to CAMBODIA!!!

Hi, friends and family!

It was so wonderful to see so many of you in Houston, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Nashville this past month - I hope you and your families are still doing beautifully!

I've had the chance to do a bit of wedding planning and volunteering in Houston for the past couple of weeks, but mostly I've been anticipating an international placement with Volunteers in Missions, a group affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Just this week, I accepted an opportunity to serve in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for four months...beginning in just two weeks! I'll be working alongside a team of seven United Methodist missionaries who are supporting over 160 new church plants, 90 agricultural sustainability programs, educational initiatives for forgotten kids struggling to live in Phnom Penh, and localized micro-finance initiatives. I'll concentrate on documenting success stories for grant proposals and for other sources of support, helping many of the missionaries communicate using technology and quarterly newsletters, and interviewing leaders seeking to organize churches in a country where Christians make up only 1.3% of the population. Can. You. Say. Exciting!

This really is a phenominal opportunity, and I couldn't be more thrilled about soon putting that English degree to work! More details to come! But in the meantime, if you're interested, I'd encourage you to visit these two websites that describe in greater detail the UMC missionaries' vision, purpose, and work in Cambodia.

- Community Health and Agriculture Development (CHAD): http://chad-cambodia.blogspot.com/

- Street Children Ministry: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/advance/projects/conference-partnerchurch/details/index.cfm?action=details&id=3017013&code=14921A

Also, if you feel led, please consider donating to offset my living and travel expenses. Please see the "donations and support" tab at the top of this blog page for instructions on how to do that. (All donations are tax-deductible).

As always, thank you for your prayers and unflagging encouragement as I've traveled to see God shine his Kingdom in so many different cultures and places. Traveling alone to Cambodia would be difficult enough without a solid support system around me, so I thank you beyond words. I'll post updates periodically throughout my stay, but in the meantime, I'd appreciate your thoughts and prayers for the people of Cambodia and the team I'll be serving with. I so enjoy hearing how your years are going, so please keep me updated as well! Many blessings!

Stephanie