MANILA ---> PHNOM PENH

It’s been a bit of a transition and I won’t be in K-town till July.  I left the US in February for the Philippines where two main events took place - conference and thesis.

Being at the conference with my organization felt strangely like coming home.  Not because I was arriving back in Asia, but because everyone there either lives in Asian slums or is involved in incarnational ministry to some capacity.  I met many of my new heroes at the conference and thoroughly enjoyed gleaning from their experiences and perspectives.  Our entire ‘K-team’ was able to meet for the first time during this conference, which was exciting and necessary for us to make some plans about the coming months as our team forms. 

Then I spent a few weeks staying at my friends’ house to finish writing my thesis for my community development program in Manila.  This segment of time enabled me to completely wrap up before beginning another chapter on my journey.  It feels great to finished!  But, I'd say my learning is just now beginning.  One of my American teammates was able to stay with me during this time as well.  We were able to visit many friends in Manila that I’ve now said goodbye to.  It was a good time of closure.

Due to the timing of the conference in the Philippines, our team formation and language school, my teammate and I are stopping over for a layover to learn from our organization’s work in Cambodia.  We flew into Bangkok, Thailand during PEACEFUL political protests, so the streets near our hostel were barricaded as military with riot gear stood at their posts.  But we made it through just fine and booked a bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  There were certainly some twists and turns of confusion at the border, but hey, we’d better get used to it!  Now we’re in Phnom Penh where we’ll be learning from this different context with the hope of expanding our minds to what is possible in the slums.

In a week we’ll be busing back across the border to Bangkok to fly to Dhaka, Bangladesh for language school and team formation for three months.  Please be praying for safe travels as our whole team is making a big transition.  We still have some things to figure out, like accommodations and so on.  I’ll try to blog more regularly so that my next blog is not just a list of locations!