So I¢¥ve been a little busy since I got home from the Race. Feeling called to opening a coffee establishment, I started researching and looking at how to start even before I got home. That has brought me back to Guatemala. I spent the last month learning about roasting coffee, making coffee finding coffee and just about any other coffee thing you can think of from Mike Roberts at Crossroads Cafe in Panajachel Guatemala. Im so glad I came down here and got firsthand experience with the time and attention I needed.

   So I¢¥ve finished up my time and am in Antigua for a few days before I head home. I was so happy to find out that there are June Racers here! So I¢¥m crashing on their couch until I head out. It¢¥s so good to see them and remember all the fun and craziness of this community life.

So what now? I have one more adventure in my bag of tricks before I stay stateside for a while. I¢¥ll be heading home in a few days to get things started for my coffee roastery (I¢¥m startnig out just as a roaster, then building up from there). Then I¢¥m coming BACK down to Guatemala and making a fantastic road trip up to the states picking up my coffee roaster on the way. Does the excitement ever end? One can only hope.

  So that¢¥s it for now. Hope everything is well out there. Please pray for me as I get things rolling that I will stay in the center of God's will and follow Him wherever He leads me. Peace.

   We have just returned from Cambodia and are getting ready to head off to China. This past month has been challenging and rewarding.

   I really enjoyed our ministry this month. It's been one of the few times where I felt like I fit really well into my work, getting to teach and fellowship with guys. I enjoyed being challenged by their questions and trying to help them understand more about the bible and this Jesus they have been hearing about.

  I struggled finding the balance of doing enough and being at peace with the amount of work I was doing.  I also got hit with realizing how close to the end this chapter in my life is.

    So tomorrow I fly off to China to finish the race (in a biblical and literal sense). I don't know what I'll find there. Please pray that we finish strong and bring ourselves safely home ready to continue the plans that God has in store for us.

 Note: Communication could be regular, slim, or none this month. Depending on where we are and what our contacts tell us, we might not be able to post blogs. With the olympics coming up in China next year, the government is keeping heavy tabs on groups of Americans coming in. Emails and websites have always been monitered by the government and will continue to be so. Just be careful when you send emails to loved ones here about words like God, Jesus, Church, freedom, democracy, etc.  I know you'll do well.

  In an attempt to prepare ourselve culturally for our brief stay in Vietnam, we decided to watch the ever popular film "Good Morning Vietnam". I went to one of the local reputable movie stores and procured ourselves a copy. We all got together to watch the movie and . . . it didn't work.

  So while being a bit unprepared for our visit, we ventured none the less into previously mentioned country. Our first evening brought us to a diner called the Black Cat having a motto that said, "Try the Big Cheese, We Dare you." Naturally, we dared.

It was the biggest burger I've ever seen. And one of the tastiest too.

Not to be discouraged from our previous movie watching fiasco, we once again attempted to watch that classic movie, "Good Morning Vietnam". I once again visited the local Vietnamese reputable movie store and purchased yet again a copy of afore mentioned movie. Once again, failure.

  Our tour guide (Annie) had several exciting options planned out for us. The first of which was a trip on the Mekong river.

   We got on these boats and traveled up the river visiting floating markets, tasting and buying and tasting again the most delicious coconut candy in the world (no added sugar), and taking a family bike ride on the local island.

   Our tour guide was a veteran in the war who was a communications officer with the U.S. Army. He thanked us for the help we gave, and gave us special little nods and looks the whole time. He also told me that I looked just like Ho Chi Minh, and should stay because I could make alot of money.

I'm the one with the hat on.

   Another Exciting site we visited was an area of tunnels (you know, tunnels?) that the Vietnamese used to hide from U.S. forces during the war. We all took a walk through. We all got claustraphobic. We all decided that we didn't really ever need to do that again.

   We also visited a water puppet show. We were told (by the water puppet show brochure) that if you didn't see the water puppet show in Vietnam, then you didn't see Vietnam. Well we wanted to see Vietnam, so we went.

   It was a very enjoyable time reminding me of my past puppet days.

  Just before we left, a few of us took a ride on the cyclos.

I somehow managed to get the oldest and most feeble driver of them all, but he pumped away and certainly held his own. We had a great conversation:

"What do you call poison of snake?"

"Snake poison?"

"Yes, what do you call it?"

"Venom?"

"Yes, that's it! I knew that was it!"

He told me he was an interragator during the war, but had been driving his cyclo for 30 years. Life goes on.

All in all it was a wonderful little trip. If you're ever in the area, I would suggest that you go.

  We are now into our second week of ministry in Cambodia, and I am loving it. I have really enjoyed the culture of Southeast Asia.

Right now our ministry is with students. We work with the Hope Education Center, a facility that provides inexpensive housing for university students while offering Jesus at the same time.

   We come in everynight and teach three areas (depending on how many students come): leadership, discipleship, and followup. Candice and I are in charge of discipleship. Since some of the people in the group are not Christians and have no experience with the word of God, we have decided to walk through the whole bible focusing on these principle: Man was created to have fellowship with God, sin separated that fellowship, God made plans to bring man back into perfect relationship with Him culminating in the birth, death, and ressurection of Jesus Christ.

  So we started at the beginning, a very good place to start. We've talked about Creation, the garde, man's sin, separation, Abraham and God's promise to him, and have just finished up talking about Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea and are ready to talk about their journey through the wilderness.

  When we were in Mozambique, we walked through the bible with the ZCC church in a matter of three days. This time we have three weeks to go into depth and give a better explination and answer questions along the way. I am very excited about this opportunity, but at the same time it is a little overwhelming. There is so much to share and so much I still don't understand that is is proving to be a challenging task.

In addition to telling the story of the bible, we give plenty time each lesson to fellowship with one another, learning about each others lives and what is going on with each person. We also give plenty of time for the students to ask questions. Here are some of my favorite questions so far:

"Why did God create man on the last day? Why not earlier?"

"Why can't we have friendship with animals like we do with God and talk to them?"

"Did Abraham think it was funny when Sarah laughed after being told she wold have a child?"

"What would have been  the purpose of Abraham sacrificing Isaac?"

"Why did Moses complain to God?"

   These are just some of the stumpers we've gotten so far. One thing that has been interesting has been thinking of the stories in the bible from the perspective of a Cambodian. For example, one student asked why did God promise Abraham a land where people were already living? Cambodia has been colonized, invaded and captured many times in not too distant history. I wonder in they remember how they were invaded and wonder why God would support such a thing for one of His people?

   I have enjoyed establishing relationships with the students here. Long term relationship is what I'm called to, not one visit nice to meet you kind of things. This has been and will continue to be an exciting month for me.

How can you pass up the best iced coffe in Phnom Penh? Also notice the sqveezed orange juice.

Playing what became known as "follow the voice of your leader". We used this as an example of Abraham following the voice of God.