Zzzzzzzzz

We arrived safely with all our luggage. Woohoo!  We were greeted by our sweet fried Ketly and a bus to pick us and our luggage up. We traveled from Punta Cana to our temporary home in La Romana. It's population is over 110,000. We are staying in a little dorm near the church. Great logistically.  A few hiccups like power and water this morning but no biggie. Most showered last night.
Some serious Zzzzzzzs took place last night. In fact most are still snoozing. Feeling refreshed and ready to tackle teacher training.

Disaster Averted

One of the suitcases was left at the curb. Fortunately, Linda got it before the bomb squad did.
Best TSA moment: Marissa got pulled out for a rubber snake. Actually, we were sure they were profiling as the rest of the team besides she and I were fast tracked through.
We had a bumpy ride, but arrived safely in Denver. Next stop DC. Not as much turbulence that round.

Dominican Republic 12/27-1/6

Our 7 person team heads out 12/27 and returns 1/6.  We will be doing 1 teacher training and 2 Vacation Bible Schools. 

If we have wifi we will blog.  So check back often.

We are on east coast time.  So it will be awesome to not be too far off of our time zone. 
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/dominican-republic/santo-domingo

Please keep our team in prayer.

Home Sweet Home

We are home safely.  Thank you for your prayers and support!

Beauty from Ashes

Today wraps up our mission in Cambodia.  We were invited to visit White Doves Cambodia.  They provide living resources and a safe home for women aged 17-25 (and often their children). Here they have counselling, daily devotions, schooling and life skills training with the end goal of finding appropriate vocational training and a job placement to support themselves outside of sex trafficking.  White Doves http://www.whitedovescambodia.com/ is run by Cambodian and funded by the Netherlands.  We had the opportunity to tour the facility and see them learning new vocational skills.  They were sewing and weaving purses.  They also have a salon they train them in.  We had the opportunity to shop for the boutique and support them at the same time.  Please keep your eyes pealed for these beauties and the Tea.  I love to see how God brings beauty from ashes. 

We were trying to go to the Children's Center to host their Kid's Club.  Unfortunately, do to the heavy rains we were not able to reach the facility.  We did a quicky course to Sang to explain how to use the items we brought.  Thank you to to volunteers who make the crafts.  God is using some of those items to bless the Children's Center in the slums.

Thank you to all of those who made this trip possible.  Thank you to the volunteers who put together 1000's of crafts for the teacher to learn and the children to receive.  Thank you for those who support us financially through giving and fundraisers.  To those who serve in the fundraisers, I hope you know your service is being put to good use ongoing.  I can never thank you enough for those that are in prayer for us.  It means so much to us and I know that they have been instrumental.  Thank you to our families who stay behind and cover the slack for us while we are away.  They spend some sleepless nights covering us in prayer and entrusting us to the Lord.  Thank you for all you sacrifice.  I know your sacrifice truly is greater than ours.

I feel like God did a mighty work in Cambodia.  I hope that we can come back and see how He used the work to further His kingdom.  

We fly out tomorrow, Thursday, at 9:25 am (7:25pm Wednesday California time).  We have 2 days of travel back home.  We arrive in Cali Friday at 10:40 am.  Please pray for safe travels.  

A Bittersweet Day

What a bittersweet day.  We completed teacher training in Siem Reap.  Pastor Vuthy and Soknang did a wonderful job of coordinating the training.  Although I was discouraged that it was abbreviated, it was powerful and effective.  Pastor Vuthy brought in people form other denominations and from the province.  It ranged from young teachers to Pastors.  He was a great host assuring all the details were handled for those attending.

Pastor Vuthy said that for the 7 days of creation or the 10 commandments he had to look them up.  Due to the practical learning he could now teach it from his hands (hop on over to https://www.facebook.com/Fifty5five/ to see a video on this teaching).

Those who attended were great fun.  They were very participatory and full of laughter.  Please pray that what they learned will be taken back to their churches and homes and taught to others.

We had to say good bye to our friend, Soknang, tonight.  He really took such good care of us on our trip from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and while we've been here.  His presence and knowledge have really been instrumental.  I thought he was a pretty serious guy and then I seen his funny side come out. 

Soknang

We had a lot of great laughs and are just so thankful for his sacrifice of time.  He had to leave tonight to get home to take a placement test for the University.  Please join us in praying for safe travels, that he is well rested and focused for the test.

Tomorrow we will be doing a Kids Club here in Siem Reap.  I have a couple of meetings to hold tomorrow as well as preparing for the trip back home.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers.

Answered Prayers

Today's blessings are multifold. The weather drop by 10 degrees and it is very pleasant. We were inside a cool room at Agape School  that had air but it wasn't needed. Nearly 40 pastors and teachers came in from the province. They quickly interacted (thank you for praying specifically for that) to the training as they learned storytelling using the 5 senses. Laughter and joy filled the room.  The interpreter was great.  We also got a gig for Wednesday (another answered prayer) which makes me happy!

Tomorrow we are back at the school. Thank you for your continued prayers. The prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective.