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!