renewed inspiration

I've always been inspired by people's stories....especially those of humble beginnings who went on to do great and life changing things with nothing but their simple faith and obedience in God. Missionaries stories have always touched my heart..maybe because something inside me hopes that one day people might talk of my life with that same inspiration.

I wasn't expecting to be challenged at church yesterday...as horrible as that may be.  God had other plans though..like He always does. Marilee Dunker, the daughter of Bob Pierce who founded World Vision spoke. What an amazing story she told of her father going to China as a young man and God impressing upon his heart the great need for both spiritual and physical aid to those living in poverty and hopelessness.  Marilee said that her father's prayer as he started out was simply this:

May my heart break with what breaks yours Lord.

Wow. Not an easy prayer. Can you imagine! This world....so full of suffering, cruelty, injustice, poverty and hopelessness. I don't think my pitiful human heart could withstand the burden...the million pieces of brokeness...the overwhelming heartache that God has for the people of this world.

As daunting and overwhelming a challenge it may be though...that's what I desire. Only then will I be able to love God's people the way they were meant to be loved. Only then will I be living not for myself and what I may gain in this world...but for others. That others may know the joy and hope that floods my soul and gives me reason to live. 

God is passionately in love with every single person in this world. Every single person in Cambodia.  I am surrounded by them everyday. The storekeepers, the moto drivers, the women living on the streets with their babies, the guy that works at the internet cafe, the girls that sell us fruit. He loves them all!! My heart bursts with "God loves you! Preah Ang sro lyung neyek!" That simply phase has more potential for giving life than anything else. 

We make life complicated..full of excuses..centered around ourselves.....what we are going to do or who we are going to marry. Where we are going to live...if only we'd stop and for once realize that maybe just maybe....life isn't about all that at all. Have you ever truly considerd that there just might be more to existence that our perfect, cozy, wealthy  little lives back home?

Yesterday I re-focused. My purpose was made clear. I was inspired.    

we love science!

Math and reading...boring. Boring to teach and i can't imagine that much fun to learn either. But science..now that's grabs their attention. My students can't get enough of learning about everything from hurricanes and tornadoes, how a tadpole becomes a frog, the solar system and sharks...just some of the topics we discussed this week. OFFICIALLY we are learning about plants in Science. Today we drew pictures of the 5 stages in a plant's life...their interpretations of what a plant looks like when it dies is priceless and a clear indicators that they watch WAY too much tv..haha.
Every morning we have half an hour of circle time...we all sit around in a circle and talk. They love to tell me about their weekends of excitement goin to Lucky Burger for supper or playing with friends or siblings but what they like the most is when I read to them. Forget about little kids story books...they are SO too old for that. They want books with facts and information with big words that they can go home to their parents and ramble on about stuff they probably won't understand. Today for instant...I've never answered so many questions about blizzards in my LIFE! Snow and Canada is so enchanting to them...our favorite thing to do is look at the globe and the different countries. And the question of that day.."If God made everything in the world..then He must of made tornadoes but why? They destroy stuff and hurt people." Uh.......uh.......good question!
Dara...my other favorite besides Souvith...puts his hand up with the answer for ANY question I ask...regardless of whether he actually knows the answer. When I do call on him....he puts his finger to his lips and goes "uummmmmmm" and then shoots up his finger into the air and blurts out a completely random(usual wrong) but absolutely adorable answer with his cute little lisp. Hands down..its the cutest thing in the entire world. When he gets really excited or upset his lisp gets worse....to the point where i can't understand what he says and spit is flying everywhere. He is best friends with Bonn..the kid with the rat tail and big lips. They make a funny pair.
SeeChan my amazing assistant in my class was gone all week to Singapore...a friend of hers from there paid for her to come visit! How exciting for her! Her first time on an airplane...she was so nervous. I assured her that everything would be fine. But I have missed her! I can't wait to hear her stories!

brownies in a frying fan.....?

so..i'm a good cook. so is kim. I just didn't know how AMAZING of cooks we were until last night. Let me set this up for you. We have no oven. We miss ovens. We miss baking. We miss baking brownies.....but did that get in the way of us doing it anyways? no.
We were at Lucky yesterday...our friendly neighbourhood air conditioned, organized grocery store. Our favorite shelf is the sale items..stuff that's near its due date but still perfectly fine to ingest. Nothing new was really on it..the same old things that clearly no one is going to but until they jack down the price again. So of course we are over by the ice cream freezer...we know our way around it pretty good:) Out of the corner of my eye I see betty crocker and hersey's chocolate coming from inside a box. Curious as I am..I opened the box to find betty crockers double chocolate fudge brownies with real hersey's chocolate...or something like that. AND..it had just been reduced in price to $2. so of course we bought it....not really fully realizing that we'd have no way to bake it. Do not dispare...we worked around it. I mean...if it'll cook in the pan in the oven you must be able to fry it in a pan..kinda like scrambled eggs. Did it work? of course. Was it amazing and gooey? you bet. What would we do without our beloved frying pan? i do not know. It has become our wok, toaster, oven dish and pot all in one.
Oh and there is another tom gon-dol (big rat) living by the front gate. It scared the crap out of us when we got home from Lucky. Our screams called the attention of the moto drivers down at the end of the street. One guy even drove over...turned off his moto and came in to try and catch it. Between my knowledge of the word for big (tom) and Kim's actions of a tail and big teeth..they caught on what we were scared of. Hahaha...oh man. We are convinced that we provide more entertainment for the moto drivers down the street than they've ever had in their lives. They are in thralled with everything we do. We've made up nicknames for them all if we don't know their names. There is Run...the ring leader who often drives Kim to work and says "wow" in a super annoying and creepy voice at every little thing that happens....Kim calls him her man servant There is Tdill...Kim's not so secret crush who is mixed up with yes and no but has the cutest smile EVER. Then we have Ace Ventura...spitting image of Jim Carrey with an Asian twist. Darth...the guy who always wears a huge black helmet. Mask...the old guy who always has a surgical mask on to keep out all that Phnom Penh pollution that fills my lungs each day. And Glasses...the guy with the coke bottled black rimmed glasses that saved us from the rat. Oh and Soka...he's such a nice man with a big smile and a helping hand. They are our friends and look out for us even though none of them really speak English. I don't know what we'd do without of Street 63 moto men....and our frying pan:)