"Jum Rip Sua" from Cambodia!

It means hello in Khmer and is accompanied by clasping your palms together in front of your chin (or your forehead if the other person is older) and bowing.

Of most importance: Thanks for all the encouraging emails and comments! It is great to hear from you!

MINISTRY

We continue to visit the villages over rough and muddy roads. Many of the team have learned not to sit in the back of the tuk-tuk, as it takes the worst of the bumps, but I have to face forward (which means the back seat) when riding in a vehicle, so I get an adventure every time we go out! As well, we had a problem with one of the wheels, so stopped along the road for emergency repairs (photo on left - yes that is an ax that he is using to hammer with!) - never a dull moment (pardon the pun)!

One of the village families who host a Bible study spoke of the challenges they faced when they became Christians. Their neighbours and friends rejected them and wouldn't come to their hut, because it was now "Christian land". However, over the months they have seen this family's farm prosper, their health has improved, they have more joy and peace. As a result, now the neighbours are curious and want to know why this has happened.

In my last post, I mentioned a family where the little boy is quite sick. We think unless he is treated he will die. We prayed about it and decided to fund a trip for him and his sister to the nearest city about 3 hours away. However, the mother (who had a stroke and is paralyzed on one side) has refused the assistance for her son, as her daughter is the only one who is able to work and they can't afford for her to be gone for 5 days. And of course, we cannot take him for many reasons, not the least of which we cannot speak the language. We choose to believe in the power of prayer for his healing, and I ask you to join us in that prayer.

I made a neat connection with Sryrum (that's her cooking on the left), a 44-year old village woman (of course always through a translator). It's amazing how there can be a feeling of sisterhood even with the lack of direct communication. She is expecting her fourth child - her oldest is 21. She was quite surprised by my age (it's the first question usually asked by the Cambodians - very important detail to them) and the condition of my skin and the fact that I could run around their dirt yard with her son; most of the Cambodians look older than they are due to the living conditions here (and move slowly). We spoke to her and her husband of Jesus, and they were quite interested. The biggest challenge for them is access to a church or even a Bible study or a Cell Group. We asked if we could go back and they were eager for us to do so. We will continue to plant the seed. I also had such fun with her 10-year old son (photo on the right), teaching him how to play volleyball in their dirt yard - although quite tiring in the 33 degree heat.

OTHER EFFORTS

Some of us outside the World Vision Bldg

We met with the Cambodian leaders of the Kampong Thom division of World Vision. First we attended their meeting, and Sasi gave an inspired message on Holy Spirit, then we sat with them and discussed what we have to offer and what their needs are during the time we are here. It became evident that it is better to teach them what to do rather than us going and doing (teaching to fish versus giving them fish). Because of the skill set of our team, we are able to offer their staff training on such things as: Health/Hygiene, Water/Sanitation, Micro Enterprise/Entrepreneurs, Business Mgmt/Mktg, Natural Farming/Natural Pesticides, Communications, Computer skills, Christian Leadership. As well, they want spiritual training, so we will be teaching on Hearing the Voice of God, Relinquishing Your Rights/Laying Down Your Cross, Holy Spirit, God's Love, Simple Church. Of course, any of our training has to be done via a translator. We will be spending two full days training their staff in early August.

LIFESTYLE HERE

When we meet in the families' huts, we often sit on these wood bed-like structures that serve numerous purposes. They use them to have naps, to serve meals, to prepare food, to sit cross-legged, or whatever strikes their need. We foreigners sometimes stress the support system of this furniture, and had a good laugh when the man of one hut had to go find wood to strengthen the legs.

Bible study on one of these versatile pieces of furniture (note the original leg on the right side slanting inwards, and the additional piece of wood)

Locals in the Rice Paddies

Most families get up at around 4:30 (yes... A.M., Becky & Shari!) and go to work in rice paddies. Many of the children must go and help. If their parents are progressive and want a different sort of life for their children, they allow them to go to school. In the villages, school is from 7:00-11:00am OR from 1:00-5:00pm (each month the students switch from am to pm and vice versa). They go Monday to Saturday, but Thursday is used for cleaning the school rooms, and the students must participate in that.

Classrooms in 3 different villages (note the differences)

The men who work at our guesthouse are here almost every day and their shifts are 18-24 hours. They continue to be friendly and helpful, even though they have been up all night. Tonight, I stopped to visit with one of them, a 30-year old named Narith. Sasi and I had bumped into he and his 4-year old son at the nearby park the other day and I had emailed him a photograph I had taken of them and wanted to be sure he had received it. He shared with me what life was like growing up here in Cambodia. He was born the year after Pol Pot and his army were taken out of control; however, a lot of the army hid in the local forests to escape imprisonment. They continued to create disruption and fear in the rural areas, including planting land mines and mine traps in the forests and along the roads. Narith told me how they were warned as children not to go into the forest, nor to stray off the actual roads, nor to pick up any money or anything off the road (sometimes there would be wire connecting money to a land mine). These children lived in constant fear. These men would also come with their guns and take adults from whatever they were doing, whether it was teaching school or working in the fields and make them carry their equipment or do other work for them. Amazingly, even with all of this, Narith has turned out to be a gentle young man who is eager to improve life for the next generation. He has taught himself English by interacting with the guests who stay here (he's worked here for 10 years) and is training to be a teacher (he took a cut in his 24-hour shifts, which meant a pay cut as well). He is one of the men we are spending time with sharing the gospel; please pray for him.

One of the markets

The markets are up and running extremely early; they set up at 6:30am until about 7:00pm every day, without breaks it seems. Many of them bring their young children and they just sit around all day, and then have a nap on a makeshift hammock. These markets are open-air and on dirt ground or rocks or rough pavement. The flies are in armies and move from raw fish to raw pork to vegetables to fruit - it's a real smorgasbord for them ..... and often an appetite suppressant for us!

Neatly layered small fish (about the size of a woman's pinky finger)

Sampling of other meats

OUR ONE DAY OFF OF THE WEEK Walkway to the pool

Our "day off" is supposed to be Monday, but July 18 has been our first one since arriving in Cambodia even though we know the value of looking after ourselves. One of our team found a guesthouse nearby that would allow us to use their swimming pool if we ordered something from their restaurant. So, we loaded into a couple of tuk-tuk's and set off for our day of rest. You know things are hot when I actually get into the pool! It was really refreshing and even though I only spent 2 hours there, I felt like we had spent a whole weekend there. I don't think it's something I would do very often, but am glad to have taken a little bit of "self-nurturing" time.

Mike, Felecia, Jane, Jadyn (happy!)

The health of our team has much-improved and we are functioning well. We continue to be responsive to the every day last-minute changes that constantly occur on outreach, and still maintain our sense of humour for many situations that occur. More about that in next post!

Bye for now!

HUGS!

June

Kampong Thom

Sunset view about 1/2 block from our Guesthouse

Kampong Thom is much less "commercial" and more rural in its appearance and lifestyle. We arrived mid-afternoon on July 4 and spent several hours standing outside with our luggage attempting to make changes to our accommodation arrangements for the next 7 weeks. The original place had no air conditioning (which was fine with me as I do not feel the heat the same way many of you do, but not with the others in the group knowing that it only goes down to 28 Celcius at night), had NO hot water (which is okay for a few days, but not for 7 weeks), and we were to be on the 4th floor with the only access being stairs (which was an issue for one of our team members who has a prosthetic leg as a result of an accident less than a year ago).

Nancy, Tom, Felecia outside our Guesthouse (yup, that's a cow)

We found suitable arrangements in a guesthouse a short distance away. This change in itself was a blessing, as the guesthouse staff are hungry to learn English and are interested in hearing about the Gospel. We have started a ministry right here where we stay! We have given them Khmer Bibles and every morning, they have questions. Whenever possible, one of us spends time talking with them about Christianity. Tonight, I gave them the DVD which has Khmer dubbing that we show to the school children called "The Jesus Story".

MINISTRY WORK

Tuesday, July 5 we met with Pastor Sokun who is our Cambodian contact here. We spent time getting to know him and his team (Peter and Sothy) and then reviewed his suggested schedule for our work with them.

The following day, we visited the 4 villages: Krachap, Kook gneun, Sereyvung and Trapeangrousey (don't even try to pronounce it!) where we are doing our ministry and that in itself was a tiring day. We rode on tuk-tuk's (a carriage-like device behind a motorcycle) over extremely rough dirt roads, and then walked through each village (in 33 degree weather) for hours to get a better feel for the situation.

No, this is NOT a tuk-tuk!

These are our tuk-tuk's

The rural people are so very sweet and so excited to see foreigners. The children are often shy at first, as most have never seen a foreigner and we are quite huge

next to most of the Cambodian adults. But we often will break through their shyness by taking photo's and showing it to them, or pulling out a ball, or balloon, or bubbles and they soon are all smiles.

Elderly village woman Isn't he cute?

Just an idea of difference in heights!

One of the village huts

On Thursday, July 7 we did evangelism in one of the villages and part of the team went to lead a Bible study in another village. Evangelism consists of walking through the village and dropping in on one of the families or to one of the small markets on a corner and speaking to the people. First we spend time getting to know them then we share our testimonies, messages from scripture and pray for them. All is done through a translator (one of Pastor Sokun's team and are Christians as well). Just our being there gives credibility to the work that they are already doing here.

The first place my team visited, one of the Buddhists asked about the Bible, and I was able to present him with one in his language (Khmer) and asked him to read a passage from it out loud (see photo to right). The other men listened intently and one of the older men even took the Bible from the first man and looked through it. It was really quite encouraging.

Some of my students

Those first few days, we would take a 2-hour break in the middle of the day, then go do more evangelising from 2:00-4:00 and then head off to teach English and Bible to the children from 4:00-6:00. We found this schedule to be quite rigorous, as the travelling in itself was quite draining. As well during the week, there are "cell groups" or home churches in some of the villages as they can't get to the church in Krachap, and we participate in these as well. We have since changed the schedule to evangelise longer in the morning, and then have team worship and team prayer time mid-day, and then go directly to teach the children from 3:45-6:00. As well, in the morning, we leave two team members back at the guesthouse to pray for those of us out in the field and to do a prayer walk around the town we are staying in.

SERVANT HEARTS

Sasi & I cutting wood

We also do some practical things to help out the villagers. One day, just as we got out of the tuk-tuk, Sasi noticed a woman and her young son cutting wood and suggested we help her. What a blessing that was in so many ways! We took turns in pairs cutting the rest of her wood. It turns out the woman's husband was away working and she was left on her own with 3 children. Later, she shared with us that 10 years before, a man (apparently North American) came and said he would help her daughter get an education. He took her daughter and she has never heard from him since - we are horrified to think of what this could mean, as considering the sex trade here in Cambodia, there are not many other reasons why he would not have been back in touch with this mother.

Other things we have been able to do include bringing fruit and eggs to some of the huts, arrange and pay for an x-ray for a young boy who looked like he had broken a collar-bone.

As well, we have started a new home church in one of the villages (by introducing a family to Christ one day, and following up with them the next) We have been able to give many of these people a feeling of hope and joy. Most express gratitude for our visits, and even if they haven't accepted Christ on our visit, we have planted the seed.

All is not without some opposition though. We break off into smaller groups to visit huts, and one of our groups was visiting in a new hut and apparently making good headway when a "Spirit Doctor" entered the hut and loudly spoke out against them and against God. He was quite aggressive and apparently has a lot of control over the village. He collected food and money from this family and spoke of a family where the father had recently committed suicide, the mother had a stroke leaving her paralyzed on one side, and the young son got sick about 6 months ago and is so sick that there is not much left of him but skin and bones. The good that came out of this interruption is that we were able to find where this family lived and visited them to deliver food and offer some hope. We are looking into how we can help this boy be diagnosed and survive this mystery illness he has.

ADDITIONAL MINISTRY

We play a large role in the church service in Krachap on Sundays. We help with worship songs, run the children's and adult's Sunday School and do the message and give a testimonial during service. We are there from 8:00-11:30, and then take a break before heading off to another village to do a mid-afternoon Sunday School.

The team took part in a gathering of 8 local churches in Kampong Thom. The meeting place was in a very impoverished village close to the Tonle Sap river, about 45 minutes away from central Kampong Thom. On the way to this village, we passed many shops making idols from huge pieces of stone. It was a humid, cloudy day; everyone prayed that it would not rain. Miraculously not only did it not rain during the gathering of the churches, the cloud cover protected us from the hot sun as we worshipped and had fellowship outside without any covering. We sang some worship songs for the gathering and one of our team members gave an amazing message. Better yet, across the dirt road from our gathering, there was a large group of non-believers watching and listening - perhaps a seed was sown there too!

TEAM NEWS

As a team, we have developed unity and are very flexible to whatever the day holds. We have had to respond to preaching, teaching, giving testimonials, praying for healing, or whatever happens to come up. We have been hit hard with sickness, and that will take sometimes 2 of us out of the picture at a time for at least a couple of days. I think we have had only one day where we were all able to be present. Hygiene is an issue here, and we are sometimes wary when we eat, but don't have a lot of options. We do know not to eat at one of the tables set up on a dirt road. The water is of concern as well and we even brush our teeth with bottled water.

GENERAL LIVING "STUFF"

I am battling with insect bites. Most of us are getting bitten, but I usually have one or two that cause me to swell for several days. I have had an ear that has stuck out like Dumbo's (and I couldn't even feel the frozen water bottle that was applied to it), a leg that swelled and was quite inflamed, and a hand swollen to the point that you couldn't see my knuckles anymore. I do the practical things to prevent getting bitten, but this is monsoon season, and there is a lot of stagnant water around to breed the bugs.

Food is amazingly cheap here - stir-fried vegetables and rice is usually about $1.50 USD; rice noodle soup is $1.00. An omelet and French baguette is $1.50 (of course, I can't have that). My diet consists of fruit for breakfast, usually stir-fried vegetables and rice for lunch, and fruit for supper. All of our appetites are less than normal (perhaps because of the heat).

I have a new roommate here: Rachael, who is a Korean. It works out well for the most part, although I have asked her not to stay up with the lights on until 3 am. She is 33 years old and has spent a good portion of her life in the USA. She will be leaving here July 31 as she is going to Wheaton College in Chicago and starts in August. Selfishly, I am looking forward to having a room to myself for the first time in 4 months!

Doing laundry here consists of using our bathroom sink every few days; there is no such thing as a laundromat. There are people who will do laundry for you, but some of our team have found it to be unsatisfactory, so I will continue to do my own and hang it in my room to dry.

I could go on and on (and already have!!!) I hope this wasn't too lengthy. I appreciate your interest and love and prayers; thanks for the support! This last photo is of some of the amazing scenery here in Cambodia.

Bye for now!

HUGS! June

Phnom Penh

Partial View of Phnom Penh Skyline

It's hard to believe that our team has been in Cambodia for 14 days already, We spent the first 4 days in Phnom Penh before taking the 4-hour bus ride to Kampong Thom. Rather than putting everything in one post, I am going to post in segments. It will give you (and me) a bit of a break.

Kona seems like such a distant memory. We had a 10-hour flight from Hawaii to Seoul, Korea followed by a 5-hour flight to Cambodia. There were 27 of us travelling together, and it was quite a feat that all of us, and of our bags, arrived intact at the airport in Phnom Penh. By the way, Korean Airlines is an amazing way to fly. They treat you like royalty (even in economy), have wonderfully nutritious meals and still provide headsets, pillows, blankets at no charge.

Traffic in Phnom Penh View from our room in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is busy city, and reminded me of the Philippines. There is much pollution and many "tuk-tuks" and "moto's" racing about. The horn is an important accessory on these vehicles; they are tooting them all the time to notify everyone where they are and what they are up to.

There are idols and spirit houses all over the place; we were kept busy praying about our exposure to the heavy oppression and obvious un-Godly worship that takes place here. (Even now, I hear the loudspeakers throughout the town that have been going for the past 6 hours, and will continue through the night as there is some sort of Buddhist celebration going on). Cambodia is 98% Buddhism, so we are a minority in our faith as well as our appearance.

Part of team outside YWAM Base Phnom Penh

The first day we spent trying to rest from the flight and get used to the time change. Then we spent a day at the YWAM base here to receive some orientation to Cambodian culture and language.

Use of YWAM office as storage for moto's

The following day, we were taken around to see some of the history of Cambodia. We first went to the Tuong Sleng Prison (S-21) where we were shown the rooms and photos of the horrible things that were done to innocent men and women during the Pol Pot regime. I won't even describe any of it here (nor show any photographs) - it is beyond imagination that any human being would treat another that way. Then we were taken to one of the many "The Killing Fields" where thousands of men, women, children were slaughtered. Over 2 million were murdered in this country between 1975-1979 under the Khmer Rouge genocide. We spent a lot of time praying over the remains and for the families and friends that were left behind. It was emotionally and spiritually draining for most of us, but an important exercise in understanding the people that we are here to disciple.

On Sunday, July 3 we went to a Cambodian Church - New Life Centre (photo on right). It was all Khmer, with translator receivers passed out to those of us who needed it. The music and singing part of the service was pretty amazing; these new Christians know how to worship with abandon and joy. It was truly a delight to experience.

Loading team onto bus outside our hotel

On Monday, July 4 our team separated into two groups, with my team heading north to Kampong Thom and the other team heading south to Sihanoukville. It was tough to see the others leave, but we were all excited and ready to get to our new homes for the next 7 weeks.

Another update coming very soon from Kampong Thom! I appreciate prayers for our team's physical health - more about that in next post.

THANKS FOR CHECKING IN!

I'm in Cambodia & will be doing a new post soon. We've been super busy since arriving here. Also, no network connection for the first 5 days.

Please come back on Tuesday or Wednesday!

HUGS!

June