Blogging at naptime.

Yesterday was our office I.T. (and general know-how-to-fix-anything-you-could-possibly-imagine ) guy, Sophea's, birthday who turned what I have deemed the new 25 (which is of course "29"). And today, in typical Cambodia fashion, we held a party for him at our offices here, complete with fresh veggies (safe for even the fragile Western stomachs among us), fish (caught fresh today by our very own Dr. Lina), lemon pepper dipping sauce, rap music (this is a new addition...), brahok (fish paste), and lots of cooked beef (yes please). Oh, and two kinds of ice cream. One Coconut and one that was labeled "Vanilla" but was later revealed by the taste buds of my poor unsuspecting husband to be in fact "Durian." True story. Our soon-to-be-here Santa Rosa team can appreciate the irony of this after we once accidentally served a team member (Shannon!) a birthday cake made with Durian (her arch nemesis) for her birthday. Durian is an unfortunate discovery no matter ...

Our new staff member, Ryan, arrived on Thursday morning and we greeted him with a whirlwind of new culture, new people and no shortage of activity over the past 2 and a half days. He has been a great sport about it all, settling in well and sharing his passion for the Lord and for the nations with us. We are excited to see all that the Lord has for him here! And we are grateful to be able to pass the role into his very capable hands as we transition home in a few months. One of the greatest parts of him coming happened on the day of his arrival when he reached into his backpack and pulled out a Costco size bag of LIFE cereal. I thought I heard angels singing. I could be wrong but this is how I prefer to remember it. And with every bowl I have poured since Thursday (I believe the count is 4 thus far) I have felt all of Heaven, along with the Quaker Oats guy, smiling down upon me as I consume my favorite morning cereal square by square (to make it last longer...). To encapsulate the past...

Josh and I had the opportunity a week ago to attend our first Cambodian wedding. Our Office Manager, Naret, got married and we were excited to be able to celebrate with him, his new wife, and plenty of pink balloons, as well as seemingly endless plates of really good Khmer food. These are the three amazing and beautiful young girls who work in our office in Phnom Penh (Sarom, Pin, and Sophera). And yes, in retrospect, I should have put more sequins on my shirt to better blend in (not that I stick out much). On the left here is one of our doctor's, Dr. Chhaya (who would play a large part in my life as the week progressed....) and our Foursquare President in Cambodia, Pastor Peter. Now Josh and I knew very well going in that the main reason we got invited to this wedding was because of our phenomenal and unprecedented Cambodian dance moves. People try to hire us out all the time but we're quite busy and our agent really discourages too much publicity, so we've been saving our...

Josh and I have put together this latest video that gives a bit of a glimpse into some aspects of our life here in Phnom Penh, as well as some footage from a recent weekend outing we had with Rick Sawczuk and Scott Lang, from my home church in Washington, who were here to do a scouting trip for this year’s medical clinic. Enjoy :) (For a bit more screen clarity you can watch a larger version here) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlSvZUtdedY )

Josh and I are both fans of the Discovery Channel show "Man Vs. Wild" and have learned various helpful life skills from the education of Mr. Bear Grylls (obviously his real name) including: -How to cook a turtle. -How to sleep in the skin of a camel. -How to not fall helplessly into the nearest crevasse (pronounced of course "kra-vaws"). In light of this knowledge, we have talked for quite some time now about offering up our own informative version of this show, which we cleverly and uniquely decided to call "Man Vs. Cambodia" (we are creative if nothing else). We proudly present to you now the first of hopefully more installments of "Man Vs. Cambodia." This episode was filmed just today and we have entitled it, "Batman." Enjoy :)

Pastor Ted offered some great thoughts yesterday in our office devotions on the subject of "giving out of our need." He used the example of Pastor Peter, who is the pastor at our Cham Chao home (the Training Center) in Phnom Penh , as well as the President of Foursquare in Cambodia. Ted shared about his first experiences with Peter, who had very little in terms of wealth and possessions, including no more than one or two pairs of clothing and no sort of transportation to get around the country. The latter part was becoming more of a necessity as the church was quickly growing beyond just the scope of Phnom Penh . Ted talked about going through his own closet to pull out shirts and pants that Pastor Peter could wear. And with each offering, it wasn't long before Peter would have given every bit of that clothing to someone else who was in need. This not only kept happening with clothing, but eventually Pastor Ted gave Peter his own truck in order to travel around the co...

My husband surprised me with the slideshow below when I woke up this morning, thus proving both our love for each other, and our undying love for a really good sitcom theme song.

Exactly one year ago today, I had made plans to be a part of a very important, very sacred ceremony. It is one that involves an aisle, a gown, and the celebration of a wonderful, life-changing event. This is the day I would have joined with a sizable group of others as we each received our college diplomas. (And yes, I would have been 28 at the time, which means it was an accomplishment many years in the making :) Not many things in this world could have kept me from such a momentous occasion. And when I woke up on May 3, 2008, I looked forward to a day that would indeed bring with it a walk down an aisle, a beautiful gown, and celebrating with friends, family, and the man who I would pledge to love, to honor, and to follow….even if it meant moving halfway around the world :) He is also the man who recently spent $1.08 in the iTunes store in order to begin our now-daily tradition of listening to, yes, you guessed it…. The theme song from “Growing Pains.” As I am certain is true for ma...