Adventurous Life

The following is my journal entry for 18 June. Today is the Queen Mother's birthday, and in celebration the schools have a holiday so no Logos this morning. Instead, Lois p'own sray, Lisa and I went to Miss Kim's house. When there isn't school she invites her youth group over for the morning and lunch. They are all Vietnamese kids whose parents came to Phnom Penh some time ago. They tens to be some of the poorest here since the can't get papers for real work or citizenship since they are Vietnamese ethnicity. Because of the poverty the parents sometimes sell their daughters to brothels for money. After meeting and getting to know a few of these beautiful, young ladies it breaks my heart to think about what could be the reality of their future. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we teach English at New Hope School which is just for the Vietnamese. The first 3 classes I was with the youth but now I am with kids who are about 5 years younger and are just learning English. So fa...

We have been in the country a little over a week, returned to normal sleep patterns after jet lag, and already experienced some different ministries. It was a very hard first week. I experienced some culture stress as Cambodia is nothing like I imagined or expected. I will record more of my cultural observations and struggles on this blog in the next few days as I journal about them. I also had a hard week physically. Not with stomach problems as many might suppose, although my stomach is adjusting as well, but with a really bad heat rash that was all over my back, arms, and thighs. It has taken a few days but is now starting to clear up. Two main things I learned from this week are 1.) God is the only Sustainer and 2.) this trip is not going to be anything like my trip to Japan. Week 2 has begun and everything looks brighter. Monday we started teaching summer school at Logos International School. I thought I was going to be teaching art for two weeks, but after a visit to the school l...

Background: In 1975 Pol Pot and the communist party Khmer Rouge came to power. The face they put on for the world was one of an ideal communist society, but the truth behind the mask was one of terror, mistrust, and murder. For four years, Cambodia endured and struggled for survival. Help came in the form of an invasion by the Vietnamese army, and the world was made aware of the millions of deaths that had been ignored, denied, or unheard. It is estimated that approximately 2 million people died directly from the genocide and another million died from the forced famine. The world had seen genocide before but not one committed against a group's own people group. This is thirty years later.... On Tuesday, my second day here, we visited Tuol Sleng or S-21. This was a high school that the Khmer Rouge used as a torture center where people accused of committing crimes against the party would be taken before they were executed. Only 7 out of 17,000-20,000 people survived. The compound is ...

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,  Because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted;  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,  To proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners;  To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God;  To comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. ~ Isaiah 61:1-3 This passage of Scripture described the ministry of the Messiah, and the people would know of the arrival of the Messiah by witnessing these works. Jesus read this passage at the beginningof His ministry to declare His Messiahship and what He was going to do among them (cf. Luke 4:17-21). For some reason I have always been struck by this passage. It speaks of liberation and restoration, that...

In less than a week Lisa and I will be leaving for Cambodia! The vaccinations are complete, the packing has begun, and the excitement is starting to build. My life has been such a whirlwind lately that I am (somewhat) looking forward to being enclosed in a plane for 20ish hours. It is hard to imagine that a week from now I will be in a different country (yay!) adjusting to a 12-hour time difference (hmmm). For those of you who would like specific times, we leave Dallas at 10:30 p.m. Saturday and arrive in Phnom Penh at 11:35 am on June 8th. Gotta love crossing the international date line! My brother once told me it is sort of like flying to the future.    I will have email access at an internet cafe while I am there, but I do not know how often I will be able to go. I will try to send out updates as often as possible. Please feel free to email me if you wish, but I might not respond quickly.    Now on to the Cambodia portion of the email!   MINISTRIES Lisa & I will be...

........120%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, you read that correctly. Not only did God provide 100% by the deadline, but He also provided waaaaaaaaaaay more than that. I am guestimating how much extra but it is so cool to see how God opened the floodgates this week. Thank you so much for your prayers, support, and encouragement! You now have a small reprieve from the updates. I will send another update next week to mark one month until we leave. In the words of my good friend Julia, "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

As of Thursday, 30 April, 11:00 p.m. CST, I am now up to 93% or $3802! If you have told me you are giving but have not told me the amount, your gift is not included in this number. There are quite a few of you so that means my total is actually higher. Yay! Thank you God for providing so abundantly through all of these people, and thank you for allowing me to be a part of this Body, this family. You are good, you are all good, and you are the highest good. May I never forget or live as it is false. In Jesus' name I rejoice--Amen!

CrossWorld CrossWorld is a non-denominational missions organization that began as Unevangelized Fields Mission in 1931. They have missionaries all over the world building up the Church in various ways. For more information about the organization you can visit www.crossworld.org . I was introduced to CW through a fellow DTS student. He is an appointee with CW (which means he has committed to go with them long-term), and we were in the same missions group at church. Through him, my church, my school's yearly missions conference, and one of my professors, I have been able to meet other missionaries that serve with this organization as well as some of the stateside staff. Lisa and I choose to do an internship with this organization not only because we were familiar with it but also because they had a few ministry partnerships already set up in Cambodia. I am looking forward to partnering with them and learning about ministry in Cambodia as well seeing if God is leading me to join CW in...

The Travel Dates We will depart June 6th and return July 28th. That is about two months away! It is so hard to believe at times, but I am getting more excited each day (as if you couldn't tell by my abundant use of exclamation points). There is still so much to do in preparation for the trip and to finish the semester that it will fly by. The Team Who is "we" you ask? The "we" refers to my teammate, Lisa Yunker, and myself. Lisa is a good friend and fellow student from DTS. We first met at a function for prospective students back in March 2006. She is also in the Cross-Cultural Ministries program and has some pretty awesome physical therapy skills too. I am grateful for my friendship with Lisa because she encourages me in the Lord and directs be back toward Him. I know this will be important as we minister in a land of darkness. The Ministries Our sending agency, CrossWorld, has already set up some ministry opportunities for us. At the beginning of the trip we w...

Today my friend and cat of 19 years was put to sleep. She had been ill for a long time and it was amazing that she lived this long, but she quit eating this past week, lost a lot of strength, and was listless. My dad made the decision to put her down and I agreed. She was so important to me; it won't be the same when I go home. I think I am actually taking her death harder than when my grandma passed away 3 months ago. Lady Grey's death was more sudden while I had around 2 months to prepare myself for Grandma's death from cancer. I spent those 2 months grieving and the result was that when Grandma finally did die I seemed to be released from the grief. With Lady Grey every time I left to come back home I always wondered if this would be the last time I would ever see her; I always thought I had more time with my Grandma. Regardless, I miss them both. Aren't our reactions to death funny? We know that it happens to everyone, but yet we are still surprised for the most par...

What happened to the simpler times? The times in my life when I remember being happy? Last year I remember being happy. Sure it was tough adjusting to school, making new friends, and allowing God to work in my life, but I was happy and joyful. Then the summer came and I was isolated from my Christian communities. My friends from school didn't want to make the drive to see me and I didn't want to spend my summer driving to see them so that was one part of my life cut off. Aspects of my Sunday school at church changed and it was more like a high school clique of which I was not cool enough to be a part. I stopped going to that. There wasn't anyone I could takt to or hang out with at work or at home so it was...just...me. I reverted back to my old ways of independence and self-reliance. After all, if there is no one around you for support the only person you have is yourself. I could have been disciplined and stayed connected to God but I let my shame push a big wedge between ...

Why me, Father God? Why did you choose me? Out of all of the people in this world, why did you choose me? Knowing that I would fail again and again, knowing that I cannot be completely obedient--why did you choose me? I hate to disappoint you. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."~ 2 Corinthians 12:9

One of the awesome opportunities about being at seminary is all the really cool stuff I get to read. One of the downsides to being at seminary is the amount of cool stuff I have to read. As a result I have decided to list the books that have encouraged or challenged me, really made me think, or have influenced my Chrisitan paradigm in any way. If you happen to read anything on this list please let me know and we can dialogue about any said reading. I will update this post on occasion so remember to check it. Oprah ain't got nothing on this! * Communication Theory for Christian Witness by Charles Kraft * Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the Nations by Walter C. Kaiser * From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth Tucker * From the Ground Up by J.Scott Horrell

I wrote the following in a letter to a friend, liked what I wrote, and decided to post it. Is it that I am truly that arrogant or is it that I like to give out tidbits of food for thought? Talk amongst yourselves. There's your topic. "So what has God been showing me in the Word? It's been really cool actually. I used to think that if after I had read my Bible during my quiet times and nothing amazing or spectacular jumped out at me then I had either done something wrong in my approach, had a wrong attitude, didn't read enough, etc. I now see it [the Bible] as the most important story ever. Just as a story has impact points or spectacular instances, so does the Bible, but the most important thing is to persevere to the end of the story and to tkae God's story as a whole. Now this is where the analogy ends because unlike a story the Word is living and active, able to penetrate your very being. It is able to transform. I have been approaching the Bible wrong; I have b...

For one of my classes, I had to write a paraphrase of Acts 3:1-10. I presented my work in class and received some good feedback so I thought I would post it. I wish you could have seen and heard some of my other classmates' work: a rap song, comic strip, pirate poem, an allegory, painting, paper sculpture, and many, many others. Anyway, here is my project. A DAY DIFFERENT THAN ALL THE OTHERS When I woke up that morning I didn’t know it was going to be the day that changed my life forever. It didn’t feel any different. Nothing spectacular happened that morning. I woke up at the same time to the same sights and sounds. Same bed clothes on my body, same mat I slept on, same morning breath, and….the same lameness still affecting my legs. I have been lame since birth. My parents took me to different doctors to see if I could be made better, but there was nothing any of them could do. Eventually my parents gave up trying and gave up hope. It was a hard decision for them to make. See in m...

Preface For one of my classes, I am to answer a reflective question each week. So, if the topics seem odd it is because they are not orignal but merely me fulfilling an assignment like the good student I am. (Those who know me will pick up on the dry humor in the latter part of the last sentence.) I find that the questions are helpful and give me a good reason to post something. The Post In the past week I have been reading from Matthew, Psalms, Romans, and Numbers. The Book of Numbers has actually taken on new significance and interest for me as I have observed the role and importance of the nations in the book. I now read with a highlighter in hand so as to mark whenever the nations or peoples are mentioned. Lately, my prayer life has been suffering because I have not been trusting, and even resisting, that God would answer my prayers. Who am I that He should think of me, to do for me? As I write this, I hear a voice in my head that says, “It is not for your service that I answer you...

Why do I refuse God? I have a relationship with Him in the sense that I try to take from Him. I do not give to Him and neither do i let Him give to me. I have been pretty regular about spending time in the Word, which is good for me. I have not been regular of late. My prayer life is almost nonexistent because i am afraid of what He has to say. I know God loves me and has my best at heart. Why do i refuse Him? Why am i afraid of intimacy with my God and Savior? To be honest, it's because i have been burned so many, many times in the past. I don't want to be hurt anymore. I distance myself as a protective measure but i end up hurting myself more because i deny myself the intimacy with God i desire and need. I want to be wholly God's but i know that i am a liar with good intentions when i sing those words. I have a hard time trusting. I do not like myself this point in my pilgrimage. I wnat to be more than what i am, but i am not obedient enough to get there. I abuse grace. I...

Tonight while at work I was struck by a source power, often unknown, and its ill effects upon my life. The source of power is the power of self and in essence the power of the sinful nature. I have been really sick the past two days (strep throat), and just today I have received my vitality and strength back. I wasn't really looking forward to going to work because I didn't want to lose this strength, get sick even more, and not be able to go to class tomorrow, but at least I didn't have to close. Not long after being at work the manager, who knew about my illness, came and asked if I could close stating that no one else wanted/should to do it. I was honest and said I didn't want to but would if there was absolutely no one else who could do it. She left without saying anything, and the other manager eventually came and told me that someone else would close instead. It was during the time in between the managers' communications that I struggled with the situation. My...

Welcome to my new blog site. I do not promise to be current, but i do promise to be honest. Have a blessed day!