Welcome! I'll be using this blog to update y'all with what I am doing in Cambodia interning with Samaritans Purse.

To begin with, I never thought I would be in Cambodia (thanks to some of my past life experiences-a whole 23 years-of quick twists and turns, I have learned that its best to expectantly say yes to whatever God opens for me). Not because I didn't want to come here, but much to my embarrassment, I knew only a few select points about Cambodia:
1. That it was in South Asia-which meant it had tropical fruits and probably sweet potatoes
2. That human trafficking was a major problem.
3. That YWAM often sends teams to do outreaches there.But after extensively reading the old school travel book that my mom bought me (of which I am SO GRATEFUL FOR-thanks Mom), and now that I've been here for a few days, I wish I had known more about this alluring country.

I'm working out of the capital Phnom Penh-a chaotic, fast-paced city full of locals, foreigners, smells, sights, and sounds 24 hours a day. Every time I leave my apartment I swear I'll meet my death from getting hit by a motorbike. Eventually, I'm going to have to cross a major street to get to work, and I am TERRIFIED just looking at it. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, I'll stick to taking a tuk tuk.Even though I'm based out of the capital, I'll get to travel to different provinces to meet with the staff doing work there. I'm excited to see more rural parts of Cambodia as opposed to the busy capital!

The program I am working with is a prevention and protection program against labor trafficking. This is necessary because labor trafficking is a major concern in Cambodia. Individuals leave their home in hopes of finding work, and they usually meet a disguised trafficker who convinces them of work in another country, mostly Thailand, of which they cross into illegally- and sometimes unknowingly. They are then exploited for their labor by working insane hours, not receiving any/or adequate pay, not being able to escape, working very hard manual labor without breaks, etc. Furthermore, they face both mental and physical abuse, debt-bondage, guilt, and forced drug abuse. If they are lucky and manage to escape, they sometimes return unrecognizable to their families, and they are vulnerable to re-victimization. Here is a good article of this in reality: To Stop Trafficking, Equip the Vulnerable

My boss says over and over again, "prevention is key." It isn't the "glamorous" part of anti-trafficking, its not busting down doors to get men out of fishing vessels, or women out of brothels (which also needs to be done), but it is working towards preventing those individuals from needing to be rescued because they are equipped to say no in the first place. It is educating men and women, girls and boys, on how to control their freedom instead of having their freedom controlled by a trafficker.So I've been assigned with two projects to help with thus far, and a lot of readings to get me up to date on trafficking realities and laws present in Cambodia as well as familiarizing myself with what work has been done, and is being done here.

Something else that I did this week was visit Tuol Sleng-a school-turned prison that was used to detain, torture, and kill an estimated of 22,000 victims during the Khmer Rouge. Essentially from 1975-1979 a brutal genocide took place that targeted ethnic Khmers (the largest people group in Cambodia). 3 million people died.Once again, this is something I was ashamed that I did not know too much about. The aftermath runs deep for many Cambodians, and surely still affects many of them presently. It was so important to the office here that I understood what happened, that they sponsored me to go visit the school which is now a genocide museum during work hours. It is essential for the future of Cambodia.I can sit here and try to explain what I felt as I walked in and out of the classrooms, or try to explain how I was too scared to walk into certain parts of the museum out of fear of not knowing how my heart would respond, or I could attempt to explain why its important that people know about it, but I think that is self-explanatory. Instead, I ask that you take some time to look it up. Learn about it, allow compassion to grow within you, ask God how this can shape your heart or simply give it to him and see what he does with it.

Sorry to end on such a negative note, but thank you for reading this far down! Check out the right hand corner as I have listed prayer requests, and come back soon for more updates!