Keep on keepin' on...

 (Another glance at the past few days...)

Well what can I say? I stand amazed at how God works through things that seem crummy to only bring us out into a more marvelous light. You would think you might start to catch on, but nope, still brings a smile to my face when it hits me that its not me doing this, but God “making beautiful things out of dust”. And you know what? I’m glad. It wouldn’t be so great if I just expected it, but our Father decides to bless us and that’s something to be thankful for!

Anyways, this past weekend we got to be tourists. We went to a museum, walked by the Royal Palace, and went shopping for souvenirs at the markets. We had Theary on our side to haggle for us in Khmer and we ate at a hang bai- which is like a food cart they park on the side of the street that locals eat at a lot. We got a plate of rice and then shared a few different meats (a curry chicken and a chicken with ginger dish and some pickled vegetables). It was fun and a good way to see more of the city!
 

That being said, as this weekend rolled around, we had only been out to the villages twice so far because of all the truck issues. For some reason I let myself get a little discouraged. I love getting to see the culture and city and think that is super important to this trip being meaningful, but I also have my heart set on coming here to serve. We started scheduling a few ideas for our time here and got to end of July and I was like “woah hold on”, I have already been here a week and a half?! But its okay, I reminded myself that I still have like six weeks and that I have already seen some really neat things! I just know that God will continue to be faithful through these weeks. He brought us this far so I don’t see any reason to doubt now. But it is also easy to get distracted with a schedule, or even lack thereof, so this whole reminding myself thing has to happen kinda frequently sometimes. I definitely don’t have it all together, but today I just had a sense of joy and patience that brought me back to thinking about that.

So you want to hear the good news right? The program purchased a new truck this past weekend and the team was in higher spirits today. We had a lot of fun passing out gifts at another village and chasing kids around (as Mallory mentioned). Things are looking up again for the SNACK program, Sharon is pressing forward with brilliant new ideas, and Mal and I have some other opportunities coming up, such as visiting a school, an orphanage, and a street kids’ day camp.



We will be sure to keep you updated! Thank you again for your support and prayers!

Peace and blessings,
Shanleigh

Christmas in June

FRIDAY:
Shan and I did something crazy...we actually got up at 5:30 AM and ran. Weird, I know. My body didn't like it so much. Then we faced the day!

So we loaded up early in the morning to go to the countryside again, but this time with a surprise. More on that in a sec. So off to the first village we went! After we listened to the lesson given to the children, we were introduced to them. Theary asked the children if they wanted to know who we (Shan and I) were and they literally screamed yes haha So then I got to say, "Susade, knom chumah Mallory." And then, with Sharon's urging, I started my presidential campaign by telling them to stay in school, listen to their parents, work hard, and study very hard. After Theary introduced Shanleigh, we got to help pass out the snack like usual. It was fun and the kiddos were adorable. But THEN we went to the second village...

The second village we did the exact same thing...except then we got to help pass out gifts! You know the little shoebox Christmas gifts people do every year? You take the shoebox and get little things for the child named on the box that correlates to their age. A big organization that does that is called Samaritan's Purse. Anyways, we got to give those to the children and they were so happy. Really, I've never seen kids that happy over presents. I seriously caught myself thinking, "Awww Christmas is such a lovely time..." Except it's the middle of June haha it was so cool to see the other side of things like this Samaritan's Purse thing. I remember picking a box up with my mom and shopping together to fill it up and then returning it. We usually did something like that at school, but I remember the big Christmas tree in the mall with the names attached to it. It was just super cool to see that the little things like that that we do in America that seem sub-consequential actually do make it to their destination and actually do make a huge difference in children's lives. Keep on giving!

They were beyond happy. The day was perfect. Until we left. We got a call that the other truck was still at village #1 which means they probably missed the children because we only have a small window of opportunity to catch them in between school sessions. Having problems with this truck not starting on top of Thursday's fiasco was a real morale kicker for the staff, Sharon, and me and Shan. But Sharon has plans to go look at some new trucks this weekend, it's just that they are so expensive it is hard to buy. Much like the states, except this is a more important cause.

Once we got back to the city we went grocery shopping for a few things and then went back to our apartment! Shan and I watched Despicable Me to prep for the second one coming out soon and then we cooked for the first time in our new place:) it was pretty good. That ended our day, a super long good day, and we hit the hay.

Shan's

Mine

MONDAY:

Sharon and Dennis found another truck!! And the one that was impounded is going to hopefully be fixed and released! Even though Thursday was some bad luck with the trucks, the Lord has really blessed the situation into something super helpful!!

We went to the countryside again today and we got to give gifts again:) The kids were just as happy if not more than on Friday. Tomorrow we go to Dennis' school and sit in his lesson for a bit, Wednesday we get to give gifts as well, maybe go to the countryside Thursday, and Friday we are helping Sharon's friend Ravi with a daycare all day long!!! :) Got lots of fun stuff planned for this week. Today was so much fun, everyone just seemed light-hearted and ready to serve.

The kids were really fun too. At the second village, Sharon and I played with some of them that stuck around as we were cleaning up. They would run at us and we would turn back around and chase them then they would run away and we would have pretend conversations as we waited for them to come creeping back and then would attack again hahaha I said, "Own no ana?!" Which means, "Where are the children?!" and they laughed and laughed and laughed and ran away lol As we left they ran after our car. So sweet:) Keep in mind that if you would like to see all of our pictures go to my facebook and click on my album!!


We'll keep ya posted!
Peace and blessings.

Stay classy.
Mallory Jean

House Hunting with the Ultimate Real Estate Agent...

NOTICE: SHARON IS THE BEST REAL ESTATE AGENT EVER ON EARTH.
OTHER NOTICE: IN THIS PARTICULAR POST I AM SPEAKING OF THE LORD.
OTHER OTHER NOTICE: WE LOVE SHARON A WHOLE WHOLE BUNCH.

As you know from Shan's previous post, we are not staying at the Passion Guesthouse anymore. That calls for some house hunting! With Sharon and Theary in hand, we drove around Phnom Penh looking for "For Rent" signs. Our drill was to spot a sign, roll up, Theary would jump out and ask the people how much it was a night in her brilliant Khmer and if it was too much, would jump back in the car, but if it was doable, we would all climb out and go look at a room. We did this about five or six times with no luck. To be fair, we did find a few places, but they were either too expensive for our budget or too far away from where we needed to be in the city.

So, we started just driving through random streets, looking for places and happened upon a place called Alma. We all climbed out because Theary came back to tell us that the "Big Man" spoke English. It also had a sombrero man out front, so I always consider that a good sign.

We walked in to a cute little open cafe kind of restaurant and began talking to the man that was in charge there. His name was Aaron and he explained that they were a brand new, been-open-ten-days, Christian guesthouse and organization. That was pretty cool. So, we explained our situation and he in turn told us it was $15 dollars a night per person (most places charge only per night, not per person). That was Shan and I's budget combined for one night. After haggling it down to $10 dollars a night per person if we were to share a room (which we were planning on doing anyways), Aaron informs us that they will actually be booked starting next week for a while because of some team coming in from Thailand or China. We were bummed, even though it was out of our budget. So, we all climbed back into the car and were about to leave when Aaron comes running out and asks us for our phone number so that he can calls us if he finds anything else for us after talking to some other missionaries. We of course gave him our number, thanked him, and went on our way.

We went off to the next possible guesthouse, Sugar and Spice, and discovered that it doesn't open until July 1st. While we are all brainstorming of all the options of where to stay for a couple weeks and then transferring to Sugar and Spice, our phone rings. It was Aaron. He asked us if we could come back straight away and sit and talk with one of the missionaries that works there about living arrangements. We had not been gone from Alma for more than fifteen minutes.Woohoo!

So, we all raced back to Alma and went inside to find Francel, a young lady our ageish (twenty-three) waiting for us. She explained that she had an apartment about two streets down from Alma (coincidentally it was two streets from Sharon, Dennis, and Theary) and she had an extra room that we were welcome to stay in if we were to pay $5 dollars a day each ($10 a day = $35 a week = $70 a month = ridiculously great deal) and that would include our own room with an air conditioner, a queen-size bed, our own bathroom, a kitchen, running refrigerator, access to the laundry machine, a closet, a fan, wifi, a living room, tv, and a balcony. Basically $5 dollars a day with that including all utilities. W-H-A-T. That was better than any of the guesthouses we looked at pricewise AND as an added bonus we would have all those amenities whereas at the guesthouses we would have had a bed, a bathroom, wifi, air conditioning, and been a twenty minute walk away from Sharon, Dennis, and Theary. After talking to Francel a little bit more, she explained that she was a Christian from Singapore and had been living in Cambodia for about six months and had just renewed her visa for another six months. She works with an organization that helps orphanages and she teaches English and Bible classes at a school that they attend. She later told us that she had actually been thinking about what she was going to do about needing a roommate because the one she has currently is moving out this week and her permanent roommate wasn't going to be back until the end of July (how interesting, we need a place from now till the end of July...HMMMMMM...). She had just come to grips with needing to pay the rent all by herself. And then Aaron called her as she was leaving the school and heading to Alma. SUPER COOL. She seemed really really nice, I got a good vibe from her. Later that day, after her shift at Alma (she also picked up work there in the afternoons) she took us all to the apartment and showed us around. I will post pictures after we move in TOMORROW (does a little dance). It is a really nice place. The view is spectacular as well because it's on the third floor (SO MANY STEPS. This place puts Gardner AND Smadams to shame)!!

After a very quick conference with Shan, we decided we would like to stay there. And everything was great! We get to move in tomorrow!! It is going to be so nice to have a place of our own to stay at and a place with space so that if we need to get away, we can. Super excited about the kitchen and always-running-fridge so that we don't have to eat out every night (the fridge is exciting because in the guest houses, all the electricity turns off after you leave the room which kind of defeats the purpose of a fridge).

This is just a small testament of how good, great, awesome, FANTASTIC our God is. He cares about everyone. He cares about you, he cares about me, and he cares about the things that go on in our lives. Every thing, big or small. There's nothing too big or too small to pray for, he wants to hear about it all. He wants our hearts and everything that comes with them just as they are right now. That's something I've learned and relearned this week, that our God loves us. Our Dad LOVES us. He wants to dote upon us and shower us with gifts and blessings. All he wants is our heart. And you get his in return. You already have it. Like in Job, one of the things that book is all about is being real. Real and radical. Job was very upfront about what he was feeling with the Lord. He never was wishy-washy. Whatever you are, whether you're mad, sad, happy, joyful, hurt, stale, stuck, unsure, doubting, falling, rising, running with him, walking with him, or ashamed, he just wants you to be real with him. Talk to him about everything on your heart and he will take your worries, your aches, your pains, and carry them so you don't have to. You are his. You belong to him, whether you acknowledge that or not. Your identity, my identity, is in him, it IS him.

We prayed for the right place before we set out and right when it looked like we needed to give up for the day, he taped on our shoulders and said, "Hey, I have something super cool for you that you couldn't have found on your own and it's better than anything you have or would have found so far and I got it for you because I love you and I wish to give you the desires of your heart."

Boom. Roasted. God's love. Reaches everything. Even the seemingly little things.

Needless to say, this was a good day:) 
Peace and Blessings.

Stay classy.
Mallory Jean

Bumpy Roads and Broken Down Trucks

Well day number two in the countryside was today! Just kidding. It was supposed to be, but we got to experience the reality of broken down trucks and the delegation of responsibility today. This morning we arrived at the P.I.P. house promptly and witnessed the packing up of the trucks. This was all fine and dandy and we even had the third truck back in commission and ready to go. We all loaded up and our crew (we split in 3 groups) headed for the farthest villages. After quite awhile we got a call from another truck saying they were having truck problems. Sharon immediately contacted Piseth (pronounced P-set), the Cambodian program manager and had him call the other trucks. We soon learned that truck problems actually meant the truck had veered off the side of the road into a rather large ditch. It hit an electric pole and caused a good amount of damage to the dash and passenger side door, as well as the lack of a windshield. It is quite the blessing that nobody was injured, but the staff was quite shaken up. 

Piseth is learning to take charge and find balance as he manages the staff. He is doing a great job and we are learning with him along the way. We left him to work with the insurance company and sent the other truck along to the larger villages. Sharon, Mal, and I headed back to the city because by that time we wouldn’t make it to the villages in time to see the kids before they left for school. (We arrive during their lunch break which is typically two hours.) We arrived home to a yummy meal of seafood fried race prepared for us by Theary and her older sister Vanna who was visiting for the day. Following lunch, Mallory and I headed over to Jars of Clay for good cake and a lot of catch up blogging. There. You are now officially caught up! Updates on the truck, countryside visits, and more soon to follow.

Blessings,

Shanleigh

Kep (/gaip/)#speechpathprobs & Rabbit Island Adventures 101

Sup 'Merica (and you lucky dogs in the UK *ahem, Jacque and Kelli*)! (Ps, I WILL be there sometime next summer for Caleb's wedding...anyone need a Speech Path intern? :))

This past weekend was... beyond super fun. It was super DUPER fun (shout out to all my She's the Man fans). We, Sharon, Theary, Shan, and I, had a girls retreat/time-for-Mallory-and-Shanleigh-to-catch-up-on-sleep-because-you-both-look-like-zombies! It was awesome.

Saturday:
Saturday morning we all got up semi-early, ate a quick breakfast, and we were out on the road towards our three hour drive to Kep (/gaip/) and Rabbit Island. The car ride was pretty uneventful except for that Shanleigh and I became fluent in Khmer (/kmai/)...we learned like ten phrases thanks to Theary haha That really was fun, we felt quite accomplished, and extremely silly because some of the words are very hard to pronounce and we sounded like bouncing babbling babies (look at that alteration). Nevertheless, it was super fun hanging out with Theary and Sharon for a while.

When we finally arrived in Kep, we stopped at the seafood market. The market was this rather large area made up of a lot of different booths, a very long dock, and a large pavilion. At the different booths were various people selling all different types of seafood and knickknacks. Now, when I say different types of seafood I don't just mean like, "Oh lovely, crab, shrimp, fish, yum!!" I mean like, they had some very strange (from my American view) things like dried/floured squid and shrimp, grilled fish (okay, not that weird), grilled squid (okay, a little weird), and some very potent smelling fruit. 

As Sharon was taking this photo, an Asian man walked over and stood next to Sharon and took this same picture on his own phone camera...yes, we stood there and smiled and I had no idea why he did that hahahaha

Inside the pavilion were little stands where women were selling fresh seafood, literally fresh from the sea that was ten feet away. That's what the women were doing on the docks surrounding the booths and pavilion: wading into the rough waters and retrieving their cages full of crabs, giant shrimp, baby shrimp, and blue crabs. After browsing through the booths for a little while, the four of us meandered over to this pavilion and bought a large amount of crab with Theary acting as our haggler (thank goodness for her, Sharon knows some Khmer, but it is Theary's language and she is best at haggling). On the far side of the pavilion, there was this seemingly wall of pots with chimneys. They were actually cooking stations. We bought our seafood and then had it cooked for us right there two minutes later. You really can have your cake and eat it too! After buying some spicy sauce and loading up our haul, we climbed back into the car and made our way to the dock that would boat us over to Rabbit Island.

When we got there we ate our crabs (it was my first time to have to open those bad boys, but they were DELICIOUS and totally worth all the hard work) while we waited for the rain to stop and for some other people to share our boat with us so it wouldn't be so expensive. 

 

After a while, it stopped raining and we were able to all climb into our boat and make the thirty minute ride to the island. 

On the way there we were beyond giggly for three almost twenty-one year olds (Theary is twenty-one). We were laughing and making plans for when Theary would come to Texas and what all we would do together. We also teased Sharon that we were going to all sneak out and do something together one night. Theary started giggling mischievously and whispered to us, "Yes, we will sneak out..and go to the museum! hahahahahaha" She. Is. A. Gem. 

We do plan to go to the museum, but I don't know if we will sneak out to do that haha We also want to take Theary to the movie theater because she has never been before!! So many plans, so many things to do with our new friend and family! Once we arrived to Rabbit Island, we had to walk through the island to the other side because that's where we were staying. So off we went! It truly was like a jungle. A jungle with a slight, weathered path. Shanleigh sustained a slight injury to the facial area due to a thorn tree accidentally smacking her in the face and making her bleed in a few spots. She was a trooper though. We came out of the jungle and I literally thought I had been transported to the shooting area of Lost. Sharon threatened to vote me off the island if I didn't behave. I think she meant survivor...but I didn't take any chances with my life ;)

After unloading in our freaking awesome hut, we went and explored the island a bit and played with our new friends, some of the dogs of the family that owned the area that we were staying in. 

We ended up walking out on the dock and looking at the sea and the rain that was coming in fast. Then, me, being me, I dared Shanleigh to jump in. She said, "I will if you will." And of course I said, "Fine, let's do it." She wasn't bluffing. That meant I couldn't. So into the sea we jumped! This might becoming a new tradition for me...Croatia, now Cambodia...who knows where next?

After our leap of faith that ended up only being water up to our bellybuttons, we climbed out and we all ran to our cabin because it began to rain right then. The rest of the night consisted of showers, snack food for supper, and sleep!

                      ~~~THE NEXT DAY~~~

Sunday:
Do you know the worst time of the day to awake after a lovely, restful night of sleep? 5:00am. You know what the worst thing to wake up to is? A rooster. I almost committed chickenicide a few times that weekend, but I held it together. It actually wasn't that awful because it got us started on our day early. Sunday we woke up, laid around, and got ready about seven and had breakfast at the host's house/restaurant. We had some pretty darn good fruit pancakes/crepes with Khmer coffee (which is my new favorite morning drink, I have no idea why I haven't thought to just drink coffee cold in the mornings instead of hot coffee, brilliant, simply SUBLIME). 

Sunday it pretty much rained all day in varying degrees of heaviness so we stayed inside our hut and played Skip-Bo and ate banana chips UNTIL it cleared up for a couple hours.

We ran out of our hut to avoid becoming completely stir crazy and went swimming in the sea for about an hour and a half. I have a faint tan line from my chacos AND my swimsuit already! After swimming it started raining again, so back into our hut we ran and played some more Skip-Bo, snacked a bit more, and went to bed.

                    ~~~THE NEXT DAY~~~

Monday:
The rooster never fails. We got up and packed to leave the island, walked back across the island and had to wade into the water to get to our boat (some of the other people with us were not so happy about that). Once we all piled in, we donned our rain jackets and buckled down for the bumpy, wet, slightly alarming, thirty minute boat ride back to Kep. 

Theary was a little scared so we all sat next to her and held hands. After a while we made it back, safe and sound, crawled out of the boat and climbed into Sharon's car to head home. Before heading that way though, we went back to the seafood market, bought a large amount of seafood for our crew and for Theary's sister, Sreypo, bought some souviners from the booths, and went to visit and meet Theary's family in her village. They were all very nice and smiling at us the whole time. I wish I knew more Khmer so I could speak to them properly, but it was so fun getting to meet them. Then we bought some fried bananas (totally good for you, they're a fruit...) and made our way home.

That was pretty much our weekend in Kep! It was extremely fun and just the right amount of refreshment that Shan and I needed to get our bodies used to the twelve hour difference. It was also so much fun getting to spend time and bond with Theary and Sharon. They are pretty great :)

Hope you are all doing well! Please continue to keep us in your prayers!

                                                  <---(Goodbye!)--->

  

Stay classy.
Mallory Jean

Welcome to Phnom Penh...and out to the countryside!

Hello all! We have obviously arrived safely to Phnom Penh :) ...but if you didn't know that, now you can stop worrying. The first few days were just getting used to the time difference, enjoying our first tuktuk ride (basically the taxi), exploring the city (a.k.a. getting lost, but Dennis rescuing us just as we reached familiar territory), trying strange foods from the street vendors (grilled bananas...yes, they were actually really good), and catching up on jet lag. Day three is where things got really exciting!!

Baby pineapples from a street vendor at the Russian Market!

Hang around for a short intermission with me here. So we stayed in a guesthouse (hotel) our first two nights, but it is brand new and they didn’t exactly follow through with their promises for breakfast and, most importantly, wifi. Anywho, no biggie, we checked out and have been staying with the missionary couple that we are working with- Dennis and Sharon Welch, and their adopted Cambodian daughter Theary (minus the two nights on an island. Yes, an island, but hold that thought for the next blog post. So pretty much the Welches are amazing- super sweet, hospitable, and committed to the Lord. They didn’t grow up in the faith like Mallory and I have, but once they heard of the great hope we have they decided they wanted to jump right in...to Cambodia. They said “If the Bible says to go and share His love and share the Good News, then why wouldn’t we?” Good point. Well here they are and they have a daughter our age that lives with them and is going to university here in the city now. Theary grew up in a village and met the Welches through a crazy series of events, kept in contact, and then voilà- she has continued to bless them with her presence by now living with them. She is a sweet, humble, and fun-loving soul. She has learned a ton of English since moving in with the Welches about three years ago and is now becoming a great friend to us (and is our local Khmer (said kinda like kuh-mai- obvioulsy I’m not the speech path major so hold on for a better explanation...) language and culture expert!) You’ll hear a lot more about them, but there’s a brief introduction.

So back to day three. Friday marked our first day in the countryside. This meant we got to visit three villages with the SNACK program, which is the program that we came here intending to serve with. It is overseen by Sharon, but run by eight (soon to be nine) local Cambodians. We arrived at the Partners in Progress house, the place where SNACK headquarters, right around 8:00 am to meet the staff and see them run through the day’s schedule, as well as receive a fresh delivery of bread, soy milk, and ice. Did I mention traffic here is super crazy? Because it is. The lines on the road and even the stoplights are simply suggestions. People weave in and out and honk just to say “I’m here. I’m coming over.” It actually works better than you would think because all the motos (motorbikes) move around pretty easily, but then again, traffic jams happen a lot too. Anyways, we got to the P.I.P. house and met the crew and observed the daily preparations. From there we headed out to visit three villages, all of which have fabulous Khmer names that I have yet to memorize.

There is definitely a lot of poverty and living conditions that you can’t really imagine in the U.S., but I don’t want to dwell on that. The fact is, we are there to serve and love on these great people and learn from their joy and simple, but budding faith. When the SNACK truck pulls up all the kids approach the meeting spot with excitement and sit on a tarp to hear a little about health, hygiene, and then listen to a Bible lesson. Listening to them sing praises in Khmer is really cool. Then they all line up- one line of boys, one of girls, to receive their snack. They each say “ah-kuhn” (thank you) in turn and then run along home. But at the third village, this ended a little differently. At the village abbreviated TTP, the kids hung around and some were brave enough to play with us. It was a little difficult to reach out to the kids except for shy smiles and serving the snack at the first couple villages, but at the third we made friends with a few little guys who raced back and forth across the schoolroom with Mallory and played a game filled with high fives with me. One boy in particular ran out to meet Sharon’s car as we pulled up (we rode behind the SNACK truck) and held our hands, gave us the hugest smile, and shared a lot of peace signs with us. This guy apparently struggles with some speech problems (and maybe a few other developmental issues) and is made fun of by a few of the local kids. I’m sure you’ve heard the cliché talk of people having so much joy with so little material possessions, but it really is a reality check to see it in person. Regardless of my wealth status, or my ethnicity, or anything else, I want to be overflowing with that much joy! And I want to work on that being because of my foundational relationship with God. And I want to share this joy with others I encounter daily. But we all have a lot of learning to do right? Sharon’s great about reminding us of that and also that joy comes through trials to produce faith.

This is just the start of the learning though. As well as the start of the serving and loving here in Phnom Penh. We are loving it so far, but are also a little ready to start a more regular schedule and such. But it’s an adventure and I am trying to soak it all up and learn from whatever is in store. Please continue to keep us in your prayers; thanks so much for your encouragement!

Blessings,

Shanleigh