"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."     Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2 will be what I will focus on, I'll fail at it more than once but He'll keep showing me what I saw during my time in Cambodia.  I saw brokenness in a different way, but I also saw what looked broken on the outside, whole on the inside.  I saw Jesus living through his children.  I saw Emily, Lacey, Alex, Carol, Tracy, Elizabeth, Joe, and Evan be His hands and feet to everyone they met and to me ;)  We felt the prayers of his people (YOU).  

I'll do this Alex style and give you a brief run down of what our last 3 days in Cambodia looked like:

Saturday:  the 5 hour van ride to Siem Reap was not something were looking forward to but because our team got along so well, the ride was filled with sharing stories from the week, ideas to raise money for the orphanage, watching our slide show from the week in pictures on Carol's lap top, and of course a little entertainment from Joe Mckown aka "Cambodia Joe".  We came to our first rest stop along the way where we were mobbed by children selling pineapple, jewelry, and fried spiders.  This was one of my least favorite memories, children working instead of playing.  Joe, Alex, and Evan had a craving for some fried tarantula, one word... sick.  This was also an opportunity to use the public restrooms, personally I chose not to drink any water on this voyage so I would not have to use the squatty potty.  For those of you who are not familiar with the squatty potty, you squat (duh) and it's BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper).  Besides we didn't want to waste anymore time when there were elephant rides to be had, monkeys to mingle with, and ancient temples to explore!  

Finally after arriving at Angkor Wat, we stood at the tree plat form and waited patiently for our elephant to pick us up.  We rode 2 by 2 up a mountain, this was simply amazing.  The elephant driver (?) guided the huge animal by gently pushing on the back of the elephants ears with his bare feet as he sat on her head, he also played us a beautiful song using a leaf between his lips.  When we got to the top of the mountain we took turns taking a photo with our elephants, when it was Elizabeth's turn our elephant sneezed all over her!  Poor Elizabeth, the mosquitos loved her and even the caterpillars found a way to sting her.  She was a trooper though.  We watched the sunset on top of an ancient temple built in the early 13th century, made friends with a couple of monks, and took tons of pictures.  As I took in all I was seeing I remembered the scripture I read that morning:  Acts 17:24-28  After our elephant ride we headed to the night market for some souvenirs  and a $2 foot/leg massage... this was worth way more than $2!!!  What a great way to end a great day.

Sunday:  we attended church, this would be our second Cambodian church experience.  I didn't gather much of what the sermon was about due to the language barrier but something big happens in your heart when you experience worshipping through watching people who live day to day so differently.  The fact that you are both worshipping the One True God is a sermon in itself.  That afternoon we were able to find a somewhat American brunch (at this point we were all ready for some "regular" food).  Lots more exploring to do before heading to the airport.  We encountered some monkeys along our way through Angkor Wat, they kind of just acted like they were one of us ;)  One last Cambodian dinner and of course we couldn't end the night without a last minute stop at the night market...  I needed a new Cambodian tea set anyways!

I am filled up and broken down at the same time from my experience in Cambodia, but in a good and useful way.  Everyone on our team will take what they experienced and use it to bring Heaven to earth.  

Good night ;)

I'm now sitting in my apartment in Atlanta and am wondering if anyone will actually check this blog now that we're back home. I would have done this sooner, but we had difficulty with internet connectivity at the hotel on Wednesday and Thursday and I was just too wiped out on Friday to even try and put together a coherent message. My guess is that this may go unread, but I still wanted to go ahead and share a few details about the last few days we spent with the kids.

My last post was on Tuesday night and I mentioned that we were heading to the beach the next morning. The bus first picked up the kids at the orphanage and then pulled up to our hotel at 7am. We were immediately told that many of the kids had been awake since 2am because they were so exicted about the visit to the beach! The drive took over 4 hours and even though many of the children got sick along the way due to being unaccustomed with riding in any type of automobile (and we did have them take motion sickness medicine to try and prevent this), we never heard a single complaint come from any child. These kids were so well behaved the entire ride and the only real "noise" they made was when they would file up one-by-one to the microphone (yes, the bus came equipped with a microphone) and sing their favorite praise song or recite a bible verse. And watching them do this was such a wonderful treat for all of us.
Despite the overall calmness of all the children, the ride for me was actually filled with quite a bit of anxiety because I awaiting word on whether an extremely important event would be able to be performed when we arrived at the beach. About an hour outside of our destination Samoeun (the pastor's wife) handed me her cell phone and said her husband wanted to speak with me. It was then that Pastor Vek told me that he was in a car behind our bus and that he would be able to perform my baptism.
I had attempted to email Pastor Vek beginning in June to ask if he could baptize me when our team was on the trip, but we had multiple issues with exchanging messages and I never received a response from him about this request. He and I were able to speak briefly when we arrived, but even then it seemed as though the baptism might not happen due to the Pastor needing to be at a conference during our stay. However, I received word on Tuesday night through Sarith (whom I previously mentioned in an earlier post) that the baptizm would most likely be held, but it still wasn't 100% guaranteed. So it truly wasn't until that final hour before reaching the beach that I could finally rest easy.
I'll never have the words to describe how moving this baptism was for me. I had played out in mind how I thought it might go, but what I experienced was infinitely more than I ever could have expected. Not only was it performed in front of all of our children (which was one of things I was truly wishing would occur), but there were also two additional mission teams from our church who were serving at the two other orphanages run by New Life Ministries and they were at the beach as well - and these teams had to drive 8 to 10 hours. So everyone participating as a member of this mission was there to witness the ceremony...and even more amazing was the fact that this was the first time that all of the children had ever been together in one place. One of the teams had received word ahead of time about my baptism and this lead to one of their members saying that she wanted to be baptized as well. So I was able to share this great occasion with Candace.
Pastor Vek was the first to enter the water and watching him walk out into the ocean (the Gulf of Siam) was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever witnessed. Pastor Vek, Samoeun and their infant son all survived the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge and their story is an incredible testimony to God's power and goodness. (Their story is detailed in a book called 'Ordeal in Cambodia' and although it has long been out of print, used copies can be found on Amazon. The book is a quick read and it provides first-hand insight into a terrifying time period of Cambodia's history from a family that most likely should have been targeted for execution from the moment the Khmer Rouge seized power.) Being baptized as an adult is an event that I will, of course, always remember and I knew that asking Pastor Vek to perform the ceremony for me was going to make it even more special. After watching Candace get baptized, I then walked out to Pastor Vek as all the children and adults stood on the beach singing...and my baptism was then completed. The walk back to the beach seemed surreal and I felt very fortunate to have my wonderful friend and trip co-leader Carol waiting (with video recorder in hand!) to be the first person to hug me as I walked back onto the beach.
The remainder of our time at the beach was as wonderful as we expected to be. Nearly all of the children played in the water the entire time we were there and it was pure joy to be able to spend this time with them.
When we arrived at the orphanage the next morning, I was greeted by yet another unexpected and amazingly moving moment. My hand was immediately taken by Srey Nath (the same girl who had painted my nails on Sunday) and she lead me back to the clothes line where numerous sets of clothes were hung to dry. Included among those clothes were my bathing suit, shirt and towel which I had accidentally left on the bus the night before. She had hand-washed them for me and wanted to let me know that they were ready for me to take back when we left for the day. Talk about a humbling experience.
The big event for us during the day on Thursday was our Field Day where the children are divided into teams and participate in events such as the dizzy bat race, the 3-legged race and a water balloon toss. This "competition" was a huge success for us the previous year and proved to be so again this year. These children take such delight in even the simplest games and it is always a delight to watch them encourage one as they play.
Our lesson for the day was the story of David and Goliath and the children were all clearly familiar with this story because each and every one of them answered "David" when asked whether a the enormous giant or little boy would win the battle. This was my favorite Bible story when I was a child and even though this was not new to them, I was still very moved to have an opportunity to share it with these beautiful children.
When we were preparing to get into the van and leave for the day, Kim, one of the translators who had been working with our team, asked me if I wanted to ride back to the hotel on his moped. Riding through the city in the van or via tuk-tuk is always incredible, but there is no better way to experience Phnom Penh than by riding on a moped...so obviously I said yes. As we were making our way back, he then asked me if I wanted to join him for an evening English class that he taught several nights a week to school children. Again, no hesitation on my part to say yes to this. He had originally asked me if I wanted to help instruct and I told him I would be happy to do whatever he wanted. I didn't actually end up teaching, but instead was given the opportunity to stand in front of the class of about 20 students (age 7-14) and tell them about myself, my purpose for being in Cambodia and also to share with them a little about my faith. The lesson itself was very brief, but I couldn't help but smile as Kim taught the children about standard ways Americans greet one another and had them repeat each greeting after him. Don't think I'll ever forget hearing a group of young Cambodian children utter the phrase "Are you cool?"
After the lesson, Kim then took me through an area of town called 'The Hill.' As we neared the area, it was easy to see this was the poorest part of the city and what appeared to be a hill running several miles through this area was in actuality miles of trash. This was easily the most downtrodden sight I have ever seen in my life. Living conditions here were like nothing I could have ever imagined and my heart broke as I witnessed children playing on the hill or picking through it for food. I immediately pictured the beautiful children at the orphanage living here and thanked God that they were all being provided with a safe place to live and caring adults to look after their well-being.

I apologize that my end to this blog is going to be so sudden. I was hoping to maybe give a little more detail about our last day with the kids and also talk briefly about our visit to the ancient temples in the city of Siem Reap, but I have hit a wall and know that I need to get some sleep in preparation for rejoining life in the ATL tomorrow morning.

Once again, thank you to everyone who followed our blog and prayed for our team during our mission to Cambodia. This was an incredible experience that none of us will ever forget and we are fortunate that God blessed us with health and safe travels during our time away.

I will close by asking that you continue to pray for the health and spiritual growth of the children at all the New Life Ministries orphanages. And please pray as well as for Pastor Vek, Samoeun and all the other leaders of that ministry as they attempt to spread the word of Jesus Christ among their nation.

God Bless,
Alex

what an amazing day. we have bathed the past 10 days in prayer, and God has met every need. he even heard evan's prayer this morning (evan is 10) when we were ready to go to the orphanage for our last day and the van would not start. we knew we needed to pray, and because evan is always so willing to say a blessing for us he went ahead and simply told God we needed our van to start. "in Jesus name i pray, amen", he said... and the van started ;) we all cheered, and cried. it was one of the greatest moments today. God used something so simple to get us trusting in Him for the day. feeling so defeated knowing we had to say goodbye to 35 of the sweetest faces, He showed us evan's faith in Him and we were able to praise Him for it before we started our last day here. this morning during our devotion we encouraged each other through reading God's word and we were reminded all the ways God provides, even in our desperate needs to start a van so we could go to the orphanage. He will continue to provide for these children after we leave them, and our prayer is that the burden we have for them will never go away. we pray this burden spills over to everyone around us, and they will be taken care of, and visited.

i have never been given so many gifts! we brought things for the kids to make themselves bracelets, and necklaces but they insisted on putting them on our necks and wrists. they made us cards and pictures all day. one of my cards says "i love you the strongest". God is so good and he shows us His love through children. i will leave here with the memory of little hands reaching for mine, hearing their voices sing in their beautiful language, and the laughter from the one's who would not even look you in the eye the first day. i also have this team who has supported one another in huge ways.

we make our way to siem reap tomorrow to ride some elephants, what a great way to end such a life changing trip. may God be glorified through everything we do.

It's currently 11pm and we have an early morning tomorrow. We're leaving at 6am to take the kids on a 5 hour bus ride to the beach and I'm thinking we won't get back until close to 9pm. Since I should probably be sleeping by now, I'm going to try and keep this a little shorter than my last entry.
As I think everyone might expect, we had another amazing day with the kids. Highlights from today:
-An epic soccer game with the older boys that ended in a 3-3 tie. We were not intentionally trying to end without declaring a winner, but decided that we'd best stop the game after an errant kick sailed high over the fence and broke a piece of protective shielding on driver's side window of the church's relatively new van.
-A sock-puppet show detailing Jesus walking on water that was masterfully narrated by Lacey and puppetted to perfection by Heidi, Elizabeth and Evan. The show was so well done that we are going to have an encore performance on Thursday so it can be forever captured on video. I'm sure this will be a YouTube favorite.
-The children painting wooden crosses as one of the arts and crafts projects for the day. It is simply a gift from God to watch these kids become so enthralled in simple art projects. And it's even more inspiring when you realize that you are watching a child paint a cross in a country that is only about 4% Christian...and knowing that these young hearts understand Jesus's love for them.
-Lacey attempting to throw away a small painting that she was using as an example for another art project and one of the girls (Srey Mom - and for those of you on the trip last year, this is a new child sharing the same as one of the other girls) insisting that she be allowed to keep it. Lacey then painted the words I Love You on the canvas and received an incredibly tight neck hug. And Srey Mom has a very tragic story about how she ended up in the orphanage and has been quite shy these past couple days, so it is a huge blessing to see her opening up.
-Us asking the children to draw a picture of someone they trust and having sweet Polin draw a picture of Elizabeth.
-The kids running around with my camera for a good part of the afternoon taking pictures of one another. They absolutely love it when you take their picture and then show it to them, so watching them be able to take the pics themselves and see their reactions was so priceless. (And I haven't actually looked through my camera yet, so I'll have a wonderful surprise waiting for me when I finally go through my pics.)

I'm sure each of the team members would have numerous details to add about their day as well and I just wish I could capture each and every detail to share with you.

When we returned for the evening, Joe and I were treated to ride around Phnom Penh on Sarith's scooter - Sarith is a great friend to all of us and is a member of the New Life Church (he was also with us last year). We had driven around the city before via tuk-tuk (I guess best described as an open air taxi with a roof), but experiencing it on just a scooter was something that I will never be able to explain. Every second of our ride was a picture-in-waiting and even though I had my camera with me, I didn't take it out because I was too overwhelmed by everything I was seeing and simply wanted to soak it all in. Sarith took Joe and I to one of his favorite road side restaurants where we were treated to a meal of frog and duck eggs with a cold mug of sugar cane juice. Ánd as my good buddy Joe always reminds me, 'Hey man,when you're in Cambodia you have to try new things.' And he's 100% right about that. Couldn't think of a better time to have tried all these foods than on this night.

Okay, I think I need to call it night - and I guess I lied when I said I was going to try to keep this brief. We'll do our best to try and post something tomorrow, but after a long day at the beach and 10 hours round-trip on the bus, might be lacking in blog motivation. I will tell you that we are hoping to meet up with the two other mission teams that are currently serving at orphanages in other areas of Cambodia. If we do meet, this will be the first time that all of the children will be together.

Thank you again for your continued love and support for our mission and for these beautiful children.

God Bless,
Alex

i'll be honest i did not read all of alex's blog, i'm just too hot. you just sweat all the time here. i'm sure he did an amazing job capturing our day for you, i'll give it my best but you really need to come experience this for yourself...

yesterday was awesome, meeting the children at the orphanage for my first time. they were so grateful that we came to them. i tried my best to swallow the huge lump in my throat, the sight of them is beyond emotional. they are beautiful. after i saw them tearing up i couldn't hold it in, it was a really sweet time. they have already given to us more than we could ever give to them. i'll tell you about today since i'm sure alex covered most of yesterday ;)

our team is trying to keep morning devotional as a priority before we leave this place every morning. after that, in the van we went! the ride to the orphanage is something new everyday. it's a thrill just driving with all the traffic here, NO stops signs, lights, OR rules... i love it. i will also not be complaining the next time someone fails to use their turn signal on 285 ;) as we pulled into the orphanage the kids come running out, smiling. we started the day with some games, then some crafts, a story about jonah, then it was time for lunch. this time before lunch moved me to tears... again. i have never seen more patient, well behaved, grateful children. they stood in line in a special order and after removing their shoes (which they rarely wear) they step up onto their eating area. it goes girl, boy, girl, boy... rice and a vegetable go into their bowl, water in their tin cup and then they take their usual seat, in silence. they wait until everyone has their food and then they fold their hands and sing a sincere prayer thanking God for their food. i was humbled.

after lunch we spent some more time painting, listening to music, playing ball, swinging. i cannot remember the last time i played this hard. every moment of this trip has been spent laughing, crying, consoling, praying, singing, and lets not forget experiencing new smells ;) my favorite part of today was when i saw one of the boys sitting with his Bible opened and wile every other kid played around him, he sat and read out loud to himself for at least 30 minutes. no one asked him to do this, he was craving God's word and took care of it right there in the middle of the chaos. i will try to upload this photo with some others as long as the internet service here will allow me.

thanks for taking the time to read this, i see a monsoon in my future... should be refreshing.

"He called a little child and had him stand among them. ³And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.⁵"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."

matthew 18:2-5

Hey everyone. After causing a family member to strain a calf muscle with an attempted Skype call, I've decided that I need to relieve Heidi of blog duties for tonight because I don't want her causing serious injury to any more of our faithful blog followers. (You all can thank me later.)

So now it's up to me to try to catch you up on what has been an amazing two days for our team. The most important detail to share (and one that I will come back and revisit in more detail in a little while) is that this morning we had our first opportunity to experience the true purpose behind our mission - spending time with the children of the New Life Ministries orphanage in Phnom Penh. Having been on this trip last year, I knew it was going to be overwhelming to see these wonderful kids again, but the love and affection they showed to our team was more than I ever could have expected. Although our visit today was brief, the impact of those two hours was monumental.

So before going into more detail about our orphanage visit, I'm going to try and share some of the details about our last two days.
Our Saturday morning started with a very emotional visit to Choeung Ek. I won't go into a history lesson on what the country of Cambodia suffered through during the late 1970s, but the grounds we were walking are better known by the name 'The Killing Fields' and this was a site where over 17,000 innocent victims were brutally executed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. The grounds today appear to be nothing more than a quiet area with dirt paths that weave through a beautiful section of land just outside the city of Phnom Pehn. But as you walk the paths, you pass by countless large trenches that served as mass graves. And two large trees in the area have signs recounting the nicknames by which they are better known - The Killing Tree and The Magic Tree. And even though the word 'magic' might seem like it would possibly denote something positive, nothing could have been further from the truth. We knew going into our visit that this was not going to be a uplifting experience, but I hope that the rest of the team would agree when I say that it gave us a valuable insight into Cambodian history and is a visit that will remain in our memories forever.
Saturday evening we were treated to a sunset boat ride on the Mekong River. Our ride lasted for several hours and I would venture to say that the highlight of the ride was not watching the sunset or rejoicing that the boat didn't actually tip over at any point during our journey, but was the brief portion of the trip that took us by one of the many small pockets of dwellings that are located on the river. These 'houses' are a far cry from the lakefront properties that many of us are familiar with and were another humbling example of level of poverty that surrounds us.

We began this morning by attending service at the New Life Church in Phnom Pehn. We attended this same church last year and at that time we were given a tour of the new facility that was currently under construction. Although the entire building is not yet complete, construction on the actual church was done about a month ago and we were guests for just the third service that was being held in this beautiful new facility.
After service, it was time for us to make our initial visit to the orphanage. As we pulled onto the small dirt road that leads to the orphange, we were greeted by a sight that absolutely made my heart go into my throat. Instead of waiting for us inside the gates, the children had lined up along the final short stretch of road leading the orphange and were waiting to greet us. Immediately after the van stopped and we opened the doors, the children swarmed us and I knew that our mission was truly beginning. We made our way into one of the small classrooms on the grounds where we did a brief introduction of the team - and then the children did something that immediately made nearly all of us break into tears. On our final day at the orphanage last year, we presented the children with a banner that featured the handprints of each member of our team along with a very brief personal message. (In addition to myself, there are two other members of our team who were here last year - Carol and Lacey.) So as we're standing in front of the children this morning, several of the older boys who were seated in the very back of the room stood up..and they were holding the banner above their heads. I think it goes without saying that we were stunned to see that this banner was not only still in tact, but also that these children so clearly remembered our team. Just an amazing testimony to how God's love impacts us all.
After composing ourselves, we spent a couple hours playing with kids - various games like basketball and soccer and also 'manicures' for many of the girls. (And, yes, the girls did decide that us boys needed them as well. So I'm currently blogging with bluish glitter polish on my nails that also features little purple crosses on my right hand fingers and A-L-E-X spelled out on four finger on my left hand. Who was I to deny beautiful little Srey Nath her fun?)

So there's the recap of our last 48 hours. We are all anxious to begin spending full days with these children and can only imagine the amazing things that God has in store for us over this next week.

Again, your prayers for our team are appreciated and please be sure to also pray for the health and well-being of these wonderful children.

Thanks to everyone who is taking the time to follow our blog. We truly appreciate your love and support.

God Bless,
Alex

Hey everyone we made it to Cambodia. We will update soon but if I type much now it won't make sense (delerious). We had smooth traveling. It's late here so couldn't see much. Going to the Killing Fields tomorrow, doing some sight seeing before we start the week with the kids. Thanks for your prayers! Good night, good morning...... I have no idea ;)

Almost time to go!

Hey everyone, I'm Heidi and I am honored to be a part of this amazing team traveling to Phnom Phen, Cambodia in just 3 days!!  Thank you to everyone who has joined our blog already.  We hope to update as much as possible, and hopefully post some amazing pictures.  Please join us in prayer for the children we are going to serve.  Pray for their needs to be met and also for our safety as we travel.  

Thanks again!!