As I type this, tears are flowing from my face. It’s funny because when I’m at home, I rarely cry. However, when the Lord is working in such voluminous ways around me, it’s hard to fight back the tears. If a month ago, you would have told me I’d be teaching English to 12 strictly Khmer speaking children, I would have changed my trip destination. I remember the moment so vividly when my ministry host, Vandy, told us we would be teaching English every day. My stomach dropped. I thought “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s the last thing I want to do.”...

As I type this, tears are flowing from my face. It’s funny because when I’m at home, I rarely cry. However, when the Lord is working in such voluminous ways around me, it’s hard to fight back the tears. If a month ago, you would have told me I’d be teaching English to 12 strictly Khmer speaking children, I would have changed my trip destination. I remember the moment so vividly when my ministry host, Vandy, told us we would be teaching English every day. My stomach dropped. I thought “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s the last thing I want to do.”...

This past week or so has both been full of good and bad unexpected challenges. To be honest, I am left feeling a bit out of sorts. However, the truth and character of who God is remains unchanged. For example, my heart continues to unthaw its walls from the love I have experienced here in Cambodia. As time flies by at the orphanage, my team and I fall deeper. Deeper into real community with each other and deeper in love with the community that has freely invited us in. Often times I feel like the kids and people at New Hope serve us better than we serve them. It’s because they know Jesus...

This past week or so has both been full of good and bad unexpected challenges. To be honest, I am left feeling a bit out of sorts. However, the truth and character of who God is remains unchanged. For example, my heart continues to unthaw its walls from the love I have experienced here in Cambodia. As time flies by at the orphanage, my team and I fall deeper. Deeper into real community with each other and deeper in love with the community that has freely invited us in. Often times I feel like the kids and people at New Hope serve us better than we serve them. It’s because they know Jesus...

Just over three weeks ago I arrived at training camp, unsure of how my journey might go. I imagined the possibilities of flight delays and broken down vans with drivers who didn’t speak our language. I daydreamed of finding any American food for the first time in two months in a shop in Asia. I reminisced over my past Cambodia trip when we made the best of disappointing situations — yoga alongside our smoking bus, inside jokes about peeing behind a hut, laughing at the unnecessary panic that overcame when we broke the Marady Hostel’s tiny elevator, and shrugging off curfew...

What is adventure without travel? You must enter new cultures, eat new foods, meet new people, and live as others live.  I have learned so much from the people of Cambodia; learned about gratitude, servitude, and most importantly, joy. Back home, we have so much to be grateful for. But are we truly aware of it? I have learned to be grateful for running water & electricity, yet at home those are such constants I do not even consider them blessings. When I offer a child a banana, or a sip of the soda I bought at the store, the chorus of thank you’s that pour out warms my heart....