Home Again, But Not The Same

I arrived home late Monday night after more than 24 hours of travel from Phnom Penh to Atlanta. Thank you to everyone who prayed for me and with me while I was away! I am still processing all that God has set into motion over the past several weeks. LifeTotes was birthed in my heart several years ago, and it has moved from a dream, or the hope of a thing, to an actuality. This is only the beginning of what Erin, Rachel, Allyson and I believe is going to be an exciting venture that will be used as a force for good in the lives of the least of these. We are believing God for the next steps with LifeTotes. 

I will be posting over the next few days about what the next steps in this journey will look like for us. Please continue to pray with us for direction and guidance!


I have been overwhelmed by the response to my last entry. Half of the amount for the Dump Site school has already been committed! If you would like to make a contribution for the building of the Dump Site school, you can go to this site, Metamorphosis Ministries, who has agreed to partner with us so that your contribution is tax deductible. www.razoo.com/story/Metamorphosis-Ministries I will be posting photos of the school as they begin the construction. They do not wait to receive the full amount! They build as they go and since there is already enough for foundation and walls, they will begin! This is a valuable take away that I have learned from them! 

Start where you are with what you have and what you know, and believe God for the rest!

America the Beautiful - That we would be a blessing

“…The Christian gospel is a two way road. On the one hand it seeks to change the souls of men, and thereby unite them with God; on the other hand it seeks to change the environmental conditions so that the soul will have a chance after it is changed.”  Dr. King

Yesterday I visited the Dump Site ministry with Pastor Sihok. There are around 80 families that live at the dump where Sihok has been ministering to for the past year. He first heard of the families by word of mouth; then he visited the village and saw the desperate conditions they were living under. There is no school for the children, no healthcare, no church or civil infrastructure. These are a forgotten people who sift through the landfill. The children have parasites and lice. They have no access to education, no hope for a future. 

Bro. Sihok has been hosting quarterly medical clinics when possible for the families. His vision is to build a church school in the center of their village that can also serve as a centralized medical clinic for the people. I asked him about the cost for building the school and his response, “$1,600 US dollars”. 

On this Fourth of July, I woke up and looked over the city of Phnom Penh and played a rendition by Ray Charles of “America the Beautiful”. I thought about the legacy of our nation, and the grace that God has shed on us as a people. “America! America! God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.” As I read this in print, I see it as a proclamation and a charge, “America! God showered you with His Grace and placed a crown on your head! A crown of brotherhood to all nations! That you would be a blessing to them!” 

What grace is found in such a small amount to us having the ability to make such a great impact to these people here? What an opportunity to exercise our brotherhood and sisterhood as a people, as a church. I’m writing this post for Sihok’s vision and for the small village of people in Cambodia who live among the discards, that they would have a hope and a future. I’m wondering if I can find 16 people who could donate $100? I already have one, so really 15 now. Pastor Bill Overstreet from Bluegrass Baptist Church in Hendersonville, TN has committed $100, so really 14 people. What could this village become if people like you and me invest in their future?

To make a tax-deductible donation Click Here. Please dedicate donation to LifeTotes-Cambodia.

Visiting an Empowered Community of Women on Tuesday

The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

The past several days have been exciting! I spent the greater part of my Tuesday with Sothea. She met me at the hotel and drove me to meet several of the bag makers in their home workshops. She utilizes local NGO organizations to assist her in sourcing employees who are among the most underprivileged and helps equip them for entrance into the workforce by providing job skill training and any materials needed to set up a home workshop. Sothea has a high school education, and she has created a sustainable, flourishing and sophisticated business model that offers dignified employment to those in need while also engineering consumer goods out of discarded items. 

Sothea embodies and reinforces what LifeTotes believes: 

We believe that women are capable, equal contenders and that empowering, training and educating women to impact their communities will change the world for good. 

Empower a woman and she will empower a community of women. It's as simple as that. 

Sufficient Grace, Perfect Power

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

On Saturday morning, I definitely lingered a little longer than I typically do when leaving home for a trip. Although the LifeTotes team has been working on this launch for almost two years, there is nothing that can prepare the mind for a leap of faith over a blind divide. You could leap and land firmly on the ground, or you could leap and free fall into the abyss and what is more scary than that? As I took one last glance in the mirror, I said "Jen, this could go really wrong and people are watching, they will see you if you fail." And then I heard a voice on the other side of my head say, "Jen, stop talking to yourself. You are acting crazy." And then I heard a voice behind me saying, "Jen, this is the way, I have prepared it for you, walk in it. There is nothing crazy about following the lead of your creator, who fashioned your heart and numbered all of your days. I know you better than you know yourself, I know the plans I have for you and those plans are for your good and my glory. You would be crazy not to go." In my weakness of that moment, the creator of my heart made me strong.

Today I met Sothea, a beautiful brown skinned Cambodian female entrepreneur. I traveled half way around the globe to meet her. She started her company in 2007, the same year I started my real estate firm. She employees women and allows them to work in their home. So do I. She is generous. I pray every day that God would provide for me so that I can provide for others. I don't know her full story yet, but God is up to something and I am so excited to watch Him do His thing.

Tomorrow I will spend the day with Sothea. We will visit with the bag makers in their homes, I will learn more of their stories and just a Nehemiah, I will "survey the wall" of their needs and pray for direction in how our company might be able to fill the needs through a partnership with Sothea's company.

God Connections on Sunday in Phnom Penh

Just wanted to share some updates from Jen.  As we have prayed, God has truly been directing Jen's steps in Cambodia.  He has opened doors and connected her with incredible folks in Phnom Penh, including Pastor Sihol at Liberty Baptist Church, which she was able to attend on Sunday. 

The youth and the hope for Cambodia

At the church, God linked Jen with Bud and Sharon Hattaway from North Georgia. Another divine connection!

On Monday Jen travels to Siem Reap with Trevor, our LifeTotes consultant from Cambodia, and will meet Sothea, the young woman who makes the bags that inspired the LifeTotes vision.  

Thank you for continuing to pray that the Lord guides Jen's every step.

And, of course, before we go...Jen had to share some photos of elephants! 

The Beginnings of LifeTotes

In January of 2014 when purchasing this tote bag from a missionary at a local church, I could have never imagined the story God was inviting me into. When I saw this tote, I not only saw a really cool product, but I wanted to know more about the hands who made it, what their lives were like, and how I might be able to contribute to their story by helping them sale more of their bags. In turn, I would position myself into a practical relationship with people who likely didn't know Jesus. Since the missionary did not know the bag maker personally, I was on a mission from half way around the world to find these bag makers and learn their story. Sounds crazy, and often times I thought I was crazy, but God's prompting would not let go of my heart. God hand selected people to come alongside me, buy into the LifeTotes vision, and adopt it as their own. This was a humbling process, to realize that my obedience and the callings placed on the lives of others by God had direct correlation. He was asking me to move, and calling them to the movement He asked me to initiate. As Dr. King once insinuated, we are indeed inextricably tied together.

We were finally able to locate Sothea, the young woman who engineered the tote and we discovered that she employed other women to work out of their homes helping to manufacture them. Not a factory, like the common textile model in Cambodia, but a cottage, a home, where the women live, are wives, mothers and bag makers. They make these bags where life happens. We found that Sothea employees the poor; among the poorest of the world's poor in fact. These women live in shanty shacks and work in a lean to with no air conditioning or walls, just open air. I needed to meet her. What drove her heart to start this venture? Where did it begin? What is HER vision? 

So here I am, on a plane headed to Phnom Penh, Cambodia where I will meet with our consultant Trevor who will take me to Sothea.