It’s hard to believe that it is nearly the middle of November. My housemates and I have been wondering where the months have gone, it seems like this semester has flown by. It also doesn’t feel like winter here, where we are still sweating every time we walk outside—that may be part of it. J I am continually amazed by God’s patience with me and His provision of energy, conversations, emails from friends, ideas and words to speak right when they are needed as the time is going by and the newness of this life is wearing off.
Since my last update, I have gotten to see a little more of Cambodia. A few weeks ago, one of the year 13 students at school decided to work together with a radio show that was taking supplies out to the flooded provinces. He asked students and parents at school to donate food, toiletries and clothes to collect, and in the end we had 350 bags of food and a good sized pile of clothes to take to Prey Veng. I had the opportunity to go with a group of people from Hope to deliver the supplies. For the past couple of months, the flooding in Cambodia has been very bad. After a long bus ride, we loaded the packages onto a boat and rode for an hour over rice patties and homes that were covered in around 3 meters of water to an island where the poorest people from the 10 surrounding villages were waiting for us. It was good for me to see the reality of village life outside of the city, but it also broke my heart. As we were handing out food and antibiotics, I understood more of the poverty and hopelessness that is present in this country. These people had lost the little that they had and were stuck sitting on small islands just waiting for the water to go down before they could try to start their lives again. I’m still struggling with understanding how we, in the community I am living in, can continue living the lives that we are when all of this is going on. So knowing how to respond and also how to think about it is a challenge. 
Besides that, we are moving towards finishing up the semester and towards the Christmas concert. Today I went out to start buying material for making costumes, we have started rehearsals for both the primary and the middle school plays, and are working on building props and sets. It’s amazing how many details there are to take care of and keep track of when putting together something like this! Please keep myself and You Jin (my fellow music teacher) in your prayers during this next month—this is the first time for both of us to be doing something like this on our own. Thank you!
I will be in the States for Christmas this year! I am flying into Chicago on December 14th and driving to a wedding in Iowa, then to Ohio to be with my family, then to Indiana for Jon’s wedding and I would love to see as many of you as possible! J
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