Thursday, July 31, 2008

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

Hey everyone,
WOW! I have so much to say and I don't even know how to completely sum up the last 3 days! Thank you for all your prayers because God has totally showed up here. We all seemed to hit a wall on Tuesday night at the beach guest house. All I can say is we lived 3rd world style. God provided a verse for comfort and we shared together as a group. "For I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstance" So that's what we did, we were content and for an evening we got to see what it's like to stay in a hotel with no hot water, dirty towels/sheets/walls/etc, and a loud market right outside. It was an experience and thankfully we made it through, praise God. But the beach was incredible. Just seeing those kids faces light up as the saw the ocean for the first time is amazing. I will have those faces engraved in my mind forever. I posted some pictures on facebook. So hopefully you can see them there. The internet is very slow and i'm not able to put them on here. When I get back I will have a link to youtube where you can see a slideshow of all the pictures :)

Today was our last full day with the kids. We did curriculm, arts and crafts, and sports in the morning and afternoon. Then after dinner we popped them popcorn, gave them coke, showed them a slideshow of pictures from the week, and then watched The Jungle Book. They loved it! I wish you all could see their sweet angel faces! The movie was in English but they totally got it, which was great. All in all it was an amazing day and we were sad to leave tonight. The kids just grab hold of your hands and keep saying i love you in their language. I have never heard such beautiful words!

So tonight we go to bed with heavy hearts because we know tomorrow morning we will have 2 hours with them then we must say goodbye. I have heard the kids cry as we are leaving so please pray for our team. We all have bonded with these children and it will be so hard to leave them. Below are the details for tomorrow and since we will be traveling i'm not sure when we will have internet again. But thank you for reading, praying, and thinking of us. We defintely could not have done anything without you all. God has been all over this trip and thats because of you.

7:15 breakfast
8:00 leave hotel and head to orphanage
10:30ish leave orphanage and start 4 hour bus ride to Siem Reap
We will spend the night there and then on Saturday head to Phnom Pehn for the trip home.

I could type so much more but its 9:30 pm here and it's been a very long day so I must go to bed. But when we get home we can elabortate on these past few days. Please go to this linka nd take a look at the pictures.

Knyom sraw-line ne-uh nah
(that means "I love you" in Khmer)

Here's the link for the facebook pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009108&l=7f0e3&id=113700005

5 comments:

ann said...

Rachel,

How can all of us ever thank you for keeping in touch and using such beautiful descriptions of your experiences!
Your lives and the lives of these sweet children are now changed forever! God is so BIG!
Thank you, thank you for the pictures!
We all know how tired you must be at the end of the day, and yet, you are still thinking of others and know how much we are all waiting for the next little tidbit of a view into your amazing trip.
I just got a new MAC and can't wait to put all the pictures together with music and make a DVD!
I hope that I can gather as many pictures from everyone on the trip as well as Michael's and do this for you and all of the families.
I know that Michael wishes he could take all the children home with him and I do too! It will be hard to leave and I will pray hard for all of you in these next few days....

Love and hugs from home to all of you!

Michael's mom aka Ann aka grammy :-)

Anonymous said...

Rachel, keep up the posting! I love reading about your time there. I miss Cambodia so much. I can't wait to hear all of about it when you get home. Have fun at Angkor Wat tomorrow! It's an INCREDIBLE place!

Anonymous said...

Hey Rachael, So glad to hear from you. I Praise the Lord for what He is doing in your heart. I can feel and see what the Lord is showing you. I began to cry when I read about leaving the children. I feel the same way when I leave the children of Africa. I am so glad that you have taken this leap of faith to grow and seek Him. I can't wait to hear more about it and give you a hug. :) Miss you and Love you very much...

Love you more,
Mami xoxo

Anonymous said...

My sweet Rachael, Oh my how I love hearing about your dayand seeing the pictures. I know how sad it is when time to leave the children..It's like a part of your heart stays there, and that is a good thing. The time you have spent with them is priceless. You and your team will remain in their memories forever. I have told you before..You will come home a different person.. because those experiences change who you are. . I love you very much and can't wait to see you.

Anonymous said...

Rachael,

Awesome words, thank you for the updates and the work that you guys are doing over there. It is so cool to see God's family in action and how His family spans the globe.

I love you and am proud of you!! May God continue to bless your trip and watch over you guys on the way home.

Baba