#asiashope

[jocelynnicolas-blog]

Returning to our Home Away from Home

It has been almost exactly one year since Aaron and I moved back to the United States, upon the conclusion of living in Battambang, Cambodia for a year. 

Currently we have the privilege of leading a team from Crossroads on its bi-annual visit to the Asia’s Hope Battambang Homes that Crossroads supports. And thus for the past week we have spent lovely days full of laughter, games and fun with our homes: BB3 & BB7. 

I had no idea what to expect upon this return. I was hoping that I would not be an emotional wreck while trying to navigate a team of people through the Cambodian culture, due to not wanting to embarrass myself. But more than anything, I didn’t know what to expect, or how to prepare.

What I am finding is that, in my experience, there seems to be an emotional progression in one’s relationship with the children and staff of Asia’s Hope. And I am also finding that the limits of my heart are able to extend far beyond what I thought it capable of. 

In the beginning, I feel that we all start feeling rather overwhelmed. Even over lunch today, while chatting with our team, I teared up again while talking about how the Asia’s Hope campuses in Cambodia will always seem to me to be a slice of Heaven. There are so many glimpses of the Kingdom of Heaven sprinkled throughout the homes and lives of the individuals at Asia’s Hope. A value of relationships over materialism, testimonies of redemption and resilience, and a true hunger and passion for the Lord. Compared to the culture that many of us come from, the beauty of these things can come as a shock! And send many of us reeling as we return home, determined to figure out what our role might be in the work the Lord is doing in this country and in the lives of these children. 

And then, after visiting a few times, one’s joy begins to change, but continues to grow. As I have come to understand the culture better, build friendships and increase my ability to communicate, my emotions have begun to be stirred by bringing others over, and watching the Lord continue to build his Kingdom as I watch the same convictions I have felt rise up in other people. I am moved as I watch the diverse body of Christ gather from different countries around the world in a unified purpose and call; people rising up from different backgrounds and perspectives, brought together through a love and friendship with these incredible children and people. 

And finally now, upon returning, I have found myself largely calm and at peace. Thankfully, I have not been laid out by any emotional meltdowns (yet!), but rather the sites, the sounds, the smells, the friendships, the foods, the children... they all seem so welcoming, and so much like home. More than any other feeling, I have felt a relief. A relief to be back in a place that I love, with people that I would give anything for. I feel safe, happy. I feel at home. 

But that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been surprises... I don’t think I will ever cease to be surprised, moved and amazed at how our children are growing, of the places they are going, of the dreams that they have, of the grades they have skipped, of being number 1 in their class. I will never cease to be in awe at how the campus continues to expand, of the prayers that continue to become realities before all of our eyes. I will never cease to be humbled to realize over and over again that I have the privilege of standing in the middle of a place in which the Lord is working, a place in which lives are being changed, a place overflowing in hope. 

I’ve returned to my home away from home, and my heart truly could not be any happier. 

Yet already, I am realizing that we will be leaving soon. But I am so thankful to see how the Lord is also at work in my life, carving out my plan before me, and confirming in my heart the role that I get to play in his awesome plan, alongside my family in Christ in Cambodia. 

[jocelynnicolas-blog]

Several years ago, even before Aaron and I spent our year in Cambodia, we worked on a project we called "The Whispers Project," where we partnered with the children from Asia's Hope's BB3 & BB7 homes to write original music. The children from these homes had always been very musical, and we wanted to push them to try to create music, rather than just perform and play other people's music. 

We ended up working with them long distance to build a framework for a few songs, and then recorded 3 songs during a short visit in the summer of 2012.

Fast forward to 2013-14, we had the privilege to do life alongside these children for a year as their English and Music teachers. We realized that in the Khmer culture, creativity is not as intrinsic of a value as it is in American culture and education, whether it be in music, creative writing, innovation - you name it! And our desire to fuel their creativity and independent-thinking only increased through this time. 

When it came our time to leave this past August, we left behind a music program, with a new - and very talented - Khmer teacher in place so that musical training could remain a part of the children's ongoing education and extracurricular activities. 

The past few weeks, a team from Crossroads has been visiting our children, and we have seen - now from the other side of the screen - various videos and photos of the children performing and learning music. 

It has been so exciting to see our students continuing to learn, and getting better, as well as new students who are competent in instruments we never even started them on! And might I add more girls, playing instruments somewhat unconventional for females in that culture - such as drums and guitar. 

It blesses my spirit immensely to think that we have had the opportunity to be a part of these children's musical journey, and to see the commitment from both the children and their new teacher to continue to learn and enjoy their instruments and bands. 

The specific video posted above is one of the songs the children wrote and recorded back in 2012. They have always liked the song, but each time we get to see them perform it, they add a little something extra, and this time, it is a fully fledged band that they put together themselves. 

I am so proud.

[addisonives]

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

Even after 3 days and 24 hours of flying on my way back to the US — ample time, you’d think, to reflect on some of my experiences in Cambodia — it’s hard to put into words the thoughts and emotions one experiences when visiting a place like this. You’d think that a place where, in the space of only 4 years between 1975 and 1979, an estimated 20,000 men, women, and children, were tortured, interrogated, and executed by the Khmer Rouge, would be more physically imposing. It fact, it’s just the opposite. This place was once a school. And it looks just like any typical Cambodian school building.  

The pictures in these two posts from Tuol Sleng should give you some sense of this story: a story that has been relegated to a footnote in many US textbooks. (Even despite the essential role our country played in weakening Cambodia’s central government and setting the scene for this massacre by secretly bombing villages and killing, according to CIA estimates, nearly 230,000 civilians in a failed bid to root out the VietCong from the border territories). In the four years that the Khmer Rouge controlled Cambodia, a population of 8 million people was reduced, through torture, execution, forced labor, starvation and disease, by 25-50%. In essence the entire country was turned into a concentration camp: those who weren’t either guards or prisoners, became refugees, living in overcrowd refugee camps in Thailand and Vietnam. 

This history is also the beginning of the orphan crises in Cambodia. Walking through the galleries of Tuol Sleng, I can’t help but look at the pictures of men, women, and children, and see the faces the children and staff of Asia’s Hope in Cambodia. I think about the hell-on-earth that was Cambodia during those 5 short years; I think about the countless mothers and fathers that were killed; I think about how these events set the stage for Cambodia’s present — the poverty, the gap between the rich and the poor; I also think of the hellish futures that awaited many Asia’s Hope children before our staff took them in as their own. Mostly, I think about how the mothers and fathers of our homes in Cambodia, many of whom were themselves orphaned (in many cases as a direct result of the Khmer Rouge takeover), have taken it upon themselves to become mothers and fathers to orphaned children.

This final thought gives me hope: the thought that a group of people have decided to redeem this story by caring for and loving individual orphaned kids. They’re not investing in utopian social experiments — they’re starting with individuals. So, despite the tragic weight of the past and enormity of the problems defining Cambodia’s present, I’m reminded of the beautiful kids at Asia’s Hope in Cambodia, and how, in the face of their own individual tragedies, they’re living happy childhoods, graduating high school and university, taking their first jobs. Many of them are even thinking about how they can give back by serving the impoverished, the disadvantaged, the marginalized, the orphaned. It's these kids who are Asia's Hope.

These kids are awesome.

[addisonives]

Kalimpong, India. 

2 days of travel behind me, it's time to meet the kids and staff of our Asia's Hope homes in Kalimpong. Finally, I can meet the people that I see so often in photos and hear about through my correspondence with Nandu.

Demonstrating true Indian hospitality and class, the kids and staff have worked extremely hard, preparing a program of music, dance, and drama. This is not your standard 30 minute - 1 hour affair. There is a full 2 page itinerary for this production. In other words, 4 hours of performance with a break for lunch with the everyone in between. This is awesome.

The kids are beautiful. The staff are world class.

More to come later. 

[addisonives]

Columbus —> Delhi

18 hours. 4 flights. With the majority of our travel behind us, there's not much for to say so far except, "we made it!" In reality, the adventure is just beginning. 

A few hours from now (it's currently 6am here in Delhi) we will be catching yet another flight -- this time to Siliguri. From there, a serpentine drive up into the foothills of the Himalayas will bring us to Kalimpong, the home of Asia's Hope in India. 

Missing them already.

This is Jared: you can follow his blog here. http://jphever.tumblr.com/

430am: Sunrise in Delhi. I'm liking India already.

The Hotel Classic Diplomat did not disappoint. 

The very accommodating concierge (did I just catch a whiff of L'Air de Panache?) tells me that breakfast is served at 7am. That means my work here is done. Curry is calling.