Posts Tagged ‘daily’

Settling In for the Long Haul

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Sharon sitting down to sort through mounds of Cherokee data.

Sharon sitting down to sort through mounds of Cherokee data.

As Sharon sits behind me she alternately scratches her head, bounces her knees, and bangs some phonetic writing out on the keyboard. Today is her first full day of work after four full days of packing, cleaning, traveling, visiting, and unpacking. Outside the orange leaves on the trees are almost gone and rain is in the forecast for the next three days. In the kitchen is a pot of hot coffee and under Sharon’s feet a small space heater breathes warmly on her feet. Ideal conditions.

Now if only the computer would work right, the data would fit together perfectly, someone would spoon food into her mouth, and the kitchen would clean itself. Then it would be perfect, but that’s probably asking too much isn’t it?

Please pray that Sharon will be able to focus on her studies and finish her analysis of the Cherokee language before we hit the road in a few days!

This Time Last Year

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Exactly one year ago today... at the floating village, Cambodia

Where were you a year ago today? We were in Cambodia… and we can prove it since I wrote in a journal quite a bit while we were there. For the first time, we’ve made the journal publically available here. Below find the basic breakdown of the days I’m publishing: Some names and locations have been changed or omitted to keep everyone honest.

Check out the full journal here:

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfwbvr29_138hp9mp3hj

Schedule 5-29
03:00 AM – Sharon wakes up
04:00 AM – Ric wakes up
08:00 AM – Detroit to Dallas
12:30 PM – Lunch in Dallas
02:00 PM – Flight to L.A.
08:00 PM – Meet everyone in L.A.
11:30 PM – Flight for Cambodia

Schedule 5-29

05:30 AM – Wake up on an airplane over Laos
11:30 AM – Middle of a short flight to Phnom Penh
12:30 PM – First Cambodia car ride
03:00 PM – Lunch with missionaries
04:00 PM – Palace
05:30 PM – Wat Phnom
07:30 PM – Eat dinner at the riverside
10:00 PM – Crash

Schedule 5-30

03:30 AM – Rooster crowing
05:30 AM – Finally fall asleep again
07:30 AM – Wake-up call, authentic Khmer breakfast
08:30 AM – Killing Fields
10:30 AM – Russian Market
12:30 PM – Jars of Clay restaurant
02:30 PM – Toul Sleng (S-21 prison)
05:00 PM – New Central Market
07:00 PM – Thai Coffee Shop (Black Canyon Coffee)
08:30 PM – Bedtime

Schedule 5-31

05:00 AM – Wake up, rooster, catch up journal
06:00 AM – Shower, Van pickup
06:15 AM – Meet Vannak for the first time
07:00 AM – Leave for Northern
12:00 PM – Arrive in 
12:30 PM – Eat at Thai/Khmer restaurant
02:00 PM – Check into guest house
02:30 PM – Cultural village
06:30 PM – Pizza for supper
09:00 PM – Crashed in an Air Conditioned room… so nice

Schedule 6-01

05:00 AM – Wake up
06:00 AM – Breakfast at the restaurant downstairs
06:45 AM – Leave for Angkor Wat
07:15 AM – Bayon
11:30 AM – Eat, blisteringly hot, Micah sick
12:30 PM – Angkor Wat
02:30 PM – Nap at the guest house
03:30 PM – Floating village
06:30 PM – Eat, watch Aspara dancing
08:30 PM – Guest house
09:15 PM – Sleep

Schedule 6-02

06:00 AM – Wake up
07:30 AM – Leave for remote province
11:30 AM – Arrive in province, eat
02:30 PM – Motorcycle Ride
03:45 PM – Arrive at ministry location
04:00 PM – Talking with missionaries Ralph and Kim
09:00 PM – Bed

Schedule 6-03

05:00 AM – Rooster (deja vu?)
07:15 AM – Pancakes!
09:45 AM – Village tour
02:00 PM – Visit other missionary family with
03:30 PM – Return to Ralph and Kim
05:00 PM – Badminton
07:30 PM – movie, testimony
09:00 PM – Bed

email me your thoughts here if you liked the journal.

Mother’s Day

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

Ric`s Grandma, Lucy. It was a lot of fun to spend time with family this mother`s day.

This mother’s day we’d just like to thank our mothers who spent so much time and effort raising us. We both are blessed to have excellent families and especially dedicated mothers who love us very much. Although we weren’t able to be with them we still thought about them often.
-Ric and Sharon

Our Purpose

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Jaw set, staring off into the distance... symptoms of the purpose disease

God has called us to be ambassadors for Christ in Cambodia. That’s our motivation. This one purpose gets us out of bed in the morning, we find. The more we learn about Cambodia and pray for the work God is doing in the country the more excited we grow. Here’s what God has called us to do-

Catch a Glimpse of Our Purpose:

Few people can say they knew exactly what they wanted to do and be when they were in high school. We were both sure of two things six years ago – we were committed to each other and we were committed to Paul’s attitude toward evangelism in Romans 15:20:

" I have been eager to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation."

Sharon climbing a steep section of the Appalachian Trail. Determination etched in her face. To us, this verse reveals bit of God’s heart: he wants all people to have equal access to His truth and to the gospel. But they don’t. Inequality still exists, so we’ve dedicated our youth to fixing the situation in one part of the world: Cambodia.

The Specifics:

Our specific ministry location within the country is to be decided, but we have a timeframe of what we will be doing when (this is all subject to change).

  1. July of 2010 we will move to Cambodia and begin studying the national language, Khmer.
  2. Fall of 2012 we could be assigned to a local ministry location with a team. This would be in a Cambodian "Hill Tribe".
  3. Immediately we will begin relationship building, community development, and language and culture study.
  4. Depending on the length of time it requires for our team to learn the local customs and language, the team may begin training leaders, teaching bible lessons, and translating scriptures in 2015.
  5. Our purpose is to see a fully independent, functioning church that will continue for years after we’re gone.
     

That’s the work we’ve been called to do and trained to do, now we are asking God for the financial and prayer support needed to see the task completed. God has called us to represent Him in Cambodia and you can be an important part of seeing that happen! Please visit our ministry page to learn more, send us an email, or give to our ministry!