Welcome to Cambodia.

So I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Phnom Penh, finally enjoying good coffee and some reliable internet. It's been a little over a week since I came to Cambodia, and I have already learned so much. I'm struggling as I write this because I wish I could share with you all the realities of life here in Asia. I want you to experience driving through the busy crowded streets of the city with horns honking and moto-dops (motor bikes) coming straight at you as you hang on to your bags with one hand and the back of the bike with the other. Or I wish I could take on a ride in Poipet with the incredible scenery of rice fields, vibrant green trees, and beautiful blue sky as we drive down the bumpy, dusty roads through villages as people stop and stare. I wish you could understand what it means to eat rice at every single meal of the day, and for meals to no longer be an easy task of getting something from the fridge and putting it in the microwave, but that usually involves a trip to the market (hoping you don't get caught in the rain), the preparation of cutting vegetables and washing the rice, and then the hour or so of waiting for the rice to finish. 

But even more than that: I wish I could take you down the street to the karaoke bar (or modern-day form of a brothel) and introduce you to the beautiful girls I went to Church with last Sunday. I wish you could hear the stories of girls trying to earn much needed money for their family, but instead end up stuck in the prison of the bar, feeling the coercion of the bosses who really give them no option but to stay. If only you could hear the stories of the 10,000 illegal migrant workers who cross over the border to work in Thailand every day because they desperately need the money, despite the chance that they may be cheated from their earnings or given water to drink filled with drugs. And really...I wish so bad you could meet the fifteen precious teenagers employed by Freedom Stones as they learn to type on their computers, string beads for a necklaces, or draw pictures of their own jewelry designs. 

But I am here and you are there. And my words will have to do, even as they seem to fall so short of truly describing life here. I pray that Christ can open up your hearts to experience life here in Cambodia in some small kind of way. And for the rest, maybe some of my pictures can help: 

Check out my pictures of my life in Cambodia!

The one thing I can tell you that needs no pictures or description to experience is the biggest lesson I've learned since being here and that is: We need Christ. I need Christ, as I struggle to bring hope to a dark place. Poipet, in its brokenness with its corruption and injustice, needs Christ for transformation. You, even so far away from here, need Christ. I've been undergoing job training, learning the skills and essentials to managing the Freedoms Stones site in Pattaya, and yet what I've learned the most is that my effort, my expertise, my smile, my friendliness- they all mean nothing if they don't have Christ. We can create all the programs we want, implement incredible strategies, network with numerous other NGO's, but real, deep, lasting change can only be brought through Christ. And I pray with you that we can live lives that depend on that very fact. I pray we all can live in the knowledge of Him and His hope.