Name Above All Names

We've been back in the US for just over 24 hours, and I already miss the kids.  If I'm honest, I started missing them at around noon on Saturday - right after we left the orphanage for the last time.  This was my fifth trip to Cambodia and my third to Bantey Meanchey, but this year brought a new step in our relationships with the orphans.

It's always difficult to learn new names, much more so when they're in a foreign language with sounds we're not used to making.  Everyone on the team did a great job learning the new names, and the kids did too.  The Khmer language usually drops the sound of the last letter of a name, so "Maris" became "Mari," "Maureen" became "Mauree," and "Mary" became... well, that one stayed the same.  But it was no easy task for the girls to differentiate between their names in Khmer as the kids called for Mari, Mauree, or Mary!  

When Mike told his story to the neighborhood children on Thursday, he shared his first experience with North Point church at 7|22 some years ago.  In Louie Giglio's message that night, he explained how God has a unique name for each of us, "that no one knows except the one who receives it." (Rev. 2:17)  Mike was struck when he heard that verse - only people who know us know our name, and God has so intimate a knowledge of us that He has a unique and completely personal name for us.

Maybe the earthly equivalent is a nickname, which may not be known by those outside of our inner circle and the meaning of which is only evident to those who really know us.  I've always found nicknames to be a fun and special way to share intimacy.  This year during our beach trip, a group of the young teenaged girls (mainly Dane and Srey Roth) began calling me "Tavichica" (which I have no idea how to spell correctly).  I found out later that they were calling me by the name of a Cambodian movie star.  A little later in the week, they started calling Mike "Ou-kong" after a character in a Chinese drama, the story of which is pretty funny on its own.  Then they dubbed Lee and Mary Brantley "Chop" and "Choy" - just silly names with no meaning.  

But we were also given a window into the relationships between the orphans when their nicknames started to come out!  We discovered that Srey Vin is called "Ginkou," which means "frog" in Khmer, and Vita is called "Da-da-do" (no meaning, just another silly name).  But my favorite of all is their nickname for Srey Kouch.

Now, Srey Kouch (pronounced "Coy") has about the sweetest face you can imagine, and the manner to accompany it.  Although she is growing up like the rest of the children, she still has the sweetness of a little child.  We were told that the kids have a picture of her at the beach from when she was very young.  In the picture, Srey Kouch has a huge grin on her face, but she had lost her front baby teeth and regrown just one, large, adult tooth, proudly displaying itself from the top of her mouth.  So proving that kids are kids even in Cambodia, her nickname to this day is "Tmaing Muoy" - in English, "One Tooth."

We truly enjoyed seeing this side of the orphans and had so much fun laughing with them over our nicknames.  Especially since it was totally unexpected, I was really touched by how much more intimately we now know these kids.  The new level of intimacy has opened my eyes to what God wants to do through the relationships formed on these trips to Cambodia.

And without the name of Jesus, these trips would not happen.  We would have no reason to raise support and travel halfway around the world, only to visit orphans in rural Cambodia instead of site-seeing and partying.  We would have no common ground on which to build relationships without the name of Jesus, because my life has otherwise borne little resemblance to theirs.  And we would not have hearts open to loving each other if it were not for the love Jesus showed by giving Himself over to a brutal death, all just to have a relationship with us.  

These kids are very special to me, and for us to share nicknames and intimacy is deeply meaningful to me.  Because of that, I'm so thankful that our Heavenly Father loves them much more than I do, so much in fact that He has a special name for each and every one of them, a name that even I will never know.  We will never experience the depth and intimacy of relationship with each other that we will one day enjoy with our Heavenly Father!

"Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him

the name that is above every name

so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow

...and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord..."

Philippians 2:9-11

Srey Kouch

Mission Accomplished

The trip has been so wonderful! It has been covered in prayer, and we have felt it throughout each day. Today we started with sharing the story of Jesus walking on water by having some of the older boys perform a skit. After that we stuck with the water theme and went outside for water games and balloons. After going off for lunch, we came back early in the afternoon for a special treat for our last night with the kids. We took them out to a place they call "the resort". It has flower gardens, water stocked with fish to feed, paths to walk, a playground, and characters for great pictures (see below). It was such a special night of quality time with the kids. We sat under huts as food and drinks were brought to us. We weren't quite sure about a lot of the meat, but the kids kept assuring us it was beef. The chicken came out, head and all, and at the end of the meal the only thing left on that plate was bones! After eating, we went back to the orphanage for praise and worship songs. It was very difficult as we knew it was the last night with them. We came back to the hotel and prayed for good rest for the kids tonight and that our last farewells tomorrow will be "sweet sadness" as we remember that if we don't see them again in this life we will one day see them in heaven.

God's plan cannot be thwarted...

What an incredible week so far... Lee has been our blogging master- we've had lots of long days & late nights but he has been so good about keeping everyone back at home informed. We are truly grateful because we have needed LOTS of prayers this week. This is my first time in Cambodia & while having no idea what to expect I never imagined it would have looked like this. God sure knew though! He began preparing our hearts on Sunday in church where Pastor Vek preached about spiritual warfare. He mentioned it might not be happening in this moment but it's always just a matter of time Before we are in midst of it. He encouraged the church when they are preparing for it to gather in prayer. This is something our team started doing right from the beginning Of our meetings back in February. Personally, I struggled the first few days with lots of mental distractions. My good friend Joel (who is actually friends with the majority of our team through different ways) used the term "mind trash" to define distractions that pulling you away from a path God has set out before us. I started to dig deeper into God's word - asking him to show up in a way only he. As a team we've had some unexpected illnesses that we've prayed over as a team. Vehicle problems in sweltering heat on the road side where i'm PRETTY confident we're consumed with snaked & spiders of all sizes. (btw - this team doesnot argue of poisonous or not we are allen the same page to stay way!!) Last night (after our baby cow restarant experience) we got together as a team to talk through who was going to share their stories on them with this excepted group of 90+ people at all different aged levels. I quickly became clear Mike' story was in - then Amber offered to share her story too.... I had an overwhelming tension that I needed to step up & offer for third string if we got there. We ended our time together praying for the kids in the orphanage who had already gone out to invited their friends, the friends who were willing to go and for the church's ministries. We are so honored humbled and in awe of how our heavenly father put all these pieces in motion before we got on the plane in Atlanta. We just needed to choose to remain focused on him & his bigger plans than ours! For me personality sharing my story like this has never happened. We don't have unlimited amounts of a time to go through a lot of the details. Instead we hard to figure out how to tell our story in a story form for a cross sections of ages & stages of life. So when I sat down at 10pm to start this I really felt a peace about it. Praying hard that no matter what I put on this paper then end result will be God working though me. On the way back to the orphanage I started writing it all out in more of a story to follow. It was in that momemnt on the back of the bus I knew all the distractions I have been feeling all week were placed there for me to not want to take a step towards Christ's will for my life. I realized it's not my story.... It's Gods story... I'm just a small part to be moved by him. If I come to him withy an open & willing heart, mind & soul he will move.As I shared my story in the midst of a sea of faces -my attention is drawn to the older girls 15-21. They were listening.... Not to me but the words God wanted them to here. Here is a picture of the kids that stood up to accept Christ as their savior.Job 42:2. "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted."We serve an amazing God who has blessed our entire team by allowing us to be used by him! Thanks for your continued prayers - keep them coming God is up to amazing things here!

From Small Ideas to God's Big Plans

Today, Wednesday, July 25th, our team presented the message of Jesus telling the parables of the one lost sheep and the one lost coin (Luke 15:3-10). The main point, really there are a multitude of great points, is those that don't place there faith in Jesus Christ are far more important in this temporal world than those arleady disciples of Christ. A doctor doesn't come to cure the healthy, but the sick (that probably sounds familiar). Thus, it is the lost that are the reason and the weight of the Great Commission that Jesus has called all his disciples to. Well, part of the lesson plan was to get the kids to put on a community outreach program for the local villagers and school friends. Our initial plan was to simply have the kids invite there friends to come to the orphanage to enjoy some food and drinks and play some games and develop relationships. In our minds during planning we were thinking maybe 10-20 kids would accept the invite. Well, the New Life Missions pastor of the Bantey Meanchey province, Pastor Navy, is currently in town and was made aware of the idea. Let me pause at this juncture and go back to mention another idea we had been tossing around while planning out the week prior to the trip. We thought it would be good if each of us team members shared our life story with the kids of the orphanage to give them some insight into experiences of our lives to impart wisdom to avoid the mistakes we made. Now, back to the present, Pastor Navy combined our ideas into a bigger idea. He wants us to use the building used for worship gathering and informed us to expect around 80-90 people to show up and for us to share our stories and essentially the gospel in our lives. Keep in mind these villagers are people who have probably never heard the Gospel, work all day to provide hardly enough food and water for daily sustenance, and live in what could be described as a bigger more permanent lean-to. After we, specifically; Mike, Maureen, and Amber, share our stories, Pastor Navy plans to have an invitation for all those present to accept Christ as their savior if they feel so led. So, all this is to go on Thursday, July 26th, around 2:00 PM Cambodian time, or 3:00 AM EST. We just wanted to shoot it to you all so that you could be praying for what could be a village changing experience for this "neighborhood" of Bantey Meanchey. Please lift up the villagers and kids of the orphanage in your prayers today asking God to work in their hearts and that they would hear and respond to the patient knock from Christ.

From the beach to Bantey Meanchey - Trouble Afront

After the second day of beach fun where all the kids from all three orphanages were having a blast and all three Global X teams were together and well and having fun with the kids, it was time to travel to the 3 separate orphanages - Phnom Penh, Battambang, and our group to Bantey Meanchey, a 10hr excursion. Not long after starting the travels it was apparent that the AC in the bus wasn't as cool as it had been before. Shortly thereafter we found ourselves getting out of the sweltering steamy bus which was had been pulled off on the side of the road. We took advantage of the situation as time to chat with the kids and other Global X team members we weren't going to see again for the rest of the week. We were in true Cambodian countryside, beautiful, National Geographic-esque. At this "pit stop" we noted some local villagers harvesting rice the same way it's been done for centuries. See the pictures below. I was shown how to harvest the rice and replant the younger rice while the older rice is turned into the white or brown rice we all know and enjoy. After an hour or so, the bus was back up and running only to die again about 10 minutes down the road. This time we were hit with a rainy season flash rain shower which only lasted a matter of minutes and was actually quite refreshing and a blessing amidst the the heat of the day and no AC on the bus. This time we witnessed village boys championing their catch of the day, a pig. See the pics. The pig is still alive and squirming in the picture FYI. Once again the bus got back up and running and once again died what seemed to be minutes later. This time we had a clear view of the country side and mountains and this time we decided to consolidate buses to get further up the road to meet the new bus that was heading to meet us from Phnom Penh. Finally, 12 hours after the start of our travels, the Bantey Meanchey team arrived at our luxurious hotel, Pyramid Hotel and Spa at 1:45 AM, 2:45 PM EST. The hotel is quite nice actually considering how far away from the big cities we are; the rooms come with two complimentary bottles of water and wifi. Not to mention 60 minute sauna and aromatherapy massage for $16 or the 60 minute sauna and standard body massage for $8. Not sure if we'll have time for that or not but would be nice with all this travel and trying to keep up with the kids with games, particularly soccer for the boys - they're phenomenal and love to play.

Church, Bus, Beach

Today has been a looong, but amazing day! It started at about 6:15am when we left our hotel in Phnom Penh and headed to New Life Church for worship and a great sermon from Pastor Vek. It always feels special being welcomed by their church community and it's INSANE how much it's grown in the past several years. After church we loaded up with all of the kids and headed to the beach. It's a long bus ride, but we make it fun :) We sang songs (like Taylor Swift - my personal favorite), played games (like pictionary) and slept some too. The kids are so well behaved and you can just sense their excitement knowing we are on our way to THE BEACH! When we finally got to the beach, the weather was perfect. It's probably the best beach day I can remember in my 5 years of being here. I personally got a little motion sick (very unlike me) from the bus ride, so I sat out from the fun & sun for a bit, but then was able to join in. BUT, while I was chillin' - not feeling so hot - I took a moment to thank God for our amazing team. I seriously love our team! Each one of them - Mark, Amber, Lee, Mary Brantley, Maris & Maureen bring so much value! The way they interact with the kids, the joy that radiates from them, the way they treat others and each other... the list could go on and on. You can already see the relationships they are building with the children - especially our first timers. It's fun to watch the connections happenning. We had several prep meetings and got to know each other pretty well before this trip... As excited as I am to be here and loving on the kids, I'm just as excited to be experiencing this trip with THIS team and getting to know them better. We're at the hotel (much nicer this year) and winding down. Getting ready for another early start tomorrow AM at 7:00am. Beachin' for a few hours, and then heading taking the 10+ hour bus ride to Bantey Meanchey. Missing Candace, and my sweet baby Ryder, daily. Pictures from the beach to follow... Much love, Mike

Enjoying Cambodia

After surviving about 20 hours of flight time and successfully collecting all of our luggage, we exited the airport to a wonderful welcome by some of the kids from the orphanages. The flight had been somewhat rough for me with what seemed to be dehydration, and the kids were such a great reminder of why we travel across the world to Cambodia. It is hard to describe the joy that radiates from their faces, but I know it can only be Christ in their lives. I was immediately reminded of why I knew without a doubt that I wanted to come back here again this year. Everyone slept well last night as we tried to adjust to Cambodia time. Today we went to tour s-21 (the genocide museum of the Khmer rouge). We ate at some fun places and got coconut drinks! We also toured the New Life church where we will attend the service tomorrow. Then the highlight of the day was going to the orphanage here where all the kids are staying until the beach tomorrow. It was so great to see them. I can't believe it has been a whole year. I am so thankful that God has given me this special time again to visit with some of His children across the globe. I know the time here will seem so fast so I pray that we make the most of it each day!