Taiwan and Cambodia

Greetings friends! I return from yet another journey across more time zones than my body prefers but as always so so grateful for the job I have and the people I get to encounter along the way. My time in Taiwan and Cambodia was a rich time of travel, adventure, and fellowship with new friends. I traveled with two good friends and low maintenance traveling buddies, Jen and Stephanie and for the first time not a large group!

Our time in Taipei, Taiwan with YiPing Liu(the Young Life Taiwan National Director) and many of her friends, leaders, and kids was fantastic. She was such a generous host and we dined like royalty! Taiwan is a wonderful nation with a mix of Japanese and Chinese influences and Young Life is just beginning to take hold. There are some great opportunities for US teams to come and partner with their kids to do service together. It was key for me to make the connections I did with so many people in 3 short but very full days. Seriously, put this on your list of countries to visit - so beautiful, clean, efficient and just incredible food and museums and people!

The time in Phnom Penh, Cambodia was busy and we accomplished quite a bit. We had such amazing times connecting with staff, leaders, kids and the short term interns that I placed there from the University of Washington. ..We really enjoyed experiencing the incredible culture and history.The genocide of the Pol Pot regime in the late 70's is just so raw and everyone has a connection to it - it's still a country in healing. There are westerners everywhere and yet still very much Cambodian through and through - they have such a great sense of humor. No wonder Young Life thrives!

I did not just lead an hour long seminar on women in leadership but more like a 6 hour deal! Thankfully, everything I said had to be translated so there was plenty of time for the spirit to give me more material along the way! It was a joy to share my love of the Gospel of John and the ways we see how Jesus set women apart to be part of his ministry then and now in very powerful and counter culture ways - it's such an encouragment to me everytime I get to talk about it.

My time with the national director, Pyneath Sor was fantastic and so invaluable. I needed to really share the vision of what Expeditions could do for his ministry - which is just phenomnal by the way. His vision of reaching kids for Christ and giving them educational skills through computer classes and English speaking classes is one of the best ministries I've seen in action. I love love love how holistic his approach is to sharing the love of God. Young Life provides computers, classes and the teachers in 2 high schools and has 4 community centers where kids can come and learn these crucial skills for their future. There is a long, long waiting list for these classes. Sharing the love of Christ goes hand in hand with meeting kids and families' practical needs. We see Jesus doing this again again in the gospels and we need to follow His ways today no question about it!

There is great potential to bring teams here and help Pyneath and his many leaders attain their vision of creating another 4 centers in the next 4 years. Cambodia is a lovely, safe, vibrant country--and lattes and massages are easy to find-my new requirement for feeling at home around the world!!

As is another personal requirement for my travel, I got some time at a special orphanage - The Center of Peace founded by Bopal Yos - my new hero. She lost both her parents in the horrific genocide and was orphaned at the age of 9. She was turned away by orphanages because there wasn't any room for her- she made the decison then to someday start her own orphanage so no child would be without a home. And she now cares for 72 kids - and adopted one baby girl for her own - BoPal rescued her just before her mother was about to bury her alive at a week old. This little 5 year old is one little firecracker! So many of these kids were abandoned by their mothers; in this culture if a woman divorces and remarries the new husband typcially does not want her children in his home or their new family. Yep, every corner of our world can break your heart and give you an incredible sense of hope all at the same time.

As I traveled home in time for a wedding, the Young Life Expeditions team and Young Life family lost one of their own - Katie Parsons May. To say she shined the light of love everywhere is an understatement. It was such an honor to work with her and get to have spent time with her over the past couple of years. She was #1 on the lung transplant list at UCLA and had been waiting and suffering for a long time in her 27 years of life. Hundreds upon hundreds said good-bye and celebrated her life this past weekend in Santa Barbara. My life is richer because of Katie - if you want a blessing today, take a few minutes and see the video of her service and the beach reception where her ashes were scattered - the 10 minutes that Johnny May (her husband of 8 months) spoke will bless your socks off (it starts at 1:06 and goes til about 1:15)

Grateful to all of you for the care, support and prayers!

Michele

A few photos can be seen here.

Giving link to Michele Sbrana and Young Life Expeditions

Brothers

It's been a long time since my boys have done something together that hasn't involved arguing about who took the dog out last or who stole who's pair of socks. But I sit here on this strangely stormy May sunday listening to my youngest help his older brother prepare for a college math placement test. Quadratic formulas and solving the function of x is music to my ears--almost as sweet as the days of eavesdropping upon their bedtime conversations about their pirate ship fantasy world some fifteen years ago. I realize time has passed by much too quickly when I overhear conversations about binomial coefficients instead of how to fasten an eye patch out of shoelaces and duct tape.

The world could be falling apart around me but if my kids are peacefully interacting, I think I speak for all mothers when I say, we stop what we're doing no matter the import and listen.

When my oldest genuinely thanked his younger brother for his help after their 90 minutes of study, I did a subconscious double-take. I suppose that at this stage of the teenage game, I'm intently looking for signs that they do, in fact, love one another in the midst of angst and drama and testosterone. If they can figure out how to authentically care for each other then maybe, just maybe, they'll become honest-to-goodness-real-live-loving-caring-human beings who contribute something (anything) to society.

It's not the I really doubt their love for each other; it's just seems so deeply buried these days. Nothing could ever have prepared me for their competitive nature towards one another...was it because they shared rooms until middle school? Or was it because they shared so many of the same toys, books or friends? Or was it (as I suspected might someday come back to haunt me) because unbeknownst to them, they shared underwear when they were both wearing 4T (after the laundry, I promise!). Who really knows? But all I do know is trying to figure out how to share legos was small potatoes compared to all the things of teenage young men (subtext:girls). They're cartoon-like in their confrontations with one another; complete with the beet colored faces and steam coming out of the ears!

These are the ways of brothers I'm told. But logarithms and lovely young women who complicate matters are now up to them. Let's just hope the lessons of learning to deal with the complexities of cardboard swords and taking turns on the tricycle will serve them well as they navigate life and relationships. And pray that no clinical studies come out revealing that brothers who shared superhero underwear at the age of three and four in fact end up living out their lives in their mother's basement pretending to be pirates...but really good at math!