Cambodia Bike Project Keeps Rollin' Along

Starting Cambodia Bike Project has been such a blessing and an exciting part of the work that Leanne and I get to do here in Cambodia. The program is so simple to manage, pay for and organize but it has such a substantial and long-lasting impact.

Leanne was kind enough to connect me with a teacher that she works closely with and recently I was able to do a distribution just around the corner from our house here in Phnom Penh. Children and families gathered together to hear about how to take care of the bikes and they all agreed to use them for the purpose of attending school each and every day.

What I love about CBP is that it has very little to do with me and everything to do with the Cambodians who we support. They are the ones who talk to the kids, they are the ones who pray for the kids and their new bikes, they are the ones that do all of the applications and check-ins. It is the development of Cambodia by Cambodians and I really like being a part of that movement. CBP is simply a conduit for pastors and teachers who want to help their communities and classrooms and I hope it stays that way!

Here are some pics of the kiddos with their new rides and with their families. What a fun and exciting day for all of us.

So We Did a Conference

So we did a conference back in 2012, and it was a big deal. A big deal to us.  You know one of those life changing ones.  I know it sounds over-kill, but really for us it was exactly what we needed at the time.

It was called Refocusing Leaders and we wrote about it a little here. It is a year long conference that meets four times for 2-3 days at a time.  I know super intense, right? But each Sunday when we finished, we drove home on our moto talking about how much that impacted each of us.  You know in the life changing kind of way!?!

So now that the conference ended almost six months ago, we wanted to tell you where it lead us.

It lead us to moving back to America.  Moving next month (pause for a small scream of nervousness), yup... in a month or so.  Chris has accepted a teaching position at Manual High School located in Denver in the 5 Points community.  Leanne will be attending Denver Seminary for her MA in Counseling (pause for a small scream of excitement). 

Through our conference we were able to take lessons from our past, hopes and desires for the future, Biblical truth, and guidance with friends to create a pretty little package that helped us know ourselves, each other, and the plans God has for us more clearly.

Chris wrote of his desire to be in public schools, a place where most students don't know Christ, and have less opportunity to hear about Jesus than if they were at a Christian school like Logos.  He learned of his desire to help students that live in the brokenness that America brings to our families, homes, communities, and neighborhoods.  His desire is to embody a life that gives wisdom, stature, and favor with God to those in his surroundings.

I wrote of my desire to be in relational ministry.  The kind of ministry where you sit at the dining room table with your neighbors, community, church, and family and friends.  The kind of ministry you see at the Last Supper when Jesus sat and ate and drank with his closest of followers.  To share in the ministry of breaking of bread like we see in Acts 2.

Each us through this time developed a Biblical purpose statement, a vision statement, and discovered our individual values.  We also walked through transitions, timelines, ways we see God work, and even set roles and goals for our future ahead of us.  It was a lot. And sometimes it was heavy. Sometimes it brought tears, and sometimes lingering smiles.

But now it leaves us with Chris starting on July 9th at Manual, a year round school, and Leanne starting Seminary on May 20th with an online class and then fully in August with her first full semester.  It leaves us with a daunting move across the planet...again.  It leaves us with heart wrenching good-byes.  It leaves us flying away from a place we love. 

BUT...it also leaves us with an excitement and peace as we follow God's leading and calling.  It leads us into a long-term ministry.  It leads us into further obedience and dependence on Christ.  It leaves us seeking prayer once again as we move.

Pictured above is dear Khmer friends Phany and Lida and their two boys Daniel and Samuel.  Also Sarah Blaine, who was in my Bible study, and her daughter Clara.  Our season of good-byes has started already.

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard." - Winnie the Pooh

Mamma was in Town

It has been a busy month, but now we are back.  Starting four weeks ago Chris broke his wrists, then we were gone for our "spring break," then my mom was here visiting us, and last night we ended a very busy work week where I was training my successor to take over 2Five2.  But for now I want to give the highlights of my mom's visit.

We met her, and our close family friend, Mary Beth, in Tokyo where we spent 10 days seeing the sites of Japan and visiting friends who live there. We loved seeing the four different cities we visited and getting a glimpse into cherry blossom season.

After tour 10 days in Japan we all boarded the plane and headed back to Phnom Penh, and we continued to be their tour guides in Cambodia, and it looked a little like this...

 

 

Since this is my mom's third trip to Cambodia she knows the sites, is used to the noise, dust, and smells so we are able to send her off on her own adventures and then hear their stories when we would gather again for dinner at our house.  Mary Beth had never been so they visited the main tourist sites in town, but I joined them for trips to get a pedicure and I even surprised them with an early Mother's Day trip to the best spa in town.  It was a treat to spend an afternoon in relaxation in honor of my mom, and to share that sweet memory with her.

 

Also in their time in Cambodia we spent a weekend going to the coast and visiting two coastal towns, Kep and Kampot.  Only 6 miles apart from one another we would eat lunch in one, and dinner in another.  We stayed in Kep at one of Chris and I's favorite places, The Kep lodge, and enjoyed long mornings of book reading, coffee sipping, porch sitting, and mother daughter talking. It was wonderful.  But here is the photo tour of our weekend at the coast.

 

We started with dinner in Kampot at the famous Rusty Keyhole and dined on the finest of ribs, beer, and lemon meringue pie that this river town has to offer.

 

 

We then headed to Kep and enjoyed our porch chatting times with this amazing view.

 We spent our Saturday taking a boat to Rabbit Island where we napped, read, swam, ate wonderful beach front seafood meals, and ended the day with my favorite thing of all, Cambodian iced coffees.

 

 

 

 

To end the weekend we had our final dinner at the Kep Crab Market where you watch the women aggressively selling their newest catch, and head to the nearest over the ocean restaurant to literally watch them catch you meal, cook, and serve it. We enjoyed several amazing sunsets, great Cambodian seafood, and time together.



 

 

Now mom and Mary Beth are back in America, and we cherish their visit to Cambodia and the memories we created on this trip.  Thanks for the visit and your depth of love for Cambodia.

one month...

We have one month before we leave Cambodia. One month of the sights and sounds of the streets. One month of the dirt and the rain and the dirty rain. One month of lizards in our trash cans and bats in our bedrooms. One month of flooded homes and streets. One month of three dollar meals and fifty cent beers. One month of pushing hard and making the most of the opportunities we have, and I hope we can make it.

Cambodia is a bit of an ass-kicker. It is hot, our stomachs are constantly gurgling from something we ate or drank. The danger of the roads is ever present and the cultural stress is vice-like. I think I may feel a sense of relief when our plane lifts off and the patterned rice fields turn to a sea of brown land as we depart from 30,000 feet. This sounds crazy but to be honest, Cambodia is really hard. What Leanne and I have been a part of has been rich and significant but it has also been challenging and stretching and even on some days, a bit unnerving.

For Leanne and I, living in Cambodia has not been the simple fulfillment of a desire for some quarter-life adventure. It was a calculated move that required us to uproot from great jobs, loving families and dear friends. We are different now because of what we have experienced in some ways better and in some ways worse. We worry about our reactions about home, our relationships with friends and our expectations for our jobs. We are concerned about what it will look like when we land for good, not just as visitors.

We will be busy for our last 31 days with graduations and goodbyes. We will turn over programs and projects to people who will take them further than we ever could and we will walk out of offices and a home that are as important to us as any other has ever been. This will be a challenge.

Two weeks ago I asked Leanne, "what do we do when we land in Denver, where do we start?" And she calmly explained to me, "just like each day here, we will wake up and continue, having faith that we will be taken care of on that day." That is my prayer for each of the next 31 days and beyond. To wake up, praise God for what he has provided and continue to walk in his ways. If we can do that then there is nothing to worry about.

First Day of School

Today was a huge day for 2Five2. A Monumental day. Today we walked 107 students ages 5 to 17 to school for the first time in their lives.

A day they were told almost 2 years ago would come eventually. A day they have been studying for at our catch-up school for days on end, so that they could too have a piece of paper that said they had accomplished something.

Students were a little nervous as we introduced them to their teacher at the public school. They were excited to see other kids from their village in their class, and thrilled to finally be the child that has a backpack and a uniform that allows them to attend.

I felt like a mom of 107 precious little souls as I sent them off to school hoping they enjoyed their day, and that they remembered everything we had taught them in our building. 

Tomorrow begins a new schedule for them, half day at the public school (that is the formal Khmer schedule) and half day with us at 2Five2 where they will continue to get academic help, learn important information on hygiene and child safety, and most importantly learn of the love and hope in Christ.

I don't think there are many people that know the excitement that these students felt as they walked with their classmates to their first ever day of school. Today they understand the meaning of blessed.

But today we celebrate the hours and hours of hard work the dedicated 2Fvie2 staff have put into these kids, the relationship building at the government school, and the many obstacles we had to overcome.  Today we understand the meaning of blessed.

Praise God for what is happening here in Cambodia, and please pray for these students as they continue in this transition.

Friends and Babies

Our dear dear friends Dan and Jess Hein are having their third baby this year, and we couldn't be happier to celebrate with them.  A few weeks back I hosted a baby shower for Jess so we could celebrate their new baby boy, Joshua.

I hosted it with another friend Angela (all three of us run together on Wednesdays for the past 3 years) and we enjoyed fun games, good food, and wonderful friends.

Dan and Jess leave this month for a 6 month furlough to America and Canada where they will welcome Joshua into their family, and enjoy some needed rest after 8 years of service in Cambodia.  The Heins and their girls Ally and Sophie hold a dear spot in our hearts and we will miss having them as running partners, co-workers, vacation buddies, church and bible study members, and friends we do life with every day.  We will miss you greatly and look forward to one day meeting Joshua!

Me, Angela, and Jess in Mondulkiri, Cambodia - 2012

Me, Jess, and Mindy in Sihanoukville, Cambodia - 2013

Jess and I at our Bible Study Christmas Party - 2011

Jess and her daughter Ally making cookies with us in 2010

It's All in the Wrists

Chris plays in a Monday night men's basketball league, it is a highlight for him every week.  All the guys that go have come to be his close friends, co-workers, and people we deeply respect.  It usually is a great night.

But last Monday while playing Chris took a fall and hurt his wrists.  As I watched one of his friends help him put his shirt on because Chris couldn't do it with his own hands, I knew right then we were on our way to our first ever Cambodian clinic visit.

We went to a clinic that is for ex-pats that are doing missionary work in Phnom Penh and saw a Dr. (who we call Dr. Smiles because every time we talked with him, he just smiled the whole time) that on first look thought he had fractured one wrist and sprained the other.  However, this clinic doesn't have x-ray machines so we were sent a few blocks away to go get the images from another clinic and then bring them back for Dr. Smiles to look at and make a decision.

So we got back in the car again and drove to the other clinic, dodged the crazy rush hour traffic, sat and waited with the other rough and tumble looking Khmer who were in need of care, and got our x-ray.

Drove back to the missionary clinic and had Dr. Smiles look it over.  He said that Chris fractured the radius in his lower arm/wrist area, but wanted to get another opinion because it was hard to see.  So the next morning he took it to his colleague.  Tuesday afternoon we then drove back to the missionary clinic to hear the update from the second opinion.

The second opinion was...drum roll... to get another x-ray.  So yet again we drove back to the Khmer clinic and repeated our steps from the day before.  Got another image and took it back to the missionary clinic to find out he didn't break the radius bone, but a smaller bone in his wrist!  Praise God!

He doesn't have to get a cast, and only has to wear a splint for the next three weeks.  As for the sprained one, he is not supposed to use it, but that is hard to do when the other is broken. But it was wonderful news as tomorrow we leave for Japan to meet up with my mom and visit dear friends, Erin and Blaine who currently live in Tokyo.

We have already had some funny encounters while we try to figure out how to drive, eat, clean, work, and type (thus me typing this blog) with only two and half out of four working hands.  We are thrilled and so thankful for our Dr. Smiles who helped us, the funds to pay for x-rays and care, and that we leave tomorrow for a much anticipated week long break.

Then last night I made an apple pie, because it was an apple pie kinda week...