R.I.P Dad

This is easily the hardest thing I have ever had to say; my dad has died. I am coming home to Canada...

New Pictures on Facebook!

Hey all, just a quick note to let you know that I have updated my photo album on facebook...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=316256&id=711450530&saved#/album.php?aid=316256&id=711450530

Love and Blessings,
Brian

WAY too long!!

Hey everyone! I know it has been WAY too long since I updated and for that I am sorry. I am officially settled in at my new home at Place of Rescue. I am currently in the middle of my second full week here in the village and I love it. I teach a class of 24 grade 4's, 7 grade 10's, 3-8 grade 7-9's, and some one on one tutoring with a grade 10 and 12 student. This past Thursday, we had the honor and blessing of welcoming Paul Brandt to Place of Rescue. He was here for the day with a group of six other people from North America. He toured the orphanage and then performed an acoustic concert for the kids! Everyone loved having him and listening to him sing. The older kids had t-shirts from his most recent tour and the young kids had "I heart Paul Brandt" t-shirts. I experienced something amazing last monday, I had the chance to help welcome one of our newest children to Rescue. He is a two year old boy named November, he was left at an NGO by his mother and sent to live with his grandparents. The grandfather was abusive, tied him up when he left the house, and fed him nothing but the equivlent of sugar water; heartbreaking to say the least but a wonderful experience to welcome this little guy into a BRAND NEW chapter and opportunity in life. If I could sum up the last little while in one sentence, I think it would be this; Life is so much more fulfilling when it's not all about me.

Love and Blessings,
Brian

Thailand and Moving to Rescue...

Hey all! Sorry it has been awhile since the last post. My trip to Thailand was AMAZING! I saw shows about and pictures of Thailand for so long that it was amazing to finally live out the dream to go and see it first hand. I went with Melanie and Keri and it was fantastic to just relax and be tourists. We flew into Bangkok and stayed at a guest house for a night before taking the day train through the country. I really enjoying being able to see the countryside of Thailand, yet the 13 hrs on a train grew thin to say the least! We finally arrived in Chiang Mai and were greeted at the train station by our guides Tom and Cheeky Nicky, both of these guys were hilarious and definately made the trip worthwhile. We were in Thailand during the new moon festival so it was a lot of fun to check that out and learn more about Thai culture. We packed so many wonderful things into our time in Chiang Mai. We went to the zoo, aquariam, white water rafting, bamboo rafting, visited a couple of Thai tribes, rode an elephant, swam in a waterfall, watched Muay Thai fights (our guide fought and WON!) and so many other wonderful things. It really was the trip of a lifetime. I just moved to Place of Rescue yesterday and am so happy and thankful to finally be here! We have just been in meetings today about figuring out our teaching schedule but I am really excited for what the future holds. Until next time, stay classy friends!

Love and Blessings,
Brian

A quick request...

Hey all! Just wanted to write a quick note to share something that God had placed on my heart awhile ago. As I was preparing to come here to Cambodia, I could sense that God wanted me to do something with this experience and with that said, I want to share a project I will be undertaking; As I move out to Rescue and start my ministry I will be keeping a video diary. My prayer and desire is that I can use this back in Canada to share what God has done, I am not sure how it will all look or anything like that...I do know that it will happen though, He will take care of the rest! Please keep this project in your prayers friends! Thanks!

Love and Blessings,
Brian

Typing is overrated

Frog legs, Wat Phnom, and a taste of home...

Greetings all! Time for another update from the land of Cambodia...Things are going pretty well these days, I have been under the weather this week though with some sinus problems/head cold so prayer would be very much appreciated :) I just finished my second to last week of language school and it was certainly an adventurous one! On Tuesday, our language teachers took us to Wat Phnom (http://www.arrakeen.ch/cambodia/119%20%20Wat%20Phnom.jpg) and we got the chance to talk to some of the beggars and children selling water there. I spent a few minutes talking to a beggar...a very cool experience to say the least. I also had my first of three Cambodian food experiences of the week...I had two bites (incredibly small ones! haha) of a duck embryo egg, needless to say I wasn't a big fan but I did try it! haha After our visit to the Wat, our teachers took us to a roadside restaurant complete with small, plastic stools about a foot off the ground :) I had deep fried frog amongst other delicious Cambodian food, and please excuse this tired saying but it is actually true, it really does taste like Chicken. On Wednesday, our teachers took us to a pagota and we got to practice our Kami with monks. My afternoon Kami teacher is a former monk so it was interesting to practice Kami with them and hear a little bit more about my teacher's life story. My third and final food experience came when I ate my first of four crickets! They were surprisingly tasty and spiced to the point that I had no idea I was eating a cricket! So it has been an interesting week food wise. A couple days ago I received a package from Ambrose via a Place of Rescue board member (Thanks Emma)! I got some candy and two new CDs amongst other little surprises...Super nice to get a taste of home! I start my final week of language school tomorrow, I have definately had a challenging time during language school but I have learned so much about persevering and determination for the sake of Christ! After this week of language school, I am heading off to Thailand for a few days with a couple of friends for a personal holiday. Cambodia has a national holiday during the first part of november and it will be a great time of relaxation and being refreshed before I move out to rescue and start my ministry! I worked really hard this summer and it will be nice to have a bit of a break before the next part of this amazing adventure starts...I promise loads of pictures from Thailand!

Love and Blessings,
Brian

Kami Church in Phnom Pehn

Melanie and I had the pleasure of experiencing a Kami worship service and it was amazing! Here is a glimpse of what musical worship is like. The church is called New Life Centre and there was about 300 Kami young people there, it was amazing to just take a moment and look around at our Kami brothers and sisters worshipping. God is doing a great thing here in Cambodia with our generation.

In other news, I want to take a second to thank everyone that has been praying for me in regards to language studies. I am finding things a little smoother and easier so praise God!

Thanksgiving was a great time here in Phnom Pehn! We were able to join about 30 other Canadians for a massive dinner party on the rooftop of a home in Tuol Kork, a neighbourhood in Phnom Pehn.

I am officially a youth leader at my church here in Cambodia! I am helping out with the Grade 10-12's and went to my first event on friday as we were painting the youth centre that is opening soon in a local neighbourhood. Great kids! I am really excited to work with them.


Love and Blessings,
Brian

Pictures are worth 5000 words...

Kami Lessons and Almond Lattes...

Hey all! I hope everyone is safe, happy, and not freezing from the cold! haha. I have had a busy and incredibly fun week. On October 1st, I officially began taking Kami lessons. I am at Kami school for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for approximately 5 weeks. I have a private tutor in the mornings and then lessons in the afternoon. I thoroughly enjoy both my tutor and my teacher. I would really like prayer though for learning Kami, it is a tricky language to learn and it does feel pretty overwhelming sometimes! :-S. I was able to buy a t-shirt at the market today with my tutor speaking only Kami :) A highlight of the past little while was being able to celebrate the high school graduation of one of my roomates. Kosol recently graduated and Place of Rescue threw a party in his honour. Due to Kami lessons, I unfortunately missed the majority of the program but was able to join in for a traditional dinner with the kids and staff. After dinner, the kids and some of the staff decided to dance, most of the dancing was traditional and it was really an interesting experience to join in and learn how to dance. I am sure you all can imagine me trying to dance with my two left feet...hahaha but it was still SO fun! In other exciting news, Melanie and I have a new Canadian roommate! Her name is Anne and she is from Toronto. She will be serving at place of rescue for the next three years as a nurse. I have really enjoyed her company and it is always great to have another canuck around. I am blown away by the number of Canadians I am meeting here in Cambodia. I met a fellow Calgarian at church a couple weeks ago named Wes. I have really appreciated meeting another Christian guy, especially one from Calgary! :) God is good! What does everyone have planned for thanksgiving?? Thankfully, An amazing missionary couple here in Phnom Pehn has invited the three of us over for dinner on saturday :) Not quite my mom's cooking, but it should be FANTASTIC none the less!

Praise Items:
-I feel more and more at home here in Cambodia everyday
-My mentor is fantastic! I had my first meeting with her today and I am really excited for the year with her.
-The Cambodian guys we live with are like the little brothers I never had :)

Prayer Items:
-Continued financial support.
-An understanding and grasp of the Kami language, it's coming but it is still really overwhelming to me sometimes.
-To be used by God, despite language barriers.

Friends, I love you all!

Love and Blessings,
Brian

P.S. The "almond lattes" portion of the post title is from a coffee shop in Phnom Pehn called, "The Terrace" the logo looks a lot like Starbucks but they are WAY better!

This is why I am here....

A Place of Love

Greetings from Cambodia! We have been here for a week now and it has been a busy but AMAZING time. We have been to Place of Rescue three times. The first time was for a visit and general orientation of the property. The second was to help Marie sort out donations from Canada and the third was to be a part of a monthly birthday celebration for the kids at the the orphanage. I truly loved being able to be a part of this amazing celebration and it was a neat experience to hear people worship in the Kami language. Apart from Rescue, we have been busy with exploring Phnom Pehn. We have seen the genocide museum Tu Sleng, the Royal Palace, Central Market, and Russian Market. Melanie and I will start our language study on Thursday so please keep us in your prayers. We are living in Phnom Pehn at the transitional house owned by Place of Rescue with three young guys from the orphanage named Phanna, Kosal, and CT. We are helping them with English and they are teaching us Kami. I am loving learning bits and pieces of Kami thus far, an incredibly funny yet humbling moment was having a young boy at the orphanage teach me to count to five in Kami while he sat on my lap :-). Language tutors come in all ages here in Cambodia! I am still processing the sheer goodness of God in His blessings in bringing me to Cambodia. I am excited to meet our mentor tomorrow. She is a pastor at an international church here in Phnom Pehn and she seems like an amazing lady. Anyways friends! I love you all...Be blessed!

Love and Blessings,
Brian

The dream has come true!

Sunday, Septemer 20 2009

Hey friends!

We have arrived in Phnom Pehn! The flights all went incredibly smoothly and had lots of time in Vancouver and Seoul-Inchon to make our flights. Praise be to God! We arrived Saturday night and spent the first evening connecting with our dear friend and teammate Keri, as well as checking out the hotel we are in for our first couple nights. Today has been our first full day in Cambodia and it has been a lot of fun! We had breakfast in the hotel before exploring the streets of Phnom Pehn before church. Church was in a building owned by World Vision and it was a great service. We sang two of my all-time songs, "We Fall Down" and "Lord Reign in Me". We then had lunch at a place called, "Pizza Company" with Bill and Lana, our new missionary friends. I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit to be eating pizza while listening to Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Britney Spears play in the background :) Next up we went to the mall to get cellphones and other various things. A very fun experience today was our first ride in a tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk is a large cart attached to a moto (motorcycle). I couldn't tell you how many tuk-tuks and motos we have seen today! Anyways, we are now just relaxing and catching up on internet stuff. Friends, thank-you SO much for your support and encouragement! This still feels so surreal to be here, but I am so thankful and so excited to see what God does over these next 9 months.

Love and blessings,
Brian

First round of vacation pictures!

The highlight of my vacation so far has been exploring a large golf-course/property development called Tobiano outside of Kamloops. Tobiano has two things I love; golf and BEAUTIFAL scenery. My parents and I went yesterday as part of celebrating my dad's birthday.

My Vacation So Far!

It has been amazing to be home so far! I have really really enjoyed being able to see my family and just relax for awhile. I promise pictures are coming. Take care everyone! Just wanted to say hi!

Vacation Time!!!!

Hey Friends!

I am currently sitting in the departure gates at Calgary International (free wi-fi is sweet!). I am off to Kamloops for 10 days of much-needed vacation/hang-out with my family before I leave time. I hope and pray God's blessings on you all! Take care everybody!

Love and Blessings,
Brian

Cool Quote

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." Steve Prefontaine

No turning back!!

Friends! I have some exciting news! My plane ticket to Cambodia has officially been booked! I leave on September 18th! I have been waiting for and dreaming about what this experience will be like for so long that I can't believe it's FINALLY officially here. I know and believe with all of my heart that God has used every good, bad, and ugly experience in preparing me for this. I know this probably sounds cheesy, but dreams really do come true! All I can say is thanks be to God, thanks by to all of you wonderful people.

49 days until this adventure starts...

Love and blessings,
Brian

Summer Lesson #2

Hey there! I hope everyone is enjoying the summer. My hope is that you are all able to find the time to kick back and relax with friends and loved ones. I have survived working Stampede for another year! :) Praise the Lord! I am really thankful that I was able to serve and bartend this year as it enables me to go to Cambodia! I was reminded of something tonight that I would like to share with you all. I saw Johnny Reid perform this evening at the Calgary Stampede. He was incredible and put on a GREAT show! I was really impressed with his performance but something really stood out to me...Joy flowed through him as he performed. He looked as though he was having the time of his life and truly loved what he was doing. I don't think anyone or anything could have wiped the smile of his face. As I watched him perform, I asked myself a question, "what truly makes me happy and brings me joy?". I love spending time with people and connecting through conversation. I love listening to music and playing guitar. I love being able to express how I see the world around me through a camera lense. I know that these are all great things that God has blessed us with, but they weren't the answer I was looking for.

Psalm 4:7

"You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when their grain and new wine abound."

Matthew Henry

"Many inquire after happiness, but David had found it. When God puts grace in the heart, he puts gladness in the heart."

"The Good Life" by Charles Colson

"So what have we learned so far about the good life? Is it eat, drink, and be merry, living as if there is no tomorrow? Does it consist in leisure, pleasure, and the satisfaction of every sensory desire? No, true happiness is achieved not through material comforts and satiating our appetites. It is found in fulfilling our higher nature, shaping our lives and our circumstances to reflect the way we are hardwired."

My TRUE joy and happiness comes from embracing the will of God for my life, fully seeking His heart, and allowing His spirit to shape me from the inside out.

I can't wait for the journey to start...

Love and Blessings,
Brian

Quick Update

Hey all! I hope this entry finds you well. First of all, I want to again say thanks to everyone for joining the facebook group and following my blog. I am SO encouraged and blessed to have this kind of support behind me. I wanted to let you all know something very exciting; I officially have enough money raised for my plane ticket!!!! :) Praise God!!! I want to send a VERY big thank-you to Kamloops Alliance for your support. I have a formal thank-you on its way to Kamloops very soon! :)

Love and blessings,
Brian

Greetings!

I have been thinking of all of you wonderful people lately and wanted to check in and say hello. I am doing pretty well. I am working LOTS and LOTS as a server and bartender. I work alot and work really hard but I do really love my job. I am super thankful that I have a job that is helping enable me financially for Cambodia. My life lately has pretty much consisted of the following; work, sleep, eat. I promise I will give a longer update soon! Just wanted to say hi and send out best wishes to everyone!

Love and blessings,
Brian

Technological Difficulties...

Sorry friends! I thought the slideshow would post. Back to the drawing board...

Slideshow

Greetings! I hope you are all doing well. I thought it might be kind of cool for you to see what I have been working on lately in regards to my onSite preparations. This is an example of the fund raising presentation that I will be using this summer. In other life news, I am officially a server at The Keg now which is super exciting! I promise I will give a longer update next time but it is really late here and I am meeting friends for coffee early tomorrow morning.

Love and Blessings,
Brian

Summer Lesson #1

Greetings all! How is everyone? For my Ambrose friends, I hope everyone is transitioning well from school into summer jobs. My hope for everyone else is simply this; that you are truly happy with whatever it is you are doing right now. First of all, I am BLOWN away by the number of people that have joined the facebook group, 'My Life in Cambodia', it encourages me greatly to know that you wonderful people are joining me in this God-lead journey. I was thinking of what I wanted to do with this blog over the summer and I like the idea that I have come up with. I am going to focus some of my entries on what God is teaching me. The past few days I have really been sensing and learning a new appreciation for the communal nature of life and the Christian faith. Life is not meant to be lived alone. I had the great joy, honor, and blessing of living with 20 or so of the greatest guys ever in residence at Ambrose this past year. I can honestly say that each one of them blessed me and taught me something over the past eight months. I consider myself incredibly blessed to have been apart of a floor that truly understood community and lived that out. We laughed, prayed, cried, and worshiped together. Gentlemen of Bethel, know that I love you guys like brothers and am thankful to have met/developed great friendships with you all. I have heard and experienced countless people ask me about and show an amazing amount of love, support, and encouragement about Cambodia. I am overwhelmed by the love and support I have received, it has encouraged me and blessed my soul in such a beautiful way. The act of people supporting each other and truly living life together is powerful. I am sure you can all think of people in your life that each bring a special piece to it. I can think of people that I can just relax and have a great conversation with, people I can laugh with, people I can cry with, people that will tell me what I need to hear, people that don't say anything and just give an ear when I need it most. I honestly don't know what life would be like without these people. I can not imagine life without people to share it with.

As I say so-long, let me leave you with a verse of scripture that really got my attention this morning. Proverbs 30:7-8, "Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die; Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread." I think this is such a beautifal verse and prayer for life. May life be marked with the truth and beauty of God. In a world that seems so bleek at times; I know that I have a God that constantly pursues and loves me, I have a job that is enabling me to do what makes me truly happy, I have a roof over my head, and I have the most amazing people to share life with, encourage, and learn from.

I am a blessed man.

Love and blessings,
Brian

In my last post I introduced you all to my cousins. I would like to continue on with the theme of introducing important people in my life. I would like to introduce you all to the WONDERFUL people that I am experiencing onSite with. The amazing thing about this group is that God has been SO good in individually placing us in these amazing internships! My favorite class this semester at Ambrose is called Team Dynamics. I get three credits for spending time with these wonderful people! :-) We will venture into Peru, Cambodia, Germany, Australia, and Creative Access Asia, but our bond is already becoming strong and I am really thankful that I have this circle of friends and family in Christ. I have learned something from/been blessed by them each individually. I love you guys! I am exciting that I am sharing this with you :-)

My Biggest Little Cheerleaders

I am so thankful for these two little angels. I would like to introduce you all to my two second cousins/nieces Ashley and Sarah. Ashley is 10 years old (She's on the left hand side) and Sarah is 6 years old (She's on the right hand side). I first met Ashley when she was a baby and did not meet Sarah until this past summer. I am always so encouraged to hear stories from their mom about how these two are supporting me. My favorite story was when Sarah saw a World Vision commercial on TV and proudly proclaimed, "That's what my cousin is going to do! He is going to go help kids." I find it amazing that this wonderful little girl is that proud and supportive of me. My cousin Nikki, their mom, took the time to teach these two where Cambodia is, so for that I am very thankful. I know that Nikki has bookmarked this blog so these two can follow my progress. I am very proud to say that this blog is dedicated to Ashley, Sarah, Nikki, and Darren. I am so thankful for you four and your support means the world to me. I love you guys!

Welcome!

Hi there! The purpose of this blog will be to share with you the lessons I am learning while in Cambodia. I am leaving for Phnom Phen in September 2009 to do an 8 month internship at Place of Rescue (http://www.placeofrescue.com). In the next few months, I will use this blog to share with you the progress I am making in fund raising and exciting events of my summer. Thanks for joining me in this journey!