23 Days Counting Down, Goodbye US

Are you ready to go back SOPHEA?

Ummmm what should I respond to this question?

Before, I was feeling that time was so slow but now I can't believe that time is flying so fast. Remaining 23days to see my families and friends back home but in the same time I will be so sad to say goodbye to the people I have met here. I am not sure if I would be able to see them again in my life, who know? I could still remember the 12nd August 2013 while I was traveling to adventure my life in this unknown country. To me it is just a really short moment or like a dream. It has been exciting and fun experiencing. Since I've been here, I've been learning and experiencing so many things that help me to grow spiritually and individually. I've learned to know myself and my relationship with God better.

The main challenge for me living in a different country is sometime I am not as always as happy as I am. When it comes to a weaken or stressful time, I really need to share someone my burden but I can't as they are so far away. However, I found a better solution to release those burden. When I have struggle I turn myself to seek for God's help. These bible verses have became my favorite and have helped me in the time that I have struggled and helped me to become stronger. Yes God really works within me through these verses. What a wonderful verses.

Proverb 3 5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight

Philippians 4:13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
 

Here are the things I fallen in love in Harrisonburg, Virginia:

1.  A good community I am very fortunate to be able to live in this lovely community. People are so nice and friendly. They care for the world, have positive attitude and always appreciate each other.
 
2. Respectful They respect each other by listening, sharing, caring, valuing. The thing that I admire them the most at this point is about traffic. They really are respect their traffic law.

3. Nature I live in a simple beautiful and refreshing place. Anytime when I wake up I could hear the sound of the stream back of my house, soft voice like a sweet song from birds , in front of the house I could see the beautiful mountains, wine yard at the right hand side of the house, a small flower garden and a small vegetables garden. I am enjoy picking the raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry and also enjoy seeing the wild animals such as deer, turtle, bird act.. These beautiful landscape have captured in my mind. 

4. Education System The quality of their education is great. I could tell through the children who are educated. They are very mature, brave, confident, creative, deep thought.

5. How parents raise children I love their ways. They have good way to discipline their children by not hurting them but explaining them to make they realize on what they do wrong. Spending time reading books for them so that they could have good habit in reading after they grow up act...

There is no any partying without ending. It is the reality of life and I have to accept. I am ready for you Cambodia. I am excited to feel hot or warm again and excite to taste the real Cambodian foods.

Seattle from the sky

Around the House

Study Tour with the IVEPERs

My love :D

Host Mom and Nora

Wonderful people in Seattle

IVEP Rock

Richmond Salt Water Beach

Strong like these rocks

On the Cloud

Another Beach in Seattle

First Orientation at MCC Akron

Oh God Your Creation is Beauuuuu-tifullll!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Since the day that I arrived in Virginia till now, I experienced summer, autumn, winter and spring. The seasons has come and gone but, do you know what, winter seem to be the longest season. It's a good welcome for me :-).  Now that winter has left and spring is here to stay, I'm so glad that I made it this far. I really enjoy the beauty of spring and how the flowers blossom, especially since I love flowers ;-). Everywhere the fresh and beautiful combination of colors: green, red, purple, yellow, white and pink.  And I think to myself, "Oh God, your creation is so beautiful and how I can't praise you enough for this. You are so awesome. You created this beautiful world for us." 

"Winter + Snow= No more :)" --------> "Spring+Rain= Flowers"

Cheery Blossom Festival at W.DC

This flower named Red-bud but I named  it Purple-bud

Double rainbows

Only two and half months left to enjoy my time here in this beautiful country. It's amazing how time flies and winter is over. I am so excited and looking forward to going back home. But at the same time, I'm sad to leave this beautiful country. I am so thankful that I could meet and connect to some wonderful people. Such as my host family, my east coast IVEP coordinator, supervisor at Gift and Thrift, coworkers, and my IVEP's friends. It's such a sweet community and sweet experience for me. They gave me joy, hear me in my happy and sad time, make me laugh and brought smiles to my face every day. I'm also thankful for all the circumstances that I faced. It has help me become stronger and put my faith in God. This year so far has been meaningful and a great highlight in my life.

February Midyear Conference

I attended the mid-year conference, which was held on 11-20th in February. It hosted in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada. The drive was 4 hours from Virginia to Pennsylvania and the next day was 10 hours by bus from Pennsylvania to Ottawa. It sounds like a long trip but I didn't think that it was long at all because we had so much fun on the way there. I thanks God that we finally reached our destination in the evening.  I got to meet the IVEPers that are working in Canada that I've never met before. We had 52 IVEPers from 25 countries plus 3 of MCC service workers from Germany gathered together at the conference. I had an awesome experience and one of the greatest since being in the State. I have good memories in my small group discussion. The lessons have stuck in my head till now. The first discussion was about how we see God in different churches. My understanding is that, people have different styles of connecting with God by praying, reading the bible or singing. In term of myself, I could connect to God by singing songs of praise. But here in the State, the church I attend they sing Hymnal songs.  The songs are slow and it was hard for me to adapt with the style since I don't know how to sing the songs. However, in our discussion we were encouraged to stay strong and learn to be open minded to connect to God in different situation. People always want to hear something good as it could make them feel happy. But sometime hearing bad thing could also strengthen our life. I was encouraged to hear the IVEPers share their experiences and difficulties. Before I used to think, it's probably only me that experienced difficulty. But it that's not true. I was not the only one that experienced difficulties. There are other people that share the same experiences. Other people also experiences hard time as me and we were able to encourage one another. The mid-year conference has strengthen me to continue my journey and look forward to serving "GOD". My favorite verse encourages me to remember, "I can do all thing because of Christ who give me strength."

Maple farm in Canada

I am ready for Skiing hehehe

Cambodians and Laotians IVEP

(from the left, friends from: Indonesia, Paraguay, Lao)

Canada Park