Dreams Do Come True...

Often as I travel across Cambodia people tell me they dream of starting their own business. 81% of Cambodians earn their living through agriculture. The majority of these are poor rice farmers with small plots of land only able to produce enough rice for their family to simply survive. Whenever there is a flood or drought the family is plummeted into a crisis. Many of them dream of having their own business and are willing to work hard, but lack the start-up resources to begin a business and break their families cycle of poverty.

A few weeks ago I heard the story of Mrs. Sem Sam Ath from Chet Phanna, one of our amazing Samaritan’s Purse field staff.

“This year, we might not have enough rice to eat because of the floods affecting our rice field. But we might sell our pig to get enough capital to start a small grocery store in the village to provide for our family.” said the 34 year old, Mrs. Sem Sam Ath. She has two children and is living together with her husband and children in Sang village, in Kampong Chhnang province.

Every year this family provided for their members by cultivating rice and some additional vegetables around their yard. She was looking to start a small store in front of her house in order to earn additional income to provide for her family. Unfortunately she didn’t have enough money to start this enterprise. With Seeds of Hope (a Samaritan’s Purse Project) help she was actively involved in most of the trainings which our field officer provided in her village such as compost making, fish farming, and home garden sessions.

In the last five months, she was selected to benefit from the pig project and she was trained in how to effectively raise pigs. After the training she also was provided with building material to build a pig house and was given two vaccinated piglets.

Since that time we saw her pigs grow really fast and remain healthy. When we first started the pig project, we indicated that over a four month period from the day we distributed the piglet that the pig’s weight should be at least 154lbs. This month her pigs were measured using our calculation and we found that each pig weighed about 198 pounds.

“After I sell these two pigs, I will buy two more piglets to replace the previous ones and with the remaining money I will construct a store in front of my house to sell products to gain more income to provide for my family. Finally, we would like to say a big thank you to Samaritan’s Purse for helping improve both our knowledge and living conditions and for supporting us” said both Mrs. Sem Sam Ath and her husband.

Proud of her village store! 

The end of the story is that this week I was able to visit and see the fulfillment of Mrs. Sem Sam Ath’s dream. Not only was she able to buy 4 more piglets after the sale of the two pigs she raised, but she was able to open her village store.

I share this story with you because I know many of you have helped purchase fish ponds, pigs, chickens and other livelihood projects, but might not have ever seen the outcome of your generosity. Mrs. Sem Sam is a great example of someone who works hard and has taken your helping hand to make her families dreams come true. 

Things I never knew fit in a shoebox!

When Tricia and I came to Cambodia to work with Samaritan’s Purse many people asked us if we ever got to be a part of delivering the Operation Christmas Child shoebox Christmas gifts to children. Most of our work is with relief and development projects and we haven’t been involved with Operation Christmas Child. However, this month I got the amazing privilege of being part of a team working alongside the local church to give the gifts in churches and schools in Pursat province. It was during the distribution of these gifts that I found some surprising gifts that come through Operation Christmas Child.

Giving the gifts was a touching experience. In one village we passed out gifts to the children in the village primary school. At the end of our time at the school one of the teachers grabbed us and ushered us into her classroom. She thanked us for coming that day and showed us her desk drawer. In her drawer were a few odds and ends and three pencils. She told us her class of around 20 had to share these 3 pencils to do their work every day because the students were from poor families and couldn’t afford school supplies. She said her students were excited today because they all received writing pencils and colored pencils in their shoebox gifts. I guess God knew which gifts needed to come to this village. At another location after the gifts were given a mother came to us and thanked us for her 5 year- old son’s gifts. In his gift was a pair of flip-flop shoes. She was very appreciative and went on to tell us this was her son’s first pair of shoes. She wanted to know how someone knew what her son needed. We were able to tell her it is God who knows our every need and desire and only He can fulfill!

While these were all touching stories, they were one’s I was expecting to hear. I had heard many stories like these before. What I wasn’t expecting to hear was the stories of other ways the Operation Christmas Child gifts affected many others involved in the process. I was amazed to hear that things like unity, leadership development and church empowerment came with every shipment of shoebox gifts.

We traveled to the shoebox distribution sites with Sophea Sem. Sophea is a young Cambodian pastor who is the head of the National Leadership Team responsible for distributing nearly 100,000 shoeboxes in Cambodia this year.

As we went from village to village Sophea told me how pastors had a difficult time trusting one another after the affects of years of war. Working together to coordinate the giving of 100,000 shoeboxes across the country had given pastors a reason to work together. Operation Christmas Child has brought pastors together for a unified purpose and mobilized the church to reach children and parents in the target areas.

He said tackling the large task was a great leadership development tool. Dealing with the organization and logistics of handling such a large project had stretched many pastors and leaders and improved their leadership capacity.

Finally he shared how the generous gifts from around the world also facilitated church empowerment in Cambodian communities. When village and provincial leaders saw the generosity and love of Christians around the world working together with the local churches of Cambodia, they have started showing the church more respect and given them opportunity to have a voice in the community. In Pursat province on the final day of our distribution this was evident when the Pursat City Mayor, the Provincial Governor and one of the Secretary’s of State for the Country of Cambodia all attended a ceremony where local church leaders presented 2,000 children with shoebox gifts. During the presentation the gospel was presented and the Secretary of State stood up and declared to the children and families, that while Cambodia is a Buddhist state, they all had the freedom to follow Christ if they chose. This was an amazing declaration for such a high-level government official. Another surprising gift I never thought would fit in a small shoebox.

Difficult Choices!

Recently, I had the incredible and humbling experience of organizing and running a mobile medical clinic with our staff from Samaritans Purse Cambodia along with a medical volunteer team from Samaritan's Purse Canada. Our two day medical clinic took place at the Maternal Health Center in a small village in the province Preah Vihear. It was a blessing to hold the clinic in this particular province because this is the village where Samaritan's Purse is opening a new base this year. The clinic provided a great opportunity to work with the village leaders and health center staff as well as minister to the physical needs of the people. In addition, we were able to donate a large number of vitamins and medications to the Health Center. Furthermore, we were excited to be able to give two baby cribs to the maternity ward.  This was a special time for us as a team to be able to assemble and donate the cribs because currently the center had no cribs to place newborns in. 

Team Assembling Baby Crib

The logistics of organizing a mobile medical clinic are challenging and God always humbles me in different ways with each clinic I run. My nursing speciality is both emergency as well as cardiac. By far the most difficult job whether it is in the US or in a mobile clinic setting in a developing country is the triage process. This is the process of deciding who gets to see the doctor first.

First time for the maternity ward to have baby cribs

In the US, I know every patient I triage in the emergency room will have the opportunity to be examined by a doctor. However, this is not always the same in developing countries. The night before every mobile clinic, I pray and ask God to give me wisdom for the triage process for the next day. In Cambodia, not everyone has equal access to healthcare, so we always have more people come than we can possibly ever see.  As I pray, I realize that I will have to make the tough decision of deciding who gets to see the doctor. I do not take this job lightly. I know it is always important to bathe the decisions in prayer because during the mobile clinic the Gospel of Jesus is presented.

At this clinic we were be able to treat around 120 people. I always calculate the number of patients I think a clinic can handle based the number of the volunteers I have along with the number of physicians. However, the typical number of people who will arrive at any mobile clinic is anywhere from 300-500 and sometimes more once word spreads that there are doctors present.

This morning was not any different. As the sun began to rise and we arrived at the clinic, there were  about 250 people already present and more people were arriving as each moment passed. This is when the difficult moment arrises. I quickly work my way through the crowd to select the 120 people who I feel need medical attention the most. The burden is always painfully difficult as people stare into my eyes and physically tug at my pant legs hoping I will select them. With great care and deep thought, I selected the 120. With great disappointment that never gets any easier,  I announced to the remaining hundreds that we will not be able to treat them. 

The two days of hosting the clinic were bittersweet. On the one hand we were able to treat a large number of patients and improve their physical health and minister to their spritual need, but on the other, we had to turn away hundreds. Although this is always a difficult challenge I know it is something we as the body of Christ must continue to do. I was reminded that this is why I am in Cambodia. This is what I am called to do. I am thankful to  God for choosing to use me in this capacity.

What does harvest mean to you?

Coming from a technology culture where corporations produce everything from my computer to the food I eat at dinner every night, sometimes causes me to miss out on the significance of words like “harvest” in Jesus’ teachings.

When you say the word harvest in Cambodia everyone knows what you are talking about. Harvest time is one of the most important seasons of the year for the entire country. Every November life in Cambodia revolves around the rice harvest. The word for food in Cambodia is actually “bai” which means rice. So when you are talking about food it always revolves around rice (breakfast, lunch and dinner). When an entire culture revolves around an event you can’t help but take notice and think about it’s significance and meaning.

Harvested rice on the roadside

Cambodia is a beautiful green country during rainy season. If you travel in any direction in any part of the country you will see endless fields of beautiful green rice. When the rain stops in October everything changes. The rice begins to mature and you can feel the anticipation. In many areas of the country this year the flooding caused widespread anxiety as people were worried the rice crop would be destroyed. You see, everyone gets the staple of their entire years food supply all during this one season. Rice is harvested, dried and stored to be used all year.

Everyone is involved in one way or another. Even the young people in the cities travel to their home province to help with the rice harvest. Our IT specialist, Panha, came in on Monday and was acting tired. I asked him why he was moving so slow. He is young and energetic, but that day he said he was really sore from cutting the rice stalks in the province all weekend. Young people like Panha have good jobs, but their parents often depend on their help during the harvest to produce the income and food they will need for the rest of the year. The young people of course get their share of the rice and bring it back with them. You can see mats of rice drying in the sun on sidewalks and roadsides all over the city of 2 million people in Phnom Penh.

Rice drying in the sun

Rice being thrashed

 We were travelling in the province (countryside) last week and I was able to observe how the harvest works. There are thousands of small plots (1 to 4 acres) one right beside the other each owned by a different person or family. The fields are a beautiful green. One day a field will turn from green to a beautiful gold (I think Jesus used the word white when He talked about it). The entire family will wade out in knee deep water to their field and in a matter of a couple of hours cut the entire crop and haul it by hand to the nearest road or water buffalo cart path. The stalks are dried and fed to the cattle and the heads are thrashed and the rice grains are separated and dried for storage. Everything is used. A good rice crop means a prosperous and healthy year ahead.

Entire family in Takeo province who accepted Christ.
Pictured with ministry team and church pastor. 

This week we were in the Takeo province during rice harvest. I couldn’t help but draw a parallel between the rice harvest and the harvest we were seeing as a result of four years of work in the Seeds of Hope program. The project staff and ministry team had been working with villages teaching agriculture techniques, animal husbandry and providing seed projects of chickens, pigs and cattle. Our WASH program had also been drilling wells to provide clean, safe drinking water. During that four years the field staff, ministry team and local church had also been sowing seeds of love and the message of Christ. I know seeds, water and harvest may seem cliché to some, but when you are living it, it isn’t a flippant saying. It is a reality. As the ministry team and church pastor travelled in these villages, visiting with families we were literally seeing a harvest. Just like in the book of Acts we would see entire families make decisions for Christ. As the Seeds of Hope and WASH projects were coming to a close, the church was seeing a corresponding harvest.

What does "harvest" really mean to you?

This made me ask some questions. Does my life revolve around a preparation and anticipation for the harvest? Do I and my church understand our future relies on the harvest? Does our culture revolve around it? Are we waiting with sickle sharpened in hand as a family ready to go to work when the field turns golden?

“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” John 4:35 ESV

A Hard Day

Every day begins with the anticipation of what situation God might use to reveal Himself through. Most days at the end of the day I have some new happening to ponder and a sense of joy from seeing positive change in people’s lives. Those are the days I love to share stories about with you!

Unfortunately, today wasn’t a day that ended that way. Today was one of those days I don’t like to talk much about, but one of those days that does happen often in our work in Cambodia. I will break the golden rules of blogging here and post more than 600 words and show no pictures, but if you really want to share what life is like in Cambodia with me you’ll take a few minutes to read this through.

As always I started my day with great anticipation. We were going to one of my favorite areas in Takeo province. Takeo is beautiful and the people there have worked hard to develop their villages, churches are growing, and people are very friendly and open. When we first arrived at the pastor’s house I could immediately recognize the sound of a Buddhist monk’s funeral chant a few houses away. We asked what happened and the pastor told us a man had fallen from a tree picking coconuts and died a couple of days before. This was sad, but it wasn’t someone we knew so there was a sense of distance from it. We asked the pastor how we could help today and she asked if we could visit the sick with her.

Our first visit was to Serey Mum. Serey Mum was a young lady in her 20’s. We had to climb up into her one room stilted bamboo home to visit with her. She shared her story as she lay on a mat on the floor. Two months earlier she had been climbing a tree picking coconuts in her front yard when she fell. The 15 to 20 foot fall had left her with no feeling or ability to move from the waist down. Her family did not have the money to purchase transportation to the nearest hospital 200 km away. While we sat there with Serey Mum her daughter, who looked to be about 8 years old, fed her small bits of food and fanned her to keep her cool. This humble bamboo one room home had no running water or electricity. While this whole situation was difficult enough to process I soon began to notice Serey Mum was coughing often. I knew enough from Tricia’s nursing stories to know laying on her back all this time was allowing pneumonia to set into her lungs. I began to get upset when I realized for a coconut, worth 37 cents, Serey Mum had been paralyzed and was lying here in a very desperate situation.

Many people will ask at this point why we didn’t do something. Remember I said these days happen too often, but I don’t like to talk about them. We carry benevolence funds with us for just these type of situations. We gave Serey Mum and her family enough money that day to provide transportation and a medical exam, but we all knew she would likely tell her husband to use the money for food and clothing for the children and family instead of for her personal needs. There are some things the Western mind cannot understand.

As we continued to visit with her the small home began to fill with villagers. Before we knew it the room was filled with 10-12 adults listening to us encourage Serey Mum with the Word of God. We had a full room of people who were hungry to hear more about the God we were sharing about. During that time two of the local pagoda leaders joined in the conversation. As we shared the gospel, they began to try to show us the good they had done by sharing a small notebook that showed the record of alms they had collected from villagers to give to the poor. These men were touched by the Word of God, but when others decided to respond to the Gospel they said their own righteousness, proven by their alms collections, was enough.

I could try to turn this story into a bright and cheerful one by sharing that two people made decisions for Christ that day, by sharing that Serey Mum was a Christian who knew Christ and was ready to meet Him. Somehow, though I could rejoice, it did not bring joy to me that day. I won’t try to discuss the theology, but on this day I think for a moment I understood John 11:35. We see in this story Jesus, knowing Lazarus would rise again, was still touched as a man by his friends’ death.  I think on this day I might have understood why “Jesus wept”.

We prayed for Serey Mum, believing in a God who does the miraculous, without seeing a change. We also went on that day praying for an elderly lady who went to a traditional medicine man for an eye infection and was now blind in one eye and had a worse infection. Again we prayed for a man with a lung infection and blood pressure problems. I have seen God do some miraculous things during my time here in Cambodia, but today was not one of those days.  Today was a day where my heart and life, and the life of Serey Mum, was caught in the tension between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. This place of tension often makes many days difficult, but this one was a particularly hard day. My heart was deeply saddened, and though it was a hard day, at least I can say it was not a bad day.

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.” Psalms 118:24 

Hope For Life Rekindled

Sreya's appearance when I met her for the first time

As I stared out from the back seat car window of the Samaritan’s Purse field vehicle, I try to imagine what my life would be like to live in the Cambodian slums with Wayne and the boys. The houses I see are nothing more than small squares of either wood or sheet metal with dirt floors barely large enough for sleeping and burning wood to cook over.  As the vehicle I am in comes to a stop in front of one of these homes, I open the door and am overwhelmed with the smell of garbage permeating the vehicle.  I scooted over in the seat to make room for a young Cambodian woman and her little girl.  

The little girl is a two-year old bright eyed beautiful child named Sreya. She is both a frail and medically fragile child. She is consistently hospitalized with severe breathing problems.  In March of 2011, the Targeted Child Nutrition Program Team, whom I am interning with, met Sreya and her mother while conducting a nutritional screening of children in this particular slum. Srey was found to be acutely malnourished. TCNP also provide Sreya with a medical screening. It was that medical screening that revealed Sreya was suffering from a serious congenital heart defect that is continually and progressively worsening.

That morning, we were taking Sreya to the Calmette Cardiology Clinic here in Phnom Penh to obtain an echocardiogram (picture of her heart).  Later that day, after the   echocardiogram was completed, the TCNP program manager, the cardiologist, and I sat down to discuss Srey’s health.  The result was clear. Her condition would continue to deteriorate without heart surgery.

My TCNP manager immediately contacted Angkor Children’s Hospital’s in Siem Reap, Cambodia. After consulting with cardiologist Dr. Lyda, it was agreed that Sreya needed immediate corrective surgery without any delay. The TCNP team quickly contacted the family and made the arrangements to bring Sreya to Angkor Children’s Hospital’s. On admission, Sreya’s condition was already deteriorating. Wayne and I along with the staff of Samaritan’s Purse immediately began praying that Sreya would be stable and strong enough to undergo the surgery.  Sreya’s family was also encouraged by the prayers and support of the staff at Samaritan’s Purse. Two days later, the surgery was performed on Sreya’s heart. God strengthened Sreya and the surgery went well without any complications.

Sreya’s hope for life is back. For the first time in Sreya’s life, her heart beats normally and the murmur is gone.

Sreya’s grandmother says her grandchild “now breaths normally, has good appetite to eat food and looks very healthy”.

Above all, Sreya has a big smile on her face. Sreya’s family thanked Samaritan’s Purse for saving the life of their little girl.

Sreay after her surgery

Sreya is one of many children suffering from life threatening heart conditions. It is estimated that nearly 20000 children in Cambodia suffer from congenital heart diseases. Shortened lifespan and lifelong morbidity results from a lack of diagnosis and proper treatment. Proper diagnosis and referrals with help and encouragement to the family can change the lives of these children. Most importantly, the love of God can touch the hearts of the parents as they receive care from Samaritan’s Purse staff which I am blessed to be a part.

Work Hard Play Hard – Leeches, Waterfalls and Green Vipers

When Tricia and I first got married we realized very quickly we were both driven people who had very strong work ethics and we needed to make sure we took time out in life for fun and relaxation. For us that translated into the philosophy that if we were going to work hard then we were going to play hard. We made sure in our financial stewardship that we planned for intense times of fun and relaxation (I know I used intense and relaxation in the same sentence, but that’s just who we are). When we came to Cambodia we decided the same philosophy applied no matter where we are in the world.

Lazy Afternoon

For the last four months we’ve been spending most of our time working and even made sure on weekends we were plugged in to a strong local church. Tricia was originally supposed to only work part-time (20 hrs/week) with her internship, but has actually worked about 35 hrs/week on top of being an incredible mom. We’ve taken several day trips to experience some of the incredible cultural opportunities life in Cambodia has to offer 3 boys from West Texas, but really needed a few days to disconnect from work and spend some good quality family time playing hard.

This last week our office was closed Wed-Sun for the Cambodian Water Festival. We decided we would  go on a family adventure to a lodge in the jungle. We took a 5 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh and followed the directions on the lodge’s website. It simply said to stop the bus at the fourth bridge on Road 48 and get out of the bus and go under the bridge and someone will be there to meet you. When we got there our guide was there and off we went in a traditional Khmer riverboat (there was no road access to where we were going, the only way to reach it was by boat). The river was surrounded by thick bamboo and tropical forest with mountains on both sides. When we arrived at the lodge we walked on elevated walkways to our bungalow on stilts (everything was about 6 feet off the ground). We soon understood why everything was off the ground!

Notice the stylish Socks on the Rocks

On our first morning there we decided to go for a guided hike. We climbed over the mountain behind the lodge and took about a 2 hour hike through the jungle to the Tatai Waterfalls. When we set out that morning our guide told us to be ready for the leeches, but told us not to worry these weren’t the big ones. I don’t know where they came from, but there were thousands of them and they moved fast. I had always imagined leeches as these slow moving creatures that attached themselves to something that stayed in one place too long. No matter how fast we moved these tiny leeches would find a way to attach themselves to our shoes and then climb their way up (You had to move fast to catch them before they got too far up your leg if you know what I mean).

Stopping to pick the leeches off

The boys were amazed at the small wildlife we saw: geckos, red dragonflies, colorful birds, tree frogs, skinks (kind of like a lizard), spiders, a variety of insects and a giant black scorpion the size of your hand. Although we all had to stop several times to remove leeches, it was worth the work when we arrived at the amazing waterfall. We enjoyed a couple of hours of swimming, climbing and Micah even jumped off the top when he thought mom and dad weren’t looking! Thank goodness a boat was waiting to take us back to the lodge at the end of the day.

Sleeping under  mosquito netting

The food and accommodations at Rainbow Lodge were incredible. All the food was fresh from local village farmers and fishermen from across the river. The entire place was solar-powered and designed to be eco-friendly. We would wake up every morning to the singing of Gibbons (a type of monkey) across the river.

One of our favorite activities was our next day kayak trip alone as a family. We set out together in two kayaks going upriver looking for something interesting. We saw water buffalo swimming in the edge of the river and a blue kingfisher flying across the top of the water.  After paddling about thirty minutes we saw a break in the forest and small stream that joined the river. We heard water rushing and decided to check it out. We found a beautiful waterfall created from a small stream that flowed down from the top of a very large hill. Before Tricia and I could get out of our kayaks the boys had started climbing the rocks headed for the top of the waterfall. We climbed the 900 ft waterfall and found freshwater shrimp and crabs along the way in small ponds formed at each level. The flowers and plants were beautiful, but somehow we missed the extremely beautiful and highly poisonous green viper two men from England found the next day at the same place after we told them about our find.

Finally after a couple of full days of adventurous activities we had worn the boys down enough that Tricia and I had a day to relax and get some rest before going back to work. That didn’t stop the boys from exploring and discovering bat caves, orb-web spiders and bamboo shafts they made into spears. In the afternoon we were reminded of home and weekends with friends and family when we took a lazy swim in the river floating on innertubes and jumping off the dock.