GCO Cambodia Team 2017

We are at the airport waiting to board our flight home, but I wanted to try to get one more post written. This one is my favorite to write about! Our last week in Battambang was filled with lots of  individual time spent with each CMP and their families. We, as a team, were able to take each family out for dinner, some lunches, some breakfasts, and some adventures! God blessed our time in such amazing ways ... and, there's no way to express in writing how we all felt about this week. Please ask us about it 🤗 Bamboo train and pizza dinner with Kakda, Chariya, Rachel, and Liza. Special outing to Memory Cafe with everyone. Ice cream treat with Saran & Sophanet's family and other youth from his village ministry Symean & Nisy Saran & Sophanet (I LOVE this photo of them!!) Chhay & Kanha Kakda & Chariya Pov & Sokvy Seng  Angkor Wat with Chhay, Kanha, and Emma This is just a snapshot of an incredible week with our friends. I have so much more to tell about the...

It has been a challenge to find time to write on this blog. Our days have been very full .... some days starting before 5:00am, and not ending until close to 10:00pm. What a blessing each day has been! On our first Sunday in Battambang, we had our first Khmer breakfast at the noodle shop with Kakda. Then, we took our first tuk-tuk ride to Asia's Hope to join them for church.  We spent a couple of hours visiting our friends at BB2, and also Sameoun and Channet at BB11. Because our plans were slightly changed for the day, we were able to make it back to the Battambang Grace Center for church service at 3:00! The youth arrived at the center that afternoon from surrounding villages ready for camp the next day ... we enjoyed having dinner with them Sunday evening.  First tuk-tuk ride with Sokha ... our wonderful driver and friend.  Asia's Hope BB2 Simon, Joe, Seng, Pastor Choeum, Pov Joe and Abbi making friends with the Cambodian youth. Last Monday - Wednesday were our longest...

It is hard to believe that we've been in Cambodia nearly a week already, and this is our first blog post! We hit the ground running, and haven't slowed down yet.  I will try to do better about keeping the blog updated 😉This post will be a story in pictures: We arrived in Phnom Penh Thursday after midnight, and were so happy and surprised that Vandy and Sokry came along with Chhay to pick us up!  Vandy, Abbi, and Sokry Simon and Chhay Chhay, Tony, and Joe Michelle, Simon, and Abbi After breakfast on Friday, we took the day to explore Phnom Penh. We toured the Killing Fields.... a few tears were shed after learning about the horrors the Khmer people suffered during this horrible time in their history.  We also visited the Toul Sleng Prison ... another terrible visual reminder of what happened under Pol Pot.  This room has glass cabinets on all four sides floor to ceiling stacked with skulls found in the mass graves. This one made me cry.  We got up on Saturday mo...