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