Cambodia traffic

The streets of Phenom Penh, Cambodia are ecclectic to say the least! Here's a description of some of the various vehicles... and other things... I've seen share the road.

Mopeds are the most common form of transportation. I've seen anywhere from one to six people on a single moped. Monks, business men, women carting their goods to sell at market while holding their one-year-old, and entire families hanging on to each other utilize this relatively cheap form of transportation. The craziest thing I've seen toted on a moped has to be a rack with about thirty live chickens tied to it by their feet! We dubbed these as "Cambodian KFC." Many mopeds attatch passenger cars to make money by serving as taxis. These are called tuk-tuks, and riding in one is kinda like lake tubing behind a boat... only on the highway.

Cars also have their place on the streets here, anywhere from beat up pick-up trucks to shiny blue Porsches. A Lexus toting one or two people may be bumper-to-bumper with a ten passenger van stuffed with twelve people and three on top. This is the only country I've been to where I've seen a passenger sitting between the driver-side door and the driver! I constantly find myself thinking, "Huh, I've never thought of that."

Utility vehicles have open-air beds filled with anything from bricks to beer to pigs. At least a couple people will inevitably be catching a ride on top of whatever mound is moved. This is one of the cheapest ways to get around from town to town.

Also sharing a lane are manual vehicles such as rickshaws and bicycles. Many adults puruse the streets while pulling oversized wheelbarrows looking for cans or bottles to sell in order to make a living. Brahma bulls, brown cows, and dogs also weave in and out of the street at their own risk. Brahmas and water buffalo hang out on many streets of the more rural parts of Phenom Penh.

And the most recent addition to my list of Cambodia's wide gamut of transportation just walked down the busy street outside my hotel. No joke: a real live, ears-flapping elephant. Ha! My Cambodian friends who work in the lobby- many whom have become believers in Jesus Christ!!- didn't understand why I jumped up from my computer and ran outside with a dropped jaw.

Praise the Lord for our driver, because we are still alive!!

Cambodia's dark side

http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/history/khmer-rouge-history

This morning after breakfast I took the opportunity to read up a bit on the Khmer Rouge. This Communist group could be considered the Nazis of Cambodia in the 1970's. I can't believe that I was completely unaware that this scale of genocide occured in this country so recently. Until this trip, genocide was limited in my mind to the WWII stories of Auschwetz and the Nazis. I have heard about horrible genocide in Rwanda and Darfur as well. So how have I never heard of the Khmer Rouge?

Two of my teammates were born here in Cambodia and experienced the brutal Communist presence until they fled in 1980 to Thailand. One Cambodian pastor I met yesterday never left; he was also in this country the whole time. I can't even imagine what atrocities these friends of mine witnessed. Even as they tell me their personal childhood horror stories, I still can't fathom the tragedy. When the Khmer Rouge comes up in conversation with anybody I meet here, their eyes immediately soften and turn to the ground. It is difficult for Cambodians to talk about the effect it has had on them.

I bought a book called The Killing Fields from an eleven year old girl selling books out of a basket on the street. Many of the child street vendors have books about two things- the rampant Cambodian sex trade and the Khmer Rouge. The sex trade is a whole other blog... if I see one more just-over-middle-aged man walking to his hotel room with a quiet Cambodian woman in toe, I think I'll go insane. Single men holding hands with little boys walking down the street is another sight I've seen here in Phenom Penh. Children are heavily used in the sex industry here. My heart breaks just as Paul's must have while in the city of Corinth, seeing its thousands of temple prostitues practice their trade. Oh Jesus, show this city how its people can be clothed in your pure righteousness. Lead the foreigners who are here solely to indulge in Cambodia's women and children to repentance! Christian, please pray for this stronghold to be broken in Phenom Penh, Cambodia. There IS hope in Jesus Christ. God has and will prevail over Satan.

We are going to the actual killing fields and genocide museum today to see for ourselves what the Khmer Rouge did to Cambodia. Pray for my teammates who personally experienced this time period as they remember those psycological and emotional scars. More later.

Here are some pictures

This woman is a church member at the {pig farm church}. As she was leaving the church service, she told me to get on her bike and go home with her, ha. After packing up the van, the pastor asked us to follow him through the rice fields to a woman's house to encourage her, because she lives alone and may be kicked out of her house soon. Lo and behold, it was this sweet lady! I told her that I ended up coming home with her afterall. We were able to pray for her and assist her pastor in letting her know that she is loved and cared for by both God and her fellow believers.

I met some Brahmas between two kilns in the brick factory. You can see how long the giant kilns are by how far away the door is in the background. The workers were basically slaves to the brick manager until these kilns were filled with handmade bricks. They repeat the process daily of getting the clay, forming and fireing the bricks, and filling the kilns with the bricks. They had a quota of 10,000 bricks per day.

Heading to the {boat church} yesterday with some help from a church member. An elderly woman shared her testimony of having restless nights if she did not go to the Buddhist temple for a blessing from the monks each day. She said that now she has peace in Jesus Christ, the true God. She couldn't finish everything she wanted to say through being overcome with emotion. What a beautiful faith.

Today, we were able to visit the Cambodian Baptist Bible College in Phenom Penh. Here my dad, Cambodian teammate, and I are standing with the president of the school. It is a holiday in Cambodia this week, celebration of the dead. So the school was empty; however, we were able to meet the president who happened to be walking by. The school has sixty students at a time. We got to talk about the classes they offer *hermeneutics!* and tour the campus. Very encouraging.

Pig farm church

Hey, so last time I blogged was a bit rushed. One of the great things about the pig and duck farms at the "pig farm church" is the opportunity it gives these three families to support themselves in an environment in which they can raise the children. They have pig pins in the back of the house and a duck pin to the side. The pig waste is used as fertilizer for the land and provides ethenol gas to power the lights in the house. Rice fields ripe with rice surround the neighborhood. The families live alongside the pastor and leadership of a church we have connections with from the Cambodian Church back in Ft. Worth. The families have expressed that they are now believers in Jesus Christ and are active in the church. They say this is because of the love they have seen within the churches (abroad and local). "They will know we are Christians by our love."

Psalm 37

Hey yáll, I'm blogging from Phenom Penh, Cambodia.

The first thing we did was head about six hours north in order to visit the first two churches. Let's call the first church {festival church}, because it was putting on a festival. We got to see a lot of traditional Cambodian dancing and singing. It was beautiful worship to the one true God. It is such a privilege to be here with Cambodian Christians who are so thoroughly faithful to the Word. Their faith was challenging to me, especially that of one beautiful twenty-six year old girl. Let's call her C. She is crippled from the waist down and relies on a wheelchair bike with hand petals to get around. I had heard a story from my dad of a girl from one of the churches who traveled a mile and a half in her wheelchair in the rain and through the mud to go to the church. Lo and behold, the story was of C's first time attending festival church. That day, she didn't have money for a taxi. People on the muddy road taunted her, tried to push her bike off the road, and threatened to take away her Bible. I got a chance to talk and pray with her while we were there. She shared with me that when her alcoholic mother yells at her and people on the streets mock her, she gets her strength from Psalm 37 (Click the title of this post to read the chapter). There was no sign of self-pity in C. She was suffering and did not hide her tears. However, her faith was unshakable. Like Job in Job 2, she refused to curse God in her suffering. You know how Moses came down from the mountain with his face shining because he had spoken with God? I felt like the Hebrews must have felt after seeing Moses that day- astounded at someone with such intimacy with the Lord.

The next church we'll call {pig farm church}. A large portion of the people in this church consists of three families who used to live at a brick factory. Today, we actually visited the brick factory that they lived in. It's basically a few shelters built dangerously close to four or five giant brick kilns that are about twenty feet wide by fifty yards long. Smoke and soot pollute the air while the flames of the kiln keep the already humid climate even hotter. My dad, their team in February, and a couple of local churches were able to remove these families from this environment and place them in a place to live that is now connected to a pig and duck farm. I know this is vague, but for lack of a better phrase, visiting this church was incredible.

Then we went to the famous Ankor Wat Temple Ruins *<--where the picture was taken*, travelled back to Phenom Penh, and visited the next church. I've got to go- more later!

Cambodia Bound

Hey y'all! I'm flying out today for a two week trip to Cambodia (Click the title of this post, "Cambodia Bound," to get some information about the country of Cambodia). I'm going with my parents and three close Cambodian friends of ours. I'll try to update on here as much as possible when WiFi is available. Here's some information about this trip:

Half of the team, including my dad, has already been to Cambodia in February. This trip is a follow-up visit to the Cambodian churches they worked with. What was seven churches has become ten since February, praise the Lord! We will be going to each of these ten churches to work with them in various ways, including the following:

At some we will work to meet some basic needs as we are able in a way that will not breed unnecessary dependancy. At most if not all, we will offer basic Bible and mentoring training to lay pastors, leaders, and church members. Sharing the gospel through these churches and throughout our trip will also be a priority. A couple churches have pig farms in the process of being started and developed as a way to support the people there. There, my dad whom God has blessed with the gift of administration will be helping them with the business and figures side of this operation. There are other possible subsistence-type businesses that we will be looking into assisting as well. Children will also be surrounding us at each church, entailing children's ministry at all times! Encouragement of these churches will also be a priority through whatever activity we are involved in. Please pray for God to be glorified in and through all of these endeavors.

Another aspect of this trip lies in one of our team members, D. He is a Cambodian-American in his late teens. He and his parents make up the other half of our team, for which am very grateful! His parents spent their childhood in Cambodia and other surrounding countries, making their way to America in early adulthood. D was born here and has never been to his home-culture's country. This will be his first time to see Cambodia, and he will be meeting various family members along the way. Please pray for him in this emotionally charged journey.

The team will also be attempting to visit a Bible college in one of the major cities. This is really something I want to do for my personal interest, as well as to see if this college can work with any of the ten churches. In my mind, if there is a training center for Christian leaders in this city who will be looking for ministry opportunities in the near future, then we certainly have churches to hook them up with! Pray for this college and the Biblical equipping it is giving these Cambodian believers.

I'm sure I'm leaving something out, but this is the gist of the trip.

If you are committed to praying for me personally, please pray that I will not get in the way of what God wants to show me. Pray for me to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit the entire trip (i.e. in my attitude, in my response to seeing poverty and prostitution, in my communication and relating to my team, etc).

Prayer points include:

*Praying for the ten Cambodian churches (leadership, people, surrounding communities, businesses)

*Praying for the Bible College in the major city

*Praying for D and his first time to Cambodia

*Praying for our team to be filled with God's Spirit to do what He wants us to do

Since the team consists of portions of two families going together, pray that those of us going will be drawn together and used effectively within our family units. When we get back, it is important that we communicate to the rest of our family how God is making Himself famous in Cambodians' lives through these Cambodian churches.

Praise God that He is already at work in Cambodia, and will be at work long after we leave. We want to glorify Him in this small step we get to take into His grander, ongoing plan of redemption. Let all the nations be glad, for our God is the one true, living God!

Elisabeth Elliot

Elisabeth Elliot has unknowingly been one of my mentors for many years now. Her writing invades my heart and soul every time I read it, because she writes with the ink of suffering, wisdom, and breathtaking intimacy with the Lord. Here are some of her quotes that I stumbled upon.

"To be a follower of the Crucified means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. And the cross always entails loss."

-These Strange Ashes

"Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person's seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next."

-Quest for Love: True Stories of Passion and Purity

"One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy."

-Secure in the Everlasting Arms

"Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands."

"If we hold tightly to anything given to us unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used we stunt the growth of the soul. What God gives us is not necessarily "ours" but only ours to offer back to him, ours to relinguish, ours to lose, ours to let go of, if we want to be our true selves. Many deaths must go into reaching our maturity in Christ, many letting goes."

-Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

"I do know that waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts. Its easy to talk oneself into a decision that has no permanence – easier sometimes than to wait patiently."

-Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

"Where does your security lie? Is God your refuge, your hiding place, your stronghold, your shepherd, your counselor, your friend, your redeemer, your saviour, your guide? If He is, you don't need to search any further for security."

"Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son. This was the proof of His love – that He gave that Son, that He let Him go to Calvary’s cross, though “legions of angels” might have rescued Him. He will not necessarily protect us- not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process."

"When obedience to God contradicts what I think will give me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love Him."

"The will of God is not something you add to your life. It’s a course you choose. You either line yourself up with the Son of God…or you capitulate to the principle which governs the rest of the world."

"It is God to whom and with whom we travel, and while He is the end of our journey, He is also at every stopping place."

"We never know what God has up His sleeve. You never know what might happen; you only know what you have to do now."

And here's a wonderful quote from Origen:

"If we see some admirable work of human art, we are at once eager to investigate the nature, the manner, the end of its production; and the contemplation of the works of God stirs us with an incomparably greater longing to learn the principles, the method, the purpose of creation. This desire, this passion, has without doubt been implanted in us by God. And as the eye seeks light, as our body craves food, so our mind is impressed with the... natural desire to know the truth of God and the causes of what we observe. " -Origen (A.D. 185-254)