Our concert at the crusade The boat we had our tour on(sketchy!) Snorkeling!
Sorry that I haven't updated in awhile! This week has been fantastic. Today was our day off as it is Sunday and we all went on a snorkeling tour. It was crazy! The boat (as seen above) had like 25 or more of us on it. We went to three different locations to snorkel and swim though and it was beautiful. I freaked out at the first place because I couldn't breath properly and there were sea urchins about a foot under us. But then I got the hang of it and stayed away from the urchins. My friend Lauren got poked by one and has its spike in her leg. :( We flipped and dove off the boat into the Gulf of Thailand. It was really a once in a lifetime experience. The weekdays here we have stayed on the same schedule each day. We meet for breakfast at 9 then have two hours of devotionals. We meet for lunch at 12 and then after that we do some kind of group activity. We've spent some time with the local people here, and because its more touristy they speak English quite well compared to the villages. We meet for dinner which is always fun and go off in different groups. At 8pm we always meet in one of our hotel rooms and sing a worship song or two then we do some debriefing. Adam will ask us a question and it has been really good to go over what we have learned and are still learning. He's taught us different things some of the nights as well. This usually lasts around two hours.I absolutely love our group and I cant believe the school ends in exactly one week :( This last week has been very different from the rest of the trip, but then again every week as been very different from the next. I have learned a lot about myself this week more than the others. It's time for me to go get ice cream for 50cents with Heather and Kayla. See you all soon!
Hospital! Flowers from my team Late on the 15th I began to have extreme body pains so I stayed at the hotel all day on the 16th. They took me to the hospital early on the 17th and I stayed there for 3 days. After blood tests and x-rays doctors told me I had influenza A which is pretty much H1N1. Andrea and Tony took me to the hospital and Andrea stayed with me all day then Lauren came and stayed with me all evening and night. The 18th Steph stayed with me all day and then Kristin stayed with me all night. The 19th Kayla stayed with me until I went home. I can't believe how amazing they were. They all missed some really cool activity to be with me and I love them so much for it. My team sent me flowers and snacks it was so sweet of them. Im still taking my medication which makes me nauseous but Im almost completely better, my WBC's just need to increase. I wore a stupid hospital mask for 2 days after the hospital so I wouldnt get sick. I still will if I go to the markets. I finally got to go to the last night of the crusade because I was sick the first 4 nights. I'll upload a video and pictures when I get a chance. So because we came a week early to Cambodia we have an extra week with nothing planned. We are at the beach. It was cheeper for all of us to drive 4 hours and stay at a hotel by the beach then to stay in Phnom Phen or even to go home. Thats how much more it costs to fly in Aug instead of Sept. Today we left Phnom Phen at 6 am and drove for 5 hours. I just got back from jumping in the waves and body surfing and am now sitting by the pool. We have one more days of rest and hangingout before they tell us what our plans are for the week after. Over and Out. Your tanning friend, Calsie.
Time is flying by! Last monday we went to a youth drop in center and just spent time hanging out and playing ping-pong and other games with them. We held our "Catalyst National Conference" from the 11th-14th. There were 100 young adults from all over Cambodia who we had brought in to do it. It was really good to hear everything we have already learnt again. I learnt so much from hanging out with the people here. We had a major thunder and lightning storm the other night and it was purple. So cool! We haven't had team time with just our 11 for days and it makes me miss the smaller team dynamic. We're going to go check out the venue that we will be using the next week for the crusade we are having. I'm so excited! 1200 people each night. Ill let you know how it goes...love you all!
Joom-ree-up sooa! Hello! Our group of 34 just reunited in Phnom Phen. What an awesome week its been. After our 11 hour flight last week(which was the best flight ever) we landed in Korea and stayed with a Korean family connection we had through our church. They treated us like royalty the whole time. They had an amazing dinner set up for us and the same thing with dinner the next morning. One thing about Seoul...it is so hot and humid. Heather and I felt like we were in a giant ,it was ridiculous. The next day we went into the city. I instantly loved it, I'm not even kidding. Ryans friend from YWAM, Nan-hee, came and showed us around. We saw tourist sports but also traditional Korea. It was so amazing. WE went to this sweet shop where the guy making them spoke some English. He kept calling me honey and joked about being my boyfriend. Justin wasn't too please and said that the guy would kidnap me', like in the movie Taken. The family took us to a Korean restaurant and I surprising tried and loved the food. We almost missed our bus to the airport and we had to run after it.The flight to Phnom Penh was only 5 hours. My first day in Cambodia was spent traveling to our teams outreach location. It was great to unite our team of 11 again as 5 of us had been left behind. The drive the the province Krotches was 5 hours and we actually stayed in a decent place. I thought we would be in a hut. Our translator Narro is pretty much the best person ever. Its hard to sum up or even begin to describe what went on the week in Krotches. We would eat breakfast at 7 and the head to a house in the village where the pastor lived. We would go back there for lunch and dinner. For about 8 hours we would move from hut to hut where we sang songs and preached the gospel. After we would ask if anyone needed prayer. There were countless numbers but that's what we were there to do so we went at it for hours. For those of you who have read the book of Acts, we seriously walked that out. There were so many times we asked people if they believed in God and the response was "If He heals me then I'll believed"they wanted to see if God was more powerful that their witch doctors. Well God showed up. We saw people who had been blind for 6 years get their sight back, stomach pain disappear, backs and legs given the ability to move. It was amazing to see god move and change the hearts of the people here. Especially the older Buddhist people come to Christianity. It showed the power of our Lord. For the next 4 weeks in Phnom Phen I'm sharing a room with Jenae, Elizabeth and Andrea. Jenea and I really connected and are having a blast. Its just been a lot of fun, although very exhausting. Everyday there is a random downpour of rain that drenches out in 2 seconds . We have had some great team bonding time and its different to be back with our big group. I'm trying to think of random information to share. I has a bit of a fetal duck egg. It was the grossest thing ever. Our food has mostly been amazing, consisting of rice and cooked vegetables and chicken. Our last night there we had goose strew and Patrick had an entire foot in his so I stopped eating. One night Jenae, Adina and I who were sharing a room woke up at 2 am and were so hungry and uncomfortable that we went out onto our 3rd floor poarch and ended up sleeping outside. We had a few encounters with spiritual warfare but those stories are for another time. Today was our relax day and we went on a major shopping spree in the markets. I hope you're all having an amazing summer. Even as I think about the fact that Im sitting in an internet cafe I get EXTREMELY excited and think about how much I am loving Cambodia. God is so good!
