Hearts Full of Joy

This morning was a morning we knew was coming yet one for which we could not fully prepare.  We had a few priceless hours at the orphanage with the beautiful children that have taken up residence in our hearts. It was a time of laughter as we took silly pictures and tried to see which group of kids could get the best jumping picture. Such great memories were captured. So much joy on their faces in each picture taken.

After many pictures, the team was asked to go inside to the main classroom building and sit down. Jon took time to speak for the team and express to the kids how much our team appreciated our time with them. He took the opportunity to remind them that they are loved by so many even when they can't see us every day. Then one of the older boys told us that he had written a song for us. Pisey had taken the time to write a song in English to "thank us for our love." He said, "My heart is full of joy." Ratha, the dad of the orphanage, helped him put it to music. It was absolutely beautiful!  He is very talented. He is so thankful for our love and time that we have spent in Cambodia and yet all of the adults want to thank the kids for loving us too. I absolutely love how God has brought people together from complete opposite sides of the world to share the love that He has placed inside each of us. His plan to connect our lives is far greater than anything I could have ever asked or imagined just as He promises in Ephesians 3:20.

A few more older girls, and some of the other kids, took a turn expressing their gratitude to all of us for coming to Cambodia and loving them. They said they had been looking forward to the week with us and were grateful for our time teaching them as well as going to the circus, Bamboo Train, and the BBQ. It meant the world to our team to hear that we had given them so many joyous moments over the past week as well as taken time to share God's truth about living a life of confidence through Christ. Thank you to all of our supporters at home for making this possible! All of the children sang an additional song about their love for us, and it was beautiful. I always say that I am sure Heaven is going to sound like the voices of 40 Cambodian children giving thanks to God. They sang their hearts out, and I don't think any of the team members had dry eyes.

When the time came to say goodbye, all of the kids lined up along the sides of our path from the building to the bus. I led the way to the bus and gave a hug to each and every one of the kids while my team members followed doing the same. It was a quick moment with each of them to personally say, "I love you and God bless you!" Oh they are so dear to me! After doing this for 5 years, it still isn't easy. I would always take one more day or one more hug. I left with a heart full of joy myself. We were able to fill their hearts with love and truth. We were able to share the love of Christ with people in the community. We were able to renew our own spirits and experience God's love in new ways. There are no regrets for me. For that, I am truly grateful!

After we left the orphanage and said, "See you chop chop," we headed to Bantey Meanchey to pick up another GlobalX team that is in Cambodia right now. Both teams shared a bus ride to Siem Reap for some time together as a team before heading back to Atlanta. This is such a valuable time to be able to start reflecting on all that we have seen and done on this trip. God has shown each of us something new about who He is and how much He loves us. What a gift!

We had a quick bite to eat and headed to Tonle Sap. This is a floating village that leads to a large lake. It is literally a full village on a lake equipped with a school, a church, a floating market, etc...  Homes are on the water. We must have gotten on our boat around the time that school let out, so we saw small boats full of children. A little bit of a different kind of school "bus!" This is my fourth time visiting this village, and I am always fascinated by how life works all on water. There is extreme poverty and yet this is home to so many.  Each time I visit, I am reminded just how incredibly blessed our kids are in Battambang. They have the food they need and do not need to work each day missing the opportunity to go to school. They have shelter over their heads. They have clean water to drink and people who love them. Most importantly, they have a chance to hear about the love of Jesus daily. Their hearts are full of love and joy. The truth is, knowing their hearts are full makes mine full too!

We have one more day to see some sites around Siem Reap and then head home. This has been a trip filled with blessings over our team's health, energy, and unity. Please pray for safe travels as we head back to the United States. It has been a full week for sure! The end result... many hearts full of joy. I consider that a success!  May all the praise go back to God!


"My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God." - Colossians 2:2

What a day it has been in Cambodia!

To start out, we did most of the craft’s for the week all at the same time this morning with the kids (hair feathers, trinket boxes, and beaded bracelets).  The kids were so excited, and it was incredible to see how creative they are.

While the kids worked on crafts, the team went to the New Life Church, where we prayed over the growth of the church and their outreach to the neighboring community of Battambang.  When we got back to the orphanage, it looked like a nuclear craft bomb had gone off….beads, sticks, and feathers were everywhere, but the kids also had their finished crafts eagerly displayed in their hair, on their arms, and had beautiful boxes of all shapes and sizes on the floor, glue still drying.

After the crafts, we finished up our lesson plan encouraging the kids to live confidently, knowing that “If God is for us, then who could be against us?”  The afternoon was an awesome experience of walking around the neighborhood near the New Life Church giving out burlap bags of rice to the people, along with note cards that the kids made as part of the Church’s outreach.  It was awesome to see how the people here were so accepting and appreciative.

Later, back at the orphanage we handed out blankets to all of the kids . The blankets were donated and some handmade by a friend in Atlanta.  The kids went crazy over them!  Even in 80-90 degree heat at night, the kids still get cold here.

Then it started to rain.  Chaos started as the kids (mostly the adults) started attacking each other with ice cold water from the cooler and sprayed water guns.  It was extremely entertaining to watch.

For dinner, we took the kids to eat BBQ.  I have never seen kids get so excited about going to their favorite restaurant and drinking 2-4 cokes/energy drinks a piece.  We all had a blast!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to these amazing kids and head out to pick up the Banteay Meanchey team on our way to Siem Reap.  I can’t believe that it is almost time to go home.  This has been one of the best experiences of my life.  I have fallen in love with these kids, but am happy that they have such a great place to rest their heads at night, in a home with people who love and care deeply about them, the way that God loves all of us.

-Laura Day

From Pancakes to Circus Tricks

These last two days have been nothing less than exceptional, fantastic, awesome, amazing and wonderful.  I truly thought that yesterday’s Bamboo Train was crazy fun….and so was today!  

Today we started our day by making a little breakfast of pancakes, dragon fruit, bananas and apples for the kids.  What seems like a monotonous chore at home was quickly viewed as delightful.  The children were in awe at how the pancakes were made.  Hungry tummies waited patiently to be fed.  And eager Americans couldn’t wait to watch each child take their first bite.  The excitement and joy was a perfect way to start the beginning of a really great day.

After stuffing our faces with nutella pancakes and fruit we went in for singing and dancing.  These kids have some serious energy!  We then continued our study in our prayer journals.  Today we talked about “dealing with harsh words and teasing” as well as “how to treat girls with respect”.    Jon and Mike both gave excellent examples of how to be respectful towards women, whether it be your sister or your wife or any other woman.  

I’ve had the true pleasure of working with the older girls in these lessons each day.  I have come back this year after two years away and seen the obvious growth and maturity of each one.  I have enjoyed speaking to them on a new and different level of faith and how to serve our Lord in deeper and more meaningful ways.  It is exciting to think that this is the future generation of Cambodia.  These young men and women have a lot to offer.  Their life has just begun.

In Sports/Activities, we enjoyed some serious competition today.  (I’m not sure who’s more competitive…the Cambodian kids or our American boys.)  Games like dizzy bat, egg relay, three-legged race, sack race, and a great game of tug of war were enjoyed by all.  

Afterwards we were able to have a tour of the orphanage.  We normally stay in the schoolhouse or the front yard for our activities but today we were given a chance to see a little more into how they live.  While in many ways it breaks my heart to see the conditions that they live it, it also brings me hope.  This orphanage has come so far in only a matter or 5-6 years.  I have hope that in that same amount of time (or less), we will continue to see growth and change on this little campus that inhabits some of the coolest kids I’ve ever met.  

We had lunch at the orphanage.  Home cooked fried chicken, fried mushrooms, rice and fruit.  These Cambodians put some serious love into their meals.  It is heart warming to see how they take care of us when we are the ones who came here to take care of them.

After having a short rest back at our hotel we came back for more fun with the kids.  This time we enjoyed writing letters in Khmer for the children that we will see in Siem Reap .  I practiced my Cambodian writing and I have to say….I’m going to stick with the English alphabet.  

As were about to go, we had one more surprise for the day.  We told the kids to get themselves ready for our return later that night….because we’d be taking them to the circus!!!!  It was so much fun to see the excitement on their faces.

This circus consists of orphaned and underprivileged children who have been taught a talent to keep them off the streets and in a better and safer environment.  It is so great to see what these adorable kids can do because they were given a chance to succeed .  

Our team and these children have been going at full speed this week.  It’s been a lot of fun.  We’ve taken full advantage of our time with these kids.  We know how quickly this week goes by and we have certainly made the most of each day.  It has been reassuring to know that we have friends and family who are at home supporting and praying for us.  Our health has been great, fatigue has been minimal and team unity has been beautiful.  Thank you.  God certainly has us in His grip.  The Cambodians would say, “He has chosen favor on us.”

Yes, He has.

“You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit.” 

Job 10:12

Jen

Getting crazy with singing and dancing!

Carrie and Cupcake  

Phillib made me a heart pancake.  Love her....

Washing dishes after breakfast

Go Kea!!!!

Red Team pulling 'em in.

Night at the Circus

Balancing Act

and for those of you who are familiar with my blogging....jon's computer has auto-check.  i was forced to use capital letters.

Wednesday: Bamboo Train!

Fact: Bamboo Train is awesome!  Imagine a train-ride tour through the peaceful countryside of Cambodia… You look out your cabin window and see a gorgeous mix of green jungle with serene expanses of rice patties, and all sitting underneath a brilliant blue sky…  Now imagine the tracks are so old and warped and the gaps between each rail are so big they had to stop any commercial traffic a long time ago…  and the jungle you see is from the branches, grass, and thorns that are all overgrown over the tracks and cross in front of the tracks …   Oh yeah, and your not in a train cabin, your on a 6’ x 8’ flatbed cart with no side rails that sits 1’ off the ground…

So, imagine your on one of those flatbed shopping carts at home depot but instead of jumping on and riding through the parking lot your screaming down an old train track at 30 mph through the Cambodian jungle, feeling every bump like someone hitting you with an uppercut, getting whipped with branches as you scream by, and being covered with fire ants and bugs you can’t even imagine…   sounds like fun right?  It was awesome!!  The kids had so much fun today on the bamboo train.  

After starting the day with breakfast at the Green Mango (which is a very cool restaurant here in Battambang that helps women who were victims of trafficking to have a different life http://www.greenmangocgi.com/ ) we picked up the kids and spent the morning on the Bamboo Train and they loved it.  Not gonna lie, it was a little painful but a lot of fun and it’s worth it just to see how happy they get. The things we do for the kids we love…

After Bamboo Train we had lunch at the orphanage (awesome!) and got back into our curriculum.  Today’s topic was about Being Friends with Non-Believers.  Cambodia’s a Buddhist country and there are few Christians here which means the majority of people the kids are friends with are going to be non-believers. Laura and Mistye shared some excellent personal stories about today’s topic too.  It’s great to able to reinforce the importance of having friends that are non-believers and letting the kids get to know us better personally too. Great Job!

After curriculum we ran back to take a quick shower only to come right back to the orphanage so the director and his wife could have a date night!  Ratha and Phearom who run the orphanage are two of the greatest people you will ever meet in your life.  Imagine how bad you want a date night after a week with your kids..   now imagine having 40 kids! and only a handful of date nights all year..  So giving them the chance to have a date night was important to us and we’re so glad we could do it. That also just meant more time to play with the kids! 

After that is was dinner at Café Eden, another cool restaurant with a mission similar to Green Mango http://www.cafeedencambodia.com/main/

Praises:  The trip is simply awesome so far, thank you all for the support.  Thanks to our support teams back home!  We got some letters yesterday from some of our closest supporters and it was awesome, we love you all! 

Prayer Requests:  Continued good health and energy. 

Keep doing what your doing, thank you all!

Tomorrow:  Pancake breakfast at the orphanage, (cooked by us), more songs, games, and curriculum, then… the Circus!

Blessings,

The Team

First Day in Battambang

Today was a great day! We were able to spend our first full day at the orphanage. The first order of the day was music and dancing. For those of you who have not been to the orphanage, these kids can sing and dance like nobody’s business. We had so much fun. We then moved into an exercise to allow the kids to get to know us better called “Team Member Bingo.” We had bingo cards with a few facts about each member of our team, and the kids competed to see who would get all of their bingo spaces filled first. I must admit that we each learned a lot about each other as well during this process. For many on the team, this is their first time to the Battambang orphanage, and even though we had been with the kids for a couple of days, there is just something special about seeing them in their environment. Theyjust seem so much more at ease and comfortable.
                                                                                                                               

After getting to know each other better, we broke out our wiffle ball gear and got the kids out on the field for a little baseball. It became apparent pretty quickly that although not many of the kids claimed to be baseball fans, even the little ones would have given Barry Bonds a run for his money out on that field. We had a lot of fun but I’m not sure that baseball is going to overtake soccer for Cambodia’s greatest pastime any time soon. We wrapped up the game and then the team headed out for a quick bite to eat.



Today was also the day that we introduced our Bible study to the kids-It’s Ok to be Different. We created a workbook/journal to give to each of the kids. The journals look similar to small group curriculum and we even had them published into book format leaving lots of room for the kids to be able to journal in them over the next several months. Will Britt did an amazing job introducing the “Big Idea” for the week by sharing stories of others who have been mistreated and ostracized simply because they were different. Once we finished the overview with the help of our translator Preiyo, we divided the kids into small groups to talk about how being a Christian can sometimes mean we must act differently and are treated different-especially in a country that is only 1% Christian. The boys and girls met separately and were divided by age. It was so great to be able to communicate with the kids, and really dig into what’s going on in their lives. They face so many obstacles as Christians in their culture, and we heard some of them describe how they are teased and even hated for their faith in Christ. It was great reminder that these kids need prayer every single day. This evening we held an outreach to the community in the form of a “Businessman’s Dinner”. The Businessman’s Dinner is sponsored by New Life Church, and is conducted in both Phnom Penh and Battambang while our teams are in town. Local business leaders and professionals in the community are invited to attend the event where they hear from a member of our team about what it means to have a balanced faith and work-life, and then have the opportunity to hear the gospel presented. One of our trip leaders, Jon Vaughan, spoke via a translator to 145 attendees about running a business, being a Christian, and how faith and work can intersect for the glory of God. Among the individuals at the dinner, 55 men and women chose to accept Christ, and another 51 said they would like more information. That was truly an awesome experience and we were honored to be a part of God’s work in the community of Battambang.



Please continue to pray for our team as we continue through the week. It is so easy to become overwhelmed, discouraged, and distracted. Pray for protection for our team and for the kids, and ask that God’s Spirit guide our attitudes, actions, and thoughts in everything that we do. Tomorrow we get up bright and early to pick up the kids for a field trip of sorts. We are going to take a ride on the bamboo train, which is an unforgettable experience for many reasons, and look forward to another fun-filled day with the kids.

Mike and Garrett

Badabing Battambang!

It's 2:18am and we've finally settled into our hotel room in Battambang! We were without internet the past couple of days, so here is a recap: Saturday we started the morning visiting New Life Church and seeing the progress of it's construction. It's amazing how much has been built over the last few years; it now has middle school and high school rooms, and the roof is completely finished. This country that has been through so much has beams of light and hope, this church a bright one. All three teams gathered together with Pastor Vek and prayed for the church, the Khmer people, and this country for the love of Jesus to be heard and embraced by all.

After a visit to the church, we went to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21) to attempt to understand what this country went through (and is still going through) as a result of the Khmer Rouge reign in Cambodia during 1975-79. This is my third trip to this school-turned-prison and it struck me a little different this year. This building was built in the 60s as place where kids could go and be safe and learn and better their lives. The communist Khmer Rouge, vehemently opposed to anyone's betterment and education, took over this school and over a period of 4 years tortured and murdered tens of thousands of people. This prison was only a representation of the hundreds of these centers established around Cambodia at that time. As I strolled through the rooms, most of them were left similar to what it was in the 70s: a discarded chalkboard and a torture bed and blood stains in building A. Building B houses rooms upon rooms of "mug shots" of S-21 victims. As I stared as the boards, I noticed that these pictures didn't look historic or old and outdated. They looked like they could have been taken yesterday. And when I got to the board of the child victims, I saw faces so similar to the kids at the orphanage. And all this happened only a little over 30 years ago... I talked with one of the directors of New Life whose parents survived the Khmer Rouge and he said they don't talk about it. Even after three trips to this prison and reading Pastor Vek's book a few times, it's still hard to wrap my mind around what happened here.

In beautiful contrast to our morning, we spent the afternoon at the Phnom Penh orphanage playing with all the kids. No agenda, just hugs, hand holding, volleyball, chatting, reading books and playing silly games. These kids are SO AWESOME and FULL of light and hope. They have a future because of New Life and their sponsors through Bright Point. (Side Note: Sponsor a kid through an organization now if you don't already. It's a life changer for them and you!) The older kids who are now attending university have enough English studies that we could carry on conversations about life and school. One of the students just finishing up his first year at university is studying Civil Engineering but his real dream he said was to be an Engineer for God and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with anyone who wants to hear. He gets it.

Sunday morning in Phnom Penh 7am at New Life Church to hear Pastor Vek preach and our kids from all three orphanages sing a special song. It was incredible - the church was completely packed! The sermon was on the Biblical standard of living and how living according to that standard will make you stand out and look different from your culture. We were all pleasantly surprised since this ties into our theme of the week on being different as a Christian in Cambodia. The kids sang lovely as usually and we all smiled and snapped pictures like proud parents. After church we boarded the bus with our crew and headed to Sihanoukville for a vacation for the kids. It was a bit cloudy but that did not in any way stop those kids from jumping in the water in all their clothes and having an absolute blast! Soccer, swimming, looking for shells, playing guitar, chatting under the shady huts, fresh seafood for dinner - what the perfect beach day should look like. Man, I love these kids.

the bus ride was long and mostly uneventful if you don't count the roof leaking and the 1hour stop we had in the dark trying to figure out what made the loud noise and how to fix it. Honestly though, that was my "high" for the day. All the kids, probably slap happy, were dancing, rapping, singing, running around in this random parking lot with all of the team members. Some of the ones who had been a little reserved when we were at the beach were opening up and being excited we were there. Doesn't take much for them to have fun and be happy :) G'night Carrie