The Pak

Wow...it has been such a long time since I wrote! 

Welcome back to your virtual your through Cambodia. I'll be your guide!

This past week has been an absolute whirlwind. Nicole and I were feeling called back to Phnom Penh, and decided to come back here for our last week in Cambodia. We had the chance to go back out to Svay Pak and work with Agape International Missions for a second time. But let me back up and explain! 

We spent 2 weeks in Battambang at Hope Bible Institute teaching English and doing some other side jobs. It was such a great experience. Being in Cambodia without a huge team is such a different experience! There was another American at HBI while we were there named Jeff, and we had the honor of hanging out with him quite a bit. Breakfasts, bike rides, and meal time chats on campus were awesome! 

We spent our days in Battambang teaching English to 6 amazing students, and working on various side jobs as well. We sorted through 92 boxes of books while we were there. What an experience! Looking through and deciding what should go where and how everything was going to stay sorted. But even in the small things, God likes to teach us lessons right? Let me tell you what Nicole and I learned through the experience of sorting 92 boxes of books. 

Every time Nicole and I went into the room, our students would come in and say "Can we help you?" And of course, we were stubborn and kept saying no. We wanted to complete the project for them and bless them through the process. Our first day sorting books, we got 4 boxes done in an hour, and we felt pretty good about that! That's a lot of books. Well about a week into the process, we had finished about 1/3 of the boxes. This time, the students came in and practically insisted that they help us. Yeah, well I wish we had let them do that sooner. We finished everything in an hour. Everything. Like 50 boxes. So here's what we learned: Don't be stubborn and proud. Let others help you, that doesn't make you weak! Here's my application: I need to let other people help me every once in a while. I can't do it on my own. God put other people on this earth, because He knew one person couldn't do everything all on their own. There are people that are more skilled than I am. There are people that have bigger servants hearts than me. Why wouldn't I utilize that?! 

Ming Bopah cooked our meals every day. Yum!! (But don't ask me what we ate, because I honestly have no clue) 

This is Tiger. He loves Nicole and I and would sit at our feet during every meal. 

These are the boxes we were sorting through. 

Before one of our morning rides to breakfast :)

Anyways. Nicole and I really did feel called to come back to Phnom Penh, so we returned here last weekend and have been working hard ever since! We've been out in Svay Pak working on a pretty cool project. AIM sells a lot of merchandise (that can be found on agapewebsite.org) and bracelets are one of tier specialities. They're amazing! But the tables they're made on could use some work. So Nicole and I took to it, and revamped them! What better way to explain to you than to show you? 

After a few days, I wised up and started blocking my bare skin from flying particles. (You can see the cut up t-shirts covering my legs)

But, of course, we're taking some time to enjoy the rest of Phnom Penh as well! 

Well that's all for now! Time to go get a massage and be tourists today! :) 

Love you all, and getting excited to share my stories with all of you when I get home. 

Thank you for all your prayers during this process. I've been so blessed to be here again. 

Xo

And then there were two

Well....we said goodbye to the NCU team this morning. 

We're on our own from here on out! So far we've survived: a van ride to the bus station (where we had 11 people in an 8 person van), the 6 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to Battambang, getting in contact with the guy who was picking us up, and our first night of dinner at HBI. Busy day!

And so our adventure begins!!

We won't go hungry! Thanks to all the ncu team members that donated to the "Keep Janel and Nicole Alive Foundation."

Home for the next three weeks!!

Just enjoying some quality down time before the real work starts tomorrow :)

Please pray for our health. Both of us are fighting a head cold right now, and are hoping to kick it soon! Also pray that we are able to get a lot done and be effective "beacons" of Christ. 

Thanks, prayer warriors! Love you all.

Xo

Finding God in the little things

Kids, passports, and a cell phone. All these things are small, but they carry a lot of weight! And they're all things I've seen God shine through in the he last 3 weeks. 

We did an amazing kids club this past week, that resembles a VBS type gathering. The kids that come to the kids club each day, are such troopers! No matter what they seem to always have a smile on their face. I can be dripping sweat, and theyll still try to climb up my leg so I'll hold them. When I look in their eyes, I see Christ. I've been constantly reminded this week of when Jesus told his disciples that children are the ones that will inherit the kingdom of heaven. That they should let the little children come to him. They are so precious. So trusting. So loving. I've been constantly reminded of my passion for children since I've been here, because when I see them, I see pure joy in their faces. 

Wow, my passport. I've never thought about just how precious that thing is. About a week ago, Nicole looked at her passport and realized the visa was only good until June 13. Well....we don't leave until the 25. So we realized that we would basically be in the country illegally if we didn't get that fixed. When we got to Phnom Penh, we took our passports to the hotel owner, and asked if she could get it fixed for us. She took them and said we would have them back in 2 days. So we had dropped them off on Tuesday and should have them back by Friday evening. I was thinking "Whew! Good thing, because governments don't function on weekends, and then Monday is children's day. They don't work on holidays either...I'm so glad we'll have them back before all of that." Well, it comes to be Friday night, and I went down to the lobby to ask for our passports. They look in the locked drawer where they should be, and all of a sudden her eyes get really big. She asks me to please wait a minute, while she makes a call. Anyways, she tells me that she won't be able to get the passports until the next Wednesday. Its a pretty long story, but it was actually going to take the full week, not just two days. At this point, I'm freaking out. Because we had told HBI we would be there by Tuesday to start teaching, but now we weren't going to get our passports back until Wednesday. So I get back to my room all frustrated and worried, and decide I better start praying. We go through all of Saturday, and Nicole and I are getting ready for bed around 10:15 when we hear a loud knock on our hotel door. It's Troy and he has our passports!!! It's LITERALLY the last moment that they could have shown up. God totally answered my prayer! And now we get to go to HBI as scheduled, and not miss out on any time there. Praise God! 

And a cell phone. Today, Troy handed Nicole and I the cell phone we will have to make calls while in Cambodia. We called Sam (from HBI) to tell him we had the phone and ask what time would be best to come in to Battambang since he will have to pick us up. The joy and excitement he had when we were talking was amazing. He just sounded so excited to have us coming back! Then we hung up, and Nicole and I were talking through it when he called back from a different number. "Just so we would have both numbers just in case." Ahhh....I'm overcome with love and happiness from the people here. 

I always come to Cambodia hoping to bless others. But it turns out, they will outserve me on every level every time. 

This could have definitely been better written, but I'm so exhausted from the last 3 weeks and seem to be having writers block. I just wanted to give a little insight to the latest and greatest from Cambodia. 

I love you all! 

Xo