Day One: Introduciton of God's team

Day One. God's team. This is our theme for this week. We are doing VBS, or vacation bible study for four days with the 39 orphans this week. To kick off our programming, we thought there would be nothing more exciting, nothing more action packed and full of energy than a pep rally. So with the supplies we packed from back home, we arrived in style at the orphanage this morning. Pom poms, noise makers, beach balls, whistles, God's team tattoos and loud noises were the awakening the city of Battambang received after the commotion these kids caused.

The kids were so enthuastic in welcoming us back. The love they have to share with us is so abundant and overflowing, considering their backgrounds (parents who wanted to sell them as slaves, deceased parents, parents who wanted to sell them as prostitutes or abandoned them etc), one could imagine the sorrow and pain that is in their lives. Yet by the grace and mercy of our loving Father, he has showered these kids with so much love and great caretakers in their lives, that their eyes are filled with joy, their souls with love, so that we get the celebrity rock star treatment when we get off the bus.

The morning programming revolved around splitting the kids up into four teams, representing the four stories we would cover this week. We made some arts and crafts, tree ornaments and team pennants that represented each kid. Prior to this, we had 30 minutes of worship music, praising God with songs and dance. Let me tell you. American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance better find it's way to Battambang if you want to see some young talent, cause these kids can sing and dance! It was beautiful to see the kids also create a huge greeting card for Dara, one of their own who is in Siem Reap for two months due to heart surgery. Our prayers are with him. The afternoon consisted of some outdoor relay race and competitive games to burn off some energy, but before closed it with more songs and reiterating the theme that we are all on God's team, we had a skit on the subject matter. We portrayed how sin can easily entagle of lives, and we may try to remove sin from ourself and from others, but it impossible. It is only through Jesus that our sins are buried. Romans 5:8.

Before closing out the day, we took individual pictures and gathered information on all the kids. Some previous mission trip members, I believe, are parterning with an organization (similar to Compassion International and Brightpoint) to allow for the sponsoring of the kids. New Life Missions has a motto of only taking in kids in their orphanage in which they can provide for untilt he kid can graduate high school. They want to train the future leaders of Cambodia, in teaching them about God, English and how to use a computer. It is with this skill set, these kids have a shot at life, period.

It's amazing at the end of our day, how fast time flies by. I look back at today, and memories of Mary Margaret busting out the snake dance move (which by the way, all the older boys have mastered, and called the dance, the "Margaret"), Tommy performing magic tricks, Sandra dancing a storm in front of these kids, little Ya latching on to every team member, watching the older kids care for the younger ones, and having every kid posing for hundreds of pictures, hoping we would develop the photo and send it back one day to them .... so much to take in, so little time. Day one is over. Three more days to go. And we say goodbye Thursday night (day four). How can so much happen in one day? How can so much love and joy be overly abundant where the total possesion of each kid doesn't even fill a 20 gallon Rubbermaid looking container? How can a mother of four be so loved by two older girls that within 24 hours of meeting each other, they call her Mommy? How can a boy love a mission trip team member so much, that he stares at her for half a sermon/church service, hoping she would notice him? Or kids writing your name on their hats? How can kids be so disciplined and so sharing with one another? How can a nation half way around the world lift itself up after genocide has wiped out almost half its population? And how can this very place still be loved by God? Loved so much, that it can love it's mission trip team excessively, that we are reminded of God's greatest commandment - to love our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourself.

I have no answers. I just know I feel God's love. It's the most powerful feeling I have ever felt and feel. And it's the most powerful feeling you will ever feel in your life. For I know many of us came here thinking we can be the change the world needs to see - more love. But somehow along the way, Cambodia changes you. And it's for life.

Day one. Check. Day two, excited about tomorrow. Day four. Let's not talk about good-byes. We just got here ...