Thank You, Supporters!

Thank you all for praying and financially supporting our trip to Cambodia!

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He Might Send You

I will be posting most of my personal reflections about my trip to Cambodia on my other blog, but will copy the links here so that you don't miss anything. Here is the first.

Just See Jesus

So, What Did You Do?

That, dear Reader, Friends, and Family, is a very good question. My younger sister and I just returned from the Kingdom of Cambodia in Southeast Asia, and everyone we encounter wants to know what we did. Well, to be quite frank, we did not really do anything, but the Lord was at work and has accomplished much over the past seven weeks. Over the next few weeks I'd like to share some of what He did, in order that He might receive all the glory due His name, but for now this is simply an overview of what went on during our nearly two months away.

After two weeks of intensive training at The Lord's Boot Camp in Merritt Island, Florida we finally arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. From there we took a seven hour bus ride north to Siem Reap, the tourism capital of Cambodia where the famous 11th century Buddhist temple Angkor Wat is located. We entered as ambassadors of Christ, and our first goal was to function as a conduit of His love and truth to the beautiful Khmer (Cambodian) people.

Each morning we set off down Siem Reap's main boulevard on bicycles and made our way toward the tourist centers of the city where countless locals make their living by selling souvenirs. After parking our bicycles and splitting into pairs we made our way from shop to shop. We had no intention to make purchases, but every determination to make friends, build relationships, and seek opportunities to talk of spiritual things. The Lord graciously granted boldness, helped us work through language barriers, and softened people's hearts to His message.

After returning to the local Teen Missions base for lunch we would head out again, this time to the outlying villages. At times our mode of transportation was again bicycles, but more often we enjoyed wearing down our tailbones as we rode the base truck over roads that looked (and felt) like they had been bombed and then flooded. In the villages we helped the Teen Missions in Cambodia Bible School students conduct Good News Clubs. After a short musical presentation we taught phonics, played games, presented the Gospel using the wordless book, and sat with the children as they heard a Bible story in their own language. The children look forward to the Good News Clubs each week, and the local Bible students faithfully conduct 7-10 of them in different villages each week.

For two to three weeks this was our almost daily schedule, then, toward the end of our project time we uprooted from Siem Reap to travel nine hours (in the base truck) to Kampong Chhnang, a province in the south of Cambodia. There, at the second Teen Missions base in the country we helped prepare the property for the local boot camp. Just as boot camp is held in Florida, boot camps are also held in dozens of countries overseas as a way of reaching young people with the Gospel, discipling them in the Word, and sending them out among their own people to make more disciples. We cleared brush, trees, and stumps from the obstacle course path, helped a local family plant their rice fields (paddies), and began planting a field of coconut trees.

At the close of a week there, it was time to head back to Florida by way of Hong Kong where we enjoyed real beds, hot showers, and amazing food. So, there you have it, the answer to your question. Not very exciting, I realize. What is exciting is not what we did physically and practically over the last two months, but what the Lord did in the lives of the Cambodian people and in our own hearts. In my subsequent posts I will be focusing on those things with stories, Scripture, and more pictures.

Meeting Again

Greetings in Jesus' Name!

I just wanted to post a short note to let you all know that I and my younger sister are safely back from Cambodia. God worked mightily in and through us, and though we are still processing everything we learned it is good to be back with our family. In a few days I hope to have gotten my thoughts in order and will begin posting anecdotes, lessons learned, and some pictures here. Thank you for your abundant prayers, they were certainly felt over the past eight weeks. Please continue to pray for us both as we readjust to American culture and food, and seek to apply in this setting all that the Lord has taught us.

Farewell

"Don't be dismayed by goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends." -Richard Bach

Off to Boot Camp and Cambodia I go! Thank you all for your prayers; rest on Him until we meet again. 

Prayer Update #8

Greetings Prayer Partners!

Well, the time has finally come - the time when last minute items are gathered and packed, boarding passes are printed, and goodbyes are said. Leah and I (Elsie Anne) leave for Teen Missions training in Florida in just two days (June 7th)! God has so graciously heard and answered all of our prayers these past months and weeks, and our final finance update is that all of our expenses have been paid in full! Our God is so good, and we praise the One who clothes the lilies of the field that we had faith to believe and trust that He would clothe us too. 

We are planning to enlist Mom to continue sending out periodic prayer updates while we are gone and she will probably use information from our letters and the Teen Missions website to put those together. So, just be aware that the next prayer update you receive will come from a different email address. Until then, here are some things you can keep in your faithful prayers.

• The physical health of our team during the rigors of boot camp (especially that no one would get blisters).
• The unity of our team as a picture of the body of Christ on earth.
• For our leaders: strength, patience, and sanity; that each team member would be a means of daily blessing in the little things.
• For Leah and I (Elsie Anne): the opportunity to display Christ-honouring affection and care for each other in our unique role as siblings on the team.
• For me (Elsie Anne): an extra measure of grace, patience, peace-keeping, and Jesus' love as the oldest team member.
• That we would all experience growth in Christlike maturity over the course of the summer.

Now, before we depart, I end with this for us all to meditate on. May we have the mind and attitude of Christ, so that many who are now walking in darkness might see His light in us and bow down to worship Him.

"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing fromselfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesusevery knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." -Philippians 2:1-11