Farewell Cambodia, hello Thailand

I'm currently driving through beautiful Thai countryside as I write this, at least the first part of this update. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers - this journey has been extremely easy and quick, praise God. We all had a very pleasant surprise when we got on the night bus last night (Monday) to find that it wasn't like the Indian ones we've experienced, but instead had beds with back rests! It was luxury compared to the 12 hour journeys we've done in uncomfy school-like buses. 

What a month it's been! Our time in Cambodia has flown by, but also felt like an eternity at the same time. Cambodia is beautiful and I love the country and people very much - they're so warm and open. Phong Penh is a bizarre capital though. It isn't very developed apart from the riverside area so it felt like we could have been staying in any city anywhere in the world really. Sadly, piles of rubbish was a common sight and the traffic was crazy! Several times we found ourselves driving down the wrong side of the road because our 'half' took over and expanded to about eight lanes of traffic. The pollution caused from all the motos, tuk tuk and cars was quite alarming, and our lungs are especially glad we aren't staying any longer, I'm sure. The contrast between urban and rural Cambodia is stark! It only took a 40 minute tuk tuk ride to reach beautiful countryside and postcard-esque villages. I really wish we could have spent more time in the country! It was such a wonderful and very real reminder of how creative God is - I know it's true in every inch of the earth, but Cambodian countrysides make it even more evident for me. This is a tuk tuk by the way...

... and it is the easiest way for a group to get around. Thankfully, you can barter them down because start prices so ridiculously high, but you also need to be prepared to direct them! It's also crazy that in the capital city there is no public transport system! No buses to be seen, or vans, minibuses etc. Nothing of that nature at all. I was talking to Lindsay about it, and she reminded me that this country is still recovering from the huge effects of the Khmer Rouge fifty-odd years ago, and so development isn't as we would expect. This dark part of Cambodia's history is something I haven't looked into much, but is still very fresh in many aspects of life and is perhaps playing a role in the rate of development being seen.

Over the four weeks in Cambodia we have met some amazing people and have been blessed to get involved in various wonderful projects. One of the most frequent things we have been doing is teaching conversational English - to children, university students and adults. It has given me an interesting insight to the reality of teaching English as a foreign language, and how much we take our native tongue for granted! So many people are desperate to learn English (most of whom already speak one or two languages) and it is a great way to build friendships with locals. At several times I have been slightly ashamed of my lack of languages - for the majority of my friends here, English is not their first language, and some speak up to five languages. I speak one (and maybe a quarter if you count my GCSE French but that shouldn't be included as I found out last night because I sadly can't hold any sort of conversation in French anymore). We are often very lazy in our English speaking world not to learn other languages because we don't need them, but it makes life so much easier and richer if you can speak to natives in their own tongue! So, I challenge you to learn some local phrases of wherever you go travelling next - even just hello and thank you which is all I can say in Thai and Khmer, but the locals really appreciate it.

I'm not sure I could pick a favourite thing we did in Phong Penh as all the projects were so different and unique. They have all taught me so much, more than I can take in an process in a year it feels like! But I really loved playing with some of the street kids every day for a week on riverfront. Those children are so exploited and abused yet they are still children with their playfulness, easy joy and a longing for love. It's where they find this love which is the problem. We were blessed to be able to give them a safe source of love for a week, but I only wish we could have made a longer influence not the short impact that we did. Those children deserve their childhood back - and thanks to a few dedicated organisations, they are slowly getting that. They reminded me of Matthew 18 in the Bible when Jesus says that to inherit the kingdom, we must become like children. It's a passage that's been really on my heart, and its interesting to me how it relates so closely to some of the people we've met - how can I become more like a child in my faith, and what I can learn from the beautiful street children of Cambodia.

This month has been exhausting as well as wonderful. Being part of a cross-cultural team with very strong personalities is very trying, I have discovered several times. It is so hard to balance striving to live in a kingdom culture and holding our cultures loosely with the things which are imbedded so deeply within us. We have experienced so many cultural slip ups and bizarre opposites which I shan't add to this long blog, but if you're really lucky then I will do a whole blog dedicated to the most humorous ones. We are heading to Thailand united still, which is a miracle in itself! A lot of things have been revealed to me by our Father and by other people which have been painful to see in myself and process - I'm a long way off from sorting through all the things which I feel have been started in me, but thankfully much of our time in Thailand is for debriefing so I will hopefully have time to crack on with all this self searching stuff. I feel like it's been a month of chiselling and moulding. 

We have made it to Bangkok safe and sound. Thank you for your prayers! It was one of the easiest and most comfortable journeys we've had - we were very blessed. There is no signs of the unrest where we are staying so please don't worry about our safety. Tomorrow morning we go to another town in Thailand called Mae Phim which is on the coast for our debriefing time. We are all so excited, and I'm especially looking forward to being by the sea and able to swim (hopefully daily). God is good! I hope you are all well. This was our favourite meal from Thailand which we revisited this lunch - pak Thai. Yum!

My next blog will not be for a while I expect, either at the end of our time in Mae Phim, or in Bangkok or when we are back in India in February - just so you know when to look here next - don't do it for a couple of weeks.

Seeing lives transformed

You lucky things - here is another blog for all about my time in Cambodia, and here I was thinking you wouldn't really have any whilst I was here. But God is good, and loves to give us even the small things that will bring us joy and (hopefully) glorify Him too.

This week has been very busy, very intense, very tiring and very fulfilling. We've learnt a lot about a wonderful work being done by Sak Saum. I've been privileged enough to experience a fraction of the work beg done here and a few of the lives they've touched. The products this work makes ranges from bags of all sizes to purses, bracelets, clothes, Bible cases and so on. All the material is reclaimed or recycled and it is a representation of the deeper work this organisation does - reclaiming 'used' and damaged lives and resorting the beauty and purpose again, all for God. It's a powerful, successful and amazing work which I would love you all to look into more and support in anyway you can. This is the website: http://saksaum.com. It's such a wonderful place and so full of hope and joy! I feel very blessed I've been able to see some of their work first hand, and meet some of the hands behind the stunning products they create. 

That took up the majority of our time this week. As well as serving through being extra pairs of hands in the day to day work, we also led devotionals and short English classes. This time in Cambodia is really changing me - I am being challenged to share the things God is doing in me publicly, in this devotional time and in another ministry tied with Sak Saum called In His Steps. We were there (in rural Cambodia) Friday and yesterday and it is so beautiful! The flat green fields, palm trees, gleaming waters of the paddy fields, big blue sky, traditional wooden building on stilts and children running around with homemade kites filled me with so much joy! We helped run the children's and youth's ministries there yesterday which involved lots of laughter, and me being stretched to help teach the children about God's love.

These are a couple of photos to show you the extraordinary beauty of this country! God is an amazing creator!

The other ministry we've been involved with is one called DOVE which runs an hourly English school every night, and this is where we were last week and will be next week too. In my class there are roughly 25 children of varying abilities and desire to learn. I've had two extremes there so far - one evening I had to do the whole class as the teacher was away so I did several English games which they loved, and then I also had another lesson where I didn't have to do anything except watch the second half of Despicable Me. Who knows what next week will hold. 

Thank you for all your prayers for this week. Leading the week actually went really well - one of my leaders did say that he heard me talk more this week than the entire time in India which was slightly worrying (I did speak in India, don't worry, I just didn't spend much time with him there. He has a point, I am slowing breaking out of my shyness), but I did enjoy leading. I hope you have all had a wonderful week too, and have a good one next week. Remember I mentioned the street kids we met one night in my last bog, well here is the photographic proof of those cute monkeys. God bless you in all you do, much love.

Happy New Year

Surprise! Well, maybe it's more of a surprise for me than for you. I didn't think I'd be able to blog until next weekend, but an unexpected opening in our plans means I can fill you all in on Cambodia so far. We've been here for just over a week now, so have settled into another culture, another climate and another way of life. The journey from Bangkok to Phnom Penh allowed us to see the spectacular beauty of the Cambodian countryside (from the luxury of an air conditioned van too). Sadly I haven't got any photos to hand to share with you, but take my word for it that the vast expanses of flat, green rice fields, traditional wooden houses on stilts, palm trees and the smiling faces of the Khmer people made the 8 hour ride very enjoyable. Phnom Penh is a very different city from overwhelming Bangkok and I much prefer its quieter, less developed and more relaxed feel. 

Much of this week has been given to working out things in our team, and having some much needed team times, but of course we have also found time to do some ministry work which we are primarily here for. New Years Eve was spent with some university students at their dorms, celebrating together the start of a new year. Bizarrely we watched a few clips of Britain's Got Talent before the real 'party' started, so even though I'm half way round the world, I am unable to escape from our talent shows. Shame. We ate lots of food, played lots of games, sang, danced (Khmer dancing, which is all about slow, graceful movements and is quite hard to do well, it turns out), and had times of encouragement for the year ahead. It was a very fun NYE and definitely very different from any I've experienced so far. 

When I look back on 2013, it's been such a busy, crazy year! I went from not knowing what to do on my gap year, where to go to (and even whether to do) university this September, being consumed by school work and living at home to having travelled to three countries so far, my plans for uni are sorted, I'm now living in Cambodia (if you can call a month living here) and not having to worry about any school work at all. I could go int so much more depth, but I don't think you'd be at all interested with my musings, so I will move swiftly on to one of my highlights from our first week in this beautiful country.

Thursday evening found us at the riverfront in the more touristy area of the city. We went there to do a prayer walk, and were approached by two very cute street boys trying to sell us bracelets, and a girl later joined them too. We chatted to them, gave into their big, puppy dog eyes and brought a selection of bracelets and they kept following us down the strip. In the end, I had one on my back, and two of the other girls gave piggybacks too. We raced, and spun, and tickled, and tipped and loved these boys as much as we could in the short time we had with them. It was so humbling to run along to Mekong river with a seven year old boy on my back, seeing him smile and be a child again. I loved it! If only I could do that everyday, and be able to impact them more deeply too, I would be so happy!

Yesterday was our day off, and as it was also my birthday, the girls thoroughly spoilt me with a lie in, a lovely breakfast of fresh fruits and the best banana cake ever, and they then took me to the local sports club to go swimming. It was the first time I've swum in almost four months and it was delightful! It's been getting hotter and more humid here as the weeks gone on, so it was such a lovely feeling not to be constantly sweating but to be in cool, clean water. For me, it was the perfect way to spend the afternoon of my birthday - so thank you Kris, Becka, Julia and Lindsay! For dinner, we went back tot he riverfront and found a peaceful, very stylish restaurant for a very good price. The view was out over the river, with twinkling lights, soft music, candles, cool air and good food in a very ornate and well decorated building. Again, I wish I could just show you as I'm not doing very well describing it at all! It was a lovely birthday, definitely one I'll remember for a long time to come. 

That's our first week in a nutshell. Thank you all for your various Christmas, New Year's and birthday messages - I'm sorry I don't have time to reply to you all individually, but I hope a blog will suffice for now. Thank you also for all your prayers over myself and our team, we really feel safe and loved in our Father, and are so excited to see more of Him in the coming weeks. This week, I am leading, aaah! Panic! It's ok really, I've planned the first three days already, so we have three jam packed days at least. I would really appreciate your continued prayers for us, especially for our health, rest and energy - some of us are struggling with sleeping well but we're not sure why, others are a little sick, and we're all tired. If you could remember us in these things, I would really appreciate it. I hope you are all enjoying the first few days of 2014, and I expect many do you are settling back into life as it normally is. I pray you will be blessed this year in many ways, and know God more by the end of it. Depending of what our plans are for next weekend, I may find time to get to a cafe with wifi and update you all on my week, but I will for sure do at least one more update before we leave for Thailand again at the end of this month. Much love to you all!