Ministry                                            October 2015

It's October already!? I cannot believe that it’s so close to the end of 2015. I have been gone from home for almost 5 months now. Sometimes it feels like forever but I find myself wondering where the time went lately. I consider that as a blessing, time flies when you’re having fun serving The Lord!
I feel as if not much has happened since I have shared last, but I know that's not true. Let's see... I have been on the circuit for the past month and I have continued to learn new things every week. I have been slowly learning how to properly drive on the crazy unlawful roads here. I am growing spiritually and learning more about culture, Khmer language, Khmer food and cooking in general! Lately on the circuit I have been blessed to help the locals in the village make their food. Well correction, Sreymom and Sheanghai do most of the actual helping. I watch and after I feel confident enough to try it out, then I begin to really help! Sometimes I am shy to try and make the food; the Khmer people have a good laugh sometimes and rightly so! Sheanghai and I just started giving each other 2 words to remember a day. We have been doing more visiting on the circuit also. After or before we teach the kids we go to the houses of the families and minister/visit with them. That gives me a chance to practice more of the language too! Cooking in general, wow I will know how to cook when I return! Well, maybe more Asian type foods with an American twist. I started making myself breakfast and lunch for myself and then eat a bit of rice with whatever soup for dinner. The rice is just not cutting it for me; I eat and am hungry an hour later! So lately it’s been oatmeal with bananas and cinnamon or peanut butter and some milk or some type of veggie and meat omelet for breakfast! Lunch is always meat and veggies with some different spices and sometimes soy sauce. Another thing I have enjoyed doing is baking American sweets for the students and staff here. We have done chocolate chip PB brownies, chocolate PB crumble; white chocolate truffles (which really just tastes like frosting) and we did a Chex mix coated in caramel and 2 pounds of chocolate! The people here really enjoy it I think and it's a sweet taste of home for me... the only problem is not eating too much of it. :) Like I posted before, I was blessed to go to Bangkok to help my roommate Siron with here medical appt for a day. We will be returning for her biopsy on the 29th. Please pray for God's guidance healing and protection in that situation. I really am enjoying fellowship with the staff and students here. I have been teaching the computer class to the staff and interns in the evenings and that’s been fun. Just being around everybody and working with them has been great. I am learning to really see the qualities of the people here and God is showing me what gentleness, servanthood and eager hearts look like. The other night I joined the students and staff at the C3 youth group here in Siem Reap. I met the staff that is returning to Australia this week and had a nice visit with the wife about their ministry. Again just hearing about their story and how God brought them here and has blessed them was inspiring and a seed planter for me. They were very kind in hosting us and bought us and some other Christian youth in the area KFC (they have many restaurants here but KFC is the only American fast food) and we watched the Avengers movie! Reed I thought of you, again a taste of home. I am continuing teaching English here on Mondays for an hour and I have gotten some interns interested in learning a bit of Spanish. I now hear the occasional Hola como estas! (My apologies I don’t have a Spanish keyboard to correctly spell that). I also have some students saying howdy, that’s always fun to hear. The intern Amy from the US will be leaving in Dec. and so it was really nice to go on a short run with her Sinoun and Somaly the other night. Another short adventure I had was to Road 60 last week with the interns. Road 60 is like a big fair with food and clothes and such to buy here, but it's every night! (Unless it rains) We went and had fun, bonded a little bit and I convinced one of them to ride an amusement park ride with me. Ha no riding it again for her was not her favorite. I ate some crickets and had some olives with chili, sugar and salt also. We just had Shannon Bob, a staff from FL, arrive her in Siem Reap to see how things are going for a month. Shannon is a blessing to work with; back in FL he did some of the gap year training and actually picked me up from the airport upon my arrival. God's working here through all the little things that I am blessed to be a part of. I occasionally speak in chapel or at church on Sunday night and give a short message, tomorrow I will be doing that. I definitely can say that before coming here I had pretty much no teaching skills but with phonics and English and speaking God is stretching me and working in me to make me the woman of God he wants me to be. In my devotional time I am trying to read through the whole bible and also do a bit of soaking up the message from a devo plan with YouVersion called My Upmost for His Highest. God is on point every single time. I think I understand the devo from the morning before and God throws the perfect next step for me in there. I have really just been learning about total devotion to God, our calling as Christians and what we should look like in that calling. I am sure that sounds pretty broad, but God's fitting it exactly to my daily experience. This again gives me another chance to say how faithful, merciful, forgiving and loving our God is in His discipline. Even though I am here serving in a different country I really do still have trouble giving my absolute all to The Lord. It's a continually learning experience, as Shannon Bob said at boot camp it’s a Christian walk, not a Christian run!" We continue to try and take even just a few steps in the right direction each day and as we choose to seek the Lord in that He guides us. Again I love seeing the eagerness in the children and the people here to learn. The kids are getting closer to me and less and less shy. That sometimes involves a few children hanging off my back a few on my arms and a game! I must say I was really happy to hear the Testimony of an intern here, Sheanghai, who told me about the amazing power of God and how he has worked in her life. I always enjoy hearing what God has done in others. Recently we had a neighbor who was baptized with TMI a few years back, get sick with TB and the staff and another fellow Christian with another organization have been working to feed him take care of him and encourage him as he's in the hospital. He has four kids and the mother is gone so he was worried about them but the interns and staff took it upon themselves to invite them to our base to stay for a while. So they have been here and the youngest has gotten sick and been placed in the hospital with we are not exactly sure what. I have been truly humbled to see the patience and the caring hearts that the people here have shown to the others. It reminds me that the Lord commands us to help the sick and love the children. To end I will just ask for a few prayers. Firstly, the health of our neighbor and his family. Also the people here are continuing to try and find the exact placement for God's calling in their lives and I am as well trying to be doing exactly what he wants for me. So I ask for prayers for guidance and the continued desire to seek the Lord's will in our lives. Please pray for the kids on the circuit and here at the base. For the health of the staff, interns, and myself. The people of Cambodia to have open hearts and minds and that the Christians here would receive opportunities to share. Lastly for the believers here to have open eyes to see the works of God so we can continue to give him the glory! 
I wanted to also just say that God has been showing me how blessed I am to have the people in my life that I do. I am so grateful for my church family, my pastors’ family, my family, my friends and the community of Larned Kansas. I wanted to say thank you to the community and to the people in different parts of the country who have supported me. You have truly made and impact and a difference in my life and my personality and not just with supporting me on this journey but in my everyday life in the US. Thank you so much and God bless you all!