My roommate and I on the cables

I’m at CIT (Center for Intercultural Training) in Union Mills, NC.  There are 17 other students here all training to serve around the world with various organizations.  I’ve been so warmly welcomed and really enjoying the community life here!  The two courses I am participating in are Teams & Team Leaders and Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills.  This photo is from Tuesday, we were outside all day for team building activities.  The two cables we were standing on were shaped like a V.  We started out close together at the point of the V, and the more we worked our way along, the more we had to lean into each other.  The others were our safety people, “turtles” underneath us (if we fell inward) and “bears” with their paws, spotting us on the outside!

I visited a Vietnamese church that was only 6 weeks old!

Here’s a picture from my last visit to the Vietnamese communities in Cambodia, outside Phnom Penh.  I was delighted to visit a couple of churches and see some familiar faces from my previous trip in 2005.

There are roughly 1 million Vietnamese refugees in Cambodia.  Many have been there since the 70′s, political refugees from the Vietnam War.  They are now in communities scattered throughout Cambodia, but are largely not welcomed in Cambodian society.  Suffering discrimination, they face such things as poverty, AIDS, and child trafficking.  However, their hearts have become tender to the Gospel through the things they have suffered.