Snake Inside The Boat, Snakes Outside The Boat. Where Do You Go?

Last week there was flooding in Cambodia and we had to use 4 wheel drive trucks to reach many of the schools and communities we were working with. But it just kept raining.

When it floods in Cambodia, people aren’t the only ones displaced from their homes. Tricia learned last year that snakes are also displaced. Her medical outreach team came across two cobras in a chicken coup that were looking for higher ground!

This week the flooding was so bad the roads to the communities where I was travelling were completely submerged in water for miles. When we got ready to travel to one community the local staff I work with told me we would have to travel by boat for at least 8 miles to reach it.

When he said “boat” he was being generous. The boat he was referring to was more like a wooden plank with a lawn mower engine attached and an egg beater for a propeller.

We headed out in our “boat” and before we got very far the young lady sitting behind me started screaming in Khmer. I didn’t understand the word she was using but looked down to see a “snake” writhing around in the boat just 8 inches beneath the bamboo seating we were sitting on. We all lifted our feet up on the edge of the boat and started looking for a shallow place to step out of the boat. The next problem was that when we got to a shallow area we looked over the side of the boat to see a snake we knew was poisonous swimming towards us looking for something to climb up on.

Snake crawling under shoes in the bottom of the boat.

We were stuck in the boat and turned out into a rice field away from the snake. I couldn’t get out of the boat, but was stuck in the boat with a snake. Where was I going to go? As I spoke to the boat driver he didn’t seem to be concerned and told me to relax and said “no problem”.

I can’t say I was able to relax, but as we glided across the top of the water through what used to be an irrigation canal in a rice field, I began to think about a meeting I had been in two weeks earlier with two young ladies from Iran. These two young ladies stood up in front of some of the leaders of the largest missions agencies in the world and told the story of being imprisoned for their faith. They told of the horror they went through in the prison and their decision to face death instead of denying Christ. At the end of their talk they implored the leaders to continue sending missionaries and biblical resources into the hardest to reach and most dangerous places in the world.

As I thought of these two young ladies I began to realize my current situation paled in comparison. I started asking myself how many times I had played it safe instead of pressing on and sharing the love of Christ in questionable situations.

Life as a Christian is often similar to the situation I was facing on the boat. There was a snake in my boat and snakes swimming around outside my boat. There seemed to be danger all around so the easy solution would be to turn back and quit to avoid danger. But what did we do, we just kept going.

This is the heart Jesus has put in passionate believers. Keep Going! No matter what the circumstances we know His heart beats and yearns for those who do not know Him.  All we have to do is Go!

The bible clearly tells us we will face obstacles and suffer.

Philippians 1:29-30 “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.”

But it also tells us He has given us authority and anointing when we face such challenges, even snakes.

Luke 10:19 “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.”

We kept going that day and were able to spend time and share with teachers and students in the village. I wondered that day how many people around the world are waiting for someone to push through challenges and danger, so they can hear and know the Love Jesus gives in abundance.

When we arrived at our location I asked the boat driver why he didn’t get rid of the snake. He told me he was keeping the snake for Lunch! That was an added plus to me on this trip to know that snake got cooked and eaten. 

Discover your Purpose, Travel the World, Change a Life....

When Wayne and I decided to move to Cambodia, we took time to seek God about what specific areas he wanted us to focus on while serving here.  The needs of the people here seems to overwhelm me, and I’m moved compassion everyday.  It would be very easy to become splintered in ministry here because of the flood of spiritual, emotional, and physical needs that come before us on a daily basis. However, Wayne and I have both made a commitment to be intentional and faithful to the three main areas that we get excited about, are moved by, and feel called to: Justice, church planting, and leadership development.

Applying for Visa's to the US

Cultural Dinner at our House: intro to meals without rice!

Raven’s Hope International is one of those ministries that I get excited about. RHI is a Christ-centered resource center that offers spiritual growth, leadership development, and missionary opportunities to young ladies 18-30 from around the world. Starting this past June and for the following three months, I began mentoring  seven amazingly, strong young Cambodian women.  For three months, we met regularly at my home for intense training in preparation for their 6 month internship at Raven’s Hope International in Kansas City.  Sokleak, Leakena, Dara, Tevory, Chantrea, Phissara, and Sorany had overcome amazing obstacles to arrive at this once in a life time opportunity, and I am so proud be a part of the process in this journey of their lives.

Group Photo taken one week before departing for US (Phnom Penh)

God moved many mountains for this process to occur, and it was a sweet victory when they departed for the US on the 1^st of September.  Many of them had sacrificed more than what I could comprehend to obtain this internship. These young ladies taught me much through this time about courage, strength, and faith. They will return in March, following the internship.  I am excited to be able again to mentor them through another three months of debriefing, re-integration, and discipleship as they return back into communities in Phnom Penh. They will take what they learned, put it into action, and impact their nation for Christ! WOW! I get to be a part of that!

Tricia

 

Long-Term Investments: What you can do in the short-term to have a long-term impact!

If you are looking for a blog on retirement savings or mutual funds, this might not be what you were looking for, but please keep reading!

Short-term missions team from Abilene

For years Tricia and I led short-term missions teams from Texas, but now we are on the receiving end of those teams and are involved in long-term missions. Over the years I have heard a number of debates about the effectiveness of short-term teams in the work of long-term mission fields. This blog isn’t meant to be a part of that debate, but it is meant to point out how a recent short-term team prayerfully and intentionally made investments on the field with long-term returns in mind.

Assisting the Youth with a landscaping project at village church

The past 2 weeks we were excited to have a short-term missions team made up of people from 3 churches in the Abilene, Texas area, including our sending church Beltway Park. For several months the team and team leaders emailed and skyped back and forth with Tricia and I. While we scheduled some of the typical outreaches short-term teams commonly engage in, this team really took time to research about Cambodia, ask lots of questions and most importantly strategize with us about how they could have a meaningful impact. They didn’t develop their own schedule trying to provide an exciting “experience” for the team, but asked how each person’s individual skills and abilities could serve the local churches and ministries of Cambodia. They were also interested in projects the team could invest in that would have a meaningful, long-term impact.

 I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the team’s thought processes. They didn’t make suggestions about some of the typical giveaways and handouts that can often create dependencies or reinforce the feelings of low self-esteem in vulnerable communities. Instead they looked for opportunities to empower people, to partner with people who desired to work and gain self-respect and dignity. They

were also really practical in providing solutions to local problems, using local resources.

Portable Sugar Cane Food Cart

Here are just a few of the many projects they were involved with:

1)     Assisting a vulnerable single mother with her dream of purchasing a portable food cart, so she could increas her income potential and provide stability for herself and her child.                                                    

72 ceramic water filter

 

2)Assisting a village with their initiative of purchasing 10 sewing machines, so a sewing cooperative could be set up. This cooperative will allow 13 8^th graders continue their studies in the 9^th grade and beyond(the drop-out rate for that age group in this village was about 70% previously) and help stabilize vulnerable families in the village.

    
3) Provide 72 families with water filters. Water filters aren’t something most people think about, but in a third world country where people die every day from water-born illnesses, water filters and teaching on hygiene can have a significant community impact.

Helping a family to construct a latrine

 

4)     Had a flower planting/landscaping time with the youth of a village church. This was something the village church was already working on.  The team just followed their lead and helped further their vision.

5)   Worked side by side together with a family to build a latrine in their new home. This family had recently been forcibly evicted from their former home.

It was refreshing to see the team use their personal skills and abilities to serve vulnerable communities.  They were able to share the Gospel, strengthen and encourage believers and leaders, all through practical, common-sense projects.

Amazing 10 days with short-term team making a long-term impact!

  

It's Been A Tough Week

When we started this week I knew it was going to be a bit of a depressing week, but it got worse as the week went along. We have known for a while that 6 families, we had grown close to, would be moving on to the next place God is calling them in their journey. We were excited for each of them as they were embarking on new adventures, but sad we would no longer be part of their daily lives. It has affected the whole family as one is Reece’s best friend Gabe, another is a family in our apartment building whose kids are playmates with Kyler and Reece, and others we work with at New Life and are in our weekly life group. The fact they were all leaving within one week of each other made it a pretty significant change for us.

As the week went on I was reading a prayer letter from a friend and took note of this paragraph:

“There is a scale we sometimes used in Psychology called the Holmes Rahe Life Stress Inventory. It asks you to note any major life events that you have experienced in the last year, and accords them a score based on how stressful they are. When you have a score of 300+ points in one year, you are likely to get ill and require hospital admission, as a result of the stress. However, research has shown that missionaries and other cross cultural workers can reach 800-900 in the first year and average out at about 600 points annually after that. Life on the mission field is stressful!”

After reading the paragraph I went online and took this stress inventory. It asked me to mark major life events I’ve experienced recently and then gave me a score of the level of stress I should be experiencing. Let’s just say I should be providing a Cambodian doctor with a steady stream of income!

The day after I took the stress inventory, I went to work and found out some horrific news. A young South Korean missionary family who had spent the last two years in Phnom Penh in language school had launched out the day before, moving to Siem Reap to begin their missionary work. On the drive to their new city and ministry their car was hit by a bus. The mother, father and two of the children were killed. Two more children were seriously injured including the 7 year old, Esther, who had not only lost her mother, father and siblings, but lost her arm and has brain injuries. Esther is in Reece’s class at Hope and is a friend. As I digested the news, I was of course heartbroken for the family, but also wondering how I would go home and break the news to my family. How do I tell Reece about his friend? How do I keep the whole family from being fearful about life in Cambodia? It isn’t hard to imagine this could just as easily be our family.

This week, along with two years of other experiences, has caused me to deeply consider the question, “Is it healthy for my family to be here?”  When we embarked on this adventure I would often use the saying I had heard so many others use, “The safest place for a person to be is in the center of God’s will.” I’ve truly believed the reason I’m not in a hospital somewhere is because of the “peace of God that passes all understanding” guarding my (and my family’s) heart and mind from the stresses of life in Cambodia that could easily disable us. But knowing this Korean family has shaken me a bit this week.

It was then that I read a chapter in The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus. Erwin had researched the often-quoted saying about safety in God’s will. Interestingly, the original source of that quote was Corrie Ten Boom. Corrie had made this statement referring to her time as a prisoner, with her sister, in a Nazi prison camp. In that place of “safety” her and her sister shared Christ, but her sister soon died as a result of the horrible conditions. I wonder if people who so easily use this saying really know it’s original context. I didn’t.

Christ’s call to us is “take up your cross and follow Him”. Where He leads us may not be safe, but one thing I am assured of this week is that He is here with us. In Western theology we have too easily allowed the idea that accepting Christ means we will live a life of ease creep into our hearts and minds. We forget to read the full chapter on heroes of the faith in Hebrew’s 11, enjoying the first half of the chapter, but ignoring the part saying most of them never lived to see the fruit of their faith.

I’m not in a morbid state of mind, nor am I thinking of living a foolish life with my family. I am simply recognizing Christ’s call to each of us is to take up our cross and follow. I’m reminding myself this week that it is the Grace of God that makes us distinct from the rest of the world. It is the Grace of God that enables us to encounter stressful life experiences, and yet live a life of health. Graham Cooke once said there are no good days or bad days, simply days of Grace.  Pray for our family as we learn to live in this realm of Grace. This has been a Grace-filled week!

Wayne

A Restored Life

I can barely contain my excitement for one of the young women in our program at Mother's Heart crisis pregnancy center.  She just recently received notice that she will able to attend a local university. I am so proud of her courage, inner strength, and persistence in fulfilling her dream to pursue a university degree!

When I first met Sokleak in February of 2012, it was actually my first day at Mother's Heart. I accompanied one of our social workers, Thary,  to Calmette Hospital to meet Sokleak for the first time.  We arrived at the hospital, and located her in a small, cramped post delivery room.  She was smiling with enthusiasm as she was holding her beautiful newborn little girl.  Sokleak had no family or friends with her. We were here today to process her hospital discharge and assist her with transportation back to her home.

(Most pre and post partum rooms in hospitals are overcrowded resulting in some women having to labor on cots in the hallways)

As the months passed, I slowly learned of Sokleak's past.  She had grown up as a little girl in a small village with her mom and dad. It was during that time, that a man traveled through their village looking for work. He obtained a small temporary job in their community.  It was shortly after that when both the man and Sokleak disappeared.  The man kidnapped Sokleak and illegally took her to Thailand were he trafficked her in the sex industry as just a small child. This man became her new family. Later, when Sokleak was older, she returned to Cambodia. She eventually escaped him and reintegrated back into Cambodia as best as possible, but still alone.

Sokleak, being estranged from her family and unable to locate them, found herself single and pregnant.  Having heard of Mother's Heart, she located our offices in desperation for help. Mother's Heart immediately enrolled her our program and provided her with pre-natal care, shelter, and food.

(Cambodian University in Phnom Penh)

Sokleak was a bright young woman. Her English speaking skills were strong. She loved her little girl and chose to give her an English name, Sarah.  Sokleak's dream was to attend a university.  However, universities in Cambodia are private and no government loans are available for students. And so, her dream would have to be set aside. 

After Sara was 3 months old, Mother's Heart provided Sokleak with vocational training in hospitality and cooking. The next big hurdle was about to begin. Job placement for Sokleak had come to a halt.  She needed a birth certificate to prove her date of birth and Cambodian citizenship.  This information could only be found in her parent's "family book" which is a hard copy and kept only by each individual family unit. 

Mother's Heart enlisted a legal organization called SISHA to help locate her family.  After months of searching, her family was located. However, her mother had died and her father had remarried and started a new family.  The new family was refusing to allow Sokleak access to the family book for fears of having to share their family's inheritance with her.  It was a long legal battle, but with the help of SISHA, we eventually acquired a birth certificate for Sokleak.

Sokleak soon after began her new job as a hospitality worker. However, her dream of attending a university still grew in her heart.  Mother's Heart began praying for a financial miracle that would allow Sokleak to attend a university. Several months later, and almost a year and half after I first met her, Sokleak's dream came true.  She found and applied to a local non-governmental organization that agreed to sponsor her to attend a university!

www.mothersheart-cambodia.org

I am so proud of all the staff at Mother's Heart and all the local organizations here in Phnom Penh who helped Sokleak. I continue to pray for God's blessings in her life and in Sarah's life as they continue this amazing journey as a family!
                           Tricia

(For client confidentiality and safety, real names and personal photos were not used)




SISHA is a non-profit organization that strives for justice for victims of human trafficking

Family fun in ministry! Sharing gifts from New Zealand.

Making sure every child has a box

Before we moved to Cambodia, Wayne and I visited the country about 7 times  over a period of about 8 years.  I would travel to Cambodia for medical outreaches while Wayne would travel for evangelism and community development outreaches.  During those trips we always traveled seperately while one of stayed back in the US with the boys. 

Micah cutting tape off the boxes

Kyler ran back and forth for more boxes to hand out

It was during that season of my life that I often dreamed about what it would be like for our family to minister in Cambodia together....as a family.....joining together to accomplish a vision.  This dream became a reality for me when our family moved to Cambodia in 2011. Sometimes I have to "pinch" myself when an experience and opportunity like what I am sharing about in this blog actually happens.



The children lined up anxiously awaiting  their box

This past week our family traveled to Kraing Thnong Village with a team from Samaritan's Purse Australia to distribute Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to the children in this area. When we arrived, the children had gathered and were patiently waiting inside New Life Fellowship Kraing Thnong church. I was so elated to be able to experience this as family!

We had the privilege of serving beside Pastor Pros and his church staff in handing out  shoeboxes to over 300 children.  The shoeboxes were shipped from New Zealand  with items inside such as dolls, hats, clothes, shoes, soaps, toys, and school supplies. It was so much fun to see the faces of these children as they opened their boxes. Laughter, screams, and smiles filled the building. For many of them, it will be the only gift they will receive for the year.



Reece showing a boy how 
to operate a new toy

Playing with the children after they open their boxes!

What made the day so special was seeing Micah, Reece, and Kyler helping with enthusiasm, curiosity, and compassion.  This was a great opportunity for our family to minister together and for the boys to engage in tangible acts of love and giving!







The Search For Significance

Living in Cambodia has caused me to evaluate many areas of my life. One of those areas is significance. Is who I am and what I’m doing significant? I know we often look at the activities we’re involved in, what we have accomplished, or how much money we make to determine if we are successful, but is what we do significant? There is a difference between success and significance. One visit recently to a village school made me evaluate this a little deeper.  I met a school principal whose life work challenged me.

When I lived in Texas I was surrounded by family and friends and was able to be a part of so many peoples lives through my antique business, teaching and pastoring. Simply being known and loved by that many people made me feel significant. Now that I’m removed from that and look back at what I’ve done with my life it has really caused me to evaluate what was significant. When it boils down to it the things that I believe were significant were not things I did for myself, but were things that had a long-term positive impact on other people’s lives.  I had many events, ministries, projects and achievements that could be categorized as successes, but in the long run they had very little long-term impact on anyone’s life.

Living in a new country where I am not known has caused me to look at everything I invest my life and time into and ask the question of whether what I am doing will simply be seen as a success or if it is actually significant.

I mentioned a village school principal a minute ago. Principal Min has been working and teaching in the same village for 13 years. On a recent visit to his village he told me the story of the primary school where he works.

The school grounds are now nearly 2 ft higher

When he started 13 years ago the village was in the jungle. The school borrowed whatever community shelter it could to have school for the very few students who would attend. The government had given the school land, but it was covered in trees and brush. The area was susceptible to flooding during the rainy season and fire during the dry season. Principal Min worked to motivate the local community and over time got the village to help him clear a small part of the land to construct a small school building. 

The Classroom Floor

Over the next few years the village cleared more of the land, as fires often endangered or damaged the small school during the dry season.  Principal Min didn’t stop there. He eventually worked with the local village chief, a local church in the community and an aid organization that helped him and the villagers construct 5 more classrooms and a latrine for the school. He kept working and was recently able to get two water ponds dug to provide a year round water supply for the latrines and the school. Being resourceful he even used the dirt dug from the ponds to raise the elevation of the school grounds so during the rainy season the school grounds would no longer flood.  Today over three hundred primary school students attend class at the school!!

The "chalkboard" is actually polished treebark
and you can see through the outside walls

Now if you are looking at the pictures of the school on this page you might question whether Mr. Min is a success. The school has a dirt floor, is made of rough cut planks from trees and on the day I was there, 48 children had to pack into one classroom with 3 children sharing each desk. I realized that day that Mr. Min isn’t working in life towards personal “success”. If he was, he would have left the village years ago to pursue an easier post in a more affluent area.  He is however working towards something significant. He is investing in generations to come. He began to tell me as we were finishing our time at the school about the number of teacher’s and students who have accepted Christ and I realized that Mr. Min’s perspective on significance stretches into the eternal.

I read an article this week by John Maxwell on the difference between success and significance. As you read these think about whether you are striving for success or are you meant for the higher purpose of significance.

48 children in 1 class - 3 kids to a desk

“Success can last a lifetime; significance can last several lifetimes.”

“Success asks, “How can I add value to myself?” Significance asks, “How can I add value to others?” My evolution from selfishness to significance went something like this:

What can others do for me? → What can I do for myself? → What can I do for others? → What can I do with others, for others?”

“If I pursue success, my joy is the result of my success; if I pursue significance, my joy is the result of others’ success.”

By the way, my work with Samaritan’s Purse will hopefully help the local government and Mr. Min get a new school with new desks on that land he worked so hard to build up over the last 13 years!