Kassie's Blog

Flighting back to Cambodia...

2009-01-31T21:04:00.000-08:00

So I am currently in a Bangkok Hotel room wait for a flight out as I miss my flight yesterday... by less then 5 minutes - long story. Anyway God is good, I am flying out today and am looking forward to returning back to Cambodia.

below is me enjoying a thai salad I made at a cooking class I attended

Ministry has Begin for Heartland Thailand

2009-01-24T22:32:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we return visit the Lahu tribes that we had visited early to find people that are poor and don't have warm cloths, we met some of those people - two lady's and had the opportunity to pray for healing for both of them. God has just begun in this nation...

Undate from Thailand

2009-01-21T01:28:00.001-08:00

Heartland Thailand has begun, we have done many things in order to build a strong foundation for God to move in the nation (I am very excited about the future of this work) to date we have made contacts with Chiefs from Lahu tribes about working in their areas, they are looking for major needs in their villages. Last Friday night Pastor Eliah preached at a youth meeting, he shared how God has made us more than conquerors. It was amazing to see him preach in his own language (his face was glowing) he was so happy.

We have also found a house, praise God for answering prayers it is a great place and they are very happy with there new home. (see the below picture)

I love how God does those little thing in our life that you end up seeing to be such a awesome blessing, Pastor Eliah and Jit are experiencing allot of first moments in the life right now (for example... the first time they are living in their our home as a family) and it is quit a huge thing what is happening here... for many years they have lived with other people and have always had friends around them - so how amazing is God that he has sent them to live in a place called Phran Mit, which translates to mean Friendship Village and already they have met with people in the area to pray with them, soon they will start a home cell. Please keep them in your prays.

Its a new day...

2009-01-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year

It is 2009 even in Cambodia, Heartland Cambodia enjoyed seeing the NY in - we danced, prayed and worshiped all night long. View the photos below...

It is a new day for Heartland International - as you may already know Heartland is beginning and new work in Thailand, this week on Thursday - myself and the newly appointed National Chairmans of Heartland Thailand will leave Cambodia and travel to Chiang Rai. Please keep us in your prays, as we travel and begin to work in this area (see below picture - a map of Chiang Rai)

Stay turned in for updates from Thailand...

Cambodia won this one... but I am still standing strong

2008-12-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

Cambodia can be a really humorous place to live; things that seem simple or are a small problem often turn out to be catastrophic here. When these times arise we say, “Cambodia wins again…” This week I feel like I have had many of these times, don’t get me wrong we have all had a get Christmas and yes of course we have miss our families and friend heaps. It just that there seem to have been many moments when we’ve said Cambodia win again… For example… the main ones all relate to the trip me a Steph went on to Phnom Penh (photo on the right: me and Steph in our matching MooMoo's) – Our purpose was to renew her visa (so she can legally stay in this country) in the bus on the way to Phnom Penh I got very sick and I was sick for most the time we were there, At one point I was feeling good, so I headed out on an adventure by myself to the markets everything was fine until I begin to feel very weak because of the little food I had eaten –so off I went to a western food place (thinking I should eat something that I know) but I’m in Cambodia who know what will happen. I went to pizza place and o chose salad and spinage pasta – but the waiter brought out Seafood pasta, so you could image what I was thinking (when he gave it to me it was like “OH well we made the wrong thing, you can just eat this…”) and I know this sounds stupid to you all but you need to understand I was hungry, tired and really just didn’t want to make a fuss so I tried to eat what I could they then charged me more for my meal, cause it was seafood… Cambodia wins again… Steph was told that she could get her visa renewed over night, but it was actually finished two hours after we had to leave to come home – so she has been separated from the passport which is not the nicest feeling in a 3rd world country, the last day in Phnom Penh – I was still not feeling great and in a moment of delusion, I left my mobile on the tuk tuk – just prior to this I received an sms from a beautiful friend back home say… she was praying you. (I love you Candace – keep praying) we tried to get it back but… Cambodia wins again… so at the moment I don’t have a phone, but I will have to by a new and try to get a new sim card with the same number (this may take a few days) although even when I do get a phone again I have no-one phone number so if you can all email me at kassie_rassie@hotmail.com your number I will get in touch as soon a “Cambodian possible”

Cambodia may have won this one but I don’t intend on give up with out a fight…

(below photo - is me in a pretty shirt my mummy sent me)

"Thanks Mum..."

2008-12-22T22:23:00.000-08:00

So it seems that I have found it quite hard to stop longer enough to send an update and that is because the past 3 week have been the most hectic time of my trip, additionally the most inspirational. I have felt God so much in the past few weeks, He has started to speak and share more of His heart for this nation and the nations then I have ever really seen, but not in a super-spiro way – in a down to earth practical way and I really fell as through God has revealed to me the what I can do to help Heartland.

But before I continue here is a brief update of major events from the past few weeks, starting the Heartland Impact Team that recently visited us here; you are all fantastic people and was truly amazing help to us here and I just want to say thank-you to all the awesome people that blessed me and inspired me.

While the team was here we had some church growth and His name is Raffa, the son of the new senior pastors (Channa and Simmy) He is the most gorgeous thing ever...

(see below photo)

During the past few week my Hospitality Student have been gaining allot of experience in Customer Serve, I have seen great improvement in there confidence and ability to speak English with customers while taking the orders, we have also had many comments about the taste and quality of the coffees that the girl are making. Last week I have some customer that had travelled though-out South East Asia that said, that our coffee’s where the best that they had seen or tasted. This made me very happy and proud of my girl.

This past weekend was a landmark moment for Heartland International; it was the hand over in leadership from Pastor Elijah to Pastor Channa. The reason for this is that Pastor Elijah and his wife Jit are return to the homeland (Thailand) after working here for the past 4.5 years as the Senior Pastor and have started this work here, so with their return they will set up Heartland Thailand. I will be joining them in Thailand for a few weeks to help them in any way possible as they set-up Heartland Thailand.

Pastor Ejliah and Family

2008-12-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

The beginning of something new...

So... during the past two week I’ve had the awesome opportunity to start working with some young girl from a different NGO here. I am training them in hospitality skills; we have plans to open a coffee shop. The girls that I work with have gone through unbelievable family trauma and major personal distress often caused by poverty which resulted in the breakdown of these young girls quality of life. I believe that with opportunities like workplace training and development for these girls will consequently give them hope for future and leave countless choices in their hands, not in someone seeking to destroy their quality of life. Praise God for His word which clearly confirms to us that this is His purpose for all own lives (Jeremiah 29:11). Therefore I would like to encourage you to look past your current situation and ask God for help, because He is waiting for you to ask. (the photos below are of some coffee's the girls made)

The Latest From Cambodia...

2008-11-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

Alright, in the past week there has been one major new development for me. But first I'll fill you in on some of the general things, this week some of the people on the Heartland team have been sick - but Praise God are getting better day by day. Therefore there has been a few less hands on deck, I have taught English to about 100 students on my own without a translated in the class, which surprisingly was heaps of fun. I also filled my week with our regular outreach programs - Aids ward and Slum etc. One of my highlights was having a friend from home come a visit - for all that know her you'll recognize her beautiful face in the photo below,

She come for a visit on her days off from the SHE HOUSE - she bless me so much by coming to see me. She came to the Aids hospital with us the first day, on the second day we went a climbed the mountain near KC. Below are photos from that day.

- this is me getting up close and friendly with the monkeys -

- what a poser -

- the 217 steps we walked up to get to one of the mountains -

On the 3rd day, it was back to work for both of us, but now I am sure you are all waiting to hear what the new development is - well it was always in the cards but it is coming to pass at the moment, I will be working with another NGO part-time, in Training and development - with the goal to set up a coffee shop and also training the girls in Hospitality Skills, please keep this project in your prayers.

And please keep praying for finances.

2008-11-14T19:23:00.000-08:00

Alright week five of my time in Cambodia has meant a time to relax and do thing that I really enjoy, as there is a major festival which in known as the Water Festival and most the people in this nation travel to Phnom Phen where it is held, therefore we are on holidays also. For myself I have spent the first half of the week, exercising, chilling in my room with my books, bible and DVD’s. Although the last half of this week I went the same place as almost every other Cambodian I went to Phnom Phen, not with the same purpose as them I went with Narain who in head of the Community Care Projects for Heartland in Cambodia (she had a meeting with some people from another Province).

As you can imagine traffic was insane, there were people everywhere. (shown in photos above – and it was worst then it looks) Narain and I ended up stuck in a restaurant for around 3 hour because it was not safe in the crowd; people were pushing and shoving with NO consideration to anyone else and people got badly hurt.

(photo above – Me and Narain stuck in the restaurant)

Praise God we got home safely, apart from the moto burn on the inside of my leg.

A side note from all that is happening here in Cambodia for those that don’t know or just don’t realise Cambodia uses US currency, so as a result of the current market situation with the Australian dollar it has made life financial rather changeling for all NGO’s in particular volunteers like myself. The situation has gotten so bad for some Organisation that they have had to close their door and can no-longer support or give relief to people who need it. I am so thankful that I serve a God that is bigger than the financial market situation; in addition to that the contributions, prayer and good will of people like you provide me with the inspiration, resources and energy to continue my work.

New Update

2008-11-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

So two more weeks have passed, it is now been four week since I have seen my beautiful home land (Australia) – for those who are wondering I do miss it and I do miss you all, but I know that God has me here for a purpose, so I put my trust in Him.

The start of the third week was great; we had a team here from Sydney and they organized a huge feast for all of us. It was fantastic; we had pig on the spit (shown below)

The rest of the week was business as usual; lives saved, restored and transformed. Although we do have one new addition to our schedule, we also teach English for free to all the children in the community this has resulted in Youth Group more than doubling, PRAISE GOD!!!

Week four was also quite standard; this week I bought myself a push-bike which I am so excited about. We live out of the town area and it is a good five to ten kilometres to go anywhere, it is not safe for me to ride alone so I always have to travel with others but the tok tok can be quite slow on the roads here as there has been a lot of rain and there is heaps of pot holes. (Below: my incredible push-bike)

2008-11-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

above-feeding program at windy villege on sunday

Week Two

2008-10-28T00:33:00.000-07:00

During the second week of my stay in Cambodia I have been kept busy with various activities (similar to the week) but of course all new experiences.

On Monday’s as always we visited the slums, the photos here show the living conditions of the people there. During this visit Cherie shared a vision that Heartland has for all the people there, this vision is that they will all been self-sustain through employment and eventually through of their own businesses.

Tuesday and Friday are my favourite day when it comes to ministry, it is in these visits that I realise the sacrifice of leaving my comfortable and stable life in Australia is worth it. I feel like my life is put into perspective when I look in the eye of these people.

above- Cherie gives food to a man

above- Shares the Gospel story with him

above- This man and his wife then aspect Jesus in their lives

On Thursday and Sunday we do a feeding program at Windy Village , which is about 2kms for Heartlands base. Before we feed the Mothers and Children we have services with both, the woman learn to read in Khmer after someone shares the Word of God with them. During this time the Children learn memory verses and sing worship song’s, it is awesome to see the joy on the little faces (priceless).

At the Heartland base all the staff and volunteers have a worship time together every morning Pastor Chana shared sometime amazing with us that really spoke to me, he spoke about the machine in the hospital that monitors a person’s heart. With this machine we can indentified the state of one’s life, if they are dead or alive. When the line on the machine runs continually flat this reveals that the person is dead, on the other hand when the line is going up and down this means that this person is alive. In the same way, a person that lives a flat life with nothing much happen (no highs and low) would be considered dead. While the person that live a life full of high and low can be sure that they’re alive, although they have low times they can be certain that the highs are on their way. So I want to encourage you all if you’re feeling flat use a life giving tools and bring yourself back to life, on the other hand if you feel like your life is a bit of a rollercoaster with highs and lows be confident that you are alive and that is nothing at all wrong with this.

Week One!!!

2008-10-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

My first in Cambodia has been action packed, this week we move into the new building because we have out grown the old one.

(on the left: New building-heartland's base)

During the craziness of the huge move, we had to continue all the others things we do. Sunday morning we did church at windy village (the afternoon we did the building opening). On Monday slums. We go there to give out rice to all the people that live there, we then share gospel stories with the people and pray for anyone that needs healing (this is amazing, the people’s faith here is so pure).

My highlight for this week was on Tuesday when we visited the aids ward at the hospital. We took food to all the sick people because the hospitals in Cambodia don’t supply food for them. Once we have handed all the food out we then have an opportunity the pray for them to be healed and share the gospel story with anyone who wants to hear. The reason for this being my highlight, was that I personally shared with one lady who had never heard about Jesus, the story about how God had sent His only son for her to have a full and happy life. As a result she accepted Jesus as her lord and Saviour, which was an awesome experience. Also on that day we went to windy village and shared at a church meeting.

Wednesday was the day that we did most of the move, which was heaps of fun of course LOL.

(on the right: all the pastors wives cutting the ribbon to open the building)

Thursday we went to windy village again this time to ladies meeting. I shared on the impact the mothers have on the next generation. This was really awesome, great response from this.

Friday we went o the aids ward again, I was unable to go because I had a cold.

I will try to update my blog every Saturday as it is my day off. You can sms me on this number to say hello anytime +85589603839.

Good Bye...

2008-10-12T22:50:00.000-07:00

Saying my final good-bye to the special people in my life.

Heartlands in the News

2008-10-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

LOOK!

I am Famous Now!!!

A local newspaper did a story on Heartland, I was also included in this interview. Please have a read.

I would like to say thanks to Gemma (the reporter) for writing a great story.

Still in Oz...

2008-08-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

I am about to embark on my second tour of duty to the amazing nation of Cambodia. I am so excited to have this opportunity to serve my God; I know that He is my strength and that it is only because of Him that I can and would do this. Please pray that God uses me mightily in Cambodia and that I will make a huge different in people’s lives there.