Beyond the Green Gate: A Memoir of Faith, Family and the Far Side of Home

A beautiful memoir that takes you to exotic places and feelings. - Carol Lin, former CNN journalist and author of When News Breaks: A Memoir of Love and War

Wow! What a story! A riveting page-turner.- Mary Stobie, Rocky Mountain Columnist and author of When You Fall Off, You Get Back On

What a journey! The distance from Boulder, Colorado, to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, stretches more than 8,000 miles, but that might not even be the longest trip in Beyond the Green Gate . The pace of the book starts fast and never slows. - Mike Judson writer and editor at Denver-area newspapers for 40 years

More than a missionary memoir, Sheryl Roberts writes with honesty, clarity, and genuine respect for the people and culture of Cambodia. Always mindful of her true north, Roberts shows us that even when we know where we’re going, there are a dozen ways to get there. -Lisa Sellge, author, literary writer and content editor

Cambodia changed everything.

For Sheryl, opening the latch on the imposing green gate in Southeast Asia for the first time wasn't just a physical act—it was a terrifying break from the safe, comfortable life she once knew back in Colorado.

In 2003, when she, her husband, John, and their seven children traded their chickens and mountain views for chaotic streets of Phnom Penh, for landmines that still lurked beneath jungle paths, and for shadows of the Khmer Rouge that haunted every village, Sheryl did not know what lay ahead. Soon, what began as a mission to help orphaned children quickly became a journey into the darkest corners of human suffering: both the Cambodians' and her own.

This unflinching travel memoir chronicles over a decade of the Roberts family’s extraordinary and chaotic life: raising a boisterous family, clinging to deep faith and unbreakable family bonds, surviving an unforgiving climate in a land of collective trauma, and striving to find belonging, safety and home.

Sheryl's vivid storytelling captures both the breathtaking beauty of Cambodia's rice fields and monsoon rains, and the heartbreaking reality of a country still healing from genocide. It's a raw, honest account of what happens when idealism meets reality, when faith is stripped down to its essence, and when a family discovers that sometimes the greatest act of sacrifice is leaving what no longer works behind.

A testament to courage, sacrifice, and fierce resilience, Beyond the Green Gate is an essential read for anyone who has ever wondered about the cost of true commitment—and the hard-won grace found in the journey back.