26th Birthday Celebrations

Today is my birthday! I feel so blessed to have the people I have around me today that made me feel so loved. My birthday celebrations started out an evening early. Gideon took me out for a nice dinner last night. We ended up having to bring home left overs because we are no longer used to those portions anymore. I ordered a GIANT sandwich.

Today my lovely teaching assistant, Sorphorn, surprised me. She bought me breakfast, noddles and fried veggies, very Khmer style. She also bought me these flip-flops that I've wanted ever since she came to school wearing them. I actually went to the market to buy them, but I didn't because they wouldn't give them to me for the same price they gave her. So she went and bought them for me and surprised me today with them. Really I was so humbled by her gifts.

Gideon also had an ice cream cake delivered to Logos today so I could celebrate with my students. Gideon came in singing Happy Birthday and they all just stared at him. I hadn't told them it was my birthday. After eating the cake Odom, the one sitting next to me in the following picture says, " How many are you?" I respond, " I'm 26 today." He continues, " Oh.... You are long." "No I'm Old."

The kids loved the ice cream, but in Pre-K3 there are always consequences to giving the students ice cream. We just played the rest of the morning, and I won't go into the details of the other consequence that happened after nap-time.

It just seemed like the celebrations went on all day. Our landlords remembered my birthday and gave me a beautiful hand-made purse. Today Logos Lightening elementary soccer team had a game and it was our first non-loss of the year ( We Tied) !!! Yay Team!!! What an exciting day. During our stretches my team broke out into Happy Birthday. They did this all on their own with out the prompt of Mr. Walker. Also Gideon's 5th grade girls made me a huge happy birthday poster, and each signed it with a thoughtful note!

Thank You God for family,friends and students that made my day special!

Khmer New Year Whirl-Wind Break!

Hey all!

WOW! Does anyone else find it funny that sometimes it seems like you are more busy when you are on VACATION, than when you are working! IT'S CRAZY! This week Kristy and I have been on Khmer New Year Break! (Don't ask me what year it is! I'm still trying to figure it out since we had Western New Year in January, Chinese New Year in February, and now Khmer New Year in April! I think that puts us two years ahead... so 2013? IDK?) I am trying to figure out a way to get a couple more birthdays out of the deal though... but don't tell Kristy. Got any ideas?

Okay... enough rambling about the year... on with the good stuff!

Well... look at that... I guess it will be tough for me to get much better than that! That picture is some GOOD stuff. I mean really.... that guy is a stud! Soooooo good looking! What REALLY could be better than that? Okay... well... Humm... I conceed. She always has to one-up me! Oh well... at least since she is my wife it makes me good too! Soooo pretty!

AS FOR OUR BREAK --- :) We decided to go to a province town called "Sihanouk Ville", which is VERY popular for it's BEAUTIFUL beaches, and diverse choice of ethnic foods! We, however, went for the relaxation! We arrived by bus (which is insane, by the way!) on Saturday, and checked into our hotel --- The Orchidee --- If you can figure out how to say it correctly, you are already ahead of me! After settling in, we took a walk to the beach! Here are a few photos!

I loved the Ocean! It was soooo clean!

Kristy had a great time!

And for those of you who know me well... you will be surprised to hear, but I actually RELAXED on the beach for nearly 4 hours! Here are a couple of photos. I did ask Kristy what time it was like 20 times, but I did GREAT!

That is one of Kristy's feet and one of my feet! So... proof that I was there and relaxed, for all you DOUBTERS!

The beach was great, but another one of the best parts of this trip was FINALLY getting to eat Mexican food again! It was AMAZING!

We spent four days in Sihanouk Ville, just eating, relaxing and kickin it on the beach. I actually got to read a book for fun! Kristy got a sunburn, but still says it was worth it. We took a HIKE along a rocky part of the shoreline. It was HOT!!!, but sooo beautiful! Take a look....

The last day there, we had food delivered to our hotel room, and just watched movies together all day. It was so awesome just spending quality time together! WE NEEDED IT! I recommend it for EVERY couple! We finally arrived home late Tuesday evening tired and ready for some more relaxation. However, our landlords had other plans in mind. The told us that we needed to move up to our new floor THE NEXT DAY! AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!

The next day proved to be extremely less relaxed! We moved everything from our 1st floor to the 3rd floor! That night we spent unpacking and settling in. We did not end up going to bed till after 10 p.m. (that is really late for us here!) Here are some pics of our new apartment!

Our new HUGE kitchen!

Our ridiculously LONG hallway! (anybody else love RITZ crackers?)

Our new bedroom!

Our NEW living room!

Our NEW balcony!

After a couple days of settling in when were finally able to get caught up on school stuff and errands. We are really happy about our new place, because it is WAY cooler! There is a lot of wind that comes through the windows! Praise God! It has been a great break and although it sounds WEIRD, we are ready to get back to our kiddos! (students that is.... not our own children!

Finally, possibly the craziest thing about Khmer New Year is the fact that it marks that we have ONLY seven weeks until we jump on a plane for the States. We are getting really excited to see everyone! However, I am not going to lie about the fact that we might be equally excited to finally eat normal food! (okay... maybe seeing everyone is a little more!) We are sad that our first year is almost over, but excited to see family again!

Please Pray that we: 1. continue to draw close to God together 2. continue to draw closer together 3. gain more opportunities to witness to our landlords and our students 4. trust in God's provision in our finances 5. help God bring the Kingdom of Cambodia to Him! 6. Get enough rest!

Please Praise God for: 1. His provisions for us so far! 2. Him creating opportunities for us to minister to others. 3. We have made incredible relationships with new people. 4. Our new apartment! 5. A great time of relaxation!

Cultural Day at Phnom Penh University

This last weekend we got a chance to go with our landlords, Sotheare and Onn, to their place of work. They both teach English and the Phnom Penh University. The part of their school is called Institute of Foreign Languages. The IFL hosted a Cultural Day where each department ie. French Department, English Department, Japanesse Dapartment etc. performed some dances from that culture. We had everything from traditional to hip hop. After the performance was over at 11 am we ate lunch with our landlords and joined them in learning some traditional Khmer dances. The University hired a band to stay until 6 pm. Our landlords, Gideon and I were completely worn out after 2 hours of dancing and only stayed until 2pm. This cultural day was to start off the celebration of Khmer New Year. Next week we are on holiday for a full week for the new year. We had a blast with our landlords learning to dance even though we were hot and sweaty the whole time. Please enjoy some pictures of our exciting day!

Traditional Cambodian Dance

These tents are what they use for weddings too. Don't you think they are so beautiful.;)

Cambodian Boxing

Gideon got tired of trying to do the traditional dance and he broke out his hip hop moves!

They dance a lot with their hands, and move their legs and feet a little bit. They also do line dances.

This was the students from the French Department.

Money Offering Dance- they were raising money for the soldiers who are fighting at the border between here and Thailand. The dispute is over who owns a certain temple.

This video is for Carol and my middle school girls at ROL. It is the Hannah Montana dance performed by Cambodian College Students. I just thought it was amusing!

Seven Things

Megan, I'm finally posting my seven things for the blog award you passed on to us. I'm not really sure either what it means to get a blog award. I'm going to take a little spin on it and instead of posting 7 things about me I'm going to post 7 things we've done or just experiences we've had over the month of March. Here it goes!

1. For 3 out of the 4 weeks in March we alternated being sick and taking care of each other. We still managed to make it to school every day. Needless to say our morning work-outs have been effected by this and who knows if we will ever recover. We are enjoying not waking up as early.

2. Gideon's B-Ball team played their first game of the season. The game was a bit stacked. The other team were giants. There were only 2 guys smaller than Gideon's tallest player. His team only made one basket, but they had fun and that is what counts.

3. It is supposed to be hot and dry season here, but it has been raining in the nights and we've been having cool breezes during the day. It feels like Cambodian winter, a low of 75 degrees. We finally bought a flat sheet for our bed. We had been using a blanket that we brought over with us, but now the whether has been so nice we have been getting cold with just our sheet at night.

4. I've been spider hunting twice this month. Our apartment builds up spiderwebs on the tall ceilings quite often. So I have to get a PVC pipe and tie it to our broom. I try to kill all the spiders while I'm tearing up their webs, but I know some escape. I'm always so itchy afterwards. You never know if a spider has crawled down a web and landed in your hair. We did find a big hairy spider in our apartment in October the size of a tennis ball, but we haven't seen once since then.

5. We have discovered I have a fear of Cambodian cows. I've never been afraid of cows before, but these ones in Cambodia seem like they are out to get me. Especially the ones with the horns. We've been told if maneuvering either on foot, bicycle or moto through a heard of cows it is best to go where they have been instead of where they are going. Well where are you suppose to go if the Cambodian man is herding them straight towards you. You think they would want to avoid you, but no they just keep getting closer and closer. Some day I'll be writing a story about how I got head-butted by a Cambodian cow.

6. We have been following March Madness. Gideon always fills out a bracket, but this year was my first time ever. We are now waiting for the Final Four to play, because if Butler wins I will be the owner of the first place bracket. The whole Walker side of the family filled out a bracket, even our 3 month year old niece. If I win I don't get any money, but its still fun that I had no idea what I was doing and I could possibly win it all because of one team.

7. One of the roads on the way to our house is getting paved. The process started this month. Cambodians paving strategies are so interesting. So far it hasn't effected us getting to and from our house, but for some reason they start in the middle of the road instead of starting at one end and working their way to the other. Our landlord told us they are starting in the middle because the King's son own land in the middle and his area of the road needs to be done first. Oh and this last month they just put street lights along one the main road close to our house. It makes night driving much more pleasant. Our moto light is not that powerful.

I am passing this blog award to Cynthia and Tim @ Asian Blend

I know... I'm lame!

So, I know that Kristy is usually the one you hear from, and are probably thinking that I am totally lame for making her do all the posts, but I thought I would pipe in this time, and give you some of my thoughts. I'm not nearly as exciting as Kristy with awesome pictures and funny stories, but hopefully my thoughts will provide just one more blessing in your day!

Okay... so no that I have babbled on.. here is what I think... I know.. you are really excited... and you should be.... lol......

First, I am not lame! I am REALLY cool! Just ask my 5th graders! So, those of you who agreed with the statement earlier... I stick my tongue out at you!

Second, God is awesome! It seems like he is teaching us something new every week, while at the same time giving us opportunities to minister everywhere we turn. I am REALLY proud of Kristy, because, unlike me, she has done a lot better job of learning those lessons from God and taking full advantage of those ministry opportunities. I unfortunately seem to be fighting God every second and thinking too much about all the "chores" I have to get done! However, bare with me a little, I am working on it! God definitely knew what he was doing when he gave me Kristy! Its funny, I thought God was giving her to me, to take care of her. However, it seems more like God really gave her to me, to take care of me! BUT THERE IS NO WAY I WILL EVERY ADMIT THAT TO ANYONE!!! Oh... and don;t tell Kristy!

Currently, Kristy feels like God is teaching her about how our life now affects our eternal lives in heaven. She is really focusing on how important it is to "set you mind on treasure in heaven, not on treasures of this world". Moreover, how important it is to REALLY live for God every single second of every day!

As for me... God is really asking me to focus on one verse: 2 Cor.10:5 - We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. I have read this many many time before, and really skipped over it. However, for the past two weeks God has brought me back to this verse. I keep asking myself, "What would it look like if I made every one of my thoughts captive to Christ?". What if? Humm...

Well.. more on that later.... I don't yet know what God is telling me, but hopefully, I will figure it out soon!

Third, Cambodia life is.... humm... the best way to put it is different. I know that sounds completely stupid and is common sense, but really. Life here is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. However, God is really teaching Kristy and I something amazing through this idea of life being different. When we first got here we REALLY felt like we had to trust God more, because everything was different and new. However, now after 8 or so months, things have changed. Now don't get me wrong, we don't live in the comforts we used to, but we do have our routines, favorite restaurants, friends and work. And just last night we were talking about how we don't feel like we are having to trust God as much anymore. The more we talked about it, the more we felt God trying to tell us that trusting Him SHOULD not be based on experiences. Trusting Him should be based on our love for Him wherever we are at! Moreover, it is a daily decision we have to make in both the comfortable times and the times of struggles.

Talk about kick in the rear! We are still sore... he he! But really! Doesn't it seem rudimentary to be learning about trusting God!

It is getting hotter and hotter everyday here! April is the supposed to be the hottest month, and we are definitely a little nervous about it. Please pray that we can survive 24/7 sweating!

Forth, we would like to thank you for all your prayers for our landlords! This past week we have been having more opportunities to hang out with them than in the past. Last we Kristy invited them over for an "American Breakfast". I fried up some bacon, and then played computer games with one of the boys, while Kristy and Sotheary cooked french toast, eggs, and juices.It was really amazing watching Kirsty just talk with Sotheary! It was my first glimpse of relationship ministry! Praise God! Then, during the actual eating part, were able to just fellowship with them , and it was amazing! No agendas, no bias, no religious bickering, just wholesome fellowship! It was incredible. Today, we went over to give their sons a birthday gift (we have to buy both boys a gift or one will get sad) and the invited us to lunch next weekend and to a formal gathering at their work... Talk about God opening doors! Please continue to pray for them, that we can minister to them in a way that they cannot deny the love of Christ!


This is the whole meal! Obviously, it was difficult to keep the young one away from snacking! Even computers games didn't do it!


Kristy and Sotheary Cooking! Thank goodness I wasn't in the way! I was a little nervous, because they were chatting so much and not paying attention to the HOT!!!! food right next to them! I guess thats just the way of the WOMAN!


Kristy and Sopagna... They are sooo... scary!


Me and Sokvathana.... I know... I look scary!


The whole crew eating! It was such a blessing to us!

Finally, School is GREAT!

My fifth graders are doing amazing, and it feels like the year if flying by! I cannot believe it is already March! We have less than 3 months left! Its crazy! We have our "Formal Testing" coming up in a couple of weeks, so they are getting a little bit nervous! But I am certain they will do great! For all of you who were curious about my guitar playing, I have been playing every once in awhile for our morning devotions and my kids LOVE it! It is awesome for me because I get to practice and not feel ashamed of how poor I am!

Kristy is enjoying her 3 almost 4 year-olds. She always has stories for me everyday. They are always funny! She does have her rough spots, but MAN she is a good teacher! She will never say it herself, but she is doing great! You would all be proud of her! I am a little worried though, that she may steal her two Chinese twin girls! They are precious, and she LOVES them ALOT! I will keep an eye on that! And Robin... don't get excited about grandkids just yet!

Kristy and I are both REALLY enjoying our coaching! She is MUCH TOUGHER now, and I think she likes it better! I'm no longer the mean one! We are the MEAN TEAM!!! LOL! Just kidding! Kristy is being more stern, and I think the team is better for it! They have a game this week, so we will see how it goes!

WE TOTALLY MISS ALL OF YOU AND CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU IN JUNE! HOWEVER, WE KNOW IT WILL BE HERE BEFORE WE KNOW IT!

Thank you so much for your support both financially and through prayers! We REALLY could not be here if it weren't for you guys! You have been a blessing to us beyond anything we can imagine! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Please continue to team with us! We need you more than we even know.

WE LOVE YOU AND THINK OF YOU DAILY!

Spring Fling

This last week was "Spring Fling" at Logos. It is kind of like a spirit week. Each day was designated as a certain dress up day. For the high schoolers they had special events every day at lunch that the different classes would compete in. Every body won prizes for the best dressed each day. Monday was mixed matched day, Tuesday was dress up like a character anywhere from cartoon to real life, Wednesday was crazy hair day, Thursday was dress like a family day, and Friday each grade picked a different theme. Above are some pictures of crazy hair day. We had a crazy hair parade in the morning for every class to show off their hair. Below are pictures of Pre-K3's pyjama day on Friday. Gideon protested crazy hair day because he said it was prejudice against those with out enough hair to make it crazy. It was sure nice to have a week of fun and excitement during our last week of our long 8 week stretch before our break this next week!

Our Lives As Elementary Coaches

Pictures of Gideon's Basketball Team in Practice. Look at all the running Mr. Walker makes them do!

This semester Gideon and I have both been coaching a sport. I have continued to coach 3rd-5th grade soccer and Gideon is coaching 3rd-5th grade basketball. We only practice or a have a game once a week. Basically the same kids are playing both soccer on Wednesdays and basketball on Thursdays with a few that only play one or the other.
For me this is my first year as a coach and it has been somewhat stressful at times. Sometimes the stress comes from the lack of communication between me and the upper grade coaches about who gets to use the field when, but mostly it comes from trying to engage and motivate these students into working hard with out them complaining. This is how a practice has usually gone .
We run three laps which takes a whole three minutes in which maybe 5 players run the whole time, even with me constantly encouraging them. After we run they are in dire need of a water break. I tell them they will get one after we stretch. Once it is time for a water break instead of filling up their water bottles and drinking they decide to play on the playground. Once I call them back on the field for the next drill they complain about not drinking their water yet. We all get gathered up so I can explain the next drill. We do the next drill which requires barely any running at all, but just because they have been standing out in the sun for 10 minutes of course they need a water break! At the beginning of last semester all they asked at practice was when are we going to scrimmage. At least now that question has subsided. At practice once we start scrimmaging they forget about the water they need and we scrimmage until the end of practice. Games are not much better. They all want to win. When we don't win they complain about the positions we placed them in, they are mean and discouraging to their teams mates, and by half time most of them are so exhausted they are walking to the ball instead of running. They want the reward of the win without putting in the hard work.
Last week, I went to watch one of Gideon's practices and the kids were engaged, listening, working hard, focused, and not complaining. Well, Gideon is a much tougher coach than I, and his kids that had been doing all the complaining had consequences of running more and doing more push ups than the others.
Gideon and I have a much different view of how elementary sports should look. I think elementary sports should be used as a time of exploration and encouragement. They should try all the sports and see which one they like or even if they like sports at all. At the same time they need to be encouraged to continue because playing a sport and getting exercise is healthy. I try to give all of my soccer players equal playing time. Gideon, he might put this a little different but, he sees this as a time to teach them what competitive sports really look like. It is about working hard, and if you are not willing to put in the effort then it means the coach will see that and will not play you as much. It is about learning to listen to the coach and know he/she has more experience. Its a time when they need to individually decide if they are willing to go through the hard work of getting in shape to continuing to push themselves to be a better athlete.
I don't think one of us is right and one of us is wrong.I think there needs to be a little give and take of both opinions. I have realized, after being stressed out at soccer games because I can't think with every student asking me to switch him/her to different position and refusing to take no for an answer; after being stressed out because after practicing proper throw ins the last 3 practices one of the students in the game says "Oh, I didn't know you have to keep both feet on the ground," that just encouraging them is not going to get their attention. So Gideon has started coaching me how to be a tough coach. It is hard for me. It doesn't come natural. This last practice I laid down some laws and now I just have to stick with them once game time comes around. If any of them ask me to switch them to a different position they are sitting out the rest of the game. At practice if any one decides to walk when we are doing our laps they have earned another lap around the field for the whole team!
Even though practice and games are pretty much chaos it has been a lot of fun. I enjoy getting to know and hang out with some of Gideon's 5th grade students. I did referee a game once and I vow never to do that again. I'm a horrible referee. We will see if I can succeed as a tough coach!