Happy New Year!!
^I spent the end of 2014 in Pattaya Thailand – beautiful! My team took a ferry to a local island to swim in the clear waters of the Gulf of Thailand.
^my New Years view 🙂 Renting an umbrella for the day cost only 30 baht (approx $1 usd!) – worth it 🙂
^this is how we rang in the New Year. True beach style! Sand volleyball, Thailand lanterns filling the sky, fireworks across the shoreline. So fun!
^our whole squad (43 of us) spent a morning viewing Angkor Wat. A few Angkor Wat facts for you: Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world, constructed in the early 12th century. The bricks of the temple complex were joined together by vegetable compound instead of mortar. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed here! (I thought you’d like that Hayley, isn’t that cool???) 🙂
^me at Angkor Wat. 🙂 Beyonce, Jay Z, and their baby were visiting on the exact same day! The temple visiting hours are approx 5am-5pm, we got there at 5am to see the sunrise. I’m sure Bey & co were allowed in after regular visiting hours to see it by themselves. But crazy timing huh! Ha. We didn’t know they were here but all our of friends from America were telling us.
^part of the famous sites at Ta Phrom in the Angkor Wat complex. At the fall of the Khmer Empire in the 17th century, this temple was abandoned and neglected for centuries. Conservationists started to restore it in the 21st century and found these silk-cotton trees overgrown on the grounds. Over time the temple and the jungle merged, looking like this. The conservationists left the tree overgrowth to maintain the condition of apparent neglect. Simply breathtaking!
^the carvings on the walls are depictions of war. So beautifully detailed.
We bought a day pass to Angkor Wat for $20usd. They were also selling 3-day passes! This goes to show just how much history there is to see! We saw only a small glimpse.
My team is in Phnom Penh for the month. Speaking of history!! My team will be visiting the Killing Fields Memorial and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. I will definitely be blogging about this experience, stay tuned on pictures and a history lesson.
^a handful of kids from the orphanage we are working at this month. We are basically running a VBS (Vacation Bible School) 5 days a week (M-F) 5 hours a day (8:00-10:30am, 2:00-4:30pm). At the top is one of my teammates Jordan. We are teaching English, music class, and Bible studies all month.
^ a little kiddo at the orphanage. This one got very attached to me! We taught all the kids musical chairs. This little girl is the smallest so I held her and ran around the chairs, sitting her in my lap when the music stopped. The kids wanted to play over and over! We played over a dozen times, for hours it seems! I kept trying to get her to run by herself but when I put her down, she would break down in tears. Her story: her abusive and drug-addicted dad left her, her sister, and her mom. When her dad left, her mom ran away too, leaving the two little girls by themselves (ages maybe 3 and 5). The little girls were living by themselves at their home with zero supervision. The oldest girl (not the girl pictured) would go into the streets to beg for food to bring back for her and her sister to eat to survive. The pastor of the church we are working with picked up the two girls from the street and brought them to his orphanage. No wonder this girl gets so attached. All she knows is abandonment. Loving the opportunity to love on her this month!
^this is the older sister of the girl in yellow above. This girl is the one who would go begging for food for her and her sister. Such a precious little soul. During musical chairs, when she wouldn’t get a chair and would have to leave the game, she shut down. She didn’t take it well at all. To her, it looked like rejection and exclusion, that she wasn’t allowed to play any more. Just after a few days of being at the orphanage, we have already seen her open up to us. I can’t wait to see how she will grow over the month with us!
^this little guy! Adorable! We were teaching body parts (head, hands, fingers, stomach, knees, etc). In this picture they were doing an exercise where they had to draw themselves and point out their different body parts in the picture. This one is a sweetie! He is always helping: getting someone a piece of paper, sharing crayons, helping put up chairs, etc. Such a sweet sweet heart.
Over the Race, my team hasn’t had the opportunity to work with the same group of people each month. It seems like we are always working with an organization that works with several different ministries. This is beneficial, because we can reach tons of people and get the chance to experience so many different stories. But it’s hard to pour into someone when you only have an hour or a few days. This month, we will be with the same 20 kids every day. We are so excited!!!
PRAY that the little kids will open up to us, that we can truly love on them and that they will feel the love of Jesus through us. PRAY for our continued safety; theft is a major problem in this country. PRAY for us as we learn about the history of this country, that our hearts wouldn’t be hardened about learning about the atrocities, but that we would be able to pray even more and love even more on the people we encounter.
FUNDING UPDATE: I still need over $2,000 by March 1. If I do not reach the goal by March 1, I am sent home early. Nooooo!!! Many of you have expressed to me an interest in donating, but I haven’t seen your donation show up on my donor list. If you still want to donate, please visit the “Support Me!” link on the left side of my blog. THANK YOU ahead of time!!!
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Valentine’s Day is the exact halfway point of my 11-month adventure. Whoa!!! I cannot believe we are already in month 5!!!!!!
I’ll be home before ya know it. I miss all of you, family and friends!!! But please know that God is really blessing my time here in Asia. It has been beautiful to get to know God better and to meet His children all over the world. THANK YOU for donating to my mission trip!!!
I hope y’all all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!
