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 It’s mid-afternoon in Cambodia. The temperature is hovering around 100 degrees and climbing. The sun is showing no signs of mercy. My only lines of defense: a giant cup of animi (clean ice) and Big Cola, David Crowder Band cd, and blog writing. I love afternoons like this!

It’s been quite the relaxing morning. We had a long day of celebrating the Khmer New Year by going to a waterfall and sneaking into a communist country….we’ll get to that part later.

I spent part of the morning reading in the book of James. I can’t really say I remember the last time I sat down and studied James, but after reading it thoroughly it’s becoming one of my favorite books in the Bible. There are so many verses that stick out that I really need to try harder to apply to my life.

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” James 4:3

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have it’s fully effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” James 1:2

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God promised to those who love him.” James 1:12

I can’t recall how many times I’ve been impatient with God. I’ve been especially impatient during times of perils and trials. We all can get impatient with God sometimes. That’s all part of our relationship with Him. We have all heard this, but we know that God never gives us things we can’t handle. He uses those trials as building blocks. He chisels away things off of us that are not of Him so that He can build us to become a stronger person. It even says so in the Bible! I don’t know why I wrote all this, but I guess we can all use a reminder of how God is continually “working” on us.

Now in my last blog I mentioned some of the trips we have planned on our days off. Phnom Penh, Siem Riep/Ankgor Wat, and a trip that would be near and dear to my heart. Well the trip that would be near and dear to my heart happened yesterday! As some of you know, my family heritage hails from Laos. I had been praying since Thailand that I would have a chance to go to Laos. Laos is under communist rule and is closed against Christianity. Laos How the heck am I going to get over there?!?! What seemed like a long stretch became closer to reality when we landed in Cambodia. I knew in Malaysia that our ministry would be in northern Cambodia near the Thailand/Cambodia border. What I didn’t know is that we’d also be really close to Laos! The way it all unfolded was when we met our contact Jim for the first time at the Phnom Penh airport. He had asked me if I was Hawaiian and I kindly said no and that I was Lao. Then Jim proceeds to say that our ministry site is really close to Laos and that he would take me there…at least to the border. I had never been more excited to get to a ministry location. Then on our bus ride to our ministry site, Preah Vihear, Nikki reminded me that we had to give our passports up to our logistics team in Phnom Penh so they could start working on our visas for India. JUNK! How am I going to cross into Laos without a passport? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I am going to do whatever it takes to get into Laos; even if I have to take an 8 hour bus ride back to Phnom Penh, then another 8 hours back to Preah Vihear, then a 2 hour drive to the border.

So after praying about it on the bus ride we get to Preah Vihear. We met our other contact Joel who has been to Kampong Sra Lao (the border town of Cambodia/Laos). He was telling us that he’s been to Kampong Sra Lao and has crossed the river over to Laos. Since it’s not an “official” border crossing, you can hire people to take you across the river. It’s pretty risky and sketch, but hey-it’s a chance to visit my family’s home country. I guess I would take that information as a prayer answered seeing as I actually didn’t need my passport to cross into Laos. It’s on!

As the month went by we were running out of time to do stuff. Things get pretty crazy around the Khmer New Year and this month we are leaving early (March 26th) to fly out to Kenya. The really cool thing was that our contacts, Jim & Carolyn, MADE sure there was enough time to make it to Kampong Sra Lao so I could visit Laos. After going over plans, this trip made NO logistical sense, time was crunched due to things in ministry, and not many people wanted to go. But either way, Jim and Carolyn made it happen because they knew how much it would mean to me to go to Laos. Thank you Jesus for Jim and Carolyn.

On Friday, April 15th we left Preah Vihear for a 2 hour drive to Kampong Sra Lao. Talking to the locals they say the roads to Kampong Sra Lao are “very good.” One thing I should mention is that a majority of the roads in the country aren’t paved-just gravel. They just began to pave the road from Preah Vihear to Phnom Penh. It’s 2011 and many roads aren’t even paved yet. From what I understand many of the roads haven’t been paved because of landmines. Now that the landmines are cleared they are starting to pave roads. So we get on the roads and I’m expecting a nice smooth ride on a paved road. Wrong. It’s a gravel road with packed red dirt. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice and all, but it was still really bumpy and dusty.

After a two hour ride through to Cambodian countryside we made our first stop in Kampong Sra Lao. KSL is known for it’s beautiful waterfalls. We stopped there to walk around, have lunch, and take in the sights. It was very beautiful but there were a ton of people due to it being Khmer New Year. The waterfalls were great! I found a nice spot away from everyone to have some alone and prayer time with God. I always seem to indulge in His presence even more when I am admiring His creations.
Once we were done with the waterfalls, we made the 20 kilometer drive into Kampong Sra Lao village to see if we could find a boat to cross the Mekong River into Laos. We get into KSL and park near the Mekong. We see a big celebration going on due it being the new year and all. We stand by the river looking across and I can see Laos! It actually wasn’t very far and I could probably swim there if I wanted to. We kept looking around for boats and then this one gentlemen approaches us and starts speaking in Lao. Side note-even though we are still in Cambodia, everyone in KSL speaks Lao and they use Lao currency because they do all of their trading with Lao so they all know the language. I used my limited Lao language abilities to tell him what we wanted to do and he said he has a boat he can take us across to Laos. He said it would cost 100,000 Kip (Lao money) which is like $10 USD. I said no way because it’s literally a stone throw away. Then I got him down to 50,000 KIP which is about $5 USD. Remember, this guy does not speak a lick of English so everything was done in Lao. You’d be proud of me Mom!

 

 
 
We jumped on a rickety boat and made the short trek to Laos! A few minutes later I was stepping on Lao soil! Woo-hoo!!! My prayers from Thailand have been answered! We spent a bit just walking around. We saw people out and about celebrating the New Year. It was really cool to actually be in my family’s home country. It’s also cool that I got to sneak into a communist country J. Thank you Jesus for keeping us safe.
 
 
 
 
 
I told the boat driver that I was happy because I am from America and it was my first time in Laos. While we were packing up, the rest of the group wanted to go to the bathroom so I stuck around with the driver (named Law) and hung out with him and his family at his roadside shop. Again, Holy Spirit gave me the ability to converse all in the Lao language. I told them I was Christian and that I would pray for them. We said our goodbyes and he said to come back whenever I could and that he’d be at the same shop waiting to take people across!
 

All in all it was a great day! I was so happy to see great waterfalls, eat super spicy papaya salad, and get to cross into Laos! I couldn’t have done any of this without the kind hearts of our contacts Jim and Carolyn. They have been so amazing this entire month! I really am going to miss them and their family!

On our way home, it was getting dark and we came upon some people on the road so I drove by and they waved us down to stop. We didn’t know what was going on til we rolled the window down and heard a girl screaming bloody murder. We saw motorbikes and a tractor and trailer and put two and two together and realized there had been a really really bad accident. You can read Nikki’s blog about what all happened, but the only thing I will say is that I am glad God orchestrated it so that WE were the ones who would take this woman who was seriously hurt to the hospital. We were able to pray and pray to keep her cautious and alive.

NIkki’s Blog
 
That’s all I have for this update. Things are going really well here in Cambodia. I am loving every waking moment. It was great to celebrate the Khmer New Year with the locals and see how they celebrate things. It’s crazy to think that before the beginning of May, we will be in Africa! Nairobi, Kenya to be exact! It’s also crazy to realize that on May 9th, I will be celebrating my 24th birthday in Kenya! How awesome is that!?!

Thank you for all the prayers and support! Til next time!