Well, it’s 6:30am on day two of our trip to the seaside resort town of Kompong Som. Yesterday at this time, we were already on the road from Phnom Penh – 4 mini-buses full of kids and staff, more than 100 of us in all.

After a four hour drive that took us through rice fields, factory towns, mountains and coconut groves, we stopped at Cambodia’s very southern edge, dropped our bags under the thatched cabanas that line the beach and, en masse, ran out to meet the gently rolling waves, laughing, jumping and splashing.

After five or six hours of sun and sand, we dragged ourselves back to the cabanas, flopped into the low slung hammock chairs and prayed a blessing on the evening’s meal. What a feast it was, everything except for the pork and the pickled cabbage had come directly from local waters, and had probably been caught that day. With a lot of help from our Cambodian hosts, we ate our way through mountains of fresh crab, lobster, shrimp and squid. If it hadn’t been so affordable, it would have felt decadent.

Often, when I come to Cambodia, I feel like I don’t get enough time to just hang out with the kids and staff. Yesterday, we had the entire bus ride and the whole day at the beach for nothing but pure, unrestrained fun, an extravagant celebration of God’s goodness to us, and the love we share as a big, boisterous family.

And yet today I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. I always run the risk of overdoing it, but yesterday was one of those days where I really had no choice. And this morning? I’m preaching at our little makeshift church service, and then we’re heading back to the beach for another few hours. I suspect I’ll do a little less frolicking and a lot more lying around.

Tomorrow, I think I will rest.

As I have come to expect, my first full day in Cambodia has been a doozy. It’s only 9pm local time, but my body feels like I’ve been up all night. Thanks, Jet Lag.

It would be nearly impossible to write about everything we’ve done today. Before noon, we had already bought shoes, visited Psar Tuol Tompong (aka the Russian Market) and toured the notorious Tuol Sleng genocide museum. After Tuol Sleng, we headed out over the river towards our orphan homes in Prek Eng.

In a period of about six hours, we visited all four homes, playing volleyball, hide-and-seek, Simon says, Uno, Skip Bo and countless other games including the one where all the kids tackle me and I try to get up. I call that one “Gulliver.” Not a huge amount of fun for my aging body, but the kids howl with laughter.

At about 6pm, we headed back to Phnom Penh and attempted to visit Pheaktra, one of our kids who is in the hospital for a kidney injury sustained in a tuk-tuk accident. The hospital staff decided to only allow family members, and our white skin was a dead giveaway that we were not family, biologically speaking, at least. We were, however, able to talk with him via cell phone and see him wave from his fourth floor balcony.

Many of you have been praying for Pheaktra over the last couple of weeks. Thankfully, he’ll be heading home from the hospital within a couple of days, and is expected to recover completely. When we arrived today at Prek Eng 2, Pheaktra’s home, I asked about his condition.

After giving me the good news about his prognosis, Narun, Prek Eng 2’s director said, “Every night, we pray for three people: Pheaktra, Karen and Joe.” He pointed to the wall, and there was a picture of my friend (and Pheaktra’s sponsor, incidentally) Joe Aebi, who was diagnosed last week with serious liver cancer. Nearby was a picture of Karen James, my friend and Central Vineyard Church’s sponsorship coordinator who successfully fought off thyroid cancer last year.

What a blessing. What an unbelievable blessing. I spent my last week in the states thinking of nothing but Joe and his family. I sent a picture of Joe from Facebook to Narun, and he has had the staff and kids praying daily that God would heal Joe and bless his wife and children. And even though they know that Karen had recovered fully, they still pray for her every night.

It’s beyond humbling to serve these wonderful people on your behalf. Please join them in praying for Joe Aebi and his family. And please continue to generously support Asia’s Hope.

Tomorrow I’m taking all of the kids from Prek Eng 1, 2, 3 and 4 to the beach at Kompong Som. It should be a great time, The kids are so excited they haven’t been able to sleep.

I haven’t taken many pictures yet, but I’m sure I’ll get quite a few tomorrow. God bless you! 

Well, we’ve arrived, but we haven’t really seen much of Phnom Penh yet. It after 11pm when we left the airport, and unless you’re down at the riverfront, along the main drag  Monivong Street or one of the trendy bar neighborhoods, there’s not much to eat, not much to see or do in Phnom Penh at night – not that either Andy nor I really felt like doing anything.

With the help of Savorn, our national director, we lugged our big suitcases up a tiny flight of stairs and took the smaller (and cheaper) of the two rooms offered. Our tiny room could use a little more closet space, but I’m not going to complain it’s got a TV, a small fridge, two separate beds – each with its own mosquito net – and air conditioning. Best yet, it has wireless internet access that sort of works much of the time.

So, without much ado, Andy and I unpacked a little and went to bed. I woke up a couple of times, but was able to get back to sleep. Not sure about Andy. He’s tossing and turning quite a bit. It’s 5:30am – 6:30pm at home – so I’ll let him sleep for a while before offering to show him the town.

We plan on getting out and about pretty early today. We have the morning to ourselves, and then we’re heading out to visit all of the orphan homes this afternoon. And in the evening, we’ll visit Pheaktra, who is still in the hospital.

And then shat should be more than enough for our first jetlaggy day in the country. I will take pictures and get them online as soon as I can. Thank you for your prayers. It’s an honor to serve these kids on your behalf.

Well, I just lost the first blog post of my trip. It was brilliant, and transcendently erudite. I reflected on my last few days of trip preparation and mused on my arrival in my second home, Phnom Penh.

But I lost it. 

It won't be my last lost post, though, as internet services are notoriously fickle in SE Asia. But I didn't expect to experience technical difficulties in the departure lounge in Columbus. Oh, well.

At any rate, I'm traveling with one of my best friends, Andy Taylor, and meeting up later with Chris Ramos from Back2Back Ministries. I'm anticipating one of my best trips ever. 

I'll be sure to post as often as I can. Please pray for me, and pray for the family I'm leaving behind in Ohio.

Peace.

Today, Asia's Hope has a waiting list of dozens of orphaned children we've identified as needing loving homes. Unfortunately, our resources are extremely limited. We desperately need to build our organization's capacity to run itself efficiently at a large enough scale to accept more kids who need our help.

We have lots of projects listed at here that need immediate funding. 

I understand, however, that it's often hard to ask people for money. It's pretty easy, however, to invite people to sponsor a child, and that's what I'd like to ask you to help with today.

Asia's Hope has recently created a new level of supplemental sponsorships. These sponsorships are $35 a month, and are designed to help underwrite a multitude of needs at Asia's Hope. Sponsors will receive a picture and a bio of a child at one of our orphan homes, and will receive periodic updates about that child and their home.

Sponsors sign up online, and are billed automatically each month on their credit or debit card. It's very, very easy.

If you would like to help us build our capacity to rescue more orphaned children, you can contact me at john@asiashope.org and I will send you 10, 20 or 30 sheets with pictures of available children that you can use to recruit sponsors at work, at church or around the neighborhood. Or, you can simply direct your friends and family to our sponsorship page.

On behalf of the kids, thank you!

It's hard to believe, but I'll be heading back to Cambodia and Thailand in less than ten days. And while I'm more than a little stressed by all of the things I need to do to get ready, I'm thrilled to be on my way to see all of the staff and kids.

I have some exciting activities planned for the kids, including trips to the beach and to see Angkor Wat, Cambodia's national architectural treasure. I'm looking forward to seeing first-hand some of the new microenterprise initiatives in action, especially the silversmithing projects in Battambang and Wiang Pa Pow.

I'll be blogging here on a regular basis, so keep an eye open for new posts.

I'm so thankful for all of you, and for everything you do to keep this movement going.

This is the kind of letter I love to get:

I have recently returned from a 17 day trip to visit Asia's Hope orphan homes in Prek Eng, Battambang, and Chiang Mai. I am a member of the Western Resrve Grace Church Team that went to dedicate the Haven of Hope (BB5). I cannot tell you what this trip meant to me. God called me to go, and I went. The trip greatly exceeded my original expectations!

To go half way around the world to give love to children, but be given that love in return at least 10-fold was just amazing! Those kids touched our hearts ina way I cannot even begin to explain. We made some heart connections that will last a life time! The day we left Battambang, the kids from Haven of Hope came to see us off at the Hotel Khemera. We spent about an hour with them in the hotel lobby. The first half hour was full of singing and hand holding and hugs and kisses.

Then the tears began! We were told that Cambodian children doen't cry...wrong! that departure from each other ripped all of our hearts apart. I spend a good portion of my day wondering what they are doing, which uniform they are wearing, are they thinking about us, etc. I have their pictures all over my desk. I'm sure my co-workers think I'm a tad bit nuts! I am beginning to save money for next year's trip! God Bless Asia's Hope! Our kids now have hope! -- Jen Lewis

Every day I receive dozens of emails: documents, agreements, attachments, applications... some make me smile, some make me grimace, some make me scowl. But the ones that really get me excited are the bios of new kids we've brought into our orphan homes.

I won't give you all the details, but I'd like to share some excerpts from the bios of a few of our new kids at the "Grace Place" orphan home in Battambang, Cambodia:

One child:

Parents Background: Her father was a soldier and he had died after one year he divorced his wife. Her mother head had a serious wound on it and she became acute illness for a year and then she died in 2005.

Brothers and Sisters: 1 Brother and 2 sisters

Life before living in the AH orphanage: She and her brother lived with poor grandparents and they have no job to do. Her grandmother has diabetes and also high blood pressure. She must take the medicine everyday. Srey Nith was responsible to do the housework like cooking, carrying water, and other things.

Reason for moving to the AH orphanage: Because of her grandparents did not have ability to feed and to give her the good future and they observed that she loves to study so after they are informed about Asia’s Hope they have decided to send her to “Grace Place” of Asia’s Hope Orphan Home in Battambang.

Another child:

Parents Background: Her father was the drunkard and ferocity to the children and to his wife almost everyday. Because of this situation, her mother was serious sick and she coughed with blood and she also has a womb disease and then she died in 2005. Her father now became feebleminded and the lunatic, sometimes he did not know what he is doing, and did not care of his children.

Brothers and Sisters: 1Brother and 1sister

Life before living in the AH orphanage: She lived with her father the feebleminded. She and her younger brother lacked of daily food. Some days her brother and she got fed by their neighbors who showed pity on them and sometimes they got some money from working for their neighbors to buy food to eat like carrying water or house cleansing or working.

Reason for moving to the AH orphanage: The neighbors and the village chief saw this situation and reported to the staff of A.R.M and then they reported to us about that. We went directly to this village and took her to live in Grace Place of Asia’s Hope.

And another:

Parents Background: His father was the drunkard and he is addictive to wine. This is always happened that made his father never cared on the need of family and children. Because of this his mother left home to earn money as a night club woman (prostitute), and then she has another boy friend. Soon not later they got divorced and abandoned their son since he was small. Kim Hab was living with his widow handicapped aunt since 2004.

Brothers and Sisters: 2 brothers

Life before living in the AH orphanage: He lived with his widow handicapped aunt who got small income from selling small things in the market. So his aunt faced to the difficulty of providing food for him and her own children. Kim Hab could not help any thing because he was small.

----

And the stories go on. Each one more heartbreaking than the one before. All of these kids have experienced more pain in their first few years than most of us will experience in our whole lives. Each of them lived without hope. Now, each of them has a chance for a bright future. 

I can't wait to see these kids in a couple of months, after their transformation has gotten underway, and their healing has begun. Pray for these kids. Pray for the hundreds of others who need our help. And pray for Asia's Hope.