Team Cambodia

. These 5 and half weeks has been a experience that I will never forget. I met some great people who impacted my life. God brought them to my life so I can serve him better. The people who I spent most my time is with my team mates. While it was hard being the only guy in a group of eight people, we became a family. Mandy, Carin, Katelyn, Jen, Beki, Maddie and Janelle all became my sisters. There were times they would cause me to lose my temper or get frustrated or become upset at them, but we will have a team meeting and talk things over and we will be back to working together. Each of us brought something special to our team.

Mandy is our Team Administrator and probably the one I talked to the most, I jokingly  call her  “mom’ of the group because she make sure that everyone is happy and make sure conflicts are resolved in the group. She is one of the sweetest and caring people I know. The heart and love she have for all the students and other people we met inspired me and shown me how I am suppose to show God’s love to others.

Maddy or Mandeline is a really interesting person to get to know. It was really great to hear about the amazing and interesting things she has done in her life and things she experienced. She is one of the most energetic people I know and have a great passion and enthusiasm for whatever she does. The enthusiasm she has is so contagious that even if you don’t want to do something, you will end up doing it.

Janelle Is one girl who is similar to me, but at the same time so different from me. She was used to Asian culture just like me. She has more energy than me and is very active. One thing I learned from Janelle, she can make you laugh even when you are having a bad day. When we were in Siem Reap, something happened to me and she made a song about that and it made me laugh.

Jen is the Pre School teacher of our group; she never ceases to surprise me in five weeks while we were there. The passion she had for preschool kids was really amazing, I know I can’t do what she did with them.

Beki is the youngest member our team. I sometimes call her the baby of the group. Her passion for God is great sight to see. I seen her reading the bible and meditating when I was just listening to music or watching YouTube videos. Me and Beki teamed up to teach at one school and it was really good to see the way she interacted with kids and kept their attention.

Carin is the second “mom” of our group. She is so caring about everyone. While we were there we had the chance to celebrate her birthday. She cares about everyone so much and loves everyone. One thing special about Carin is when she sings songs you can feel the love she has for songs and praising God. She would play the piano and sing when she is at the house and it’s really wonderful to hear the praises coming from her.

The last person who came with me to Cambodia from US is Katelyn. She is a very interesting person because she completely changed all my expectations of her. She is a very energetic and funniest person I know. She became a very special person to me.

I had a very fun time with these 7 special people. God brought us together and He specifically chose each of us to go to Cambodia. I know God spoke to each of us while we were there and He blessed abundantly.

Loving kids from Hayley's House

Being in Cambodia feels so good and right. The people in here are so loving and caring and at the same time kids are starving of love. We went to visit an orphanage called Hayley's house on July 19, 2011. We seen the kids from the place in church on Sundays. The first Sunday we were at church, two girls named Sreynayt & Mary came and was holding on to my hand, while I was talking to all the kids or just holding them, these girls always stood with me and kept on holding my hand. When we visited the orphanage we pulled in and these girls ran to me and just held me. They never let me go during the whole visit. I am so moved by the love they have shown me and I would love to adopt these two sweet kids. Every time I go to the orphanage they always come and stay with me. I dont know what they see in me, but all I want to share God's love to them and love them with everything I have. I will gladly give away everything I have and move back here and be with the kids if it's God's will. Being with those kids made me understand that we as human beings need love to survive. If we genuinely love each other this world will be a better place and there would not be any orphans anywhere. I put on my Facebook that I want to adopt the kids and one of the pastors I know commented on that with bible verse from James 1:27, which says; "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." That really touched my heart because as Christians we are suppose to care for orphans and widows, but most of would not do it. We are afraid of what our culture will say, what our family and friends will say. I know I came to love these kids, and if its God's will I would love to adopt them and show them the love of Christ.
       I thank God everyday that He gave me the grace to sent me here so I can experience this. I know without being here I would not have experienced this at all.

Update

Hey everyone, I know I have not sent a update at all, just getting things done and being busy with it.  I got her e safe and sound by God’s grace. We are staying at yearlong teacher’s houses and short distance to the school work. Being here reminds me a lot of God’s love for all of us because every single person I met here are so helpful and so nice whether they speak English or not. For the first week we just observed the classrooms and helped out the Canadian team that was here already. I helped out in the bible class and it was a wonderful experience. The joy the students have was really wonderful to see. The Canadian team started an outreach program for the neighborhood kids to teach them conversational English. The first time we were helping them there were over 90 kids from the neighborhood kids to learn English and to swim in the swimming pool. These kids don’t know English at all but they are such a joy to teach, even though sometimes I felt I am not doing anything worthwhile, a smile from a kid I was teaching make it worthwhile. The second week the team I came with and the Canadian Team shared the classes. I thought Math on Tuesday and Thursdays and two people from the other team thought science on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We are visiting other ministries in the area and helping out if we can. Last week we went to another school and thought about 3 classes. I met two high school kids named Petra and John and I got to pray with them because they are learning about God and want to be Christians. I ask you guys to keep them in your prayer. This week I am teaching Math and Computers. I ask you guys to keep me and the team  in your prayer as we head to the last couple of weeks here. I will send out another letter/email in about 2 weeks as we leave from here.

In Christ’s Name

Justin  K Joshuva
justin4884k@gmail.com

Training and Cambodia

Training:

The one week of training was really good, God really worked in my heart. It was mentally tough because it starts at 8 in the morning ends at 9 in the night. Met some amazing people and got to meet and get to know my teammates. We had team devotions and through that I believe we all grew stronger. We left to Cambodia on June 28,2011 at 1:35 from LAX. The group that was going to Vietnam was with us so we had fun with them. Our group and them separated at Tapei, Taiwan. We landed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia around 11 Local time. we had an interesting time to get our visas. The girls all went and stood in the line to get visa and I was filling out my forms to take it there, and a Cambodian official came to me and got my information and payment and told me to wait there, and he just gave me visa, which was interesting. I stepped out of the airport and my thought was am I back in Kerala right now? The environment was so similar. We got to the guest house we were staying at and Dan who picked up at airport took us to one of popular market place called Russian Market and we had our 1^st food there, Pork n Rice.  We walked around the market to see the place. The next day we went to the school we are teaching at and we observed the other team that was there already. We just did that for the rest of the week and on weekend we just relaxed. The next week the Canada team and we shared the teaching responsibilities. I thought my 1st math class on Tuesday and again on Thursday. This weekend was okay, on Friday we went to another city for the beach, it was not my favorite thing to do, but everybody else in the team wanted to do it so I went along with it. we came home Saturday night. Sunday morning we went to church we went to last week. It was a very good service. well thats all for now.. until next time.   

Experience

It's almost two weeks since I left home and lot of things happened since then. Since June 18, 2011 I was travelling. Started with going to Nashville airport in the morning to pick up grandpa, Bijoy, Pr. K.A Thomas, and others who went to India. When I got there and picked them up, it turns out other than 2 luggage no others came. After doing the baggage claim, we all went to eat at Sitar restaurant and came back to pick up two more baggage. Came home about 5:30 and went to fix Vijay's computer. I did that for close to 2 hours and rushed home to pick my luggage. We left home around 11 P.M June 18, 2011. Got to Atlanta airport about 1 A.M on June 19, 2011. Met some good people at the airport from primerica and a couple was going to Fresno, California. I got thru security check and everything and boarded flight to Charlotte, SC.  I had a lay over in SC for a hour and boarded the flight to California. For some reason, the flight to California felt like I am going to India because it was so loong. I got to LAX and collected my baggage and got on my shuttle. I met 3 girls who were going to the same place. It was amazing to see how God has worked in all our lives to bring us to training and to different countries.
God has blessed us and allowed us  to be here and just enjoy each other and God's presence. I will add more later. Signing out now.