"Going where no man has gone before!"

The last couple of months have been quite a whirlwind. Our family left for the states back in November for a short furlough to visit family and friends.  Although our time was too short in Texas, we were glad to get back into a normal routine.  On January 1st, we departed the states to start the New Year back in Cambodia.

While in the states,  I was visiting with a friend of mine who would be returning to her home country in the next couple months. She had been living in the US for years, but felt  God was calling her to return to Africa and to minister the Gospel there.  She also shared her reluctance about how God could use her since she was woman, and how there were many challenges to face because of this.  I then began to share a story about my Cambodian friend, Sreymum.
(for confidentiality real names and locations are not used)

My friend and I traveling to the village 

Last year Sreymum and I, along with a small medical team, traveled to a village just outside of Phnom Penh.  As we were traveling,  she began to share about how she came to know the people there.  She said, "One day God told me to travel to this village". Sreymum resisted God saying, "I don't know anyone in this village. I don't know what to do when I go?  I am only a woman. How can I tell the people about you?  I don't have a certificate to teach the Bible!"  Sreymum finally gave in, and began traveling to this village every Saturday.  During this time she did not share the Gospel, but instead began talking and visiting with the people. Overtime, her relationship with the people deepened. One day, the village Buddhist monk approached her. This was highly unusual.  He began asking many questions about why she was coming to the village.  In the months to follow, Sreymum shared with him about why she was coming and about God's love for the people.

Shortly after, the monk gave his life to Christ! Today, about 80 families in the village gather on Sundays under a tarp to worship God.  Sreymum meets regularly with the monk, village chief, and other key leaders in the community to study the Bible.

This story often reminds me of Moses, and how he resisted God also.  He told God, I don't have what it takes to do what your asking me to do! How often do we say, "I can't because........."  But with God, all things are possible! 

Tricia

Our first day, we were met by 4,000 displaced people....

A couple of weeks ago,  I traveled 10 hours via a Cambodian night bus to Poipet, a border city of Cambodia next toThailand.  I met up with a medical team from England to help with a 3 day medical outreach.  Our original goal was to team up with a local Christian organization for a week of medical clinics in local villages.  About a week before we arrived, massive flooding occurred in the area causing many Cambodians to become displaced.  This radically changed our plans for the week.



Distributing supplies to 4,000 displaced flood victims

On our first day,  we were met by 4,000 displaced people (women, men, & children) as a result of the flooding.  TEAR fund and CHO (Cambodian Hope Organization) donated a set of supplies for the flood victims: 1 mosquito net, 20kg sack of rice, 1 large box of noodles, and soy sauce.
Our next day we traveled to the center of the city.  There on a concrete slab covered by a plain metal roof were about 300 displaced people.  No running water, no toilets, no relief.  Each family had created a temporary shelter which consisted of one rattan mat and a few personal belongings. Each family's mat was directly adjacent to the next family. We quickly set up a temporary clinic on the edge of the concrete slab and worked until the evening.



Organizing 300 displaced people at temporary shelter site

The second medical clinic was outside the city. We were ministering to 3 local villages where many had been displaced from the flooding.  One of the 400 people we were supposed to see was already waiting for us. She was carried in on a wood bench by the local villagers. She was a 16 year old girl, crying.  Tears of pain rolled down her face as her grandmother held her hand. She was suffering from an advanced stage of  breast cancer.

Her family was desperately poor. They were without resources. She was terminally ill and was suffering tremendously.  We soon  learned from the translator that she had no medication for pain relief.  We quickly adminstered  pain medication to her.  After about 45 minutes, once the pain medication had time to start working, I cleaned and placed fresh dressings on her chest wounds.  We gave the grandmother 2 months worth of pain medications and dressing supplies. Our ministry team prayed for her, and shared God's love to her. She prayed with the team. We helped her grandmother place her back into the tuk tuk, and she left back to her village.



City of Poipet, flooding of homes throughout the area

The next day several of our team members traveled out to where she was living. The area was flooded, and difficult to reach.  Even with a 4 wheel drive vehicle, it took the afternoon to travel to her home which was just a short distance away. She was living on a mat on the floor. Our team brought her a soft mattress pad, pillows, and sheets. Several of the village people thanked our team. They said "We don't know what medicine you gave her yesterday, but she is smiling now and eating, and she wasn't before". What a blessing to know she was comforted and through Christ we were able to minister to her. 
We finished up the week with two more medical clinic days, and I returned back to Phnom Penh.  Less than a week later, I received an email.  This young girl had passed away.  I was grieved deeply by such a tragic loss, but at the same time thankful that God used our team to minister to her and bring her comfort.

These are the times that make living in Cambodia difficult.    

On The Roof

During the last year of living in Cambodia I have done a number of things that take me out of my comfort zone, and most of the time they are done in interesting places that are also "out of the comfort zone". This week was no exception!

Each year, thousands of young Cambodian men and women leave their homes and families in rural provincial areas, to move to Cambodia’s capital city Phnom Penh. Seeking after education, careers and income, these young people leave their family homes in the hope of forging a better life for themselves, and the family members who depend upon them.

Young Cambodians leave their homes to live with distant relatives or family acquaintances in Phnom Penh. Mostly forced to fend for themselves, these young people pay their hosts for housing and meals in a variety of manners.  Unfortunately they only have a modest education, few marketable skills and are unequipped for an urban environment.

Every week “on the roof” our church has a team of talented English teachers who welcome hundreds of these young people to come and learn the English language for free. Classes start at 6:30am and run hourly until 6:30pm. These amazing teachers reach out and not only teach the students English, but provide them with life skills for surviving in their new city and begin the process of sharing the Gospel and discipleship. As the students begin to speak English they can then enroll in university, technical training schools or find jobs that provide a higher wage.

This week I had the privilege of being a guest teacher in one of our English classes. I went up “on the roof” and taught English using the Bible and the scripture 1 John 4:19 “We love because God first loved us.” I keep saying “on the roof” because our classes are actually “on the roof”. We use every inch of our facility, every day! The only place for English classes is “on the roof” under a tin cover. The same area "on the roof" serves as the children's church for hundreds of kids ages 5-12 on Sunday morning. 

This particular day there were about 40 young people. Almost all of them were from villages in provincial areas. My contribution this day was minute compared to the tireless efforts of our faithful teachers, but it was exciting to teach some English and share the Word of God. We spent time discussing what love truly means and talked about several examples. One young man talked about the selfless love of a mother for her child. When I asked him why a mother and father love a child, he answered “because the mother and father create the child.” Everyone agreed this was one of the purest examples of love.

My favourite moment was when one young lady asked the question “Why did Jesus love us first?” I was able to remind her of the young man's example and share with her that Jesus is the Creator of all life and that as a mother and father love their child, so Father God loves His children. We were then able to discuss God as Creator and as Father. In a culture where only 2% of the population is Christian these basic truths are new to most people. Thank God for the opportunity to use such a simple tool as teaching English to introduce people to Father God!

More than a Good Cup of Coffee!

Coffee Cart purchased by Mother's Heart

Sustainability is one of the main goals at Mother’s Heart when it comes to helping the women in our program become financially independent in their communities.  Most of the women at Mother’s Heart enter our program with little or no specialized skills that, along with being single, create an enormous hardship financially.

Once the women enter our program, we provide them access to either job placement or vocational training of their choice such as cooking, hospitality training, and sewing from fair trade organizations throughout Phnom Penh.  Before the training, the majority of the women only have the capacity to earn about $50-70 per month. After vocational training, their incomes increase substantially to $100-$130 per month.

Several months ago we had a creative and unusual request by one of the women in our program. Along with the help of her mother, she wanted to start her own micro enterprise business. Her idea was to sell coffee just outside a factory close to her home.  We were impressed with her idea as well as her recognition to select a location that would provide her with the most customer traffic.

The staff at Mother’s Heart shared in her and her mother’s vision by purchasing a coffee cart as well as the start up supplies necessary to allow them to start their business.  It has been both fun and exciting to partner with this family in raising their income level.  Micro enterprise is widely recognized as a powerful tool to help the very poor but business-minded, throughout the world to rise above poverty.  For as little as $200, we were able to make an incredible investment into the lives of this family!

If You Need Leaders - Make Disciples!

This week Reaksmey, our church’s Internship Coordinator caught me in the hallway and was really excited. “Wayne, this week during the opening week of our new internship group, 3 of our 17 new interns have accepted Christ.”

Interns in our church’s ministry apply to give one year of their life to learn about God, study the Bible and serve in church ministries. These are usually individuals who do not have any financial resources, yet voluntarily ask to participate full-time in the internship without compensation!

Many people who read this might ask the questions, “How can someone who has not accepted Christ serve in church ministries?” “Why would they volunteer a year without compensation?” “How do unbelievers have faith to believe God will provide for their daily needs for a year?”

I have to admit I am amazed at the hunger for God in a country where 98% of people are unbelievers. We have to turn away as many young people each year as we are able to accept in the internship. One of the things I have noticed in Cambodia in the healthiest, life-giving churches is that they do not focus on making converts, but focus on making disciples. Many of their ministry approaches are not focused on getting people to make a one-time decision, but focused on a long-term plan for discipling individuals. That means they develop ministries like the internship to build on current relationships with people wherever they are at on the spectrum - from seeking to know who God is to becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus.

At the same time Reaksmey (who is a graduate of last years intern class) told me about the good news, another of last years graduates found me and told me he had just been hired by one of the top Christian supplemental education organizations in Cambodia. Out of a large number of candidates he was selected because of his leadership abilities and his visible relationship with the Lord.

Seeing these young men and young women, who have been intentionally discipled by mature believers, being placed into leadership positions has helped me to understand some gaps I’ve had in my understanding of leadership development in the past. From my experiences I think we in the western world spend a considerable amount of time on making converts and then try to place them in leadership positions, without taking the long road of making true disciples.

To quote Landa Cope: “A reached community is not a discipled community.” God uses the process of personal discipleship to bring about spiritual transformation in individuals’ lives, and in turn, those transformed individuals influence their business, family, school and, in time, whole cities and nations.

The biblical mandate to make disciples (Matt 28) and the example Jesus lived should be enough to convince us that discipleship is the missing link and the true key to developing leaders. If you stop to think about it, the core qualities of a good leader are developed through the transformational process that discipleship provides.

If the church is to steward the message in the same manner as Jesus, we must make disciples who know, love and obey Jesus. This means that every aspect of their life must be different: how they work, love their family, tell the truth, handle money with integrity, and reach out to the poor.

Floyd McClung says this: “But if you want to build a leadership culture, if you want to impart apostolic passion to your church or movement, and if you want to see the gospel have its desired transforming effect on people and nations, it will happen because you make disciples.”

Matthew 28:19  “Go and make disciples of all nations”

Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World

This week marks the one year anniversary of our family moving to Cambodia. I vividly recall many unanswered questions  as we boarded the plane for Cambodia. The issue of taking Micah, Reece, and Kyler to Cambodia and raising them overseas was a difficult choice for Wayne and I. Our families asked us, “Will they be safe? How will they be educated? Will they have proper medical care?” Some say that one of the most challenging tasks for many missionaries is that of raising their children on the mission field. While Wayne and I both asked ourselves these same questions when we decided to make this move, the one answer we did have was this:  God called us as a missionary family to serve in Cambodia. He has a plan for our family to live and minister as successfully in Cambodia as we could in the U.S.

Micah handing out snacks at "Joy Club"

This last Thursday Wayne had an opportunity to take Micah out to the slums with the “Joy Club” at our church to minister to over 200 kids through Bible stories, hygiene lessons, and handing out snacks. When we asked Micah what he thought about it all he said:


“I feel sad for them. I feel blessed.  I feel like I should do something for them. Like more than just 10 cents or 20 cents. More like $25,000 so I can build a house for them.”

Micah, Reece, and Kyler are confronted daily with special opportunities and unique challenges. Wayne and I continually take steps to help them understand the world through their eyes.  While it’s true the USA is considered the land of opportunity, we believe that Micah, Reece, and Kyler are experiencing 'other' opportunities while living in Cambodia. They are seeing things and experiencing things differently than those living in the United States - but equally as beneficial. They are learning to relate on a new level to others who are not like them and learning to appreciate those differences. They are learning how to step out of their comfort zones. They are experiencing different cultures first hand - rather than just reading about them in geography books. They are learning to be resourceful, flexible, and adaptable.

Watching Bible Lesson

In preparation for our move to Cambodia a year ago, I read a specific children’s book to help me understand what the boys would go through and the challenges they would face. This book describes the experience of a little girl  moving to Taiwan with her parents to become a “missionary family”.  I recently recalled an excerpt from the book as I was reflecting over what the boys have experienced over this past year. 


 “Sure, my peanut butter (American) friends would never be the same as my Chinese friends. But  I had a wide variety of peanut butter friends, and I was beginning to realize that my Chinese            friends weren’t all alike either.  Friends came in all kinds of flavors.  And all of them were good.” ( Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World by Deb Brammer)

Thank you God for the amazing journey you have brought us through this last year. Thank you for our family and our friends both abroad and here in Cambodia. 

-Tricia

Miracle at 33 Weeks!

When we first met one of our new clients, our concerns for her health and the health of her unborn baby were at the forefront of the management of her case. For the safety and confidentiality of our clients we do not use real names and so for this story I will use the name Sopia. When clients first enter our program at Mother’s Heart, we accompany them to RACHA (health clinic) for general prenatal checks. It was this checkup that confirmed what we suspected from our preliminary screen. Sopia’s blood pressure was high. She was suffering from a condition called “preeclampsia” which basically means “before seizures” . Our staff began praying immediately for Sopia and her unborn baby.

Pre-eclampsia is a diagnosis given to women who suffer from high blood pressure and swelling under the skin during pregnancy which untreated can ultimately result in dangerously high blood pressure, seizures, and death. It occurs all over the world regardless of age, culture, or ethnic background. Access to an obstetrician is a luxury for most. According to the World Health Organization an estimated 12% of maternal deaths in Cambodia are as a result of this condition. It is estimated that 1 woman out of every 1,666 women will die in Cambodia from complications of pre-eclampsia, however in  comparison to the US the maternal mortality is 1.5 in every 100,000.

 Our Nurse Midwife, Sreytouch, continued to monitor Sopia closely over the following weeks. When Sophy was only 33 weeks pregnant, she developed complications from the preeclampsia and her baby was delivered by emergency C-Section weighing only 2.5lbs! Sopia’s baby boy was admitted immediately to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit here in Phnom Penh. He was placed on a ventilator, feeding tube, and I.V. Our staff continued to pray for a miracle that his lungs would be healthy and mature enough to sustain his breathing. God’s grace and answered prayers quickly followed. Sopia was discharged from the hospital a week later. Her baby boy continued to gain weight daily and after a few short weeks became independent from all the tubes and IV’s. He is thriving wonderfully and was discharged from the hospital just 4 weeks later. Thank you to everyone who prayed for Sopia and her son.

Please pray that pregnant mothers throughout Cambodia will have access to prenatal, labor, delivery, and post-partum care necessary to keep them safe and give birth to a healthy child.

-Tricia