Portland

what in the world! so much has happened since I moved here

:Good News:

• My sister is pregnant with twin Girls! yay for more moore girls. haha
• I'm making friends here everyday
• completely having to depend on God
• Trusting that this is where God wants me to be
• found a great church within walking distance
• reading more then I did before ( hence the free time and no job)
• learning about what real trust looks like!
• I love my roommates! accountability
• we have a beautiful house in NE Portland that is already feeling like a haven for me in the midst of my stress and heartache.
• becoming independent in a sense of who I am and growing in that.

:Other News

• Car Accident!! ..ending in having to borrow money from my amazing sister ;( to pay for the damage
• Found out my parents lost there jobs and now they are moving to Knoxville, Tenn in January..
• My close friend John dies.. absolute shocker :(
• still no money.. or job
• not so much frustrating.. but emotionally weird for me none the least.. My ex Tim gets married

ahh!!!

sometimes I tend to get very emotionally involved in the NBA playoffs..
and it doesn't help when I want to scream at the TV and I can't because everyone is sleeping..

I miss this

the last 6 months have been filled with so many amazing experiences. I can honestly say that this has been the most exciting year of my life. God has brought me through so much and I will never forget how much he loves me! And wow what a faithfull God he is. please everyone pray for cambodia because God is moving in the people there and I believe he will continue to bring hope to that nation. they are some of the most loving and hard working people I have ever met.

Be His Hands And Feet

This picture was taken at a church service we were doing at a children' s home.. there was this really cute, little old lady sitting next to me. durring prayer she reached over to me and started rubbing my arm and looking at my bracelets.. the thing is in this culture is that they love the color of my skin so it wasn't so weird that she was touching me.. So I felt like God wanted me to give her 3 of my bracelets. so when she looked away I took them off and then gave them to her. we couldn't speak the same language but she just started talking and smiling to me.. after that she put them on and I saw tears in her eyes.. after the prayer she got up and gave me the most loving hug I could ever want. even though I may not be able to speak to the people here I know they can feel the love of God through me.

Thailand!!

yes so now I am in Thailand for the last month.. we have been staying in Bangkok for the past few days.. and tomorrow morning we are heading out to Mae sot to work in the villages and help the refugees. mae sot is in Thailand on the border of Burma.. so we hope to get the chance to cross over into burma as well. please keep us in your prayers..
I love and miss you all

friendship

I will start by saying..sorry.. I haven't been keeping this thing updated.. Its so hard because everything is happening so fast. the first two months I was with my team in cambodia and now we are in Thailand for the last month. In Cambodia we worked in orphanages, taught english for college students, and I was able to have personal ministry with my friend srey mom, who I met at an Internet cafe. If there was no other reason for me coming here then to be her friend and share Jesus with her then It was all worth it. she said the last night I was with her that she comes from a very poor family and I could have given her money and then not had cared about our friendship. but that she was glad I spent time with her and gave her so much more then money because I gave her friendship.. she kept telling me that she didn't have to worry about the future because God will provide for her. she kept saying "thank you because Jesus is in my heart and now I am happy." wow that was such a blessing to me! All I could say to her was "that is the greatest gift I could ever give you.."

When we were in Vietnam we took a trip out of the city to a village. We got the chance to play with children living in an orphange. They were all learning Tae kwon doe so they taught us a few tricks. It was inspiring to see them so passionate about something they loved to do. This was definitely one of my highlights in vietnam.

from my team

It’s our third week in Cambodia, and we just wanted to send an update with the highlights of our time here so far. We have been involved with several different ministries over the last few weeks.

Many of the people on our team have felt lead to participate more with some of the church ministries. It has been awesome seeing the different churches that are so on fire for God! He is definitely moving and working in all of them. Some of the ways we have had opportunities to be involved is through Bible studies, teaching English, leading dance classes, and building personal relationships.
We have also been helping at several of the local orphanages here in Phnom Penh. Just this last week, our team was spending some time at the AIDs orphanage where we had the opportunity to watch the kids open their “Operation Christmas Child” packages! People from around the world send in shoe boxes of gifts for the children. It was so exciting to actually be there with them while they had fun opening them! such a blessing!

Last weekend, we took a ferry to “Papa John’s Orphanage” where we served food to hundreds of hungry kids. It was awesome. Then, John told us about his incredible testimony and how God brought him and his wife to Cambodia. It was such an encouragement to our team!

We have made a lot of new friends over the last few weeks. Tuk tuks are what we use to get around everywhere, so it has given us a chance to meet lots of drivers. Several of them have gone with the guys from our team to play soccer and hang out on the weekends. On our team night last week, three of our drivers came with us to go bowling. One of them is not a Christian, but he has started reading his Bible and going to church . It is so exciting to see God working in his life! We are all learning and growing in our faith personally and as a family. Our Father is teaching us so much about what it means to serve others whole-heartedly. We have been putting on the armor of God daily and constantly depending on Him for our unity and strength.

Love, Team Cambodia

I'm leaving for Vietnam tomorrow!!

I'm so sorry I haven't updated you on whats been going on.. Its all going so fast and there is so much to tell. thank you all sooo much for your encouraging comments. It was such a blessing for me to hear from you all. I don't have too much time to go into details but please keep my team in prayers as we travel in the morning on a 8 hr. bus ride to Vietnam. we are not exactly sure on the ministries we will be doing there.. because its a closed nation.. I know we are planning on doing a ton of prayer walks.. and possibly getting involved with passing out bibles. so pray for our safety on that. we will be there for at least a week, so when I get back I'll write another update.. I love and miss you all so much!