Note from Tami (sent midnight Monday, Texas time)

Sitting in airport in Seoul Korea (Icehon). We left Phnom Penh 12 hours ago and have slept about 3 hours in the last 30. We are looking forward to boarding the plane and sleeping a bit before getting home to our beds. This has been an awesome trip. We have seen amazing sites, miracles from God and made wonderful new friends of beautiful and gracious people. Thank you God for arranging this trip!

Monday morning, our last day!

Today we are planning to go to the Russian Market and Teoul Sleng. Then we are meeting Tida and Danubia for lunch. We will probably spend our afternoon cleaning up and packing.

For dinner we are meeting with our translators, plus Ravy, Callan and Nyda for pizza at the mall...a time to say good bye to everyone. That will be very hard!!

Sokhom is picking us up at 8:00pm to take us to the airport.

This has been such an awesome trip!! We have not been on a strenuous schedule. It has been relaxing and lots and lots of time just to spend visiting with old and new friends!!

We will see you all back in the states on Tuesday night!!!
Jan

It's Saturday night...We have a big day tomorrow!

We are back in Phnom Penh. We got back around 4:00.

Saém and Sokhom both asked Kevin if he would preach tomorrow. Sokhom said it only has to be around 40 minutes!! So Kevin is busy preparing for that!
Sokhom also asked Joe if he will say a few words. I told Joe and Tami to be prepared just in case he calls them up to sing tomorrow!! You never know how you might be involved!

Tonight we went to Ronni and Sokhom's for dinner. It was so good!
The Mey called while we were there and wanted to talk to each one of us!!

Better go, we have a big day tomorrow!! Can't wait to see the orphans one more time!!
Jan

First Experience at the Orphanage - Tami

It has taken me a couple of days to process Wednesday's trip to the Orphanage. I may never be able to put into words all the emotions I experienced. We left for Laveasar by van around 8 am. It was rush hour and it took the better part of an hour to get to the ferry. I am not sure what I was expecting when we got there but what can I say - WOW! When the Ferry arrived it was a mad dash for all to load. There were about 20 people and vehicles (bicycles, mopeds, and two vans) all crammed into a space the size of a city bus. The "facilities" was a small closet with a hole to the Mekong River. Luckily I did not need to make use of it. The trip across took about 10-15 minutes. Once across we loaded into the van for a short ride to the Orphanage. When we arrived the children were still in class. Sohkom took us to each individual class where we were greeted by the entire group. My estimation is that there are approximately 100 students, 68 of which live at the Orphanage and the rest are from the village. While the children ate lunch we had ours outside under a tree. We were treated to fresh coconut milk right from the nut with a straw. The local ladies provided lunch of rice, fish, and fresh fruit. Afterwards we spent about 2 hours playing with the children. The toys were a huge hit. Kevin and Jan showed the kids how to hula hoop. Hilarious! Joe had several of the boys playing with the frisbees. No instructions needed for the soccer balls or jump ropes. The children were so affectionate. Some were content to be held, while others wanted more interaction. Several were intrigued with my fake nails. When it was time to leave it was very difficult. We loaded up and took the ferry back across. We stopped at RDI to purchase nativity scenes. We were treated to a water treatment lesson between the RDI employee and Sohkom. We arrived at Sohkom's home about 6pm and he treated us to fresh jackfruit and dried mango. The dried Mango was the same taste and texture as a fruit roll up. We then returned to the hotel. Joe and I were dead on our feet so we chose to skip dinner and go straight to bed. We were dirty, sweaty, and swollen from heat but totally exhilarated. What an awesome day.

Update from Kevin

The trip has been VERY fulfilling and VERY tiring. The heat has been pretty oppressive; but, the heat has been more than off-set by the many new friends that have been made in Cambodia and the many smiles we saw on the faces of the orphans at Lveasar.

We just completed our mini-Discovering Marriage class with several young couples from Sa'em's church. One comment from one of the young men at the conference almost brought Jan and I to tears. He said that he told his boss that he would need to take some vacation so that he and his wife could attend a marriage conference and the boss questioned the need for such a meeting. It ended up that the young man lost some pay in order to attend the conference. He said that it did not matter - he wanted to come even if it meant taking a pay cut. He said he felt it was a higher priority to put his marriage above his job - what a testimony!

We have had some pretty interesting meals on our trip to Sihanoukville. Since I am a "seasoned veteran" in Cambodia (my second trip), I felt a bit more adventurous than before in eating the food. And since Jan was eating the same food, I felt very safe in eating it!

I wish I could have seen Joe when he left with Tida to go help him at this computer business. They rode on Tida's small scooter with Joe carrying four laptop computers. He said his legs were sticking out quite a bit as they traveled the 20-30 minute ride to Tida's business. Joe and Tami have both shown great flexibility on this trip - they are real troopers.

It was great to see Jan working with the orphans at Lveasar. She was in her element working with the kids. They had such big smiles on their faces when they saw her and they were clamoring to hug her and be by her side!

The kids had so much fun playing with the hula hoops, soccer balls, frisbees and jump ropes. Even Pastor Sokhom got into the act hula-hooping!

Can't wait to see the orphans again on Sunday. Callan Edquist will join us on the trip on Sunday.

Kevin

Retreat in Sihanoukville

Friday evening:Today went very well at the conference...we had a few things that were hard to translate but most everything translated well. There was lots of good discussion. They are all so sweet and so hungry to learn!!We have felt right at home with them! Thank you so much for your prayers!!We really had a good discussion about showing affection!! We learned a lot about their culture. They were talking about how their culture raises them to not show affection, not just in public but even in their homes. One young man said,"I want to know if the wives really want affection or if they agree with the culture?" All the wives started talking about how they want affection!! We may have started a revolution of hand holding and kissing!!!It was so tender when they wrote love letters to each other...they took every activitity very seriously!! Many said they had never done that before!!Tonight we had dinner on the beach and they cooked American food for us...hot dogs and grilled chicken (head and all!!)My boys will appreciate this...Kevin has a new joke that we are hearing over and over! He counts to nine in Khmer and then for ten he says "prohm prohm"(five, five) all the Cambodians laugh which just encourages him and he goes to the next group and says it again!! Tami and Joe and I wish people would not encourage him!!We are not going to have the financial management class. Saém feels like it would not relate to them and we agree. After being here and listening to their stories we need to rethink how to help them on this one!I know the best thing about this trip has been the new friends we have made!! We feel so close to all these young couples!! We have just extended our extended family!!The worst thing about this trip...using the squatty potty!!! This is my fourth trip over and somehow I have managed to avoid theseon every other trip!! Good night from Sihanoukville!Jan

Note from Joe...

Laptops have been delivered. I spent the day with Tida on Tuesday at hisbusiness and worked with he and a technician to install Khmer languagepack and typing programs on each of the laptops. The hope is that thekids at the orphanage will be able to learn to type, pick up basiccomputer skills and even help build their English language skills by usingthese programs and others as time goes on. (The internet may be only 2 years or so away...) Tida picked me up at our hotel. Transportation to his business was veryinteresting to say the least! I traveled on the back of his motor scooter,four (4) laptops and all through the streets of Phnom Penh. Quiet a siteto see. At times we were only inches from other mopeds, scooters, TukTuks, cars, buses and trucks (not while we were stopped I might add)! Ittook us about 25 minutes to get there. Ask me to share more with you whenwe return next week. The trip to the orphanage has to top anything I have done to date. Withoutquestion it is an experience words and pictures cannot adequately explain.I have a new friend, Chang, who is 6 years old. Not long after we arrivedhe ventured out of the group of kids to check out the visitors. I smiledand extended my hand out to him. He came over and hugged me and wanted meto pick him up and hold him. That is where he stayed the better part of ourtime at the orphanage. All he wanted was to be held and loved on. I know the others have blogged about the long journey, lost luggage, typesof food, etc. and I cannot add anything of note. I look forward to sharingmore details after we return. Joe

Friday Morning in beautiful Sihanoukville!

It's Friday morning in beautiful Sihanoukville!!Thursday was a day of travel and beach time! It took us 4 and 1/2 hours to make it from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville. It is beautiful here! We unloaded at our hotel and then went to the beach for a couple of hours.We are really enjoying getting to know our new friends from House of Love church (Sa'em's church). Sa'em does not like us to call it his church!!!Last night we had a time of fellowship and getting to know everyone. Sa'em and Kevin handed out new Bibles to everyone who has never owned their own Bible!It is a very young church, lots of young couples and little babies!!Today we will be teaching the marriage conference. There will be 26 in our class. There are also about 28 singles who will be studying the book of Acts. We will be having teaching sessions all morning and afternoon. Then for dinner we will eat on the beach and have a time of fellowship this evening.Please pray that our lessons will meet the needs of their culture and will be what they need in their everyday lives. Just pray for God to take over!! Joe and Tami wil be teaching Financial Peace to the whole group, marrieds and singles, Saturday morning.It was funny, I was showing Ravi a picture of our whole family and he pointed to Alden and said, "that looks like Ashley!" He did not know that they are sisters! He said no wonder she looks like Ashley!!We are having fun! Thanks for your prayers!Jan

Comments

For some reason blogger is having trouble publishing the comments from readers, but keep sending them and I will continue to work on it. I know the Flacks and Johnsons love to hear back from you as they update us with the things that God is doing!

Here are two comments that I could not get published:

Tami, I am so happy to be able to hear what is going on with you guys.
You sound wonderful- at peace.
Know each morning on our way to school, the boys and I are praying for
all of you as well as my many prayers throughout the day.
Cant wait to hear more!
Love you, jen

I am jealous. I want to return to Cambodia soon. When you get to the
orphanage, please tell my little Mean Khoun that Teresa, Chris, Leah,
Cory and I send our prayers and our love.
I'm praying that your conference is a great success. I want to come
over there and do a Small Group Conference. :-) ronnie

Wednesday Update

Wednesday evening:

Today started out great!! I got to talk to Greg and wish him a happy birthday!! It was a surprise for both of us!! Thank you Kathy for arranging that!!

Today we left the hotel at 8:00 headed for Lveasar!! Sokhom had told the kids at the orphanage that they would have a visitor today but did not tell them that it was us. When we showed up they were so surprised and excited to see friends from America!!

It was worth all the time, energy and money to get here just for this one day!! It was so much fun!! All the hugs, smiles and laughter!!!

They had so much fun playing with all the jump ropes, hula hoops, frisbees and soccer balls!! We had a great big very long recess!!

Randy and Ashley, Toma is awesome with a hula hoop!! He was laughing so much!! But the best was Sokhom!! All the kids got a kick out of watching Sokhom hula hoop!! It was great fun!!

We had three translators with us and a technician from Tida's work. Yesterday when Joe was at Tida's, they installed a Khmer to English program on four lap tops. The technician went with us to set up a lap top on their generator and to teach Sokhom how to use it. This will be great for our kids to help them learn English!!

Tonight we are exhausted and ready for bed!! It is a good tired!!

In the morning we leave for Sihanoukville!! We are excited to go with Saém's church to the conference!!

Good night from Phnom Penh!
Jan

Awesome Update from Jan!

Monday in Phnom Penh:
I love it here!!! Who would of thought that I would be coming to Cambodia every chance I get! This country and the people here have all become a special part of my life!

It has been fun experiencing Cambodia with Joe and Tami and seeing everything for the first time again through their eyes!
Yesterday we took in the markets, bargaining for our purchases and riding in tuks! We ate American for lunch though...pizza!

Last night Saém, Sokhom, Ronni and Rachna came to the hotel to eat dinner with us! We had so much fun visiting with them and planning our week! I love being around them...they are all such gracious, humble servants! Such an example for me!!

We changed our schedule around a little. Because we did not have our luggage we decided to wait until Wednesday to go to the orphanage. We have frisbees, jump ropes, color sheets and colors to take to them (all in our luggage!)

After dinner, we took a tuk to the city mart to get some toiletries.

It is funny, when I was reading my Bible yesterday I was in John 6, and verse 27 says "don't be concerned about perishable things...spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you." I had to laugh, don't be concerned about perishable things...I'm in Cambodia without my luggage! No blow dryer, no curling iron, no hairspray, no make-up, and only one change of clothes! And everyone that knows me, knows that those things are very important to me!! Thanks God for the gentle nudge!

"Spend your energy seeking the eternal life" That is why I love these people over here so much...this is what they are all about!
Kingdom Work! Kingdom Glory!
I love being a part of the big picture!!

Now, it's Tuesday:
This morning our luggage was delivered to the hotel!!

Today we are splitting up. Tami went with Rachna to help her with her college application. Joe is with Tida at his work, helping him with computers. Kevin and I were on a mission to buy Bibles!

My parents church sent money with us to purchase Khmer Bibles. Saém met us at the Cambodian Bible Society. We bought 73 Bibles and 8 preschool Bible story books. Saém told us that most of the people in his church that are coming to the conference do not have their own Bible. It will be fun to give them brand new Bibles!!

Tonight Ravi is meeting us for dinner!! It is so much fun spending one on one time with our friends here!!

Tomorrow we head to Lveasar to play with our kids at the orphanage!!! Besides the things in our suitcases for them, we have also bought some soccer balls and hula hoops!!! We can't wait to hula hoop with them!! Tomorrow will be fun...playing all day!!
We have three translators going with us!

We got an e-mail from Callan Edquist, he is coming to Phnom Penh on Saturday. He is going to join us on Sunday when we go back to Lveassar!!

We are having a great time!!! I love, love, love it here!!!
Jan

Awesome Update from Tami!

I do not have the words to express my first impressions!! After traveling
some 30 hours to get here, we were weary but so excited. Visna was waiting
for us at the airport and everything had gone so smoothly all the way to
Phnom Penh. Unfortunately our luggage was not so lucky and we were not sure
when it would arrive. The trip to the hotel was quick and uneventful since
it was after midnight. We slept through the night but were very warm due to
the air conditioner in the room not being turned on until we arrived.

On Monday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, first time I have eaten
fried rice for breakfast. It was good as was the rest of my meal. The
staff have been most gracious and helpful. After breakfast we walked to the
Central Market. There were so many people on the street. Everywhere you
look there are bicycles,mopeds, motorcycles pulling carriages call "tuk
tuks", and cars. They are all heading in different directions all at the
same time. All along the sidewalks there are the same type vehicles parked.
Oddly enough I was not nervous walking within inches of these moving
vehicles. Once we arrived at the Central market I was so overwhelmed by the
variety of products. I am not very good at bartering but Kevin gave me a
few lessons and I was very satisfied with my first purchase. As my
salesclerk said, "It was a lucky good morning for you and for me". All the
sales clerk were drawn to Joe. All seemed to be measuring him for clothing
items. Being the Southern gentleman he is he stopped and spoke with each
before assuring them that he did not need anything. From the Central Market
we walked to the Mall. After an hour of shopping we ate lunch at the Pizza
Restaurant. It was very good and so much like Pizza Hut.... Jan and Kevin
had bought Soccer Balls to take to the orphanage earlier and before leaving
the Mall we bought hula hoops to take also. After an afternoon nap, Kevin,
Joe and I went to visit the Royal Palace. This is a must see sight when
visiting Phnom Penh. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. After
spending an hour and half in the sweltering 90ish degree heat we were ready
to cool off and rest again before dinner.

Dinner was the highlight of my day. I knew we were meeting Sa em for dinner
at 6 but I did not know that Sohkum and his family were also meeting us.
One of my assignments for this trip is to assist Rachna (Sohkum's daughter)
in her Brazosport College application to nursing school. I was anxious to
meet her but a little nervous about whether we would connect. She and her
family made me feel immediately at ease and we were never at a loss for
words. Rachna and I spent the entire dinner talking. Ii felt as if she
were one of own children. Ronny, Sohkom's wife brought Jan and I bags of
Dragonfruit and Mangostine fruit along with a knife to cut the fruit.

After Jan and I assured Ronny that we would be two of many mothers to Rachna
while she is in Lake Jackson we said goodnight.
Since out luggage was still MIA we made one more quick trip to the Mall to
buy a few toiletry items.

Tuesday -

We each have different agendas today. Rachna met me at the hotel lobby at 8
am this morning. Joe met Tida in the lobby at 9 am and Jan & Kevin were off
at 9 to purchase Khmer Bibles with money provided by Jan's mother's church
in Texas. While I was gone with Rachna our luggage was delivered - not sure
if I am glad or disappointed that we will not need to buy clothing for the
next few days.

My time with Rachna was most productive. I was amazed to think how
completely comfortable I was with leaving the hotel alone with Rachna and
going to a local internet cafe. I thank each of you who have prayed over
this request for me. Why am I surprised that God has answered them? In two
short hours we were able to complete her college application, complete most
of her TOEFL application and answer many questions she had. Before she left
me at the hotel she thanked me for offering to be a mom to her, I was
touched. I cannot imagine traveling half way around the world alone. I told
her I thought she was very brave and she told me "No, not brave." She hugged
me goodbye and we agreed to meet again tomorrow to finish her TOEFL
application.

As I write, Joe is still with Tida. Jan, Kevin and I had lunch and will
meet up with Joe this afternoon for a bit more shopping. Tomorrow we will
head to Laveasar to spend time with the children and try to get the four
laptops up and running for the children.

I can see now how God has been planning this trip and preparing me for so
long. I am thankful that he has allowed me to be part of his plan.

SO SO Glad to be here!

Tami Flack