Week Four at Oxford

Dear loved ones,

It’s been one month now since returning from Cambodia, and 2 weeks since finishing the school. I am settling down here, and getting a clearer more informed picture of my future. I am and have committed to the project here, and I will honor that commitment. The earliest I would leave New Zealand is late July or Aug. The latest would be Dec. 2010. This is a good place to be all around. I am still working on my options for schooling in the upcoming terms but I’m waiting for all my options to come in to form a plan.

 So in the mean time here's some food for thought:

A cluttered mind means over-thinking, over-reacting, over-analyzing, over-worrying and over-committing…The more you give yourself permission not to do, the more you free yourself to live a God centred, abundant life.

If you could have only one pet for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

What element would you be (earth wind fire water) and why?

What is your favorite colour and why?

Thank you to everyone who has given me advice and a listening ear, these questions are fun and I'll give you the "deeper meaning" next week! 

The Cross Roads

Hey everyone, the engagement party is over for the 2nd Blythen girl. It was a great success and heaps of fun- it went all the way to 1 am and we woke up with 8 extra people around the house. (Mostly YWAM out-of-towners). It was wonderful to be a part of and I've spent my time catching up with good friends. It's been more listening to the traumas of YWAM Oakridge and just being thankful that I am no longer apart of that drama.

It's been good to put things into perspective and get some distance from your immediate surroundings, I've been asking heaps of advice from others and am just trying to make a solid decision. Whatever I do I'll submit it to God.

On a light note, grant and I went turkey shooting, I was 6 for 8 shots :), then a heap of us went clay bird shooting I wasn't so sharp. :) The weather has been picture perfect and it has a wonderful two weeks. I'll be back to Oxford come tuesday.
loves
laura

Happy Easter Everyone!

Hi friends and family, happy Easter to all. I hope this day finds you with heaps of chocolate bunnies, good company and the joy of your salvation. It's been so good to hear from family, and look forward to hearing more from you come the next few days. Love you all, God bless you where you are.

laura yemen

Northward Bound for Easter

It's over. I finished on Wednesday staff debrief, and it's finished for now. The Earthcare school will be up and running come next October along with the Backpackers DTS and the Cross Roads DTS. It's an exciting thing to know that the earthcare will continue on, even though the Blakelys will not be able to lead it come Oct.

My position as base staff has become a bit clearer, I'm looking forward to the opportunities at base to serve not only as grounds keeper, when needed I'll be able to work in the kitchen or hospitality. Also I'm excited to say that Courtney, a student from backpackers is coming back to take over the Kitchen from Alley, her and I will share a room come May in the Staff house! I'm so excited! We've become such good friends already. We've grounded tents, gone climbing and had a beach trip all in about a week! I'm so grateful she'll be on staff- for 2 years too.

This Tuesday I'm going up to the Blythens (family from Oakridge) and staying 2 weeks up that way to celebrate Easter and go to Leigh's Engagement party. (Leigh is their daughter who is engaged to an Oakridge staff!)

Lots of love, Happy Easter!
Laura Yemen

Earthcare NZ Debrief and Grad

It is FINISHED! I can't believe it but the Earthcare School finished on friday night with the student grad night. It was emotional and teary and we had about 70 people show up for it, which was really remarkable considering the size of our school. We had a presentation to give the next DTS last thursday, it went very well. It's been just wonderful to have some of the students and staff around from the the Backpackers and Cross roads DTS come back to base to help and visit us on our debrief week. I've been able to catch up with 3 backpacker staff and just have some awesome down time with them and with a local family that has really taken me in, and I am very grateful for.

The students all but leave tomorrow save one girl, who has malaria and has been in the hospital since thursday night. I'll be able to go and pick her up this  coming monday. I'll have debrief for three days and from there I really don't know. I don't know my place at the base, or how long I'm staying, I'm hoping I'll get some decent time to pray and seek God's next step and spend some time somewhere quiet. I'll be heading up north to visit the Blythen family again and just chill out. There is much more that has happened, but I haven't been able to record it fast enough.

This saturday I Hiked Mt. Oxford with some amazing people and we worshiped on the top and prayed for the town of Oxford and for one another. It was wonderful. The people here are really kind and have really made me feel welcome.

Love to you all
Laura Yemen

Along the Gulf of Thailand

This is my last blog before I return home to New Zealand. We have spend the week here in Sieouk Ville which is the ulitmate beach party town. We managed to get a hotel with air con, a swimming pool, hot water and telephones! Sheer luxury- we have been very spoiled.

Debrief has gone remarkably well. I am so grateful for all of the positive feedback that I have recieved from the students. It makes it all worth while to hear that not only have they grown but also that they see God working in their lives and see that there has been a huge difference in their thinking and relationship with God and with one another. It is safe to say that all of them are soaring here and are throughly enjoying themselves- it's been a ride and a half and I was ready to go home a week ago, my patients is all but dried up, however times of refreshing come in morning runs and sleeps by the pool and awesome devos on top of heaps of down time. It will be wonderful to go at least physically rested. :) We also took time last night to pray for our Khmer contact Seang, who is really devistated at our team leaving, he has invested a lot into our team and has worked so hard to make things run smoothly. It was great to hear God's next step for him.

The majority of the time has been spent looking for restaurants and places to swim and tan. :) We took a boat to 3 islands yesterday to swim snorkel and explore, it wasn't the best equiptment, but you get what you pay for, and we payed 13 US for the day- so not too many reasons to complain. Some of the girls and I are looking into massages and pedicures later today all in all a perfect wind up to a long but invaluble outreach in Cambodia. See you at Debrief in New Zealand! (With a day layover on the Gold coast- so hard to take!)

Love laura

Ratanak Kiri

It has been a while since my last blog, we spent the last week of February and the first week of March up in Ratanak Kiri. It is the most North Eastern part of Cambodia and borders Vietnam. We stayed with a Thai Christian contact who formerly worked with Whitecliff bible tranlators in amongst the villagers. It was such a beautiful place, but everywhere they were burning their forests- there was smoke always rising from a distance, it was so disheartening. So many forgien investors have stolen the villagers lands for rubber, cashew and palm oil plantations- which the land cannot withstand more that a few years because a lack of biodiveristy and a total devistaion of the ecosystem by a slash and burn method.

We had the privalege of staying 2 nights in a village collecting data and compiling information about 3 different villages and their new agroculture methods that had to be rapidly developed when a flood wiped out their upland rice crops and swept away there food from the previous year and their seed for the next harvest. The missionaries have come in with much forgien aid, but there is still a small yeild in contrast to the labor. We documented this all from both ours and the villagers stand points. Our team compiled an 11 pg report. I was very impressed with our team- not only to withstand some tough conditions in the village but also a challenging task of compiling and organizing data.

I got very sick in the village and was pretty sheepish to find out that it was caused by dehydration. But 4 days of rest and 8 days of diarrhea later I came right. We had two students take an additional 4 day tramp through the Cambodian outback along the Vietnamese border where they came face to face with illigal logging and forging of the land. It was a real eye opener in that area. We were just outside the town of Banlung and it felt like the wild west. The police were completely corrupt and though there was law, it was not upheld.
The Villagers are in constant fear of the spirits and are always making sacrifices to appeal them, the most tangelble spirit that is destroying them is greed. Please pray for justice in this land, there are a handful of christains scattered among the villages that are constantly being persicuted by fellow villagers, but they are so faithful to God and are sure of the power of his grace. It was so inspirational to see, our God gives life and vision and hope and a future.