it's already been a week...

We have finished our first week teaching and meeting with people. It has been very challenging as well as fun and insightful. We are still dealing with jet lag and the heat, but with the crazy downpours we get everyday it cools the air down a bit.

I don’t know how to recap all that we have done and talked about the last few days…but the reason we are here has been confirmed to us in many ways that the need is great.

We have been teaching at Agape salon, which is the salon that has many of the girls I taught in 2007 employed. In our teaching we have had more difficulties than we imagined. It has helped us gain a better understanding of the culture and systems here that are ok by Cambodian’s standards, but would never be tolerated in the states. The girls have learned a few new haircuts and we went to the market and bought some mannequin heads for them to practice on. Chrissy and I cut a couple of the girl’s hair to teach on. We also taught them how to highlight on one of the girl’s hair, but imagine the difficulty that we had figuring out how to use their color! Fortunately it turned out great.

We have met with some wonderful people here doing great things for girls that have been exploited. In our meetings all that has been communicated is a need for proper education for all areas of cosmetology: hair cutting, styling, sanitation, color, and even basic understanding of hair structure. We have many ideas floating in our heads about how to help with this and we have talked through them with these ladies, but it basically comes down to us doing it. They need someone to actually put the time and energy into making something happen and being here to walk alongside these girls.

We are meeting with a couple tomorrow that should have some really good insight and connections for us to help us figure out next steps. I can see how easy it would be to go home and say the job is too hard, but I know God has brought us here for a reason. Please be praying for us as we meet with people the next few days. Pray that God would give us direction for a starting point and make it clear what that looks like for both Chrissy and my life.

A verse God keeps putting in front of me is Isaiah 61

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion – to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”

We are thoroughly enjoying our moto and tuk tuk rides everyday that we bargain to pay between $.25 - $2.00. We have finally figured out how to do that in Khmer as well as give directions. A few words help a lot. Last night we went to Haven of Hope, the school I taught at in 2007, and the girls there sang a lot of songs for us and we played many games until we were too tired to keep our eyes open. They were having fun teaching us and making fun of us as we didn’t understand what we were doing.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We will try and catch you up as often as we can. God bless.