La Sonya

Recently the North American Division (NAD) of Seventh-day Adventist's (SDA's) office of Volunteer Services (that's a big mouth full!) gave me a shout-out on social media with a #tbt from when I lived in Tchad in 2007. It sparked a trip down memory lane and I spent the next several hours looking through all the pictures of time abroad. I think I sounded like the classic old person... "wow, look at that! I'm so young looking! Wasn't this photo just a few years ago. . .or was it? Oh man, it was almost 10 years ago. . . I AM old. I don't think 34 is all that old but it is an age where I can stop and realize I have done a lot and lived a full life so far. But really, was it that long ago I was in Honduras or Tchad?!  With it being my birthday this weekend I thought It'd be a perfect time to give a little timeline with photo's of the years. So here we go! Age 1? Christopher is a doll face! Age 2?   Age 3? Age 5-- Kinder

Today we went on a moto day trip outside of Phnom Penh. It was a perfect time to go because the Phnom Penh roads were quite clear. It was like Phnom Penh turned into a sleepy suburban town. We didn't have too much difficulty finding our hill/mountain that we were looking for. On top of this mountain is Prasat Phnom Reap , a local Buddhist temple. It was an interesting feeling being on top of that hill, with those temples, on the day I go to church and the weekend of Easter. I had just last night and this morning read two chapters from a book on the life of Jesus covering Gethsemane and Calvary . So thinking on those things and being in a place that was celebrating Khmer New Year with special religious ceremonies was sobering.  A few weeks ago I was listening to a sermon by David Asscherick  (this one I think) , an American pastor in Brisbane, Australia and he was talking about how the Israelites kept give up on God and worshiping at the holy places of Baal and the other neighbo

My brother was born first. He was named Christopher Reaves. A legend of a name and not actually inspiration by THE  Christopher Reeve but I do think my brother is Superman anyway. When it came time for baby no. 2 the fambam was excited. The high-tech sonogram in Thousand Oaks, Ca said I was going to be a wonderful little baby BOY. My parents picked out the name Jonathan Eli Reaves and the baby shower supplied them with many new baby boy things in preparation for my arrival. With the c-section on April 22, 1983 they got a real big surprise--ME! My mom says she was ecstatic with the news of a little girl and she had all along been wanting a little girl. She also says that I was a dream come true, something she had always dreamed of having, a little girl. My parents may have talked about girls names, I don't know, but the name I was given is Sonya Faye Reaves. It wasn't by chance that I was given this name either. My name is the Portuguese verb to dream, sonhar. Here's the

My daily job often changes. These last two weeks I was able to work with a team of ladies from Brisbane who came over here to lead classes on women's health in two different villages. It was amazing because they brought Days For Girls  kits to give the women at the end of the classes. These kits offer reusable pads so that the women can maintain normal lives during the WHOLE month. A person starts realizing the necessity of reusable pads when you see how much rubbish the world does use and toss out. The thought of "stinky river" is enough to change a person. It's amazing and painful at the same time. In fact it's one of the many reasons I have switched to using reusable things during my menstruation. This could be game changing for the women of the village of Koki especially because they live out in the middle of nowhere and have nothing available to them. When the price of a package of pads costs more than a weeks income there is a problem! I have three