I have been bad in getting back to this blog to do any updates. Gina struggled off and on with sickness during our time in Cambodia. Either the food or water seems to have been hard on her system. Ended up having her hospitalized for nearly two days for tests, a couple procedures and many meds to kill whatever was making her so miserable. That was done about a month before we were ending our 6 months service at the school in Phnom Penh. It was a difficult thing leaving the children and staff we had grown to love in such a short time. While Gina was healthy we traveled through Vietnam before heading home to Cali. We had a very fun and blessed time traveling from one end of Vietnam to the other and back. We traveled by bus, tuk tuk, van, trains, and plane.. Sometimes scooters too. Met wonderful people, spoke with many children and young people about our travels and service in Asia.

We traveled home to California the end of January. It was so strange coming back knowing we didn’t have any physical possessions to return to… No home, cars, clothes, bikes, etc… Everything we owned was with us in our four suitcases. This also meant we had no formal place to call home. We do have wonderful groups of church family, family, friends who offered us places to live, cars to drive, etc while we are here. God is so good all the time.

Three weeks after we got home I turned around and got back on a plane headed to the Philippines! A bit crazy it seems… I was volunteering to work with a US non-profit that was working as Emergence Responders to help those in need after the 2013 7.2 earthquake and then super typhoon Yolanda…. I went to work with All Hands (hands.org) on Project Bohol Earthquake Response Team. As it turned out I was one of only 3 volunteers over the average age of about 23. The other two were around 70 and left after I was there a week. Wonderful couple, she was Filipina. Then I was working with all volunteers my children’s ages which was fantastic for me! Except for the fact that the project work was so physical that it was really suited for young people. We worked to tear down badly damaged, dangerous homes, school buildings, and churches on the island of Bohol. I met many wonderful children and families whose schools or homes were destroyed. It was great to help get their buildings down and sites cleaned so they could rebuild after 3 weeks I left having a dozen or more young friends to keep track of on FB and vice versa. We had some wonderful conversations about service, and Gods love. I am proud of the selfless work they did for the people of the islands.
I am sitting in a room of my in-laws as we complete our paperwork and packing for our next serving opportunities in Central America. We fly to Panama next week on April 3. This trip we have no set agenda…. No school program with housing, No tent and free food like the All Hands project…. Going to search for an appropriate place to set up a home base so we can do service projects throughout Central America. Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, etc. Praying for Gods guidance and protection. We only want to be in a position to serve others and share Gods love as best we can.
Hope to follow-up more regularly. You can see regular posts on our FB pages. Just search for Bill Brick or Gina Rose Brick
May God bless and keep you.