Cambodia - July 21, 2013 (Part 1)

[The following post is an excerpt from my journal as I traveled to Cambodia. The inconsistency in the entry title and datestamp is due to limited internet access while I was on the trip. These experiences were documented in real time, and I am posting photoblogs now that I have returned. In order to protect all those involved with the organization that rescues children from sex slavery and works to prevent others from being trafficked, I have intentionally omitted specific names and locations.]

Sunday, July 21, 2013 - Somewhere in Cambodia

"You have searched me, Lord,

    and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

    you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

    you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

    you, Lord, know it completely."

Psalm 139:1-4

This morning I went to church, just like any other Sunday. But, this Sunday, I did not understand much of the service. It wasn't for lack of comprehension- it was because the service was in a different language!

It was incredible to be forced to observe and react based solely upon what I saw rather than what I heard. When one sense is compromised, the others become heightened! I could feel the Holy Spirit in that place. I did not know what was being said, but I knew God was being praised. I could see the joy in the faces of those surrounding me!

This particular church is where several of the girls who live at the safe house attend, so after the service was over, I noticed one of the older teenage girls I had met was standing across the aisle. I addressed her by name to say hi and give her a hug. Then something wonderful happened.

She was SO excited that I remembered her name. She was in awe of this particular memory. Her face lit up, and I could tell she felt incredibly special. She felt cared about. She felt important. A small memory had made a large impact.

It's so easy to forget the excitement in the fact that God knows my name. He knows every ounce of my being- every thought in my mind, every hair on my head, every cell in my flesh, even every nucleus within those cells! He knows every single detail of my being. He cares for me that much! It blows my mind to think about the depth of His love for me.

My human mind my fail. My memories may fade. I may forget this girl's name. I may fail to remember her beautiful face. I may even forget the special interaction we had this morning.

But God will always remember my name! He will remember every detail of my life. I hope that He remembers me as someone who loved Him with every ounce of this being that He knows through and through.

Cambodia - July 20, 2013

[The following post is an excerpt from my journal as I traveled to Cambodia. The inconsistency in the entry title and datestamp is due to limited internet access while I was on the trip. These experiences were documented in real time, and I am posting photoblogs now that I have returned. In order to protect all those involved with the organization that rescues children from sex slavery and works to prevent others from being trafficked, I have intentionally omitted specific names and locations.]

Saturday, July 20, 2013 - Somewhere in Cambodia

"And Jesus said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3-4

This afternoon was particularly special. After an educational morning of touring the town on a tuk-tuk (a moto towing a small cart) while learning about this country and soaking in all of the information and cultural experiences, I had settled into the mindset of an adult.

Sometimes I wish I could be a kid again. Sometimes I think I grew up too quickly. Having graduated college at just 19-years-old, I entered the adult life much sooner than most people do. While I don't regret having finished school so quickly, I do often fall into a slump of feeling older than I actually am. I catch myself taking the smallest details of life far too seriously from time to time.

That being said, this afternoon, we took the girls from the safe house to a water park. I was timid at first, as I usually am in new situations, but it didn't take long for one of the girls to convince me to go down one of the shorter water slides. [Come to think of it, I'm not sure how much of it was 'convincing' and how much was her pulling me toward the staircase.]

Once I had remembered how much fun water slides are, I decided on my own accord to go down one of the taller slides. I was wearing basketball shorts which practically provided zero friction on the slide, so I flew down at a speed which felt like 30 mph. Once the girls witnessed this, my decisions were no longer my own- they would be making my decisions for me. And they would decide that I was going to go down that slide over and over and over and over and over again.

It was an endless cycle- slide down, get met at the bottom by another girl, get pulled out of the water and back up the rickety rusted metal staircase, then slide down again. One daredevil girl even convinced me to go down backwards. Let's just say I'm thankful I had a swimsuit on underneath my shorts because somewhere between the takeoff and the landing, the shorts got lost in translation, and at the place where they settled, the waistband would have been more properly named a 'thighband.'

Despite the minor wardrobe malfunction, it was so much fun to let loose and be a kid again! For me, to be a child again is remembering the joyful memories of the past. It's remembering what it was like to have no worries in the world [well, at least not ones that actually mattered]. For these girls, it is opposite. Being a kid again means overcoming the past. It's forgetting about the worries and the scars of being trafficked. But despite the opposite paths we took to get there, today we met in the middle.

We were on the same level this afternoon, the same journey- the journey back to childhood.  We were learning to be carefree children again. I imagine that some of the girls were learning to be kids for the first time. Regardless, we were standing on common ground, swimming in the same direction, sliding down from the heights of adulthood and splashing freely into the joyful pool of childhood. It was a blast. It was refreshing. It was wonderful.


[The following are pictures from the tuk-tuk tour. For the girls' safety, I was not able to take any pictures at the water park.]

coconut sticky rice AKA deliciousness

brick kiln

child labor :-/

raw bricks (pre-firing)

Cambodia - July 19, 2013

[The following post is an excerpt from my journal as I traveled to Cambodia. The inconsistency in the entry title and datestamp is due to limited internet access while I was on the trip. These experiences were documented in real time, and I am posting photoblogs now that I have returned. In order to protect all those involved with the organization that rescues children from sex slavery and works to prevent others from being trafficked, I have intentionally omitted specific names and locations.]

Friday, July 19, 2013 - Somewhere in Cambodia

"The God of Israel spoke,

    the Rock of Israel said to me:

‘When one rules over people in righteousness,

    when he rules in the fear of God,

he is like the light of morning at sunrise

    on a cloudless morning,

like the brightness after rain

    that brings grass from the earth.’"

2 Samuel 23:3-4

paper rose made by a girl at the safe house

Today was our first full day at the safe house.  In the morning we did a devotion with the staff, then took a tour of the house.  In the afternoon, we were able to choose what to do, so I decided to sit in on the art class.  Any other day, I would have dove in and made art, but today I just felt like observing. Unfortunately, I am a little bit too conspicuous to be a proper 'fly on the wall,' so I tried my best to not disturb any one of the girls for too long.

The girls were intently painting and drawing.  They drew pictures of sunrises, flowers, and crosses, just like any ordinary girl would.  There is so much hope in their art.  These girls have so much reason to house bitterness, anger, or sadness in their hearts, but instead, their imaginations overflow with these joyful images:


Sunrises cut through the darkness of night.
Flowers bloom to break the gray of winter.
The Cross conquered the sting of death.


See the common theme here?!

Renewal. 

These girls' lives are being made new.
Praise God for freedom from the past and new beginnings!


...Oh, and remember how I said I was a tad bit too conspicuous to be a proper fly on the wall?!

Turns out, the girls decided to make me their still life model:

Aren't these the sweetest?! :o)