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