that these tongues will sing His praises in a chorus of languages, which to our human ears may sound like "mumbo-jumbo" but to Him it is beautiful. I can't imagine what it will sound like but I know that one day, we will sing His praises for eternity. And today I had a glimpse of that sound. I had experienced that glimpse during my years in the Middle East, but perhaps, I had forgotten that sound. And how beautiful is the sound I heard today. God was teaching me that the sound I was hearing was more than just four languages singing the same song. It was a sound of "a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb... and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belong to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" ".

I had come to Cambodia to join the KCPC team for a long weekend, in order to (use George's words) "help the team learn what it means to be a missionary" (short-term or long-term). In other words, I had come to Cambodia to "impart" wisdom from my time in the Middle East and beyond. Yet, I am fully convicted today that God had led me here to remind of the things He had taught me. I will return to Singapore tomorrow and, yes, I will be sad that I will leave "my" team behind here from "my" church. But I will return with a renewed passion for His glory and understanding of worship. And my prayer for this team, KCPC and NIBC is that we are forever changed by a greater understanding of worship itself and the God who we worship. And if missions exists, as John Piper says, because worship doesn't, then my prayer is that the KCPC team will learn to worship God and love worshipping God with people of another culture, language and color during this trip. And let that love of God transmitt like a flu. I believe that is missions. Catch the fever. Share the germ. And don't be afraid to get dirty.

Thank you for the opportunity to come to Camodia to join the team. I love you guys very much and miss you all a lot.

-Jongmin

Off to Siem Reap

Hi everybody,

 

Just letting you know I'm about to board my last flight to finally get to Siem Reap, arriving sometime Sunday morning, Cambodia time.  I'm excited to finally get there.  See you later and thanks for praying.  If there is ever an airport to have a 9 hour layover in, it's Changgi airport (Singapore).

 

-George

 

Hope for a broken world (Sarah)

Broken country? Funny. I feel at peace here more than I do back in the states. I've seen the impoverished floating villages on Tonle Sap river, puppy-eyed children chanting "very good" until the van doors shut, unruly tourists treating native babies as props for pictures -- and though I know that what I've seem so far is the bare surface of the signs of governmental, social, historical, and spiritual brokenness, I feel peace. Hope. Something pure.

Though, I should remind you, I am looking out tinted windows of our safe honk of a van.

Maybe I'm being influenced by the sound of crickets outside. Or maybe, fellowship really does go a long way. Fellowship with God. Fellowship with the team, and with our brothers and sisters halfway across the world. I think it's both.

Our team began the day by reading Acts. The reading was surprisingly relevant to recent yearnings of my heart: to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to truly experience God's love and power working through me so that I may do all things cheerfully and confidently, and to be a blessing to everyone around me. Sometimes I just want to give up and say, "That is just who I am. Get over it." But I know that God has greater plans than that! While reading Acts I was reminded of how He filled Peter -- passionate yet so often foolish and cowardly like me -- with the Holy Spirit to bring to Himself three thousand souls. The same God is using us today for the same purpose. We worry so much about what to do in life, when God simply asks us to love and obey him!

Today was the first day of class at Bridges Global University (BGU) in Siem Reap, Cambodia. After introductions and Bible reading, the BGU students (Soken, Ratanack, and Phong, with Richard Park, Eunsook and me) discussed the education system in Cambodia. "Occupation before education," Ratanak said as she described how children often stay home to help families make money before prioritizing school attendance. After all, what comes first: a successful future, or survival? Schools and teachers are lacking, and the government, Phong said, does little to alleviate the situation. Tourism here constantly attracts rich foreigners and brings an inflow of cash; yet where does this money go? Not to those in the countryside. And certainly not to their education.

I don't know. We can turn away our heads and say, "Hey they seem happy enough. Why should we care?" Sure, they do seem not unhappy. But if Phong grieves for his brothers and sisters in Cambodia because they don't have enough food or adequate education, our hearts are not 'more reasonable and intelligent' than theirs -- they're just numb. Or maybe stupid is a better word; stupid because we think we understand but we don't. Blind from the reality of our undeserved blessings as we claim them our own.

One general consensus during our discussion today was that education develops not only knowledge, but also character and wisdom. And also, that knowing God prompts us to love, and how essential loving relationships are to spreading the gospel. Education isn't simply a tool for us to advance on our social ladders so that someday we may have prestige and the 'power to help,' as genuine as that desire may be. Education, as the students put it, helps us know beyond our little bubbles, whether Cambodia, United States, our school or workplace -- to see a greater plan that we can't fully conceive but can partake in. It paves way for more opportunities to share the gospel. And it's in knowing that that we begin to see God's bigness and holiness, and our worthlessness without his abounding love of forgiveness surrounding us everyday.

A major part of BGU's education is Bible reading. There is something about a group of people who love Jesus coming together to enjoy and dwell in his word. Though we're not talking about ourselves or 'getting to know each other,' we're acknowledging the most precious and mutual thing in our lives, which is the gospel, the reality of Christ's loving sacrifice on the cross. How different our lives would be if this was truly the focus of our every day and every action...

We also went to the Tonle Sap River today and saw the impoverished floating villages. I don't have too much to say on it right now (I need some time to process it in my head; the floating houses were unlike anything I've ever seen) but maybe another team member will blog about it sometime. And hopefully we can post pictures of it too.

Teaching feels like it happened ages ago. I feel lucky to have seen so many different aspects of Cambodia today -- even the extremely cheap yet extravagantly delicious dessert cafe was a reminder of the disparity of wealth here in Cambodia, as I caught glimpses of only foreigners inside before falling asleep on the well-placed giant sofa.

But hope is what the BGU students gave me today. They are learning English so that they may learn about what else is out there, beyond their families, country, histories. They are climbing the scholastic ladder so that, with what they have lived through, they can push for necessary changes in a country with such a painful, gruesome past -- its imprints still visible in the streets of Siem Reap. They are studying the word of God so that education and character may not bring them the world's fame, but its persecution as they seek to represent Christ in this broken - world. And we are developing relationships with them to remember that the Gospel transcends not only culture, but also identity as we find ourselves more alike than ever, and loved by the same God.

And I leave you with this: "One of the most important functions of the missionary movement is to continually rescue the faith itself from becoming lost through institutional and cultural evolution and absorption.... That process of trying to make our faith understandable cross-culturally has in many different but vital ways pumped back into the home church a constantly renewed sense of what is, and what is not the [gospel]... Unless we become as serious about rediscovering the true faith in contrast to the assumptions of our own culture, we will trumpet an uncertain sound wherever else we go." -Ralph Winter,International Bulletin of Missionary Research

Please keep praying for Cambodia and missionaries all around the world!

To the Ends of the Earth (Philip)

Having left on Wednesday, we finally reached Siem Reap on Friday afternoon. Granted that is a lot of time to sleep, eat, think, read, pray, or, in my case, to do all of the aforementioned.

While i finished up reading "The Gospel for Real Life" by Jerry Bridges i started to think about my relationship with the gospel and this trip to Cambodia. What is missions? What can i even do here in Cambodia? And of course there are textbook answers to these questions but we all know how that goes. Answers to our questions require more than just brute theory and cold facts from the Bible. What i was looking for was something substantial where knowledge of the gospel not only lived dormant in the mind but took life in the heart. (Biblically speaking the mind and heart are suppose to be synonymous)

Missions is not just an effort to go overseas to fulfill humanitarian duties laced with subtle hints of the gospel. Missions is not even exclusively going overseas on ventures to foreign lands to explicitly share the gospel without any guise. For if it were the case, missions would have started with William Carey and his journey to India in 1793; however, we know that missions began with God's promise to bless all peoples on earth through the extending reign of Christ. The point of this discourse is to show that our conception of missions, regardless of what it may be, is and in some sense always will be deficient if we depend on our own understanding. Missions will always be much bigger than we can imagine and define it to be because our God is much bigger and greater than we could ever possibly imagine. Case in point, consider Peter and his misconception of Christ role as the Messiah in his denial of Jesus' impending death and resurrection (Matthew 16:21-23). Because our finite minds are unable to naturally grasps the full beauty of the truth of Scripture, it is imperative that we seeks its guidance in junction with the Holy Spirit for illumination.

And it is in realizing my inability to fully grasp the "perfect" answer that i realized that even in our limitation the gospel is active and evident. Though we are incapable of fully understanding, in this case, what missions is; we need not despair because we have reason for hope. This hope is a hope in the gospel; namely, that in our inability God is sufficiently able to reveal to us his glorious truth.

The last chapter of Bridges book turned me to Revelations 7:9 "After this i looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands." Missions isn't just about reaching the 10-40 window or the minority population, nor was it reaching your local community and direct sphere of influence but rather missions was about extending the gospel to the entire world. And this world is defined for us in the scripture as "a great multitude that no one could count." Could you imagine that? (Rhetorical) Though the number be vast and seemingly endless, hope is not lost. The promise of God ensures that the gospel will surely reach to the ends of the earth. This truth calls us to respond in prayer. Each of us play a unique and different role in the scope of the big picture; however, what we all share is the responsibility to pray for the advancement of God's name to the ends of the earth. And as with all things God is sovereign and so we must live faithfully in and through prayer. In the end this is what missions is and what we can do about it: Missions simply is the gospel and we are to respond to this in prayer.

It has been a blessed and full day here in Cambodia. Thank you for all your support and prayer. Continue to pray for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. And whether it is for our salvation, sanctification, or understanding, in all things let us live faithfully fully depending on our sovereign God.

I am excited to see how God will reveal Himself and His glorious message of the gospel in Cambodia!

God bless.

Phil

Update: My passport taken care of. Waiting for flight.

Hi everybody, this is George.

Thanks for praying for us and me with my passport situation.  The team arrived in Singapore and after their layover, they should be transiting to Siem Reap in about 10 hours.  I will be getting my passport around 3pm today and should know by 4pm if I'm getting on tonight's flight or Friday's flight.  God-willing, I'll be arriving in Siem Reap on Sunday morning at the latest.

-George

Latest status: Wednesday 9:45pm PST

Eunsook, Philip, and Sarah are in the air right now, somewhere over the Pacific.

Richard Lee and Richard Park should be boarding their flight for Siem Reap within a few hours.

I will be getting my passport renewal sometime tomorrow if all goes well and should be on a flight late Thursday night or Friday noon.

Thanks for all the encouraging emails and prayers and directions to the passport agency.  It's been a crazy day, and I hope Eunsook isn't hating me too much right now for abandoning her.

-George
http://kcpc-cambodia.blogspot.com

Delayed, but probably going

Thanks everyone for praying. to bring you up to speed, I didn't know
about a requirement to have your passport valid for a full six months
after your arrival date. After the initial hurdle at the gate where I
was able to sign a waiver, I was paged to the front desk an hour later
and was told they called ahead and the Cambodian consulate said they
would likely deport me, so they kept me from traveling.

I rushed over to the passport agency and I have an appointment for
tomorrow morning and should be able to get my renewal tomorrow
afternoon. I am waiting for a call back from Singapore air about
what's the next flight I can get on.

thanks for everyone's prayers. like I have been telling the team, we
need to have faith and be flexible. there's still a full 2 weeks
ahead of us.

George from San Francisco

Team: We're off for Siem Reap

A huge thanks to everyone for praying and supporting us.  A few updates before we head out.  Two of us (the 2 Richards) are leaving from Seoul, Korea.  The rest of us are about to meet at SFO (Sarah, Eun-Sook, myself, and Philip)

It's been a whirlwind few weeks, but we're ready to go and a lot of that is thanks to you.  We had a very encouraging sendoff/prayer meeting on Monday where we got to share our prayer requests and share more about the ministry we're going to be involved with.  Also, in the last 24 hours, we have met our budget and are very thankful to you and ultimately to God, for providing for us.  Any extra funds we are going to give as an offering to the ministry there.

Please pray that we'll be faithful and will have faith.  We want to open our eyes to see the things that God is doing and come away in awe.  We know that in two weeks it's hard to think anything will get "done", but we want to be as faithful as we can and do our utmost to encourage people and plant seeds of the Gospel.  One benefit of partnering with a local ministry presence is that we can come and go, but there are missionaries and workers there to continue the work after we leave.

Please pray for safe travel and luggage that arrives with us.  =)

We're going to be in Siem Reap for most of the time there, but the last 4 days, we'll be spending time in Phnom Penh to teach English at a middle school there and meet the NIBC missionaries in that city.

If you are receiving this email twice, I really apologize about that.

If you know anyone who would like to be updated via email and didn't receive this, please email missions@sfkcpc.org to be added to the email distro.

God bless you!  Ah-kun!

George & the Team

Video

I've finally posted the video for Mission Cambodia 2008! Hopefully this will show you what we've experienced and also make Cambodia a little more personal for you... (note: the video starts black)

Of course, we had some fun out on the field. Here's an extra little feature:

"The Cambodia Fun Reel"

Back from Siem Reap (George)

Hello all,

We're back safely from Siem Reap. After a layover in Taipei, Taiwan, we slogged through the last 13-hour leg of travel and was warmly greeted by Albert, Christina, & Grace and a big red 15-passenger KCPC van.

The last two days were a whirlwind. We spent the last week sharing testimonies with each other and that allowed us to share our lives with the local missionaries. On trips like this, it's easier to absorb their lives, but you have to make concerted efforts to return the favor. It was a good time of sharing and prayer for the ministry there. Even within the team, we learned new things about each other.

The last two days' schedules were the same as the others. Rainbow School and English Camp in the morning and Kontrak village in the afternoon. On Friday, we held a celebration with the English Camp participants and they joined us for lunch, and some of the girls got some cakes to top the meal off with dessert. The cakes were excellent. It must be the French influence in the region.

We said goodbye to Brian on Friday morning. At some point, we'll post the farewell outfit the guys chose to wore. Let's just say it was traditional Khmer clothing. When we said farewell to Brian, it was clear to us this was the beginning of the end. We knew our time in Siem Reap was coming to a close.

We decided to wrap up our time in Kontrak village with our singing time and just open-ended free time with the kids. Pastor Ryan and George made balloon animals and the others walked around the village, talking with the kids and seeing where they lived. It was a nice way to say goodbye for now. We walked through the village and met up with the van nearby the main road.

The last night, we had some extended sharing time Prof. SK Lee of Handong University. He is helping oversee a farming educational center that is being started in another part of Cambodia. We heard another perspective of the state of Cambodia. Despite what we've seen the past two weeks, we really only saw a limited part of the Cambodian spectrum of people because 80% of the population lives in the rural areas. Even Kontrak village, despite its rural nature, is not very rural, by Cambodian standards.

We also held a debrief with the local missionaries after SK's talk. They wanted to hear our feedback, but we also wanted to hear theirs because it'll help us better complement the minstry next year. The ministry here is still in a young state and they're still looking for ways to improve their approach towards the kids. The sharing went well past midnight, and then we were all faced with the prospect of packing before the 6:30am departure. Many baggy eyes were seen in the morning. We said farewell to Angie (she's leaving 12 hours after us) and that was the end of our time in Siem Reap. I think we can say with confidence that it's just another step taken in the partnership we're going to have with the ministry there. It's not "goodbye", but "until next time."

Most of us are off to bed now. We're not sure what time we'll wake up since it's 2pm Cambodia time right now. =)

Until we write again, jiem reap leah (goodbye).

More posts will be following in the near future. We thank you so much for your prayers and encouraging emails and letters. The work of God cannot be done alone and we're very glad for your partnership with us.

George

Blessings in Disguise (Connie)

This is how the kids greet us when we arrive at Kontrak Village.

Connie with Hawaiian Girl.
Ben and Connie with Witu and Vuta in Treak Village. The two boys attend the Rainbow Kindergarten.

Big Guns.
Some of the older students at Kontrak village, ages ranging from 15 - 20.

There's always time for a cute shot amidst the old temples of Cambodia.

A mom picking up kids from Rainbow school.

Class photo for Ben.

Kids showing off muscles during My God is So Big.


This is how the kids are waiting for us when we arrive at Kontrak Village.

Cute boy a.k.a Som Hang a.k.a. Gangster Boy a.k.a. Al Capone, taking a break with his shirt out.

Two more cute kids in Kontrak village

Teacher Borean with the children at Kontrak. She's helped us a lot with translations. She's the regular teacher for the kindergarten students throughout the year.

Shot from our team bus that shuttles us back and forth

Hawaiian Girl. She used to always wear a hawaiian skirt last year.

Children at play in their house at Treak Village


Connie teaching Bible lessons to some deaf students


A child showing off his latest capture: a large grasshopper

Weasna proud of his accomplishment in Rainbow School.

Kids at Kontrak Village singing along to "Amen, Praise the Lord"


Commuting on BART, eating lunch at my desk in front of the computer, constantly checking email and Facebook... these things seem so foreign right now.

Commuting on a tuk-tuk, eating mangosteen and dragonfruit, constantly swatting mosquitos... ahhh... these things are now familiar. :)

It's our 11th day here in Siem Reap and I am stuck inside the hotel room sick, watching a gecko scurrying across the wall. It seems unfair that I have to waste a day (when the number of our days here are so precious) vomiting, and having diarrhea, a fever, and body aches instead of being out there with the kids and my team. I've abandoned my 4-year-old class at Rainbow School and my older teen girls at Kontrak Village school who I've been teaching. Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise? I'm forced to sit here and reflect. I can read and journal with no rush or interruption. And of course, sneak in a few hours of TV - a luxury we're normally denied here! - just to see where the U.S. stands in the number of gold medals so far!

I can hear the rain really coming down outside. The monsoon season has officially started. Our first week here was unusually cool (relatively for the area) and the humidity was bearable with frequent cool winds coming through (these breezes were few and far between for the team last year!).

With this final week being combined with my time here last year, this is actually my 4th week in Siem Reap. I have grown to know this place and love these kids even more.

One of my favorite students at Kontrak from last year we lovingly dubbed "Jungle Girl" has been MIA this year. But her little sister, Bopha, who was just a baby last year, has grown so much. She's become one of my favorites. She sings with enthusiasm (trying to sound out the English words, so foreign to her). She grabs my hands and counts, "Mooey, pee, bai" and I lift her up over and over again - a great workout for my arms!

There's a boy about three years old we call "Little Gangster" because he really looks and acts like a little gangster! Wrestling with the big boys, he can take a kick and a punch like the best of them and he just gets back up with no emotion. He wears a button down shirt that's always unbuttoned. And when we arrive, he's always standing out in the front, hunched over with his hands on his waist with a look that says, "What are you gonna try to teach me today?" He's a tough little one but he loves praise time. Once, he was sucking on a lollipop when we started singing, "My God is So Big." As soon as he heard the music, he threw down his lollipop stick and started doing the motions. I think he just likes showing off his guns (if you know the body worship for this song, you know which part I'm talking about!). He's one of my favorites, too.

There's also Heean Heean, Heean, Heean Heean (another one), and Hen. It's hard keeping these names straight but these older boys are great, too. They tease the girls endlessly, throwing grasshoppers at them, but when things get too wild they say sorry. And when I hand out stickers, they all want the heart.

We spent a Sunday afternoon cleaning Kontrak village school and they were all so eager to help. Picking up pieces of glass and dead frogs with no fear, walking barefoot around the prickly plants that stick to your pants and pinch your legs with no hesitation. Living in this environment, they've become tough - physically able to handle so much more than I could.

Then, there are the kids at Rainbow Kindergarten.

Sreyya is quiet and never asks for seconds during snack time - just patiently waits as her fellow classmates hungrily grab for more. And she shares her toys when her friend starts crying.

Peakadai is one of my smartest students. He's always solving puzzles and finishing his worksheets first.

Choree has the cutest smile, but she always ends up crying at least twice a day.

Srey Mae yells out "Father Abraham" in Khmer with such fiercity you want to immediately raise your right hand! left hand! right foot! left foot!

Eat, who reminds me of Sayeed from Lost always pretends he's revving up a motorcycle as he goes to his seat.

As you can see, I have many favorites. It's hard not to fall for these kids.

After 10 minutes, I'm exhausted.

But at the end of the day, I can say that was a day well spent. And it's hard to say that everyday back home. When we're in a routine. We go to work and each day just seems like the day before.

I'll savor my time here - savor each day left.

An unexpected opportunity turned up for me. Two deaf guys came to the NIBC Siem Reap Church on Sunday and the pastor introduced me to them (after learning that I knew sign language). It was great chatting with them and despite our language barrier (American Sign and Cambodia Sign are different) we were still able to communicate.
One of them was introduced to Christ at age 11 (now in their 20s) when missionaries showed a Jesus film in the local villages. He watched it 4 times and didn't fully understand it until several years later. Most of the other deaf people in the village are Buddhist so these two friends come to Sieam Reap Church together on occasion. The pastor, seeing me sign with them, asked if I could spend some time teaching them Bible stories.

So my first day teaching them was Monday. I have to admit, the two hours with them were pretty exhausting. Chatting casually for a bit is fun, but having serious Biblical conversations for two hours (with the differences in our signing) is hard! I was a bit tired and wondered if I was even being effective and why God put another task before me, when it meant I had to abandon my Rainbow students once again.

But my second day with them was better and I realized how much they are in need of Christian fellowship. It's currently so limited right now, with the pastor writing down his sermon and gesturing motions to preach to them when they do come to church. Something I thought to be a bit of a burden turned into another blessing in disguise.

It's amazing how God works. Whether you feel like a 'missionary' or not, with just one small step of faith, God provides opportunities to serve, love and to be a part of His great plan. We just have to keep our eyes open and be willing.

Thanks for your prayers!