A Little Something About Nothing.....

GOOD MORNING CAMBODIA!!!! (Close geographically to Vietnam so it works right) 

Well this is really more of a shout out to my peeps in the USA!!!! And I'm not writing this during the morning.......... Anyway, so this week has been fairly un-eventful, I have been chilling with my people here in Phnom Penh and God has been showing me some cool things about life, so I thought that maybe I could share them with ya'll. 

SO firstly God has really been breaking me with the devastation of this place, so much about the world here is so terrible and corrupt and it is easy to simply ignore it and look the other way like many do, but coming to terms with the reality of the spiritual climate of this country is a totally different thing. At least 90% of the people here are Buddhist but not in the really devout sense it's more like the way that people say they are Christians because they go to church once in their life.... anyway despite the lack of devotion it still affects the spiritual realm. Many people remain Buddhist because of a fear of being disowned and many people have an attitude of "I am the way I am and that's it.... I can't change who I am" which hinders their willingness to accept the gospel which is centered around Christ bringing change in our lives. This country feels so lost in darkness and the devil is so at work here that it is undeniable. For any of you who may think that it is simply an overreaction and that the spiritual realm is super separated from the physical real maybe you just haven't realized how interlocked the two are. Also many of the people who are Buddhist are very superstitious, I personally feel that their acknowledgement of the spirits and their fear of ghosts and spirits also gives the devil a foothold in the spiritual realm here. This place is so dark, but to quote the movie The Dark Knight "The night is darkest before the dawn" and I truly believe that God is about to break this place wide open, and he is going to start doing some super amazing things here and I am excited to get to witness that. 

My other little tidbit that I wanted to mention, and I am sorry that these thoughts are a touch disjointed, but I am just writing what is on my heart, my other little tidbit that God has been showing me about is the importance of simply existing and realizing the love of God is here, no matter what. Some times we get so caught up in a need to be active, a need to be doing things all the time, and a desire to be constantly stimulated, but God is really showing me that He doesn't ask us to be all over the place doing everything, sometimes His greatest desire for us is that we sit still and know that He is God...... and when you take the time to do that it is such a beautiful thing and He is just so overwhelming in His magnificence...... I lack the words to describe the way it makes me feel. The other day I went to the riverside after a church thing and all we did was sit and talk, and sing, we didn't need anything else and it gave me a chance to just sit and think about God and just be alone with Him, without any worship music or without any preachers, just sitting and being was a spiritual experience for me... anyway, that's my something about nothing. I love you all, never doubt that, and more importantly, GOD LOVES YOU.... I will talk to ya'll lata!!!!!

In Him who sets us free

-Derek

Welcome to the Jungle!!!!!!!!

Sup Universe!

SO this week has been sad and eventful all at the same time....... What?!?!?!?!? I know that is kind of a depressing way to start a blog, but this isn't just some little made up story this is real life and real life has some tough moments, you know.

So, we'll start with the tough stuff..... this week I found out that one of my favorite kids in Svay Pak has been having a rough home life. His mom has been selling herself in Phnom Penh because for the past 7 months she has been trying to recover from the death of her husband and has had no income to speak of. In her desperation she turned to prostitution as the only answer, as so many women do here in Cambodia, and has barely been able to feed her three kids. On top of that she has been using drugs to cope with the pain of what she is going through. Needless to say this was a difficult thing for me to find out. I love this boy and I would do almost anything for him, the pastor tried to get me to adopt him last week, but I kindly refused seeing as I am returning to America in December, but I wish I could take him..... But this week when I went to visit the kids I found out that he was going to have the opportunity to go to school in Phnom Penh and live in a safe-house with a house mom and other boys who are his age. I am relieved that he will get the chance to better himself but it is so difficult to see him leave. I love him so much and I will be praying for him like crazy in the coming months and years.

SO that was sad, and good all at the same time. In much lighter news and the reason behind the title of this post, I made a little trip into the jungles of Cambodia this week. Yes it is true, I went where no one from Michigan has gone before... Not sure if that's true, probably not, a lot of people randomly end up in Cambodia at some time.... I went to the province of Preah Vihear to a place that is between 5 or 6 hours by bus/taxi. Mind you that the buses and taxis are just a touch different from those in the USA, the buses are similar but the taxis are crazy. On the way there we fit 7 people into a little toyota camry there were four of us in the back and then three in the front..... cam you say crowded???? I can!! That was quite an experience for my American hips and for the hips of the three other Khmer men in the backseat with me. and mind you we rode like this for about 1 and 1/2 hours...... HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!! I went to the jungle for a purpose though, I went to see a facility called Jombak Hoas, which basically means flying Jombak tree in Khmer. It was a really cool ropes course facility that was more low ropes than it was high ropes but the environment is so beautiful, it was awesome. The staff there were really nice and I got to have an awesome dinner at the guy who helped build it's house. I was really impressed since it's in the middle of nowhere.... I also got to sleep in a treehouse like 33 feet off the ground, it was really cool.

So there's not too much else in my life, I love you all and I miss you all, and I will hopefully talk to you all soon. Much Love in Christ
-Derek

Sup Ya'll

Hey there everyone in the world!!!!!!!!
This is my first blog post and it is interesting to be writing. I always said that I would not do a blog because I thought that they were too impersonal but I am realizing that i can't avoid it and it is the quickest and easiest way to keep people updated. I am currently listening to some random music that my cousin Ally put on my computer before I left about 2 months ago.
For those of you who have been wondering about me and have been worried, don't be, I am fine, I have been living in Phnom Penh for the past 2 months and have only gone out of the city once to go camping in one of the provinces. I have been able to keep in contact with my mom and dad which has given them a little peace of mind, I really wish that they would stop asking me to come home, because it doesn't make it any easier for me to be halfway across the world.
So far I am loving it here. i miss everyone from back home, but I know that God has brought me here for something. The children that i work with are awesome.... well sometimes they cause hell in my life, but I love the little boogers none the less. I work in a village called Svay Pak it is about 40 mins outside of Phnom Penh and it is one of the most spiritually dark places that I have ever been. In 2003 the International Justice Mission went to Svay Pak and closed down many brothels. One of those brothels has now become a church that I have the opportunity to work in and with, it is amazing how God has taken a place of such darkness and turned it into a place of such hope and joy and love. In our estimates about 80% of the little girls that we work with are sold every night to brothels in the city or to perverts that come out to the village. This has been the most difficult part for me. It is so difficult to see these children and try and tell them about the love of God when they are put through hell on a nightly basis.
For me I have felt very called to work with the boys out there and in Phnom Penh, because if prostitution is going to stop there need to not be any clients right??? So I have been looking into some things to reach out to the men here. A lot of the men here are very stuck in gambling addictions and also drug addictions and it starts at a young age. A lot of the little boys that I work with are drug dealers that don't know any other way of life. My heart is broken for the men of this nation. But there is hope. I had the opportunity to go on a mens retreat with the church that I attend here and it was awesome. They really want to impact the men of Cambodia in a way that will positively change this place. I pray that they have great success, and I know that they are having success because I see it every day in the guy friends that I have that I see every day.
At the end of the day i have the difficult task of letting it all go and giving everything to God because the reality is that He is the one who wil change this country, not me. I get the opportunity to work alongside Him who created me, which is the best privilege that I could ask for. Well, I think that is a good first post. i love you all and i miss you all and I will talk to you soon.