Merry Christmas from Cambodia!!!

It is official.
I am in Cambodia.

My team left Kona, HI at 6:30 am on Wednesday, Dec. 19.
Flew to Honolulu, then to Taipei Taiwan, then off to Bangkok Thailand, where I had the most delicious Phad Thai, Massamun Curry, and Thai iced tea.
From there, we flew into Cambodia where I am now staying for the next three months!
I am so excited to be in Phnom Penh…
And even more excited to see what great things will happen while I’m here.

Another first: internet cafes.
Hopefully, I will be able to update regularly…

I love it here!

Destiny by Design

Last week in lecture, I’m learned about who God designed me to be.
With that design, there’s a specific destiny I have.  A calling.
God’s created me to hear Him and to be obedient to His word.

I came to a different understanding of what it means to be the “salt of the earth”.
When I think about SALT, I always remember its use for flavor and preservation.
Gwen Bergquist (our guest speaker for the week) helped me see that salt is not only used for these things but also to draw out the natural flavor of something.

Think about a tomatoe.  They’re yummy…
But when you sprinkle a little bit of salt on it, it tastes so much better.
Salt draws the natural flavor out of the tomatoe.

When Jesus calls us the “salt” he is not only saying that we add flavor and preserve, but that we are also to draw out the GOD flavor from each individual.
Am I doing that in my life?
Have I allowed Jesus to draw out His flavor in me?

I learned this week, how BIG God is.  In Psalms, David describes God’s hand holding the universe.  Can you imagine, how big God’s hands are?  How much bigger is He that one hand alone can hold the entire universe?
My struggle this week was about God’s goodness.
I was telling myself that God is big enough to take care of my financial needs for this DTS.
But is He good enough to provide the money I need for DTS?

I didn’t see God provide for my lecture phase of DTS.  At least, not in the way I’d imagined.  Toward the end of the dealine for lecture fees, I found myself calling my mom to ask if she could pay for more than half of my tuition because I hadn’t gotten enough. It was the last thing I wanted to do.  I had so much faith that God would provide everything I needed.  When my mom asked me about money before I left home, I told her “Don’t worry.  God will take care of it.”   This was such a humbling moment in my life.

This is when I began to tell myself that God just wasn’t interested in my needs.
I struggled not to believe this lie, and in His mercy, He helped me realize last night during one of our corporate worship times that God is good enough.  He’s good enough because He’s big enough.  He’s so good and so big, He’s  GREAT!  So this morning I faced the day with peace.  I was a little stressed about how God would provide because I didn’t know how he’d do it.  It would take a miracle!

Today marks the day of God’s wonderful provisions…
My DTS class had a deadline today of $2000 for the outreach deposit.  This deposit would go toward paying for our plane tickets at the end of the year when we leave Hawaii for outreach in either Cambodia, Colombia, or Rwanda.
At the beginning of the week, those of us who did not have enough finances for the deposit were asked to write how much we needed on the whiteboard at the front of the class.  As financial support came in, we changed the amount on the board.  At the time, I needed the full $2000.  A couple of days ago, Doug told me I had some financial support that came in and he’d deposited it into my bank account.  By this afternoon, I was still left with $1650.

Dawn, one of the leaders for our class shared how important it is for us to give what we can, when we can.  So, when God asks you to give, you simply obey and trust that God will bless you for your obedience.  She was asking our class to give whatever we felt God was asking us to give in order that the finances would be met.  Ten of us sat at the front of the class, needing more than $15,000.

So, we’re sitting there, singing and praying, praising God and hearing Him speak to us.  And slowly our classmates are walking up to the stage to give money to someone already up there.  To make the long story short…within an hour and half, you could literally watch the numbers on the board go down from $2000 to $1900 or from $504 to zero. One by one, the numbers decreased until zeroes were all over the board!  God gave ten people, myself included, everything we needed for our outreach deposits.  He provided more than $16,000.

It’s crazy to know that God is just this good.

Please, please, please!!!

Pray against all lies from the devil and anything he may hold over us to be broken.

God is moving on our campus, here in Kona.
He is moving quickly and powerfully, and the enemy is scared.

Please lift us up in prayer.
If you see this in time, our team is fasting breakfast at 7 am to pray against any struggles we are facing.
Feel free to join us (HI time, your time, or even whenever you can think of).

Everyone in my class has been sharing about how we came to DTS this quarter.
It’s really amazing to hear the different stories behind everyone’s reasons.
They’re all so different, and yet, each one has the same beginning…our heavenly Father…

The thing I’m most excited for is the ending to all our stories…which of course, will be God…

Wow…can I just say that God is so amazing?
I gotta tell ya, this one might be a little bit long…

So it’s been five days since arriving in Hawaii.  My first day, registration day, was quite relaxing in the morning.
I met Derek’s girlfriend, Heeran, who has become a really good friend.  I love that girl!!!
We hung out by the pool for a little, headed off to campus to finally register and spent the day getting things organized for movin’ in!

Friday…orientation all day long.  Really good worship and praise is so much fun.  Very free, so many people from different cultures worshipping in their own ways.  Did I mention we have about 90 International Korean DTS students this quarter?  My DTS alone has 54, the Community Transformations DTS has about 46, French World and China Focus DTSes have around 20 each.

Saturday, the Compassion class went to Hapuna Beach, which is about 30 minutes north of campus.  So beautiful.  The sand is burning hot, but the water was so refreshing…and very salty.  So crystal clear, you could swim out so far, look down, and still see the sand below.  You’d you could touch the bottom, but really you can’t.
Yummy BBQ.  Something funny…just as I was finishing my meal, a little birdie pooped on my hand. 

Tangent:
One story I wanted to share…on the plane ride here, as I was boarding my first plane from Sea-Tac, my seat was changed.  So, I board the ploane, look for my seat, and a woman was standing there.  When I told her she was in my seat, she explained to me that it was in fact her seat.  She and her friends were reseated so they would sit together.  So, nauturally, I turn to look for my original seat.  Lo and behold!  A man is sitting in my seat.
I officially have no seat.  So, a asked a flight attendent for some help.  She went to the front of the plane, returned and came back to tell me everyone has boarded the plane.  I was free to sit in any open seat I wanted and was pretty much offered a whole row to myself.  The young lady across the aisle from me also had a row to herself.  We slept quite well that flight.  Praise God!

Sunday service was such a blessing.  God reminded me through a small, quiet bible study outside under a tree about the relationship between faith and works, Jesus’ love for all mankind, and His neverending faithfulness.

Can I just say, I have been so emotional.  Or perhaps just very sensitive to everything around me.  The lyrics in the songs I hear and sing are so much more meaningful than just two weeks ago.  I remember why I love music.
I’m actually thinking of joining my DTS worship team.  Still in the thought process of it all, really…

Today we had our first class.  At 8 in the morning, one of our DTS leaders shared with us a little about her personal life.  She always reminds us that we are truly here for a reason and that we are really annointed by God to be here.  She taught us that we should no longer live our lives as “performers” whether its living one way throughout the week and another on the weekends, or striving to live our lives earning what is already given to us.
We watched a short video about God’s love and how no matter what we do, God’s love will never change.
It started to break down some of the walls that had been building up.

About half an hour before lunch, we were given the freedom to go to the cross and just lay it all down before Jesus.  From what I remember, about 90% of us walked up to that stage, fell on our knees, and prayed.  The tears were flowing.  But it was so much more than that.  We were outside in the Pavilion, right next to the outdoor cafeteria, bawling our eyes out.  I believe there was a lot of healing this morning.
It was such a refreshness that overwhelmed our class and cheesy as it seems, the perfect to start a course on truly learning commpassion for children at risk.  God really needed to be real in our hearts as a Father who loves us…no matter what we’ve done.  And nothing will ever change that.

I love it here in Hawaii.  The people are so nice and yes…God is so good!
I can’t wait for Southeast Asia!

My first DTS update.
Actually, I haven’t even left WA yet, but God is kinda funny, I guess.

The pastor for the youth group I’ve been serving resigned earlier this year to serve God in another ministry.
Since then, Chaplain Mark Lee has regularly come to share God’s word.
Yesterday was his last week with us and God used him to encourage me and to calm some of my anxiety.

At the last minute before the sermon, Chaplain Mark changed the message he had planned.
He shared from this scripture:

“He has shown you, oh man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

- Micah 6:8

Through this verse, I was reminded how to live a life like Christ.
God wants me to live with honesty and integrity, to show compassion to those who are in need, and to always keep my feet in close connection with His.

Seems simple enough, I suppose.
But the thing that really hit me about this sermon, and most importantly the timing of it is, this verse is our DTS theme verse.
God is truly faithful!  He’s pretty funny, too…

It is official.
I’m leaving for DTS on the 26th.

Please email me your address if you’d like me to give you a support letter, but aren’t in the local area.
You can click on the link for my e-mail.
I’d really appreciate your prayers and support.

I will be updating on xanga as much as possible, so be on the lookout!

Fibersure works wonders…