Kayla Balangue

Hello to our family and friends,
This is the last update (written by Erin so I can brag on the team) We are *now* home after a very full and rewarding trip to Cambodia. I couldn’t be more proud of this team. These ladies worked hard! We painted diligently and strategically to complete the murals at the AIM school in the capital city and they look great. We worked together with the amazing AIM staff in the second location and enjoyed connecting with the community during Lotus Kids Club. There are so many instances of God’s faithfulness that we can’t wait to tell you about in person. Please ask us for details!
See you soon! 🙂

(Praise God for the safe arrival of this team back in the states and for a blessed trip! Please keep the team in your prayers as they adjust to life back home, get over jet lag, and begin to process and debrief all that they saw and experienced on this trip. Thank you all!)

Hi! This is an update from our team written by Virina and Roosmarie.

Over the last three evenings, we spent two of them having dinner at two different restaurants that support the community. I love how these companies are committed to treating the staff fairly and friendly, they are eco-responsible, and have quality food. I love their ethical values of operating the restaurant and how they hire disadvantaged people for their staff. The foods are very delicious and very creative as they integrate different cuisine styles while remain their traditional dishes. I felt honored to support these restaurants and hope to see more of these enterprises create a better community in the nation. We were also able to support people here by using an all-women tuk tuk company for our transportation this week. The lady drivers told us that we are strong ladies! They also thanked us for supporting them as an all-women’s group ourselves.

One thing we did at the school we volunteered at was having a devotional time with the staff. We took turns leading worship songs and sharing devotionals with the staff with the help of staff translating. We all enjoyed praising the Lord regardless of our language. I (Virina) was amazed by how God used me in this section. During the first day at the facility, I was not asked to share a devotional until an hour before. I was lost and did not know what to share. Perhaps the devotional we did that morning? Or the devotional I did before? I didn’t have my Bible with me which made me more frustrated. However, God always provides. As I asked God about what to share, a verse from Psalm 46 appeared in my mind. I had peace in choosing this chapter as I read through it. After the devotional, the translator told me how the staff here like Psalms a lot and how it gives them hope, and they felt thankful for me sharing the message.

When we went out into the communities each day, we taught songs, bible stories, and shared snacks with the local people. It was so fun to see how the kids and parents were excited and having fun with the things that we and the staff brought to them. I saw how God’s word and power moved in a community.  The village that we served for all three days got more involved day by day. Seeing how the activity started with mostly kids and a few mothers to having more kids and parents (including dads!) join this program showed how God attracts His people to come and know Him. We are honored to be the bridge and help the community in learning about God. People here are very nice and they show a lot of respect to their neighbors and people who they just met. We learned a lot from them! Even though working with kids is not my strong suit, I (Roosmarie) was happy to see that the children enjoyed my company. I was honored to serve and bless them even if I struggled to work with them. It was a blessing to see their childlike joy no matter my strengths. Either way, God used me to help serve the children and their community.

At our last day of helping the school, we were excited that we were asked to teach the preschoolers there a song and craft just like we did in the community. Seeing how joyous the children were despite the situations they may have been in was encouraging. They had so much laughter and creativity as we shared our song and craft. I do not think that any of us wanted the day to end as we went into the community for the last time. Regardless, it was a blessing to serve the children, staff, and community. We had become better bonded with the staff over the last three days. We and the staff gave each other blessing words and thoughts of encouragement, expressing all of our gratitude, before being given a farewell gift and saying goodbye.

I think all of us on the team can agree that these last few days (and the whole trip) have been a blessing to us. We are so humbled that we were able to serve such an incredible ministry. We can see that there is so much more to come for this place and are honored that we were able to be a part of it.

Hello family and friends!

This is Brittany here with an update from Southeast Asia. There have been many blessings so far on our trip and we have definitely seen God move here.

Our first project was to support our partners‘ school with a beautiful mural for the students and the staff. In four and a half days, our team was able to see the mural to the finish. The past couple of days have consisted of tracing the designs on the walls, painting them, and going back and touching up. The biggest blessing of this project has been seeing the staff join us in painting. It truly brought our entire team much joy and happiness seeing how excited the staff and students were.

We also had the opportunity to have amazing coffee each day. We always looked forward to stopping by this store and get an iced coffee because the shop owners were so sweet and kind to us. Hannah drew them a picture of iced coffee to give them for our last day in the area.

On our last day at the school, the staff surprised us with a special blessing where they sang to us reminding us we are all part of God’s family. Then they gave each of our team members a scarf, which is traditional to this country in Southeast Asia. It was a beautiful surprise and we have been so blessed to witness their happiness and joy for the mural. We couldn’t have asked for a better end to our time at the school.

On Saturday, we had another culture day. Our driver, B, is truly another blessing to us and brings our team so much joy and laughter. He is not only our transportation each day, but a history and tour guide, teaching us about Southeast Asian culture. We always laugh at his jokes and stories, and we also make him laugh. He especially likes my (Brittany’s) laugh.

For our culture day, we started at the Russian market. It’s huge!  This is where the team got most of our personal souvenirs and gifts for family and friends. There were things like palm sugar, coffee, dried mango, varieties of pepper, handmade shirts, bags, etc. The team had a lot of fun there and spent almost 4 hours wandering through all the shops at the market. It was an incredible experience.

We then stopped for lunch and had some amazing fried rice, sweet potato fries, curry, stir fried noodles, cookies, and shaved ice. We then visited the National Museum where again our driver, B, filled us in on the history. We saw many religious statutes and artifacts belonging to the country.

The team then visited a Buddhist temple, Wat Phenom. It is a very important place for the people here and they measure distance all over the country from its center. It was a powerful and challenging experience for some of us. Going into the temple gave us the opportunity to pray for the people there.

After visiting the temple, we took a boat ride on the river. Our driver, B, once again was a wealth of knowledge about the Mekong River and the surrounding geography. During the river cruise, it started pouring and we all embraced it while blasting worship music on the boat. The experience was peaceful and exciting all at the same time. Some of us did get super wet, including myself and Jenna who loved the rain.

After going back to the hotel to freshen up, we ended our Saturday night with Mediterranean food. We tried hummus, which was amazing. Although I (Brittany) typically have never liked hummus, last night changed my perspective! We also tried some chicken skewers, ground beef skewers, and mini shawarma’s. We also had a little friend visit at dinner, a cricket. It kept jumping from any point until it landed on our table which made a couple of us jump. We ended up placing a cup on it before it could continue jumping from table to table. It was an exciting dinner experience. 😉

The team also recorded a video of reading a Psalm for Brittany’s church.

On Sunday, we packed up our things to take a bus to our next destination. We had a bit of a bus delay but ended up getting into a bus to take us on a 6 hour drive to our next destination. We are excited to see how God is going to continue working in our team and the amazing things He is doing in Southeast Asia.

We started our day very early on Monday taking Tuk Tuks at 4:30AM to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat (one of the 7 Wonders of the world!) It was worth losing a little sleep to see and experience such a beautiful sight. It was such a special time to pray together for this place and for our field workers. We also visited 3 other temples and prepped for Kids Club tomorrow. 

We have been immensely blessed by the opportunity to serve in Southeast Asia and we continue to ask for prayer in health, safety as we travel, and prayers for this country and the people here. That’s all for now and thank you for praying and supporting our Southeast Asia team!

– Brittany