Coffee, confrences, conversations and Pho!

Hey all,

The last few weeks have had some fun goings on in regards to my trip...

I had coffee with an awesome gal from my church who together with her husband is a missionary on sabbatical from Phnom Penh. She had lots of fun stuff to share and is just a great women, it was fun to hear about the land, the people, the clothes, the food... it made it more real to me. I was encouraged and have getting even more excited:)

I attended my last SOT class on poverty alleviation, where the author of the book we read came and did a q&a, then also attended a conference/seminar that he did on the weekend. It was great to hear a holistic, gospel oriented take on poverty alleviation and to also ask questions and specifics.

And lastly, I've been able to get to know some of my teammates a bit more. A few of us went for Pho (which is a Vietnamese noodle soup). Which was fun since we'll be spending a bit of time in Vietnam at the end of our trip. We also met up again last week for more American food (burgers, fries, beer), and some of us sat together at the weekend seminar. It's been fun to hear peoples stories: to see where God has brought them from, where He is leading them, why they are following and how He is being glorified. I look forward to getting to know them more.

It's been a good few weeks of getting excited about the trip... the only downer was that I have not raised as much support as I'd have liked to at this point. When I realized this my first inkling was to feel frustrated and then start "getting to work" to "make it happen" by writing all the right letters, calling all the right people and spending all my time focusing on that... but after sitting down and trying to "figure it out" I feel convicted to stop and to pray and ask God to bring the money...to listen to how He wants to do that and to respond and to give Him all the glory when He provides.

Thanks everyone for reading and for praying. Please continue to pray that I would see and respond with praise as God continues teaching me, growing me, using me and providing for me. Pray for continued learning, bonding with my team, Christ's heart for my teammates and the people we will meet on our trip and for finances for the trip to come in for myself and the rest of the team.

Feel free to give me a shout if you want to hear more about the trip, more specific prayer requests, etc. If You are interested in supporting me financially here's some info on how you can contribute:

You can give online using our churches secure online giving link at: https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=2fa9cd
Please be sure to put: “Cambodia Trip 2010- Jen Taylor” in the “comments” box.

Or

Checks can be sent: made payable to Imago Dei Community with “Cambodia Trip-2010-Jen Taylor” written in the memo line.
Checks can be mailed to:
Attn: Terry Showman
Imago Dei Community
2830 NE Flanders
Portland, OR 97232
(503) 231-5096

love & shalom...
jen