I wish that I could write a compelling blog to captivate your attention and explain to you the events of this week but for some reason I just can't. I am overloaded so many things… culture, emotion, God, injustice, community, passion. The list could continue on and on. So forgive my wandering thoughts. At times I may stray. But I will do my best to string together some of the thoughts and emotions I am processing. My heart is alive and aware of the emotions it shut out for so long. My feet are dirty from wading through murky water everyday. My eyes are different. They carry...

Everybody told me that the first month would suck.  And I knew it would be a challenge.  I mean, I’ve never been away from home for more than a couple of weeks at a time.  And I’ve never been away from family for more than a week at a time.  So when God said, “Hey Amy.  What’s up?  You should go out of the country for a semester with people you don’t know and fight human trafficking,” I kinda knew what I was getting into. But holy cow.  I’ve only been gone for three weeks and I’ve already seen so much. ...

Psalm 46:1-11 "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way…God is within her she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts… Be still (cease striving) and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth…"  This past week during a feedback session, Kori reminded us that we are currently in Cambodia; she reminded us that we spent this past year preparing for now-we...

This past Monday at Transform Asia, we had a big celebration! A bunch of churches around the Battambang area came to our center and enjoyed games, fellowship, worship, drama skits (performed by “The Foreigners”—that’s how we were referred to all day) confusing but good conversation, and food!  Admittedly, most of the time we didn’t understand what was going on due to our lack of Khmer speaking skills.  But regardless, it was a phenomenal day!  There is such beauty in people from different denominations, groups, and nationalities, all in one room...

So, funny story: There once was a girl who went to college to be a teacher but she didn’t really enjoy it at all but stuck with it long enough to get a degree in it. Then this girl went to live in Cambodia for 3 and a half months and guess what she’s doing now? She’s a teacher and, oh, why yes, this girl is me. The Lord is just so full of irony! Lol. Luckily, I am a co-teacher with the incredible Miss Hailey Mae and we make a darn good team! We have between 4 and 6 kids on any given day that are between the ages of 7 and 13. They are on all different levels but the Lord...

Restored as ifNothingwas EverTaken In the last few weeks, the word restoration has been ever present in my conversations with not only my team but in my conversations with God and restoration has constantly been on my mind. This word began to become engraved in my mind at training camp when our team was thinking about what God had for us in Cambodia while making a canvas for our team. One of my teammates Hailey came up with, RESTORED AS IF NOTHING WAS EVER TAKEN. That is a very powerful statement and was pretty much the “mission statement” for team Cambodia. In the...

September 16th, 2011   I have learned a lot here in Battambang—an entire week without internet or a cell phone gives a person PLENTY of time to think, even aside from the work we have been doing at the women’s center.  First of all, this week was full of building relationships with the women and neighborhood kids at the center.  When we are not at the center, we have been preparing English lessons, Bible study devotions and sermons—or just exploring the community that we live in and enjoying the people here.  We ended up moving from the outside of...