welcome to CAMBODIA

I KNOW IT HAS BEEN WAY TO LONG.!!!!! The end of hawaii was great!!!. . . We learned so much and i really grew closer to all of my classmates!! I now feel like i have 68 brothers and sisters!! We are all so close and we all grew soo much over the last three months. But last wednesday it was time to say goodbye and i left for the adventure of a lifetime!! I am now sitting in an internet cafe in CAMBODIA!!!!!!

It took two days to get here! we went from kona to honolulu to tokyo to taipe (spent the night) and on Thursday morning we landed in phnom penh cambodia!! In the plane i am not going to lie i did have a minor anxiety attack. I could see the poverty from the plane! THe river that flows through it is obviously brown. I began to pray right away. I asked God just to do some last minute preperations on my heart as we started our descent into phnom penh. We got off the plane got our luggage and visas and headed out. THe cambodian people are so nice! so sweet and caring. The customs agent was so nice and asked me how excited i was to be here and said it was a great country. He was right it is. We got right into a bus and started to the "guest house" which is the cambodian equivalent to a hostile. Our room is pretty nice. THe shower is just a shower head in the bathroom! They dont have toilet paper here so we brought our own but u have to throuw it away and not in the toilet! The first thing you notice is the driving sitruations there are no lanes people drive where they want and you just dont hit each other. THere are some cars but not many, mainly tuk tuks (motorcycles with a carriage on the back), and motos (motorcycles that these people cram 5 people on haha). the buildings look like they could be nice if they were cleaned up but they arent they are run down. THere are a couple nice buildings (car dealerships and a mall) and also some western restraunts and coffee shops. Other than that there are shacks and the streets are covered in dirt. THere are beggers everywhere and it is hard to say no to the children but you have to because of the fact that the money may not actually be going to them!! it is sad but the most you can do is pray. God is doing crazy stuff here. It is so relevant and i believe in the upcoming years cambodia will have alot more christians!! It is so busy it reminds me of a third wold new york city. It is crazy and i actually love it.

Our first ministry time was last night. We got to go to a youth group in a slum on the outskirts of the city. I got to tell my testimony and share who God is to me in front of all the teenagers. It was amazing. THen we woke up early this morning went to the slum again and our team got to lead a church service and an hour of kids activities! IT WAS AMAZING!!!  I would have paid a million dollars just to be able to sit in on that service. My frieind got to preach and he did an amazing job. THey did some worship in Khmer (their language) and we did some in english. Both were amazing because both came from the same heart. THese people are os happy i know the poverty breaks GOds heart but i think it is made up for with how happy the people are. THey are all people who were forced into slums because the government told them to leave so they could build more buildings. IT is sad but htey are still so happy!!

I cant wait to see what adventures are to come. God is already doing amazing things. I want to praise him all day every day. I just ask for prayer. THe culture shock is starting to hit in and weigh me down. THe spiritual warfare is heavy here. I keep interceding not as much for poverty but for sex trafficking because it is a huge underground problem. I miss home but i love it here. Please keep praying for me and my team. THe next few months are going to be amazing and hard. Please pray for good health both mentally and physically.
my team consists of me, miley, soona, lauren, joy, katie, abbie, matt, john, austin, and prisca!! Please also pray for our leaders mama jo and ellerie. THey have a lot of respponsibility. THsnk you for your thoughts and prayers love you all.