Photos!

If you are anxious and eager to see some photos from our trip, and cannot wait until we're back from Halong Bay, check out Nicole's blog, as she just posted a few ! Enjoy!

www.helloavocado.blogspot.com

On the move !

Hello friends!  This past week, I have done the most travelling I have ever done in such a short period of time!  Last Thursday we left Phnom Penh, Cambodia, heading for Vietnam!  When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, where we decided that there wasn't much we wanted to do, so we headed to the train station and we booked an overnight ticket to Nha Trang, (along Vietnam's coast)!  Arriving at 5am, groggy eyed and tired, we embraced our new location.  Can you say paradise!  Everything about Nha Trang reminded me of Kelowna, but nicer!  With pom trees everywhere, close to 6 foot waves crashed the beach!  For the day we explored the city by bicycles.  The following day, we took a 15 min gondola ride, the highest in the world - 60 m - across the greeny-blue waters to Vin Pearl Land.  They call it the Disneyland of Vietnam, full of amusement park rides, a full water slide park, arcade games, shops, 4D rides, an aquarium, and a night water/light show, this place was a kids dream!  The beaches on this side of the water had some of the finest flour like sand I have ever come into contact with!  A dream!  We had fun!  It was another early start for us Sunday, ( 4:30am ) where we had to catch a train by 5:30am to Hanoi (northern Vietnam).  However, this was a 24 hour train ride - can you believe it!  Thinking I would be as antsy as ever, I actually really enjoyed it, well the day time part of it.  Throughout the ride, we were given the opportunity to see some of the most lush, green, and most beautiful mountains and country side I have ever seen, and hey, I live in the province which is home to the Rockies!  The train went through some of the most remote and untouched areas of Vietnam, giving us spectacular views.  At one point we were on the edge of the mountainside overlooking the Chine Sea!  We could see the waves crashing against the rocks at the bottom, like something from a movie!  The night portion of the train ride wasn't so great.  Hearing the roar of the train against the tracks kept me up all night.  Regardless, we arrived safely in Hanoi!  We took a taxi to one of my long lost friend, Mary Ettner's apartment!  For those of you who don't know, Mary and I attended CLBI together as first years.  It just so happened that she moved to Hanoi, 6 months ago, to do an internship with LCMS.  So here we are, reuniting after 3 years across the world!  It was so refreshing to see a familiar face!  She showed us around the city for a bit, introduced us to some new Vietnamese dishes, and helped us find a hostel and book an out trip for tomorrow!  Tomorrow we are heading out to Halong Bay, 3ish hours from Hanoi.  From there we will be setting sail on a boat, where we will be sleeping for a night and exploring caves, as well as kayaking through the bay!  I apologise  for the lack of pictures being shown to you all and am hoping I can upload some soon!  Perhaps, when we are back from the Bay because we will be staying in Hanoi until Sunday and should have lots of time !  Thank you for you continuously praying for us!  The Lord's blessing us richly and abundantly each and every day, showing us more and more of His creation and wonderful people.  Vietnamese are some of the nicest people and show much hospitality.  Although Hanoi is the most polluted city in South-East Asia, I really think I will enjoy our stay in this buzzing, busy city.  The entire population rides a motorcycle, I have never seen anything like it.  Like a pack of wolves howling in the moonlight, this city never sleeps!  The Lord's love and peace to you all !

A bit of a history lesson!

Tuesday our morning started early.  We left Sihanoukville by 6am - well we were supposed to - you really have to have patience with the way time works here.  Usually if a time is given to you, don't expect to leave exactly then.  Regardless, we did manage to get away, and arrived safely in Phnom Penh.  From a distance the city didn't really attract me all too much.  But from a closer glance I can see why some people love it so much here.  After we spent a long frustrating tuk tuk ride to our guesthouse (our driver didn't speak very good English and seemed like he didn't even know the city too well) we managed to check in and take a breather.  We then visited the S21 ( Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum).  What used to be a high school and elementary school here in Phnom Penh, was transferred and changed into a security office designed for detention, interrogation, inhuman torture, and killing after confession from the various detainees were received and documented.  This all happened from 1975-1979 when Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge Regime.  When we arrived at the museum we hired a guide (who, I might add was a victim herself in the Killing Fields) and toured through the facility.  What an eye opener!  I really had no idea everything that had taken place at the S21, or really during the whole period Pol Pot took over the country.  Astonished and wide-eyed, I tried to listen to every word this lady had to say.  Only educated people were taken here : doctors, lawyers, teachers, political etc.  The main goal here was to find out and information about different campaigns or people trying to take down Pol Pot.  We saw all sorts of different torture methods used, one which included a gymnastics bar in the school yard, where guards would hang victims until they became almost unconscious.  They would then lower them into these mass jars full of water, long enough to wake them up and repeat the process until information was given.  They would also take victims into different room within the school and torture them anywhere from 1-6 months!  In the middle of the school yard enclosed were the last 14 bodies tortured there.  It is estimated that over 20, 000 people had gone and died there.  Our tour guide told us that her whole family was killed during the regime.  She, herself, worked in the field before fleeing to the country side and hid out.  She also showed us her scars, where the guards beat her because they said she was too lazy! Ah!  This morning we drove to the Killing Fields just outside of the city.  You receive a tape-recorder style tour, which leads you around the fields.  I had no idea what to expect.  It was pretty unreal.  In 1975 every three weeks or so 50-70 people were brought to the killing fields.  By 1978, 300 were brought daily.  As we toured the fields, I felt like I could almost imagine people everywhere as the guide told eerie stories of what went on there.  Work would commence at midnight and they would work until 8 at night.  Some would get no water and some would get no food.  Those who did, would get a ration of 2-3 spoonfuls of rice.  They would sleep for 3 hours and then start working again.  Various methods of torture also took place here.  They have a tower-type of building with 17 tiers.  Each tier holding different bones of the bodies collected from the mass graves over the years.  You could see fractions on each skull of how the victim had died.  Most people that had families, the babies would die first.  Guards would grab their legs and thrown them against trees or they would throw them into the air a fire bullets.  Bullets were expensive, so most killings were done by slaughter via bamboo stick or farming tools.  They would kill each member of the family for fear if they didn't, revenge would come later.  During the regime, 3 million Cambodians died, most being the well educated.  Today almost 60 % of the country is under the age of 21.  Pol Pot wanted a self-sufficient society.  One where there was no rich, no poor, all equal. He forced everyone from out of the cities to work in the country.  He then destroyed almost all of the cities.  So much information I have gained over the past 2 days.  It blows my mind that this genocide took place.  Innocent people that just wanted to live their lives and prosper, payed for it.  I couldn't imagine.  Even though our visit to the city was short, it is probably one of the best experiences I have had.

Despite the fact that pretty much all of Cambodia is ridiculously dusty (many locals where doctor's masks) is really has been an amazing country.  Each and every place we have gone to is different than the one before.  Tomorrow morning we're at it again, leaving by 6:30 for Ho Chi Min City, a place we really know nothing about.  Excited for a new country, new food, and a new experience, we'd love your prayers for a safe border crossing and arrival.  It's always a little nerve-racking stepping into the unknown, but the stories we've heard about Vietnam are endless and beautiful ! Cheers!

Bitter-sweet!

Wow, it's been a week since I have last updated you on our journey!  Well, we arrived in Siem Reap safe and sound !  It's a wonderful and incredible city, full of so much excitement!  We bought a 3 day pass to Angkor Wat and explored the ancient ruins!  Angkor Wat is the most famous tourist attraction in the world!!!!! Generating, 7-8,000 people a day, that's 2 million people a year that visit the temples! They were a sight for sure!  Exploring these took up most of our days, which allowed us to relax in the evenings of the infamous "pub street" - the touristy backpacker alley!  $0.50 beers, need I say more!  Most evening we would also treat ourselves to a foot massage for half n hour, costing $2 ! Spoiled or what!  Friday, was an unfortunate night, which led to me catching a violent flu bug, let's just say the bathroom was where I slept all night!  It was an awful 2 days because the next day we proceeded to ride on a bus for 12 hours!!  But we made it, and are now in Sihanoukville, Cambodia's beautiful coast, filled with some of the nicest beaches I have ever seen.  I have never felt the sun this hot before in my life, which ended up with me getting a nasty nasty burn.  The ocean is also the temperature that I would run a bath in Kelowna in the winter ..crazy or what!  Sorry for the short message, but I hope to update you all later when we arrive in Phenom Pen ! Lots of love !! Keep praying !! :)

Sour Sdey ! (Hello in Khmer-the Cambodian language.)

We're in Cambodia and can't believe how blessed we are!  Despite an overwhelming, stressful, and bit of a confusing border crossing, we did manage to get a hold of Chomno-the director of CHO (Cambodia Hope Organization)-and get everything to do with our stay and what we will be doing organized.  We're staying in a tiny town called Poipet, which is right beside the border crossing.  Poipet has a population of 150, 000 people and is probably the size of Peachland (for all you Kelowna people) and the size of Bawlf (for all you Alberta people) !  Our day of arrival mostly consisted of relaxing, eating, seeing a bit of the town, we had to buy some modest clothing for our work, and dinner with Chomno and his wife!  Thursday, we joined with a team of about 20 students from the UK.  They're from a church called Soul Survivor, situated just outside of London.  They run a leadership based program, where students take classes within the church.  For the day we went to Safe Haven- which is place where children that have been at risk, through trafficking, are rescued and sent there to rehabilitate and restart their lives.  We spent that day hauling brick, making bricks, and laying foundations for houses/buildings.  Despite the heavy heat and the constant sweat, I thoroughly enjoyed the day.  It's amazing to get an eye-opener of how they do work here.  Their infrastructure is so poor, as you could imagine, it really makes you realize how blessed and grateful you are for where you live.  Later that day we toured the site: saw the school, a place where the children learn to do woodwork, (WOW) and viewed the new water systems they recently built.

Having spoken to a lady, Yireh, who had spent some time doing work with the organization before, my heart is now broken for what trafficking is truly like over here.  Most children use to be bought when they were 15-18, but now because desire for sex just among teens with boyfriends is so high, the age that is being bought has significantly dropped to 8-12.  Lots of families that have many children will sacrifice a child, sell them for a week or two, and use the money earned to send their other children to school, as well as, to feed them.  The child that was sold then comes back to the family and doesn't really understand what has happened.  That's when CHO will rescue the child and place them into Safe Haven.  For some of the older girls, they don't want to leave the industry, simply because the money is so good.

Friday, Nicole and I went to the school at Safe Haven for the day.  There we went from classroom to classroom and taught the kids English.  The first class aged from 5-6, where we taught them the letter W ! We showed them words that started with W so they could understand annunciations.  The second class ranged from 8-11.  There we played a spelling game for nearly the entire time.  We would write words on the board in English, they would sound them out and say them in English - man are they ever smart !  Finally the last class aged 12-14.  We played a similar spelling game, with harder words, and observed as they tried to have conversations in English!  I just loved watching the amount of joy they have in absolutely everything.  It's impossible to stop grinning from ear to ear.  We also would walk around the class near the beginning to introduce ourselves to each child! It was so awesome to shake their hands, ask them their favorite color, and how old they are.  There was a fairly long break after lunch, so we got the chance to hangout in the library with kids.  There I read to many of the children and quizzed them in English of what was seen on each page.  One girl would constantly repeat after me, per sentence, in English!  They love to learn.  Another observation with the children, is that they are so considerate and kind; they share and take turns, something I can't say about the children in Canada, ha!  We played a game of "monkey in the middle" (which is the same as "piggy in the middle"), where the children's laughter was so contagious!

There is also a team staying at CHO from Kelowna! -SO CRAZY RIGHT!?  They are from New Life church and a program run out of it is called, School of Supernatural Ministry.  So they have been here since Monday.  Some are leaving tomorrow and some are staying another week.  They have been doing some really cool things in Cambodia!  They went to the garbage dump Friday morning, where the Lord did some healing through prayer!  He healed a woman with arthritis, and a blind man!  Amazing!  In the afternoon, some of them went to a Karaoke Bar, which is where most brothels are.  So they rented a room and when the girls came in, they actually sung some karaoke! After that, they sat down with them and talked to them about the Lord!  Some of them even accepted Jesus! Incredible or what!  God is doing some amazing things here in Cambodia, through the open hearts of His people!  Friday, a young boy, who was missing for a few months was also rescued and re-connected with his grandmother!  It's one thing to hear about the ministry CHO does, but another thing that while we are here too! What a faith-building experience!  God is so great!  The Lord also set up a divine appointment for me last night.  I talked to a woman from the Kelowna team named May.  She is probably around the age of 50 and her heart is so huge for the Lord.  She shared some of her testimony with me about how God called her to quit her job, sell a lot of her possessions and move from Ontario to Kelowna!  She is living in such obedience to the Lord, it is so inspiring!  Such a comfort to have familiarity and to share stories with those of similiar faith values! What a great bunch of godly people.

Saturday morning, Nicole and I went back to Safe Haven, where we sat down with about 25 children and taught them some bible stories!  We shared with them the story of Noah and the story of Moses.  After that we attempted to teach them, "The Lord told Noah, to build Him an arky arky..." (for you who know that camp song about Noah's Ark!)  And then we taught them, "this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine" - which they caught onto a sung so well!  Lastly, they already knew the song, " Jesus loves me " , so we taught them the "we will rock you version" -they loved it! Especially the " na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-hey! (throw hands in the air)" part ! The children sang for us, "Father Abraham" and they knew all the actions!  They also sang, " I've got peace like a river, I've got joy like a fountain, I've got love like an ocean in my soul."  I was so impressed!  They love to sing!

Saturday afternoon, we went to the "Destiny Cafe" which is situated in the building of CHO, and taught some of the staff to bake! We baked my momma's BEST COOKIES(mom I did you proud :) )and we baked some chocolate cupcakes!  The staff seemed to have a lot of fun, and understood well.  When we put all the baked goods out in the cafe, most sold so fast - people loved them!

It's been a great experience thus far serving and volunteering here at CHO, everyone is so friendly and has such a heart to do God's work.  Today, having been Sunday, is rest day so Nicole and I might get a manicure!  We have decided to make tomorrow our last day, where I think we are going to teach more bible stories to children at Safe Haven and then get an in-depth tour of the rest of their projects going on! Tuesday, it's off to Siem Reap- woot woot!

Hot, Humid, And Sticky !

Hello from Bangkok, population 10 million! Gah!

It truly is a different world over here, one that I never thought I could comprehend.  We arrived safe and sound, with the smoothest of flights around 2 am (Bangkok time) Monday morning!  I never imagined to get smacked so hard by the humidity-never felt anything like it before.  It feels like you are stuck in a sauna that you can never get out of!  As soon as you do enter some type of air conditioned room(Internet cafe, hostel) the second you are back out, instant soakage!  Our first day, we ventured down to the infamous Khoa San Road (backpacker central) ! So nuts, and so busy!  At night time it's packed with tourists buying things, locals doing some sort of break dancing, and everything else you can imagine from shops(that all sell the exact same thing!) to tons and tons of delicious street food.  We did wander around other streets, and took our first "tuk tuk" -if you don't know what that is, you should probably google it! It's a whole other story.. the driving here is crazy and there is no such thing as walking across roads, highways in a orderly fashion.  Nope, you just book it when you think it's safe.  Today we tried to find Chinatown by ourselves, ha ha we got lost! -went the wrong direction.  So once again took a "tuk tuk" with our amazing bartering skills, which I must say have improved tremendously from when we first got here!  We explored Little India as well, which is filled with lots of crowds and many shops.  Nicole tried her first ever bubble tea-which was very exciting! And we also got pistachio ice cream on a hot dog bun-weird right?!

Tomorrow, bright and early, we will head on to Cambodia to meet Chomno from Hope For The Nations, and see what adventures lie ahead of us as we serve our time for a week or so!  Please pray for safe, speedy, and smooth connections as we cross the Cambodia border tomorrow and for safe travels!  Maybe for the next week you could pray that we would be open to learn, and experience all that we can!  Praise the Lord for this great opportunity He has layed before us! Bye for now!

Truly blessed!

I cannot find an English word that can describe how grateful and blessed I feel for the amount of love shown, support given, and encouragement received.  For everyone that is reading this : Thank you!  The Lord has definitely poured a mass amount of love into my life from you guys!  If anyone from the Army is reading this, you all rock!  The journal filled with many notes and messages blessed my heart! It was so great working and getting know each of you over the past however many months!  Thank you Sarah Parson's for the book (again) and Anne, I thank you for the mars chocolate bar, which I am sure will fill us with energy when needed!

It seems crazy that tomorrow we will be rising, fairly early, to start our journey to Vancouver.  We will spend the night there and hop on the plane Saturday morning, arriving in Bangkok, after a short layover in Beijing, at 11:45 pm (Thai time.. not a clue what that is Canadian time.).  To give you a heads up, we will have 2 full day in Bangkok, hopefully meeting up with a friend Lexie, who will just be ending her backpacking adventure, to share with us :tips, advice, and stories !!  In the wee hours of March 7th, we'll be jumping on a train at 5 am , taking us to Cambodia, where we are volunteering our time with Hope For The Nations !  Nicole and I are beyond stoked for this opportunity to learn, teach, and have some fun!  For those who are unaware, Cambodia's highest crime is trafficking woman and children.  One of HFTN's main missions there is to rehabilitate these woman and children to get them back on their feet to live a joyful, hopeful life!  We've been providing an amazing opportunity to get involved in whatever there is to do: childcare, labour work, or teaching skills/trades!  We're not too sure what else they are setting us up with or doing, so we'll let you know once are feet are dirty! 

I received a message from a friend with the reference 1 Thess 5:16-18, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks under all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  I had been praying that this would be the Lord's will for my life, that He would open and close the doors that were needed.  What a confirmation from God through all of you! (And thanks Anne ;) )  God's taking us on an adventure, one where we will learn, grown, and be challenged together, and I praise Him every day for His faithfulness and His provision !

Thanks for reading! Thanks for praying! And thanks for your love!
Talk to you all in South-East Asia.. whatever country I may be in when I next blog !!