Hello!
So, Im not really sure what's happened these past few days because the days have been running together. Our first week here we worked with a youth camp for a few days. We were working under an organization with a man named Jack. That week we also did alot of touristy things, like toured the killing feilds and the temples. We ate out ALOT.
One night, we ate this really rich food and I woke up sweating. Then i ran to the bathroom and threw up. It was crazy. I never throw up. But I felt better. Then Laura started screaming in her sleep (right after i threw up) and we had to wake her up. The malaria medicine gives everyone crazy weird dreams. Then none of us could go back to sleep because 20 Cambodian cats decided to fight outside out hotel window.
During the second week we changed organizations we worked with. Now we are under Asian Hope. (No more touring, no more eating out, this is starting to feel like a mission trip...) There is a couple that is basically hosting us, Dan and Carolyn. We are staying in a guest house in Pnom Phen (spelling?) in the capital city. It's all 5 girls in one room, all 5 boys in the one next door. We have been doing various things, like VBS's and construction work.
Asian Hope has two homes, one for boys and one for girls. The homes are for boys and girls who do not have parents who can take care of them, and each home has two volenteer guardians. We've gotten to know the boys and girls really well. They do alot with us, and we are all starting to feel like a family. We're also getting close to Dan and Carolyn's family.
It's been neat to see our team fight but then work together for the most part. There is so much conflict. But we are getting to watch members of our team be completely transformed through prayer.
There are alot of orphans here, and there is this place called the dump site that is basically a dump site where families live off of trash. Kevin talked to one little girl who told him that she picked up trash all day, hoping that she could sell it for money for her family. kevin told her that Jesus loved her, and she told him that she loved Jesus too.
The amazing thing about this trip is that we are seeing SO MANY PLACES that have been given Jesus already. There is a woman named Clara and she has a ministry with the dump site. There are so many different ministries and the people here are getting saved left and right. It's so encouraging. We've been to coffee shop ministries that employ abused women in the name of Jesus, boutiques that give women in poverty jobs as seamstresses, and even today we worked with a place that picks up kids from the dump site every day and bathes them, feeds them, schools them and plays with them, as well as tells them about Jesus.
Overall so far, this trip is nothing but encouragement of how big God is.
I have never felt like God was so real as the time when one girl from the youth camp explained in great detail the comfort that she recieved from God. She described feelings that i have also felt from God, and she does not come from a family of believers nor was she very close to any believers. When i listened to her speak about God, I knew that God was so real, and so alive across the world in the same way He is in Louisiana. Which makes me want to cry.
As for prayers, please pray for more mission opportunities for our team, for times we can tell people about Christ, and for people who need to feel love to be placed in front of us or for us to be led to them. God is doing alot here, and I can't believe its half way over.
Also, Kevin ate a duck embryo the other night and I ate a cricket. Gross.
Oh, and I've been getting up at 5:30 every other morning to go running with Carolyn. It's been alot of fun, and very unlike me, but its been a good opportunity to get to know her and to see Cambodia in the mornings before the town is awake. And the exercise feels great.
I hope everyone is doing well, thanks for reading and most of all thanks for praying. I love you
Hailey
Monday, June 7, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Week ONE
Hello American friends and family!
Ok I'm in Cambodia right now. It is very hot and humid here. We are entering the rainy season and it has rained almost every day that we've been here. It doesn't rain all day, just for a short time, and then the sun tries to shine behind overcast clouds. We eat fish, rice, more rice, squid, dragon fruit, fish with its head still on, fish with teeth still in, more rice, and some types of meat with various bones that I cannot identify. The people here are beautiful.
So for this first week, we have been working with a youth camp. The children we have been working with are anywhere from 12-25 I think. They have had us staying on a sort of camp site--more like a group of beautiful buildings with constantly opened windows and beautiful tile floors. Our rooms are like bare american hotel rooms with tiny air conditioners that give us just enough cool air to sleep without sweating. We can't flush the toilet paper but we had toilets and they only clogged twice. Anyway, we stayed at this camp/building site that overlooked the Indian Ocean. Every morning we woke up at 5:30 to pray with out team. At 6 we exercised (Asians value exercise and the well being of the body). Exercise consisted of us doing silly arobics moves and playing games that you played in P.E. in elementary school. 7 was breakfast which was either American (eggs) or the common choice of rice and noodles and soup. Then we worship, then we have sessions, then free time, then worship, ...it's like a normal camp.
We got to swim in the Indian Ocean our first day here with all of the Cambodian kids. It was alot of fun!
Me, Becca, and Melissa have been giving two sex talks to the girls a day. That's a total of 6 sex talks which were exhausting but so good. We got to talk to two girls after the talks one on one about personal problems that they have not talked to anyone about, and it was really neat to watch God use us to encourage them. Their culture is very modest, but that doesn't mean they don't have just as many problems as anyone, if not more.
So we have been working with a youth camp up until now. We are currently in the capital about to work with the Asian Hope organization where we will be doing VBS's everyday.
It's interesting because the youth that we worked with were so on fire for God. This country is full of brand new Christians and they are so excited. We got to worship with them all week and dance and sing.
God has been moving alot throughout our team. We have had many many conflicts so far, but we are currently in sync. It's hard to typed everything that has been happening, it's so much.
Today we are in the capital and we went to the killing fields and the genocide museum from the Khmer Rouge. I think its important to understand the context of the people here, and it was very eye opening to see the towers and towers of skulls and bones. We basically walked throughout a field with visible bones beneath our feet.
Even though this culture has face extreme genocide and tragedy in their past, the Christians here are so excited. It's like a place of renewal.
Please pray that our team would continue to unify and that God would be in control of our minds and words. Pray that God will push us to give everything, and that He will be in control of everything we do as we move from place to place doing all of these scattered tasks. God has a purpose for each of us being here, and I have seen Christ constantly in everyone on our team, and overflowing in the Cambodians we have been around in the past week. Praise Him for surrounding us with so much light our first week being here.
Pray that God's will be done as we work with Asian Hope with children, and in the dumpsite (a place of poverty we are going to tomorrow).
Thank you for your prayers, I hope you were able to follow this scattered update. I love you all!
Love,
Hailey
Ok I'm in Cambodia right now. It is very hot and humid here. We are entering the rainy season and it has rained almost every day that we've been here. It doesn't rain all day, just for a short time, and then the sun tries to shine behind overcast clouds. We eat fish, rice, more rice, squid, dragon fruit, fish with its head still on, fish with teeth still in, more rice, and some types of meat with various bones that I cannot identify. The people here are beautiful.
So for this first week, we have been working with a youth camp. The children we have been working with are anywhere from 12-25 I think. They have had us staying on a sort of camp site--more like a group of beautiful buildings with constantly opened windows and beautiful tile floors. Our rooms are like bare american hotel rooms with tiny air conditioners that give us just enough cool air to sleep without sweating. We can't flush the toilet paper but we had toilets and they only clogged twice. Anyway, we stayed at this camp/building site that overlooked the Indian Ocean. Every morning we woke up at 5:30 to pray with out team. At 6 we exercised (Asians value exercise and the well being of the body). Exercise consisted of us doing silly arobics moves and playing games that you played in P.E. in elementary school. 7 was breakfast which was either American (eggs) or the common choice of rice and noodles and soup. Then we worship, then we have sessions, then free time, then worship, ...it's like a normal camp.
We got to swim in the Indian Ocean our first day here with all of the Cambodian kids. It was alot of fun!
Me, Becca, and Melissa have been giving two sex talks to the girls a day. That's a total of 6 sex talks which were exhausting but so good. We got to talk to two girls after the talks one on one about personal problems that they have not talked to anyone about, and it was really neat to watch God use us to encourage them. Their culture is very modest, but that doesn't mean they don't have just as many problems as anyone, if not more.
So we have been working with a youth camp up until now. We are currently in the capital about to work with the Asian Hope organization where we will be doing VBS's everyday.
It's interesting because the youth that we worked with were so on fire for God. This country is full of brand new Christians and they are so excited. We got to worship with them all week and dance and sing.
God has been moving alot throughout our team. We have had many many conflicts so far, but we are currently in sync. It's hard to typed everything that has been happening, it's so much.
Today we are in the capital and we went to the killing fields and the genocide museum from the Khmer Rouge. I think its important to understand the context of the people here, and it was very eye opening to see the towers and towers of skulls and bones. We basically walked throughout a field with visible bones beneath our feet.
Even though this culture has face extreme genocide and tragedy in their past, the Christians here are so excited. It's like a place of renewal.
Please pray that our team would continue to unify and that God would be in control of our minds and words. Pray that God will push us to give everything, and that He will be in control of everything we do as we move from place to place doing all of these scattered tasks. God has a purpose for each of us being here, and I have seen Christ constantly in everyone on our team, and overflowing in the Cambodians we have been around in the past week. Praise Him for surrounding us with so much light our first week being here.
Pray that God's will be done as we work with Asian Hope with children, and in the dumpsite (a place of poverty we are going to tomorrow).
Thank you for your prayers, I hope you were able to follow this scattered update. I love you all!
Love,
Hailey
Thursday, May 20, 2010
MONEY
God is faithful. ALL our money is in!
God provided over $70,000 is less than 2 weeks.
Praise Him!
God provided over $70,000 is less than 2 weeks.
Praise Him!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
We leave in 4 days...
Hello! I am going with a group of 9 other friends on a mission trip to Cambodia in 4 days! We are going as a team through the Wesley Foundation on Tech's campus. While we are there we will be working with a group called Asian Hope. You can look them up online to see what they're all about.
As many of you probably know, or maybe don't know, Cambodia is a country that has faced a harsh (to say the least) civil war in the past years that wiped out an entire generation of their people. This generation is the generation of my parents--people who would be middle aged adults today. So basically Cambodia currently has no middle aged adults.
As a mission team we are going over there with PLANS of working with youth. We will be working with a camp at a youth conference, and this work will involve each of us giving various "talks" during the conference to the youth/teens. We are all working on our talks now before we leave.
After the week long conference (which will happen the first week we will be in Cambodia), we will be doing various sorts of vacation bible schools with children. This is the plan for now anyway. I'm sure God has alot in store that we know nothing about.
I am posting this blog to keep friends/family updated on the adventures God uncover in Cambodia. I will have communication HOPEFULLY once a week or so while I am there. I will be there for the entire month of June.
Please pray for safe travels for our team, for good health and organized agenda as God works out all the details of our trip the way He wants them to be. I know He has great plans, and I am ready to be out of my comfort zone and in Cambodia, loving the people who I have never met before. Pray for unity within our team also. Everyone on our team is very different, which causes tension at times. It's good though! Because we have already worked through conflicts together. It's been hard but I know God has a reason for such a diverse group! It's beautiful to see a group of different people come together and serve in unity. Also pray for wisdom for our team leaders, because I'm sure they are and will be experiencing a lot of stress during this time.
Thank you for your prayers and your love.
One last thing- We (with your help) have raised over 63,000 dollars within a few days for all of our mission trips. I don't think it's even been 2 weeks, and people have donated 63,000 dollars.
GOD IS GOOD.
The money is coming in quickly and miraculously, so thank God that He is who He says He is. Thank you for supporting and donating!! Most of that money came through a foward email that we sent last minute. Amazing! He is faithful.
Thank you again for your support and I hope to post last minute updates before we leave on Sunday!
Love, Hailey
As many of you probably know, or maybe don't know, Cambodia is a country that has faced a harsh (to say the least) civil war in the past years that wiped out an entire generation of their people. This generation is the generation of my parents--people who would be middle aged adults today. So basically Cambodia currently has no middle aged adults.
As a mission team we are going over there with PLANS of working with youth. We will be working with a camp at a youth conference, and this work will involve each of us giving various "talks" during the conference to the youth/teens. We are all working on our talks now before we leave.
After the week long conference (which will happen the first week we will be in Cambodia), we will be doing various sorts of vacation bible schools with children. This is the plan for now anyway. I'm sure God has alot in store that we know nothing about.
I am posting this blog to keep friends/family updated on the adventures God uncover in Cambodia. I will have communication HOPEFULLY once a week or so while I am there. I will be there for the entire month of June.
Please pray for safe travels for our team, for good health and organized agenda as God works out all the details of our trip the way He wants them to be. I know He has great plans, and I am ready to be out of my comfort zone and in Cambodia, loving the people who I have never met before. Pray for unity within our team also. Everyone on our team is very different, which causes tension at times. It's good though! Because we have already worked through conflicts together. It's been hard but I know God has a reason for such a diverse group! It's beautiful to see a group of different people come together and serve in unity. Also pray for wisdom for our team leaders, because I'm sure they are and will be experiencing a lot of stress during this time.
Thank you for your prayers and your love.
One last thing- We (with your help) have raised over 63,000 dollars within a few days for all of our mission trips. I don't think it's even been 2 weeks, and people have donated 63,000 dollars.
GOD IS GOOD.
The money is coming in quickly and miraculously, so thank God that He is who He says He is. Thank you for supporting and donating!! Most of that money came through a foward email that we sent last minute. Amazing! He is faithful.
Thank you again for your support and I hope to post last minute updates before we leave on Sunday!
Love, Hailey
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