Honor 06/12/2009
 

New Life in Christ Church. Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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6 weeks in 06/12/2009
 
We have been in Cambodia just a month and a half. Times have been good. We are receiving a modest salary from CMO for our work here, so that has taken the pressure of potential sponsors, and our minimum is covered. The focus of our work is training English teachers for the ministry here, English teaching, and helping preach at New Life in Christ Church. In 6 weeks, I have gotten to preach 4 times, and Jenny once. My latest preach (just this morning, entitled 'Honor' can be viewed -HERE-.
We are also teaching English to the children here. I rotate between the Grade 1 and 4 classes weekly. The kids are even more endearing than we remember, and Jenny & I see many of them as "our kids".
We have been learning so much about humility, submission, honor, etc. My whole view of ministry is changing, and I see the future as much more intimidating, but also much more important now. All selfishness must leave, if the body of Christ is to get well, and perform it's duties.
Christmas is nearing and nostalgia is setting in. I do miss PEI this time of year. To celebrate the spirit of this season, Jenny & I will be heading to Siem Reap to spend our holidays amidst 1000 yr old Hindu/Buddhist temples. Not quite the same as snow covered fields and houses decorated with lights, but it will have to do.
I like to imagine how worth it it will be when we are settled in to our heavenly home for eternity. Cozy.
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Our Heart of Sin 03/11/2009
 
I preached this message on Halloween night at the Saturday evening Youth Program at New Life in Christ Church in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Translating is Pastor Keat Kove.
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New Hope School. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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After a total of 65 hrs travel time, we made it into our destination with a terrible landing!! I have been on literally over a hundred separate flights, and this may have the worst landing ever. The plane actually bounced, and bounced high enough to make our insides feel like we were on a roller-coaster! Then the pilot tried to regain control of the giant beast and we swayed left to right hard enough that we felt like we were at the Great Escape! Welcome to Cambodia!
We passed through immigration, and bought our visa, which is good for a month, and then landed at the Cambodian Mission Outreach center where many of the children from New Hope School were eagerly waiting for us. It was so awesome to see them again. Darlin, Gani, Dop Dop, Mey Mey, Junky, Ben 10, Dto Laa, and so many more have been missed by us greatly. We hope to have some influence in their lives on this trip as well.
After getting our bags in our room, we cruised downtown with Chhorn to Sorya shopping center and picked up some groceries, and we also splurged and got an electric kettle, and a blender! After that we were tired, so we slept.
Our roles for this trip have not been defined yet, so we are meeting with Keat today or tomorrow and chatting about the whole of ministry here and what has changed, and what we'll be doing here. Jenny & I are here to serve Keat and Sally, so we'll be doing whatever they need us to do.
It feels good to be back. Even though the city is filthy, and poverty is rampant, and the bad seems to outnumber the good everywhere your eyes turn, we look not at what we want to do here, but what God wants us to do. And we pray we are obedient to do exactly that.
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Time surely flies. We've only 17 days remaining. Two teaching weeks to go; and this friday is a holiday, and 3 days the next week is holiday! So, not much time left at all.

We will be back on PEI on May 21st, and will be there for 10 days. If you wanna get together, give me a message and I will schedule it in. It is gonna go fast, and there are lots of people to visit.

What GLORY will the next couple weeks contain? There's only One who knows.

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Indeed. I have a tremendous head cold. Terrible cough, headaches, and clogged sinuses! It started getting outta hand on Apr 6, and today, two weeks later, it rages on. I'm beginning to thin I need to see a doctor and maybe get some antibiotics or sumthin.

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Pretty crazy. Good Friday nearly escaped notice, and would have(!!), save for Facebook! I found out at around 8:30pm! How crazy is that?! Something we are so accustomed to in the West, is not even mentioned here, where we are, in the East.

Early sunday morning, Jenny & I will cruis'er outta Phnom Penh for a 5 day Vietnamese bus tour! We are really looking for it.

Today was a celebration for the Khmai New Yr. At New Hope School they distributed baby powder (and the like) to the children and we had a big powder war! After 30 minutes of bedlam, the water balloons were unleashed! It was pretty crazy, and no teacher (save for a couple) were left unscathed. Jenny did her best to refrain from the water fight, but sadly, was unable to escape. The kids had a great time, and we were all in desperate need of a shower afterwards.

The New Yr is offically from the 14-16th, and there will be no classes next week, which afforded Jenny & I the time to go to Vietnam. Enjoy the Khmai New Yr everyone!

And prayer would be appreciated for the documents that were sent to us today regarding our employment at Double H Ranch this summer. The mail system can be unreliable here. Thanks.



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Phnom Penh is HOT! Jenny and I have been back to our New Hope School teaching schedule for a week now, and the temp has averaged around 32C/90F, but according to weather.com it feels like 36C/97F! The energy has been low in this heat, but the work has driven us forward.

There are no other foreigners here right now so we have been the only native english speakers teaching. This means a demanding schedule. I am now teaching with the preschool between 9-10:20am; then with the Grade 2's from 10:30-11am. I then teach an adult Intro class from 3:30-4:30pm; I alternate daily between a Level 1 and Intro class during 5:30-6:30pm; then a Level 3 adult class from 6:30-7:30pm.

I had to give up my Bible Study to teach the 6:30 Level 3 class simply because there is no other person here who can do it. Jenny is now teaching a combined Bible Study during the 6:30-7:30 time slot. I didn't want to give up my Bible Study when Keat originally rotched the idea, but my doing so permits more Cambodians to attend the services which are necessary for recieving their scholarships. Sometimes, you have to back off from the spotlight and work for the good of the whole, and not worry about who is leading people to Christ, just that people are being led.

In one week, we head to Vietnam for a 5 day tour. It is the Khmai New Yr and all classes will be cancelled! Till then, we learn these Cambodians some English!

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Our connection to the Internet has not been great, so we have not been able to get a blog out till now. Here are some recent stories.

March 21-24. The 4 of us get on a boat and travel 2.5 hrs off the coast of Sihanoukville to an island called Koah Rung Saloem, where an English gentleman has bought a stretch of beach and built 10 huts on it. There is also a restaurant area. We spent 3days/3nights at the Lazy Beach tropical getaway, and it was the best vacation I have ever had. For a set of pics click -->HERE<--.

We arived back in Phnom Penh on the 24th and spent some time with the Holbeche's, who left today. Tomorrow we resume our teaching at New Hope School, and New Hope English School. The demand for foreigners has increased seeing as that Jenny & I are the only whities around now. So that means there is many classes that we will be helping with, with over 300 students!! What an opportunity. I have also had to sacrifice teaching my Bible Study in order to help out with the English school, so starting tomorrow, Jenny will be teaching a combined Bible Study. I may do a guest appearance now and then?

The Cambodian New Year is fast approaching (Apr13), and that means that Jenny & I will have a week off. We are excited for this because we really want to get into Vietnam and check that country out. So, we are trying to arrange a 5 or 6 day bus tour that would take us around southern Vietnam.

Anyways, that's what's we been up to. The photo below is of my favoritest preschooler in the world...........Contea (or Googles, as I affectionately call her).

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