The Summer Wrap Up

Wow. I cannot believe that the month of August is half over! The summer months were very busy with many volunteers here throughout the summer teaching English to the Cambodian staff. ESL ended the last week in July and we had a fun graduation dinner and ceremony to celebrate everyone's participation. Two of those volunteers were my wonderful parents! Mom and Dad came the first two weeks of July to teach here in Phnom Penh. Their visit included my birthday (the big 27!) and we celebrated together at a really cool restaurant in Siem Reap during a weekend trip to visit the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. It was so good to have my Mom and Dad here, but their arrival triggered every emotion possible! I was pretty homesick! I'm doing much better now, but it was rough for awhile.

[Mom and Dad atop one of the temples at sunset.]

As soon as ESL ended, a team from my home church, College Park Church, arrived in Cambodia to lead a staff retreat for the SPY (Community Health) program. It was so great to see familiar faces! (And they only made me a little bit homesick.) I got to get out of the city for a week and join the retreat held on the coast in Sihanoukville. The team did a great job teaching, organizing activities and games, and connecting with the staff. Many of the SPY staff are not believers, so a major focus of the week was to communicate the Gospel clearly and share the message of Christ's love for all people. We showed the Jesus Film, as well as a movie made to show before the Jesus Film that does a great job summarizing the Bible starting from Creation all the way to the life of Jesus. The second movie was also in Khmer and had Cambodian actors and actresses as narrators. Several staff members told us how much they enjoyed the films and that they were able to understand the Bible stories better after seeing what the places and people may have looked like.

[Me and Mom with some of the ESL students at the Kandal office.]

It is now exactly halfway between my arrival in Cambodia and my departure date. It's been an adventure so far and I can only imagine what God has in store for the next 3.5 months!

[That's me on the way to the famous Angkor Wat.]

Here are some ways to pray:

1. Pray that I would be disciplined in spending special time with the Lord each day.

2. That I would hunger and thirst for the Word and prayer.

3. I don't know very many people in Cambodia outside of work. It's easy for me to feel lonely, but I know that God is with me and I want to use this time to really grow in my relationship in Jesus.

4. As I mentioned, the month of July was a tough one for me. I was very homesick and discouraged about pretty much everything. I'm doing better, but could use prayer for my work. That I would have joy for the tasks before me and diligence to work hard and well.

Thank you for praying & for reading! It is a blessing to be here!