Meghan

We are home!

Just landed after a quiet flight from Korea. We are looking forward to some time with our family and friends.

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God is good

It has been the craziest two weeks for the team and I.
The people we've met, encountered, talked, interacted, prayed with...
God is mysterious in His work.
So that we may know how great He is bigger than our imaginations and our ideas.
What we learned in this trip is far more valuable than any class room.
We knew this problem existed. We did.
But we didn't know that we had to travel half way across the world for us to realize that how serious this issue was and is.
It is so real.
The things that we saw with our own eyes, we cannot even start to explain what it is like.
The only words that come out of our tongue is "Dear Jesus..."
Processing what we saw isn't enough.
Something is missing.
Journaling what we saw isn't enough.
Something is missing.
Talking about what we saw isn't enough.
Something is missing.
We can do all these things but without prayer it is useless.
I pray that our team and all of our friends and family will never stop to pray about this issue.
God does powerful works with our prayer.
Please pray for our team, because it is so easy to fall into the trap of "feeling bad" when we get back in the states because we become "comfortable".
Pray for us that our prayers will never stop for this issue.

It has been an emotional roller coaster past two weeks.
Up and down.
But one thing that our team realized was this.
God is good.
He loves both women and men who are involved.
His light still shines in this darkness through many NGO's.
We cannot try to be a hero in this issue; God is the hero.
He is the knight in shining armor.
He is the prince that rescues the princess from the dragon.
God is good.

Jesus,
I pray that our hearts will never stop breaking for this issue.
Break our hearts for what breaks yours.
That is our cry.
Let your glory be shown in the dark places.
May your name be lifted high.
We love you Lord.
And we know that you love us and you love the people of Cambodia and Thailand.
Amen

In His Love,

Shin Sung Kang
--
www.twitter.com/shinsungkang
www.citizenofthefree.com

Two Worlds & A Name

Last night may have been one of the most intense nights for our team.  Our eyes were opened to the reality of the night life here in Bangkok. Bangkok is a COMPLETELY different world at night and the things that we saw brought us to an inevitable amount of emotions and our hearts absolutely broke for every person we saw.  We walked through a few streets that were filled with one bar after another and as we walked through we prayer walked to bring hope to the " dark world" at night.  As we walked through I had made eye contact with one of the girls standing outside of the bar & I could see in her eyes exhaustion, pain, weariness, and a desire to escape the life that she wants to leave so desperately but is entrapped in fear of what might happen if she does try to leave.  My heart broke as I sensed all of this from her & I began to think about her life & when she was first born...what was she named? What is the meaning of her name? Why was she given this name? As I began to think about how each individual has a name & how valuable each persons  name is, I turned around & on the other side of the street I saw about 7 girls with numbers on them. Were they no longer known by their name, but instead by a number? It broke my heart because each individual is unique & incredibly special & I know that God made each person that we saw that night for a reason & a purpose. He values every soul & has given each of them a name that is uniquely different from any other person in this world.  I felt like that night God gave me eyes to see each individual as a special & unique person. All of the crap that we saw was only the surface, but deep down each person is made unique & valuable in the eyes of God. Our job is to go out to these people that are special, allow God to gear our eyes from what we see on the surface of the person to deep down in their hearts & know that they ARE special & worth being known & loved.  We are to build relationships with them & love as Christ loves us.  However, for me personally, the very thing that I know I should be doing ( loving them) is perhaps the hardest thing for me to do. It was so difficult to not judge the people & what we see on the outside; it's so hard to not make a general assumption about the things that we saw that night; it's hard to not judge the girls because of what they were wearing and it's even harder to allow our eyes to look past all of these things and see the person for who God created them to be.  That night I felt like God helped a lot of us to look past the surface of the person & see them as an individual that has a life & that their life is worth being cared about. God has done so much on our team & changed us in ways words can't describe. Thank you all for your prayers & continue to pray for the team as they are about to head back to the states tomorrow!

Brittany :) 

Time is Almost Up

I have seen God in absolutely everything on this trip. From willing NGOs to healthy bodies. From the impact of each organization to the perfect team of students put together for this trip. From the tears to the laughter. From the smells, sounds, tastes and sights. From the sunbeams on our skin to the full moon shrouded in clouds. God has made himself known here.

As many hard things as we have seen, as many heartbreaking stories, I never felt the absense of God. On the contrary, I felt him so very strongly on the streets of bankok filled with bars. I felt his love waiting to be noticed on the riverfront in Phnom Penh. His spirit and his light dance through the darkest club, the dirtiest massage parlor, and the most disturbing brothels. God is not afraid of the evil. He will fight to take back his people from the hold of the devil. Join him! He loves with a fire that I, in this life, can never hope to understand.

-Rebecca

It's not a game

Modesty, sexuality, and sex are not to be messed with out side God's perfect plan. It is not a game to be played then thrown away. Fathers let your masculinity be passed down and affirmed to tour sons. Let each of your daughters know they are lovely and deserving of authentic romance. Mothers show your sons how a lady acts. Teach your daughters how a lady is to be treated. Parents this is your job. It is never to early to teach your children about modesty , sexuality, and sex. God made all of them and the less we know how it should be the more we will abuse them. ~Jona-Lynn

January 11

It is 7am on Wednesday morning. We will soon be on our way to the airport and in route to Bangkok! This trip has been far more amazin than I could have imagined. From riding the tuk tuks to incredible stories being told to staying in hostels, eating exotic food, meeting great folks... This trip has made history in my life.
I don't really miss home, and it's not like im extremely excited to go home but I know that's my place right now. Last night I shared my life story and it was healing for me to go back and share some of the things that have made who I am. I am praying that Bangkok would help tie together all the wonderful pieces of this trip. Also praying that God would show me what I am to do with all the experiences and information I have gained from this trip.

Angkor What?

Great Day at Angkor Wat. We rode elephants too! What a tremendous day off.

-Scott

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Ta Prohm Temple

Fwd: Roller Skating in Cambodia

-----Original Message-----
From: sweetnsassie247@aol.com
To: gslblogs.cambodia
Sent: Sun, Jan 8, 2012 12:43 pm
Subject: Roller Skating in Cambodia

-- who would have thought right? Well Friday morning I had the privilege of joining the guys of our group to go skating at a local roller rink with some men who work at the massage pallors which service men. My heart swells with love for these men and how blessed I felt to be going to this event. I was not sure what I was expecting but to see how young they are just tugged at me in an ultra deep way. Most were 20-25 and one guy was 32. They were dressed in nice clothing, have fancy shoes, phones, and jewelry. They were so friendly and after introductions were got on our skates and began roller blading. It was so heart warming to watch how quickly they became comfortable with all of us. Laughing and smiling, falling all over the rink... because they clearly weren't very good at skating :-) but they were already obviously having a wonderful time and so was I! My thoughts swirled around my head as I was soaking in every moment of this experience and my time with them. They were excited to take photos with us on their cameras and hold our hands while we skated. We even made a conga line! One guy constantly wanted to hold Jona-Lynn and my hand while skating. It is a moment in my life I will treasure forever. We were worried if that was culturally acceptable or not, but we were told that it was no problem. :-) Visna a young guy who is Cambodian and knows Jesus who works with these guys often, and was our translator, told us that this day was the most he had ever seen these guys smile and laugh and to me... that's what matters the most.  It was beautiful to see them smile and laugh, like young boys much like the ones in my junior high youth group back home.  I could tell they struggled with identity issues and is was obvious they craved touch and love and attention and affection. They might be growing physically into men but emotionally and spiritually, mentally they are child-like. My heart breaks for them and I pray for them... because I still cannot grasp how anyone could want to violate their precious bodies stealing their innocence? And I thought about how these struggles are not unique to Cambodia but these boys share a common bond with many young boys all over the world, lost and struggling. My overwhelming love for them starts in a special place and I pray they were blessed my our groups encounter and the Lord's spirit within us shined brightly and that even if they only but glimpsed the Light of God and tasted Him for an afternoon, I pray it was enough to begin a work in them and a yearning for God's presence in their lives that they may ultimately come to know Jesus as Lord and that we were able to just be vessels in that beautiful process.

-Laura Schank

It's Sunday, I think...

So we just arrived at a hotel in the Kampong Cham Province. We travelled all day in a van, and stopped to visit a rice farmer and her family for a bit. Yesterday we spent the day at a little eco resort in the jungle. We visited the beach, as well. This past week has been really amazing. God is teaching us so much and really opening our eyes and breaking our hearts with what breaks His. The team is in great spirits and excited to see what happens next (Scott tells us nothing).

-Meghan :)

Leaving Phnom Penh

We have had an amazing 5 days of intense learning, fast paced scheduling, and some wonderful friends. We are moving on to a few new cities to learn about this issue in provinces outside of the capital.

Students have been healthy for the most part. A little diarrhea for a few of them but they have all recovered. Thank you for your prayers.

Scott

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God

is just rocking our world inside and out. He is revealing and teaching us so much!

to be continued....

-Rachel

Wow

I am blown away and speechless at the things I have seen in this city. The amazing thing is that through all the darkness I am constantly reminded of how much god loves people. All people. My prayer for this country is that the light of god's love would drive out the darkness. I have met some amazing people here who are making a great impact. I pray they are strengthened to continue with the passion of love for these beautiful people.

-Rebecca

How God is like a fresh picked pineapple

We had a great day. Started the day at a girls ministry. We had been getting ready to do some skits music and crafts with them.when we got there we found out they had gotten stuff ready for us to. They taught us two dances, how to write our names in their language, two games, they put on a fasion show of Cambodian outfits, and did a skit. I love it becaues in America people have a hard time saying my name right the first time but here they all say it right the first time! :) I juggled for the girls. I was so nerves, so I kind of messed up. Latter on we went to Wat Phnom witch is a Buddist temple. At Wat Phnom we were part of a boy's club. We did skits ,music, juggling, and crafts. There was this one little baby who came with am older brother. The brother may have been 8. Any ways the baby was so cute. I was holding it and loving on it. When they were leaving the baby waved to me from across the area we were at. The crafts were kind of crazy though because all 40 of the kids wanted to make the same mask and we only had ten of each masks made. So we had to cut out them right there while the boys were running around. The guys in our group were great, they cut out the masks for us. This entire day was just a huge blessing. God is so cool and the more I do what He has planed for me the more I fall in love with Him. I believe the difference between joy and happiness is happiness is a feeling. You can be happy because u have money or because you got a good grade on a test but how long does that last? Joy is a gift from God. It's totally spirital. It is in the littlest most unimportant things that God gives it to you. Like holding a baby that is covered in dirt, seeing how happy and full of life those women are, riding in a tuk tuk with Um Judy, Laura, and Scott, juggling out side a Buddist temple... In the words of Bradley Hathaway "How amazingly awesome is Your plan that can not be thwarted by any man... Because through You is victory... Lord I praise You because You're different. And efficient. And You've tweaked my spirit just enough so that I can taste and see that YOU truly are good. Like a fresh picked pineapple for the first time in my mouth... I will praise Your name today. And tomorrow. Forever. " ~Jona-Lynn Hagerstrom

Suesday! (Hello in Cambodia)

Today is such a beautiful day in Cambodia! The scavenger hunt last night was such a fun experience, it was a lot harder than I thought. I definitely wouldn't last in The Amazing Race.  Even though when you first glance at the city, you might think it's crazy how everyone lives and drives but throughout the whole experience, I found the city to be so peaceful and relaxing. I also used my first squatting toilet in the Central Market of Phnom Penh. Today we will be working with boys and girls. It's going to be so much fun doing activities with them and showing them our skit that we planned out.

Even though we are having fun, it is also a lot to take in and process. It's overwhelming knowing that the people here are so lost.

Continue to pray for us and for the people of Cambodia!

-Rachel

Phnom Penh Exploration Day

The students are on an 'amazing race' type scavenger hunt to learn about their new home of Phnom Penh. Exploring the city provides the students the opportunity to apply their Khmer language skills, taste food, and learn about the different NGO's working in Cambodia. 

Fried Tarantula

My team and I ( Steve and Lydia) just finished eating fried tarantulas! They were not bad at all! :)

-Rachel

Hello Cambodia!

We made it safely to Cambodia last night! What a long flight! Thank you God for safe travels! Traffic is quite interesting here where lights are rare, and there's really no right way on the streets. Pray for strength as some of us are tired. Pray for God to continue showing us what he wants us to learn here. Wi-fi is limited here so I will try to update as I can!

-Rachel

So far in Cambodia...

Whew...
It's crazy to think that we are here in Cambodia after 19 hours.
We are sitting here eating breakfast at the •Jars of Clay• coffee shop.
Pretty awesome :)

Riding in the "taxi" was quite the experience!

We have arrived!

Had a lovely breakfast with Scott's mother. Off for a busy day exploring Phnom Penh. So excited for the opportunities we have this week here!

-Rebecca

Almost here!

The students just messaged from South Korea. They will be here in a few short hours. They will be jetlagged, but class starts bright and early tomorrow at 7.30.

Can't Wait For Students To Arrive

Happy New Year! I can't wait for the students to arrive. We have been getting ready for them and will pick them up from the airport in Phnom Penh tonight around 11PM (11AM Eastern Standard Time).

Hi!
I (Dorcas) can't speak for the rest of the team but im feeling really nervous... Just nerves about what I will see, what I'll learn, and eat haha. But the excitement definitely trumps the nerves. We're on our way to JFK we know we have a long flight then a stop and I'm just praying for rest even in exhausting circumstances. I love my team already so I also pray for gentleness, kindness, patience and just supernatural connections :) can't wait til we meet Scott! I'm so ready to learn and meet new people and experience new things!

Greetings!! .....from the airport :)

The team just made it through security, we are now just waiting for the airline to start boarding which doesn't start for another hour.  We are all so excited to be going to Cambodia together and we're all sitting next to each other on the flight. This is going to be one long flight, 17 hours to be exact... it's crazy just trying to soak it in. Please continue to pray for us on our journey! :)

-Rachel :)