Home Sweet Home
Mood:  happy
We have arrived safely at home, thank God! We flew into Osaka, Japan, and then to Los Angeles and arrived on Wednesday morning around 9am. We are adjusting from jet lag and a few are still feeling the effects of foreign food and water. Please pray for restored health. We wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and support of this trip/. We were able to show God's love to many people in Cambodia, and also learned a lot from them and their culture. Our eyes were opened to things that go on in third world countries, and we have a new appreciation for the little things that make our lives so good. Pictures and stories abound! There will be a slide show at Shoreline in the near future, and a couple people will be sharing this Sunday, February 6th. If you'd like to see pictures, please email me at the Shoreline office (stacy@theshoreline.org) and I would be happy to send some to you. Thanks again for everything! Over and out.
Stacy

Hello from Thailand
Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening To All,

We have completed our time in Cambodia, and have traveled to Bankok, about an hours flight. Today is a time for the team to gather and begin processing all that we have seen and done and how we have seen God in and through it all. Tomorrow we will have a time to share with one another how God has revealed Himself to us, and what we have learned about Him, others and ourselves.

After arriving in Bankok, it was decided that we all must go to the "central market". It is only open on weekends. I would liken it to going to the Orange County Swap Meet. It was about the same size by ground covered and only open on weekends, but with about 100 times the number of vendors and 1,000 times the number of people! And did I mention it is hot, very hot and humid? I did find some relief when we found the open air food market across the street. I always find those to be very interesting.

We all gathered after shopping and had a wonderful Thai dinner.

There is to much to share in one writting, so let me say that each one of us is still processing what it is that God would have us take with us, and what He will have us do to reach the people and kids of Cambodia, Thailand, and beyond.

I personally, and the team too, thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf. Please pray that God will speak to each of us as we spend the day reflecting and sharing together Monday. Also pray for our health and safty. A few are feeling the effects of the food and water in a different country.

We all look forward to seeing you, sharing our stories and pictures, and how God has spoken to each one of us.

By His Grace,

Russ

Incredible Trip
Mood:  silly
Hi Everyone -
This is a few days late - but thought I would post it anyway.

Everything is great here! We arrived and the next day we went straight to the Sunshine House (the orphange) outside of the city where we stayed for 3 nights. It was wonderful to see all the same kids and a few new ones this time. It was incredible. They just built a new "block" or building to house 20 more girls. So they are looking for sponsors for them! We have all the information if you are interested in sponsoring a child, let me know. They need the sponsors before they can bring in the girls!

While we were there we got to see the toilets that
they built at the school and the principal came out to say "Akkon" or Thank you. It was great. We also did all the farming and cleared a field of weeds so they could plant spinach. The next meal we had - they cooked up the weeds that we just tilled. They tasted very interesting... The man that usually took care of the farm died the day that we arrived - so we tried to keep up with the farming while they look for someone else to help with his job. We also cleaned the pig pens - which was pretty hilarious... it was extremely gross - and you just tried to not slip in the poop and land in it - or tried to get the pigs to stop eating your pants. We got a lot of video of that! They had a cremation for the farmer - and Pushpa took us to it. It was a Buddist ceremony & extremely interesting. We asked a lot of questions & took some pictures to share with you.

The day before we left the Sunshine House Pushpa told Srey Kan (the little girl that I sponsor) that I was her sponsor & we became best friends for the last day and half. Pushpa told me that she was telling all the other kids that I was her sponsor & she would give them a play by play of what I did. It was hilarious. But when I went to leave she thought that she got to leave with me! It was really sad. But she has a great life there at the orphange & she is a very happy little girl. I had to say good-bye, but I told her I would send her a letter soon.

Next, the team split into 2. 5 of the Young Life
people went with the Young Life team here in the city and the rest of us (7 people) went to a village outside the city and spend 2 days there - where we went to the schools and taught the kids english. That was really cool - they were so stoked to see white people!

Now we just got back to the city - where we are going to rest for a day and probably do some touristy things tomorrow & tomorrow night we are going to help handout food to the homeless people in the city. It should be amazing.
Thank you all - for your prayers and support. I look
forward to sharing my pictures with you and MANY more stories!
Have a wonderful day!

Love,
Charity

Ready for another sweaty day
Mood:  bright
Hello everyone,
Well I was supposed to write this log thing yesterday morning but we've been so busy, i haven't really had a chance.
We've done so much in the past week, I don't even know where to start.
Here goes with the most recent of "activiteis"....
Last night we worked with this really aw some ministry that sends out four to five groups every Friday night to hang out wit the local street kids. It doesn't sound like much at first, but for me it was one of the most eye opening experiences I've ever had. We went from crowded ally with no lights (just trash fires burning on the ground) to sketchy parks to streets corners with one or two teens collecting trash. It was amazing to be with the leaders (who are local Cambodian Christians) and watch them share the gospel. It was very encouraging to me to see how bold they are with their faith in Jesus. Good times.
On the Villages that we visited. this year was a little different from last year, instead of a medical ministry, we went to local schools and work with the kids, teaching them about health and English. The class rooms, witch look at least a trillion years old, were all cement with huge cracks running from every corner, with no lights, no glass on the windows and no door, just a big square hole to walk through and dirt about three inches thick covered the floors. Each class had about 30-40 kids with another 20 or more practically crawling in through the windows. The children were so eager to learn it was quite a difference from the states!
Some of the villages didn't have a school house so we just lay ed out a mat and had a class in the nearest area of shade. It was a lot of fun.
Overall being in the villages was a great experience and a nice little break from civilization. Oh yeah, I even brought back a little gift from the village, its red......and spotty.......and all over both of my feet!!
We are back in the Capitol now and our group is going to Teul Slang, the ole prison where so many Cambodians were tortured and killed. I'm sure you will get an update from them when they get back.
Sorry this log was so long, I was only gonna write a few sentences =)

Love to all,
Nicole

YL in Cambodia
Mood:  party time!
chum riep sua!!
Hello out there to all of our wonderful family and friends. I am here to report for the YL homefront in Cambodia. Hopefully an update on the village trip will be soon to follow!! So for the past three days we have been cruisin' with the YL crew on their motos, dodging traffic, meeting new kids and training for camp like crazy!! We are having a great time and the YL crew here is amazing. They are incredibly dedicated to seeing young Cambodians meet Jesus and they pull out all the stops to make sure it happens. They started YL by providing the school with a computer class which has given them a seriously strong connection with students whose life is so super busy with studying and working. The Cambodian youth are so driven to become great and they all wake up before dawn and work tirelessly throughout the day. Another way YL has got involved with kids is by providing English classes that we have been able to help out with. The school system here is in a bit of disarray right now, but the kids are motivated to learn and so take alot of extra classes. We have been doing some contact work at the schools and meeting lots of kids and learning a little Kamai (the cambodian language). Tomorrow we are off to do some more training, do a little sight-seeing and then off to a wedding for one of the YL leaders. It should be great, the weddings here are like nothing you have ever seen, more to follow on that one later. Please continue to pray, not only for our team but for the YL crew here in Cambodia. Strength, health, and energy are at the top of the list right now. We miss and love you all,
Kim and Fluffy

the team splits
Mood:  chillin'
so the team has split and half of us have gone into the local village while the other half have met up with the young life gang here in cambodia. we have yet to here the report from the village but the young life crew is doing really well. we going through some camp training and some club training as well. everyone is having so much fun riding on motos and bike just crusin'the town and doing contact work. Tyler is very happy he got to drive one of the motos and did not die.
well i think there is a moto waiting outside right now for so until next time.

Back in Phnom Penh
Mood:  a-ok
We are back in Phnom Penh now. We had a crazy but good time at the orphanage which involved cleaning pig pens, playing with kids, pulling weeds and then eating them in omelets for breakfast, going to a Cambodian cremation (the farm hand at the orphanage just died), watching squealing pigs get spayed right before my eyes with no anesthetic, and a whole slew of other stuff! Little did I know that the orphanage is on a farm, it's actually an ecological farm, so everything gets used and nothing is wasted. They even have a system that uses the methane gas from animals' poop to light the stove in the kitchen...gnarly! There is a wedding at our hotel right now and people are gathering at their tables right behind me! I am also sitting right next to a shrine with candles lit. All on a little side street in a random corner of the world...amazing! Tomorrow, 7 of us leave at 6am for a village where we'll be doing education for 5th and 6th graders in English and Health. Pray that we don't get bit by striped mosquitos that carry dange fever! The other 5 will be staying in Phnom Penh to work with Young Life, and then we'll meet back up with them on Thursday evening. Someone will update you again tomorrow!
Much love,
Stacy for the Team

Off to the Sunshine House
Mood:  energetic
Hello everyone at Shoreline!

We are having a wonderful time here in Cambodia...I am especially excited to be back here and experiencing all the incredible sights and sounds of the city. It's about 7:00am Saturday right now and we're heading out to the Sunshine House in a few minutes. I can't wait to see the kids again...to hold them and just love them! Our plans changed a bit with the toilet project and now we're planning a few days of teaching the kids prayer and worship, which should be awesome! Although we are all having a great time, we do miss everyone back home and can't wait to see you! Keep us in your prayers as we head out to the village...God has already spoke volumes to me and I pray that comes thru to the kids and people here....see you in February!

Love always,
Lauren

WE made it!!!!
Mood:  happy
Hey Friends and Fam!
WE are here in Cambodia and it is rocking!!! WE flew into Japan and then to Bangkok and finally arrived in Cambodia after an alomost 24hr journey- needless to say we were tired! and the time is oppisite here- ur nite our day vis versa. Ya so i think this is our first real day here.. at least it feels like it- darn its all a blur! Cambodia is awesome, the people and the culture are so interesting. WE got picked up by the Asian Outreach Cambodia team and hung out with them most of today- Learned tons about the culture and were heart broken to learn about the insane child prostitution that goes on in this country- please pray for that when u think of Cambodia- so many children lost in such a disgusting tragedy. (sigh)
Well as for what we're doing out here things are constantly changing- as of right now it seems the toliets were finished so we have been working on a program for the Sunshine kids instead. WE leave tomorrow mornining so there wont be any posts for a few days- when we get back the YL crew is setting out to work with the YL staff out here- which we are totally stoked on! The rest of the team is going to head off to some villages and schools and teach about health w/ Asian Outreach. Things could always change- so we're trying to be ready for whatever God throws our way! We are super excited to be here- (side note- Dad: I think I might have to come back here !!!!) Please contiune to pray for our team as for our willingness to serve, unity and hearts that are contiunally shining God's Love into the lives of the Cambodians. We miss and luv ya'll!!!!
-Fluffy (alisa)

Hi Team
Mood:  surprised
Hi Team -

Welcome to our Blog site for our missions trip to Cambodia! Please give this address out to your sponsors & friends so they can see what we are up to in Cambodia.

Charity