Cambodia mission construction trip travel day

 I start this post with a thank you to those who donated to this trip. I am with Least of These serving in Cambodia for Agape International Ministries. AIM fights child sex trafficking. We will be doing construction in this effort. 10 of us met for our drive to SFO where we will meet two additional team members. Our first flight leaves at 11 pm Thursday arriving in Hong Kong at 0600 Saturday due to the 15 hour time difference. In Hong Kong we met the remaining 3 people making up our team of 15.  Another short flight to Cambodia arriving at 1030 am Saturday.

We met our driver for the week and loaded up for a drive to the killing fields to help us better understand the history of Cambodia that contributes to the battle we are standing against.  

******WARNING dome of the pictures and narrative are graphic and heavy ******

We arrived to the killing field memorial for a self paced walking audio tour. 

April 17, 1975 the communist dictator Pol Pot with his Khmer Rouge followers march into the capital city of Phnom Penh. Millions were rounded up and taken to the killing fields where many were executed or assigned to forced labor. All belongings were taken, land was taken, families or split apart. Humanity was stripped away.

After completing the tour, we gathered somberly and reflected on the evil of the fallen human race, but also the grace of God and His forgiveness for those who turn and accept Him. We prayed for the country and people we are serving this week. We load back on our bus and head to the lunch before our hotel 

After lunch We went to our hotel and begin to rest and recover from our very long period of travel.

Costa Rica mission trip day 4,5, and 6

 Today we are back at the Mercies of God work site containing our project from yesterday. The goal today is to finish off all the interior walls and the three planter beds out front. We were able to finish off all of the walls, leaving some touchup work to do tomorrow. One planter needs a little more touchup tomorrow the other two are done and all will be filled with topsoil when we return.

The other half of our team has split into two more groups one doing additional flowerbeds at another location, the other continuing VBS.

Following our day at work, we returned to our lodging, location for a good wind down devotional and sharing time. 

We noticed the neighbors in the lot next-door, listening to our discussion

 Video of today’s work site at mercies of God

Day 5

Today is our final workday at  Mercies of God. we have a late start as our vehicle has been used to move some of the other team around town to their various VBS locations.All of our main wall work was done yesterday today we have some fill-in pieces And touchup. We also began plastering the seans. Outside the remaining Garden planter was completed, and all three were filled with Top Soil.

Once again, God has treated us to an amazing view of his creation at a local beach. Afterwards, we walked down a boardwalk through a lagoon filled with mangrove trees to the main road where we met our cars

Day 6

Today we are all loading as a single team and heading to an area we are referring to as the migrant camp. It is San area where I grands have set up shelters and hoping to get government sponsored house in the future.

We are at the site circled around our vans came up with the distribution plan for food and toiletries that we will be handing out then had a group prayer time.

Any of the homes like this 5 to 6 people living in them.

Josh is taking some time to feed one of the neighborhood dogs with some dog food that we brought along with us.

We have left the migrant camp and went to an area where the government has provided some housing for former residence of the camp. We gave out some more food bags and prayers

If you look closely at this rocking chair, you will see it is constructed completely of rebar and electrical wire

Having finished our food distribution, we returned to the mercies of God, worksite to collect our tools and provide an education class on how to grow sustainable food in the planter boxes.

Since yesterday FRANCISCO, one of the guys I worked closely with has completely plastered two of the walls. It looks incredible.

I took the opportunity to snap some photos of some of the work we had done Marveline over the difference in appearance From our arrival day

We had a few bricks left over as a side project across, was built to dedicate the planters

Rick, Francisco, and I did most of the inside work. Francisco is one of those people I will remember and hope to see  again.

We finished our time at the rehab center with a group prayer. Leaving is always emotional, there are a few people who cried.  I’m sure the men here  could’ve done the work by themselves quicker and nicer than us, but it’s not the building that we’re building, but the hearts and connections.