Wrapping Up Cambodia

Our three weeks on the island in the middle of the river, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of Cambodia was by far one of my favorite places yet! It was awesome to build relationships with the youth that were there and to just feed into their lives and have them feed into to mine. It left me wanting to move to Cambodia and live in the middle of a mango field in a hut.
All six of us stayed in a room with just grates for windows and doors. We set up our tents for a bit of privacy and protection from the mosquitoes at night. There was rarely a moment when there was not a Cambodian, young or old, staring in the windows at us. I mean we were quite a sight with our tents, music, and pale green and orange Christmas decorations.
House of Joy feeds and teaches children and youth who are financially sponsored by people in The States or China. The students get lunch and dinner at the House of Joy. There is class for 1.5 hours in the morning and in the afternoon for the younger students.  Then in the evening after dinner we would teach the youth (high school students) English and just hang out and get to know them.
It was such a blessing to get to know and build relationships with the youth of House of Joy. As I said in a previous blog many of them are the only Christians in their families and are a major part in helping run the church.  They have awesome testimonies of how God has just been so evident in their lives. They were all like family, they would go to school together, eat together and pretty much the only thing they didn’t do together was sleep.
It was heartbreaking to leave but House of Joy will always have a place in my heart and I hope to return one day and hear of the ways God is working in and through them.

Sela or Smart Boy! One of my many Cambodian suitors.

All of us at dinner!

Our last night! We all went a bit camera crazy!

Stay tuned for our CRIBS video from Cambodia!