It's September already?

You know you’ve become acclimated to traveling in Cambodia when you consider 6 hour bus rides a short distance. I often find myself these days sitting in busses, cars, vans, tuk tuk’s (Cambodian moto taxi), something they call a “mechanical cow,” and other modes of transportation for extended periods of time. As a result I get to see a great deal of the Cambodian landscape. The snapshots of each portion of the country continually amaze me and draw me in. It is also the rainy season here now which allows the fields to reveal the best they have to offer in terms of vibrant color and texture.

Josh and I saw a team from Riverside, California off to the airport yesterday. This marked our 8th team in 4 months. It has been a busy season for sure. However, as we sat sipping iced coffee for a few minutes before meeting up with the team for dinner yesterday (we sneak in mini-dates where we can) we commented to each other that while we felt tired from the early morning we had, we were also ending our busy season feeling thankful. We are thankful that the Lord has allowed us a healthy marriage in the midst of living such a unique existence over here, thankful for the numerous people we’ve had the opportunity to cross paths with in the course of this brief four months, and thankful that we have this season of serving in Cambodia. The Lord is doing tremendous things here.

The team prior to this last one also came from California and did a painting project at one of our homes in the Preah Vihear province. Below are a few before and after shots from the project.

The team that departed yesterday was comprised of a group of 13 people from four different churches. We began in Phnom Penh and in less than a week’s time traveled to four provinces and seven of our church orphan homes. During this time the team got to bless the homes by meeting some practical needs such as mattresses for beds, mosquito netting, new school uniforms, school supplies, and more.

The Prek Bey home.

The ultimate in comfortable Cambodian travel...the "mechanical cow."

Included in the homes we visited were two of our “floating homes” that are located in the midst of a floating village (floating Texaco station included) in the Kompong Chnang province.

As we finish up the busy season we are attempting to stay healthy (while fighting cold symptoms) and will head off for a mini-vacation in Siem Reap where we will sleep in, enjoy amazing food, and hopefully eat cheesecake on September 29th at the Blue Pumpkin :)

As I'm typing this, Emily walked by and said "are you updating our blog?" And this was really just the perfect excuse for me to steal one of her pictures and show it off on here. Emily has completed her last official team and is going to be focusing on children's ministry which means great things ahead for our local neighborhood and our church homes, as well as maybe more candy in her desk that will be up for grabs (I hope).