Hello All! First off, due to illness (mainly mono) I had to come home from Cambodia two weeks early. It was really hard to leave ministry and my AMAZING team early, but I am also very thankful to be able to rest and get well in the comforts of home. I’m also thankful to have made it as far as I did in my journey in Cambodia! Cambodia was really hard for me in a lot of different ways, but man, I wouldn’t change a thing! I’m serious! The “trials” by FAR outweigh all of the lessons I learned and all of the love I got to give and receive. In Cambodia I learned that...

You know, this trip was really hard for me. I think it was difficult for everyone for a variety of reasons, but man, it definitely stretched me. However, looking back at the past three months, I have to say that I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity I had to come to Cambodia. I got to do things here that I didn’t imagine myself doing a year ago. Things like learning a tiny bit of a language I honestly didn’t know existed and watching the sunrise above one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Or sharing the gospel with people who had never heard it before, including several...

      Our first few weeks in Phnom Penh has been pretty amazing. I love the fast pace of the big city and the change of scenery. I know God has so many great things in store for my team and I in Phnom Penh and this week I was able to get a taste of it.         This week my team and I were able to work with an organization called "Precious Women". "Precious Women" is an organization that provides young girls a way out of sex trafficking. "Precious Women" has made the effort to reach out to the women in so many ways,...

Again I find myself writing about worship. Just a few weeks back I posted a blog about Christians living a lifestyle of worship and how imperative that is to our spiritual health. Even now as I attempt to write about ministry this week, I'm brought back to this theme, and duly so, as I believe more and more every day that at the root of all the ministry I could write about is worship. I could write about the strangeness of feeling drained and void this week, and what God taught me through that.  Prayer that worshipped God restored me to life. I could write about going out to a bar...

The past couple of days for me have really been focused on thanking and praising God for His goodness.  I had a conversation with one of the boys at the orphanage that made me realize how I have taken some of the good things God has given me for granted.  The boy—who we will call Lon—is nineteen years old and he lives at the orphanage with his younger brother.  Lon is trying to finish up his last year of school and he would like to go on to study at an university.  As Lon and I were talking, he told me that he is the only Christian in his class and he always...

Sometimes, I forget that God is good.  How ridiculous is that?  After all I’ve been through with him, all the times I’ve been swept away by his mercy and love and beauty…I have to admit that I just forget.   I don’t know why this past week was so difficult, when there are only three weeks left in the trip…? I don’t know why the team and I felt so puzzled and drained and frustrated.  All I know is that the gloom that strangely overcame me for a few days left me wiped out, and I realized that I hadn’t spent time with God...

This past week was good ole’ thanksgiving. Being my first thanksgiving away from my family I was a bit sad but that feeling was wiped away with our lovely team thanksgiving dinner of chicken, KFC mashed potatoes, Dino Mac n’ cheese, cheese and crackers, corn, and stuffing brought from the US by one of my lovely leaders Elle. Following dinner we ate pumpkin pie, which I don’t usually like, but being in Cambodia it was a little slice of home.  Luckily I was given an opportunity to skype with my wonderful family and speak with my love. Being here has made me realize...