It has already been a week here in Siem Reap

We have been here one week and we have already been involved in many things. Our director Julie does an amazing job of giving us a variety of opportunities to minister and spend time with the people here. Since we have been here, I have slept a lot (the first 4 days at least from jet-leg), showered a lot, journaled a lot, blown my nose a lot, washed my hands a lot, sweat a lot and plenty more :)

But ministry wise, we jumped in our second full day here and presented VBS to the kids at the children's home and some of the locals Thursday through Saturday. There were probably about 50 or 60 kids there each day and it was really great. Our theme is FAITH, HOPE and LOVE with the theme verse of 1 John 4:19 "We love because he first loved us". We have spent a good amount of time at the children's home and will be there a lot our time here.

We have had some time to explore, ride in a Tuk Tuk, and we even bought our own bikes and locks for $38. My handle bars have already come loose and my rear tire is almost flat so it will be a good idea to have a bit a maintenance done with it. If you understood the traffic here, you may be afraid for our lives. But the only way I can describe it is a beautiful chaos. There is only one or 2 main intersections that have a light (the rest is each man for himself)and there is 30 seconds for adjacent traffic to go in any direction it seems. The beautiful part is that everyone really is aware and yields to everyone else... but it's crazy; people honk, ring bells, squeak horns and drive wherever, whenever. No tickets for j-walking here people.

Sunday morning we had a service at Common Grounds, PCL's coffee house with some of the Khmer staff and PCL staff and Corey gave the devotional and Sunday night we were back at the children's home for a youth service. The students led the service and Thorston (our German friend and his wife Doreen are here for 4 months) preached.

Monday morning 13 of us: Khmer, Americans, & Germans left for a 1.5 hour bus ride to a remote village called Conpong Cheong (something like that) to distribute water filters and explain the importance of clean water. PCL has built a small health facility there. These water filters should provide each family water for a year and we probably handed out over 100. It was a shock to observe the lifestyle in the remote villages. This really was the first time that I have ever been outside of a city, in the middle of nowhere seeing people live in rickety homes and huts, with a chief over their community, and doing farm and crop work by hand. Almost all the homes are built up for monsoon season. But most of the open land we saw will be water in about a month or so. I will have to elaborate on all of this more! I grew up on a farm, and it's really crazy to see farming still done like it was probably thousands of years ago! I mean, I know it is real, but this became real to me being able to see it in person.

We had VBS planned for this week but the road to Takam is being worked on so we cannot travel there. So, we decided to renovate the youth service room at the children's home so they can really have a new environment for their youth services. I think that this is a really huge task, but it will be an asset for the children's home and the local youth. There were probably about 40 students there on Sunday night. Today we scrubbed and bleached the walls and hopefully tomorrow we can begin priming and painting.

A few of our interns are also teaching English with PCL and a few of us will be working with some of the kids at the children's home one-on-one. I will be doing one-on-one tutoring because I am not confident teaching a class without curriculum. But, that is something that I should work on. Also, Matt - the director at the children's home has asked us to spend the evening there helping the students with their English and homework, leading devotions as well as putting the kids to bed. Matt is really excited that the 4 of us girls can be there because he is not able to "mother" the girls at the children's home... so we have the opportunity to take on that role. We will be tucking them in and praying with them at night and reminding them to brush their teeth. Good mothering skills.

Well, we are about to head to the children's home now. Oh, there's so many details I've missed. I was reminded today that God really knows what we need and does not focus on what we want. I believe that this experience is going to be way beyond what I imagined. I will be honest. I came here with a hardened heart. I felt closed off toward the people, the ministry, the opportunity... because this was not the place I personally wanted to be. I felt like it wasn't going to equip me the best way for the urban ministry that I am passionate about. But honestly, in just a week God has changed my heart - first I had to accept the fact that I closed myself off - and God is helping me to grasp that His plans far beyond I could ever imagine. I am grateful for His goodness and mercy - even in the times that I am unwilling to accept and furthermore, so undeserving.

Thank you all for your prayers.
I am so much in the process of being changed in so many ways.

Thank you skype - for you have made this easier for me and my man!! Miss you JM!