Last Saturday our team had the chance to do something different on our off day.  We took an almost two hour drive, squeezing as many people as humanly possible into a sweaty fifteen passenger van.  We had our hearts pierced by the brutality of the killing fields. Then went to a sweet little café called Connecting Hands in downtown Phnom Penh.  This café was not just an ordinary eatery.  It is actually an NGO that trains women who have a history or poverty, abuse, and/or sex trafficking.  They learn how to become baristas, waitresses, and chefs. The café was cute, decorated with comfy seats...

I never thought I would be called to this. I never imagined that I would travel halfway across the world to share the Lord with a tourist from Canada. I never thought I would befriend a bartender and go to her church. I knew the Lord had called me to something bigger than myself, but I didn’t know it would look like this. When I signed up to go to Cambodia for three months, I had very different expectations of what my stay here would look like. I thought I was going to be working with human trafficking and showing the women involved that there is hope and a way out. Instead, I live...

I love these mornings. I love how easy it’s become to wake up at (or before) 6 AM. I love the sounds of all the roosters and crickets and lizards and birds. I love the coolness of the air, the orange glow of the sun that quickly rises above the palm trees and creates a cotton candy aura in the clouds. I love my cup of coffee that comes from a powder mix. I love all the sleepy-eyed entrances as I’m sitting at the table, the mumbled good mornings and crazy bedhead hair-dos. I love the tuk tuk rides to the market when it’s my day, the only time I ever get just a little bit...

  Yo, Yo, Yo, How is it going all the way from Cambodia?!! Can you believe I`ve already been in Cambodia for a month in a half now? WOAH, WOAH, WOAH! I`ve posted a few times on my Facebook, but this will be my first official blog post . . . (about time Lacey). I only get Internet once a week and to be honest I haven’t wanted to write any blog post because it takes a good amount of time, and you only get so much time in a day. BUT, God has been doing a lot of amazing things here and there has been some great stories and I think it`s about time I write some of them (finally)....

“Haley, dun’t fart.” This is the most accurate description I can give of what it is like to teach a class of Cambodian preteens who speak broken English. All of a sudden there was a bad smell that crept its way into our classroom.  Emily quickly picked out one of our students and told him not to fart, which began a series of “Haley, dun’t fart” and “Emily, dun’t fart.”  We definitely did not stop them.  We actually joined in the ridiculousness. This is just a snapshot of classroom life.  There are many more stories...

so we’re a month and a half late, but we wanted to introduce our team! (disclaimer: definitely wrote this blog weeks ago but our wifi was never good enough to post it til now.) better late than never, right? anyways, we have now been to two cambodian weddings here (and are going to a third soon). here are some pics from the first one of everyone in our $3 rental dresses from the market & our $3 hair and makeup from the asians 🙂  and some pretty accurate descriptions of our lovely team members for your imaginations. for more (serious) info on our lovely ladies, check out...

On Wednesday 18 February, a boy named Vichet walked into our lives.      A close relative to ours here passed away Monday night and Tuesday night we attended the evening session of the funeral. Sophea, staff here, saw Vichet wandering around the funeral, and knowing he wasn’t from the area, tried asking questions of who he was and where he came from. He didn’t answer any of the questions.   The next morning, Vuthy came up to me and asked if I had experience with people who had mental health issues. Not really knowing in the wide range of mental...

**Double Disclaimer: Wifi is a struggle. So this blog wouldn’t post once again. So here it is—two weeks late!** * Disclaimer: This blog was to be posted last week at my one-month mark of leaving home, but last week, the power went out at where we get our wifi so I never was able to post. (The adventures never cease in Cambodia.) But today is our one-month mark of being here at YDC Kampot and doing ministry!*   Cambodia is like something I have never experienced before. Today marks one month since I left home to embark on this three-month adventure. I came here not knowing...