2019 - A Look Back!
 

      Wow. I apologize for this late update, but it has officially, as of today, been one year since I’ve been back in Cambodia! I will make this update as brief as possible, but I have so much to share about the past 12 months here in Poipet! For each month I tried to think of one highlight from that month!
      This year I have seen a lot of growth in my own life. From leadership skills, to teaching, to serving, to now being a translator, God has been so faithful to continue to development me as I work to see the Kingdom of Cambodia developed! 
      Later on this month, I hope to have an update with specific testimonies from each month, so watch out for that one as well! 

January: Welcome back home!

On January 15th, I arrived back in Cambodia after having an amazing month back home visiting with friends and family! Immediately, I started back to my normal work: teaching English in our Youth Development Center, running our organization’s finances, and working in the community teaching kids, evangelizing, and doing community development projects. My favorite part about January last year was getting to know our new Khmer Discipleship Training School (DTS) students, who I have now been running alongside for a whole year. It is amazing to see how much growth each student went through in a year and to see how they have become even stronger leaders in their community. 

February: A Trip To Myanmar

As my normal work continued here in Poipet, I got the chance to go and attend one of my fellow friend’s weddings in Kalaw, Myanmar. I can honestly say I never thought I’d get to go to Myanmar, but I am so thankful to have gone and experienced another country and a new culture, even if it was only for a week! During my time in Myanmar, God re-ignited my love and passion for Cambodia, which really fueled me throughout this past year! 

March: Purchasing a Moto

After about two months of fundraising, I was finally able to purchase a moto to help me with all of my work! This moto has been such a blessing - helping me get to ministries and villages easier, go to meetings at the bank, going to hang out with my Khmer friends (discipleship is a big part of our lives here as missionaries!), and so on! Thank you to all of you who helped me purchase this moto! 

April: Community Development

In April I was able to work alongside a family here in our city. Their housing situation wasn’t ideal, so we were able to bless them with some housing improvements. While such a small thing to us, these simple acts of kindness allow us to share the gospel and see people accept Jesus as their Savior. My heart for Cambodia is not to come and change the culture, but instead to champion them so that they have the power to transform their nation! God intricately and beautifully created the Khmer. It is such an honor to get to see them thriving and taking pride in their culture by giving them a chance to make a life for themselves! 

May-June: Leadership 

In May, my roles here in Poipet changed. I was asked to join our core leadership team as Head of Base Operations. This basically means that I oversee all of the departments of our facility. Whether it be housing, kitchen, maintenance, media or many more, I get to stand alongside our department leaders (who are all Khmer, except one department), serve them, and champion / disciple them to become stronger leaders. This role is a lot of work, and I am not perfect at it, but it is a lot of fun to work alongside such strong and passionate Khmer leaders! 

July-September: Bible Core Course (BCC) 

Every July marks the beginning of a three-month long course we run here in Poipet. It is called a Bible Core Course (BCC). During these three months, all 66 books of the Bible are read and approximately 15-16 books are indepthly studied - looking at history, original context, and more to fully understand the original meaning of the text and then using that information to find how it is applicable to our world today! I got the opportunity this year to staff in our BCC and also teach the book of Jeremiah! This year’s school had 12 students, with 50% being Khmer! During this time, we also decided to take a short outreach team to India! The season surrounding BCC was incredibly busy, but I learned a lot about myself and the call that God has on me here in Cambodia! 

October: Transition Period

As BCC finished mid-October, a busy season commenced! The day after BCC finished, I took a week off and went to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand for a few days of counseling. As missionaries we highly value annual checkups! Even if you are not a missionary, counseling is still a great option to bring clarity, healing and more into your life! This counseling was incredibly beneficial to me because it helped me process a lot of the things that have happened in the past few years since I started working on the mission field. I also had many questions about my future path and how to see more success and fruit on the mission field. God brought a lot of clarity during this time!

Once back from Chiang Mai, my team and I began to intensely prepare for India by studying the culture more, building unity, and praying for our time in India. 

November: India

I tried to write an update about only India, but I honestly couldn’t do it without writing an entire novel. India was one of the highlights of my life so far, without a doubt. The country was so beautiful and the food… I still dream about it. God moved in incredible ways while we were in India. We started our time in Bangaluru in the South of India partnering alongside churches in the area, attending house churches and encouraging the Body of Christ there. This was a time of preparation as we got ready to head to the very dangerous and persecuted area of North India God put on our hearts. 

The North part of India was beautiful and God’s glory shone through the darkness in ways I’ve never seen before. I still have not been able to put this experience into words. This time was a time of security and caution, as hundreds of missionaries had just been killed in the highly sensitive state we were in. At one point we got to spend a few days in a mountain range notoriously known for cannibalism, human sacrifice, and black magic. Speaking for the whole team, this was probably our favorite part of the whole trip. Even though this area is highly persecuted, the believers worship loudly and passionately without fear and proclaim God’s glory over the land. Healings and salvations were uncountable during our time in the mountains. Testimonies of people being healed from AIDS, Hepatitis, numerous chronic illnesses and even resurrections are prevalent in this region. It was an experience I will never forget. I hope to one day go back for a short time and visit the friends I made while in India. 

December: The Holidays

This December was a pretty simple month for us here in Poipet. Our usual ministries of English teaching, community development and more continued. However, the biggest focus during this time was our DTS, which started in January! During this time, all hands were on deck networking, creating promotional videos and papers, and more to get the word out about our DTS. Even though I was unable to go home to America to visit family, I was able to spend the holidays with my Cambodian family here in Poipet, which was a huge blessing. Being away from the states during the holiday season is not the easiest thing, but I still had a great time hanging out with everyone! 

January 2020: DTS BEGINS

This year’s DTS has nearly 10 students, which is great! The students come from all over Cambodia and are all really incredible. I am so excited to get to continue to know them more and see how much they grow during this season! It is also really cool to see some of  the students from last year’s DTS as staff in this year’s school! Please continue to pray for all of the students and staff as they continue to learn more about God, begin to pray about outreach locations, and continue to raise money to continue in this school!