Ohlin's Outside the Box

Plans

2012-12-02T00:29:00.001-08:00

So we made it out to Kraviek village a couple of weeks ago. It was an adventure to get there, just like every other time. I was anxious to return as it had been longer than I had hoped since my last visit. Along with a team from Logos International School, I was accompanied by Alex, Abby and Carolyn. I was most excited to have Carolyn come along since it would be here first time in Kraviek. We were planning on spending time with the village kids while showing Christ's love through stories, games, songs and other activities. My real desire, however, was to share the Gospel with Lao, the village chief. He is a younger man (35 years old) and through consistency of visits, I have developed a relationship with him over the past couple of years. Because of that I really felt like we had come to the point where he would be receptive. I brought along Bora, a Cambodian friend of mine, to actually do the speaking. He is an Asian Hope student who just returned to Cambodia after graduating from Master's college in California. His heart for telling others about Christ is inspiring and made me certain that this would be the perfect opportunity to share the Gospel with Lao.

After much difficulty reaching the village, we set up camp, spent some time in praise and worship and then went to bed. The next morning, once we got our students going on their activities with the village kids, Bora, Carolyn and I set out to find the village chief. Through some inquiries, we found out that he was out in the jungle hunting and/or cutting down wood...and was supposed to be back the night before. I was disappointed but trusted that God had a plan. And He did. We took the extra time we now had to go and visit some other people that I knew from past trips. One of them was the lady who had severed an artery in her foot during one of our visits a year ago (you can read about that trip here). As we approached, she came out with her husband and invited us into their house. She was sooo grateful for the medical care I had given her and went on and on about her foot. She told us that many people had come by the evening that she cut her foot and told her "Your foot is bleeding too bad, you are going to die". I told her that it wasn't luck or anything from me but that God placed me there at that time and for that purpose. After that, Bora proceeded to share the Gospel with she and her husband.

As time passed, she continued to interject and talk more about her foot, until finally her husband told her "stop talking about your foot, they are trying to tell us about Jesus". Then she listened contently as her husband asked several questions like: "Do I still worship my ancestors and have Jesus?", "Do I continue my Buddhist practices and follow your God?"...etc. Our answer was simply: "No, Jesus is all you need". This was huge that he was really asking deep questions. But I still really wanted it to be Lao in the conversation. That was my plan. He was the reason I wanted to come. But once again God's plan was higher than mine. Through the conversation we realized that this old couple happened to be the grandparents of Lao. What makes this most impactful is that in this culture, it would present more of a challenge for a 35 year old man (Lao's age) to be the first to accept Christ and still be accepted by the older generation. Not impossible by any stretch, but it would be much easier and would carry more credibility if the older generation is the first to accept Christ.
We never got to see Lao on this trip but with this new revelation that this couple was Lao's grandparents, I can look back and see God's sovereign hand orchestrating the whole trip. It was well worth it and we look forward to our next visit to Kraviek to see what God has in store for the wonderful people who call that tiny village "home".

Carolyn and Me with Grandma and Grandpa Chief

On our way home

Village Kids learning about God the Creator

Alex and some other students making balloon animals.

Carolyn and Bora sit with a lady who has been laying here for the better part of 20 years. Bora shared the Gospel with her and we prayed with her as well.

Some of the team got a ride part of the way out of the village.

Starting the walking portion of our trip to Kraviek.

The clean look on our way to the village.

Foolishness

2012-09-13T07:03:00.001-07:00

In our house here in Cambodia, we have small a/c units in each of our bedrooms. From time to time they need to be cleaned and serviced in order to work efficiently and to assure that they will actually blow cold air. So yesterday I had a couple of maintenance guys who work at our school come an take a look at them for me. They told me that indeed they should be serviced and cleaned. So I asked when they thought they could come back and take care of them for me. These guys are young and motivated and they also like to practice their English with me. But when he gave me a response to my question, I was a bit confused. He told me in clear English, "We will come yesterday afternoon to clean your a/c units". In English I replied, "Do you mean you will come tomorrow afternoon?" He assured me that they would indeed come "yesterday" afternoon. Now I knew they were motivated and eager to please, but getting the job done a day before you show up would have been a new record.

Just to make sure we were both on the same page (not that I seriously thought that they had done it "yesterday") I then confirmed in Khmer "Do you mean you will come tomorrow afternoon?" Then he smiled and said "Yes, tomorrow". Whew, I was relieved that we cleared that up. We all enjoyed a moment of levity, which was fun.

However, that brief conversation reminded me of what we are up against as we try to share the Gospel with those around us, whether we are in Cambodia or America...or anywhere else. We can have the words rehearsed perfectly and say them flawlessly but what is heard by the other person when they come out may simply be foolishness. You may be communicating clearly in your mind and know exactly what you want the other party to understand but still at times it may be simply incomprehensible to the hearer. The entire situation brought to mind the verse "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" 1 Corinthians 1:18.

The same message gets varied responses based upon who the hearer is. This realization has caused me to have a lot more grace on individuals in both types of circumstances. Whether they speak a different native language or they have not yet come to as saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, you can't expect someone to respond the way you would want them to if they are simply not understanding what you are communicating. I have experienced that firsthand being on both sides of the communication and when words sound like foolishness to you, it is nice to have a grace-filled person on the other side of the words.

A fun video that relates to the above blog. Some levity for your day.

Body

2012-08-21T01:04:00.002-07:00

Last week during our department head meeting for Asian Hope, we were asked to ponder 2 questions: What makes Jesus so special? and What makes Jesus so appealing? Needless to say, there were many ideas thrown out when it came to the first question. Most of them were attributes of God (i.e. sinless, loving, beat death, personal relationship...etc). When it came to the second question, invariably we came around to the fact that people seeing Christ's attributes in other Christians is a huge way that Jesus becomes appealing to non-believers. Makes sense. I am sure many of you have heard the comment "You may be the only Jesus that some people see". I know what is meant by that and, in principle, I guess it is true. The reflection of Christ in you may be the only slice of Christ's life that some people see. It does make some sense but I have never really liked that comment. It is usually used to motivate people to live a life that is constantly a glorious reflection of who Christ is. I don't like it because I don't always live that way. If I am the only Christ that some people see then they will get a very distorted view of who my Savior is.
As we were dissecting this topic more thoroughly, a principal from one of our schools brought up the verse "For wherever two or three gather together in my name, there am I with them." This verse is great when you are with other people but what about when you are alone? Of course he is there then, too. So maybe this verse means something different. Maybe it refers not to God's presence only when you are with others (he is omnipresent, remember) but more that God's true personality becomes more evident through the lives of more than one believer. Interesting take on that verse. Our discussion ended soon after so we could focus on business, but it continued in my mind.
A few days after our meeting, I began to think about this conversation and God brought to mind the awesome passage of scripture found in 1 Corinthians 12. It discusses in depth the complexities of the body of Christ in comparison to our human bodies. That is when I really began to feel at peace with my discomfort of the phrase "You may be the only Jesus...etc". No one can see the magnificence of Christ when they only see me...or you. It wasn't meant to be that way. When I worked in the operating room of a Level 2 trauma center for many years, we used to (unfortunately) have patients come into our OR suites apart from some of their various body parts. When I looked at a finger (or hand or arm or foot or leg...etc) separate from the rest of the body, I didn't marvel at it thinking how amazing the body was. It was only one part. Really not even a reflection of the whole body. Just one tiny part, amazing as it is. But when we only see one small slice, we (I) notice its deficiencies (that is a cool hand, but it can't breathe or think or smell or see or hear...etc.). Similarly, when people see me, they only see one part of the Body of Christ, not the whole thing.
Then I thought of other glorious things that I have seen in my life and thought, what if I was the only one with the responsibility to communicate how cool it is to those around me. One of the things that came to mind was Angkor Wat. It is a very old temple here in Cambodia that I have been to more than a half dozen times. It is sooo cool. Really. It was incredibly advanced for its time, so much so that today engineers still marvel at some of their accomplishments 800+ years ago. Do you know and appreciate Angkor Wat yet? Take a look at the pics that I am including. Maybe that will help you to really know and appreciate Angkor Wat.

Part of Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat at Sunset

Another part of Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

The walkway to the main part of Angkor Wat

Inside Angkor Wat

More inside Angkor Wat

Stairs at Angkor Wat

More...

A view of the Angkor Wat grounds from high inside Angkor Wat

Another view

Us at Angkor Wat.

Not yet? How about if I shared quotes and pictures from others who have been there and experienced it? I am sure that would help but it is impossible to completely communicate the grandeur of this place apart from you experiencing it for yourself.
This is when it all came together for me. That's exactly how it is in the kingdom of God. No ONE person, except Christ himself, can adequately represent Christ to others around them. All I can do is walk in obedience in what God has called me to do. Use the gifts that He has given me for the glory of His kingdom and His name. After all, God says in His word: "To obey is better than sacrifice..." 1 Samuel 15:22. As others do that, along with us, people around us can piece together a more accurate picture of who Christ is. That is the Body of Christ at work. Each of us filling in the gaps where others leave off. Being the sense of smell for the eye, being the sense of touch for the heart, thinking for the ear, breathing for the hand...etc. We were never meant to go it alone. Don't try to be everyone and everything else for the world, be who God created you to be. That is what will complete His body on Earth and make Him appealing to others.

Longing

2012-08-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful evening. Carolyn and I went running around a small lake and then on a bike path right next to a river in Avon, CO. It was nearing dusk and it was lovely...the sights of the huge surrounding mountains, the sound of the river, the smell of fresh mountain air, the feel of the crisp cool evening...etc. We enjoyed soaking it all in. We were in that small mountain town for some extended time with family...which made it almost perfect. However, during our cool-down walk we began to talk about our summer back in America and all that that entailed. In spite of all of the fulfillment and satisfaction we were experiencing, we began to realize that we were still left longing for something.
As humans, we are no strangers to longing for one thing or another. For some it could be financial success and security. To never have to worry about money again. For others it may be status, recognition or respect amongst peers. Others may long for a "simple life" or for a meaningful relationship with the person of their dreams. Still others long to feel like they have purpose and seek to give back to humanity in any way they can. Most of us long for each of these to one degree or another.
However, on that particular evening, Carolyn was able to pinpoint the deep longing that she still felt. It was simply a longing to have everyone that she loves close. To have all of those she loves and cares about in the same place. Together, with her. Moving to the other side of the world and developing deep relationships in a new country and culture is a blessing beyond words but for us it also means that now no matter where we are, we are always half-a-world away from someone that we love.
Then it struck me that we will never have that longing fulfilled until we are all reunited in Heaven. In fact, none of our longings will be truly fulfilled until the day we meet our creator face-to-face. On Earth, God allows us to have tastes of what the beauty of Heaven holds for us but we cannot realistically expect to experience the full benefits that being in His presence will give us until we are there. In the midst of longing and the pain that can accompany it, this truth gives little comfort. However, it can bring us great hope for the awesome future that we as Christians can look forward to.

Grandma and Grandpa with the cousins

Our fam (L to R: Calli, Dan, Abby, Cameron, Carolyn and Alex)

Pedal boats on the lake in Avon

Alex helping Cameron "rock climb"

The Colorado Columbine

Beaver Creek in the background

Sunset over the lake

All of this reminded of the verses where God says "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." Romans 8:22-25. God told us that we would groan (or long for) what is yet to come...the redemption of our bodies. Until then, all we can do is long...patiently.

Faithful

2012-06-29T08:54:00.002-07:00

When we moved to Phnom Penh 2 1/2 years ago, we prayed that God would be faithful in knitting our hearts to people here and creating a new home where we could give and receive love. We knew that we were leaving so many people who were so dear to us but in obedience to God we set out on this new adventure trusting Him who had called us. One of the promises I would remind God of during this time is found in Matthew 19:29 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."

At the time I had no idea that God would be so faithful. We all know that God keeps His promises but sometimes I just don't see it so clearly as I did this time. I don't think any of us would have imagined how intense our paradoxical feelings would be as we visit America for the first time since our move. On one hand we can hardly contain our excitement as we get to see so many people we love and places that we miss and conveniences that we forgot we didn't have any more. But on the other hand, we never imagined (even in our wildest dreams) that we would be this connected to Cambodia and its wonderful people in just 2 1/2 years. When we moved here, I only envisioned us being excited to visit the States...not sad to leave Cambodia, a poor, developing country. But God is faithful! He did give to us 100 times what we left. I was secretly planning on maybe 50x or 80x what we left...but it was 100x for sure.

It really sounds good when you read that verse during a quiet time but when it happens to you, practically speaking, it just means that you have people that you love with all of your heart and you would give your life for on opposite sides of the world. I wish that had been in the study notes or the fine print of my Bible. It isn't as great as it sounds but at the same time it is way better than it sounds. Crazy, I know.

We are so thankful for our lives in Cambodia and wouldn't change a thing. Thank you so much for joining us on this journey.

Inhabit

2012-06-22T04:15:00.003-07:00

The long walk to Kraviek. One of the several river crossings.

A boy washing his cow along the way.

Beginning praise and worship.

Villagers gather to listen.

Kids enjoying activities during our time with them.

Some kids enjoy showing us their home.

A young girl playing enjoying a balloon.

Salvation bracelts. God's truth is being spread to the uttermost part.

The kids sometimes join us in the river for bath time.

Abby holding a shivering boy.

Village children going about their chores.

Young monks along the way.

Along the way to the village.

Kraviek village embodies the portion of Acts 1:8 that speaks about going out to the "uttermost parts" of the Earth. There is really only one way in and one way out...and it isn't easy. On our last trip (a few days ago) I brought a team of 11 people from Georgia, 3 translators and my assistant. We set out early on Tuesday morning and gradually throughout our travels, our modern conveniences disappeared. Eventually we made it as far as our van could go and left it at a home in a village that was already very remote. But very remote wasn't enough...we were going for extremely remote. So we exited the van, put our packs on our backs and set out for Kraviek. We had a 5k, 1 1/2 hour walk ahead of us. Just 2 weeks before I had been out there with another team and we had to wait a day for the river to go down before we could cross. It had rained and the river was about chest deep with a swift current. This day, however, the water was down and we crossed it getting only up to our knees wet. Through deep mud, rice paddies and several shallow rivers, we finally crested the hill into Kraviek.
It was wonderful to be out there again. The villagers never know for sure when we are coming (they aren't as bound by time there as we are so it probably wouldn't really matter anyways) but are always glad to see us. We set up camp again at the VC's (village chief's) house and headed to the river to wash the sweat and mud off our bodies. When we returned to the house, we made our dinner: 1 package of noodles/person. Not completely satisfying but somehow enjoyed by all. As night fell, it got dark (obviously). The kind of dark that you experience when you are camping away from the city and you can see the stars beyond the stars that are beyond the stars that you normally see in the city. I love those nights. They are without electricity so when the sun goes down, there isn't much to do. This is the time that I probably love the best in Kraviek. That's when we all gather under the house and spend time worshiping our Father. We always ask if the family would mind and they always say no and that they would enjoy it.
Under the stilted house is a large wood platform where the family sleeps and eats. It is probably about 10 feet wide by about 20 feet long. It is also where the VC's father-in-law lays all day and night. He was the VC until he had a stroke. Once we all gather, get the guitar out and begin singing, it is like the atmosphere changes. The darkness outside turns to black as we all sit around a small kerosene lamp praising the One True God! It was at this point on our last trip that I was reminded of the verse "But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." (Ps 22:3 KJV). I felt like God was telling me that we are His people and we are praising Him in this tiny village and He is inhabiting our praises. He is right here in our midst. In the midst of a village full of people who are lost. They worship the spirits of their ancestors and are trapped in the grips of a false religion. Yet God is here, inhabiting our praises. As we continue singing and the light flickers, we catch a glimpse outside our circle and in the darkness we can barely make out shapes surrounding us. It is the majority of the villagers gathered around to listen to us. Partly out of curiosity, partly because there is literally nothing else to do but regardless, they are hearing praises being sung to their creator. And despite the fact that they are being sung in English, God is present and his power can break through the strongholds of false religion. His light is piercing the spiritual darkness through the simple praises of his people. For a moment, he has a place to inhabit in this tiny village in Cambodia.
Please pray for these precious people of Kraviek. Pray for Lao, the Village Chief. Pray that the truth of God's word will transform this community for himself. Pray also for a Cambodian to have a heart to move to this community full-time or that God would raise up a believer from within to start a church there.

High-Beam

2012-06-15T02:16:00.003-07:00

I'm going to paint a picture for you. Not literally, of course. First, I am not a very good artist and second, how could I get it to you? I am going to paint a word-picture for you to hopefully bring you along with me and a team on our drive from Siem Reap (home of Angkor Wat) to Phnom Penh a couple nights ago.

Here it goes. Picture a semi-busy interstate or highway near your home. Got it? Now make it 2 lanes (one in each direction) and put it in rural Cambodia. Now, turn off all the lights, it's night time. Night time in central Cambodia is dark. No street lights to illuminate the road. Dark.
Next, reduce the width of the road by about a foot on either side.
Erase most (if not all, in some cases) of the shoulder.
Now let's add some things. All of these came one by one throughout the trip:

2 dozen or more people (men, women or children) riding their bicycles in my lane without lights or reflectors. Remember, this is a highway so I am going highway speeds. The children especially ride their bikes quickly at a perpendicular angle to the road. This is so they can get enough momentum to make it up the small hill to the edge of the road. Then at the last second, they turn to ride just parallell to the road. I know they are doing this but it still freaks me out every time thinking they are going to pull right in front of me.
4 dozen cows or water buffalo walking across the road at various paces. BTW (again, the acronym for the hip younger crowd), water buffalo are large and dark greyish blackish, blending in perfectly with the dark night...and they don't have any reflectors either. Oh yeah, and they are large.
6 or more motos pulling loads of lumber on un-illuminated trailers that blend in with the night. They were going about 1/4 my speed.
Motos (and some vehicles) coming the other direction with their headlights turned off. Why? I have no idea. Makes passing a slow vehicle in your lane a bit more interesting as you are constantly concerned about what may be in the oncoming lane without lights on.
4 trucks broken down in my lane, remember, shoulders are mostly non-existent. When trucks break down here, they break branches off the nearest tree and put them in the lane about 25 feet from where their crippled truck is. This is a substitute for the orange reflective triangles or flares I am used to seeing in the States. The bright green tree branches actually work fine...during the day. However, they don't really reflect well so a parked car can come up on you quickly.
5 LOUD parties with dozens of inebriated guests set up literally feet from the edge of the road. That's how they do things here. Big tents, loud music, a lot of beer and a speeding vehicles.
At least half of the approaching vehicles are being driven by people who do not have the (what I think should be innate) knowledge of the rules of highway driving at night. Those include but are not limited to: turning off your bright lights when another car is approaching; don't pass on a corner...etc).
Large pot holes or eroded portions of the highway at various times.

Passing through a small municipality on National Road 6. Just as night was falling. On the right is an ice vendor.

A food vendor is sharing the road with us.

All of these are various shots of the same road. Gives you a small glimpse into the drive.

Water Buffalo.

Are you getting the picture? I hope so. It was quite the adventure. Don't get me wrong. I do enjoy driving here. It can just feel a bit stressful sometimes...like when I'm driving :-).

Anyways, something that I realized on this trip more than any other that I have taken was how extremely helpful it was to be able to switch from my low to high-beams once a vehicle passed. There is that brief moment, just as I am passing the oncoming car, when it seems like I can't see a thing and I am praying that there is not a biker, water buffalo or parked truck in front of me. But when I switch on my brights, the road ahead of me becomes clear again.

As I almost wore out the lever for the brights, I couldn't help but think of the people of this wonderful country and the spiritual condition they are in. Most are in spiritual darkness with no knowledge of where they are going and how to get there. They are unable to see the road in front of them and they have no idea whether or not the path they are on will lead them safely to their destination. But as a believer here, I have a responsibility to be that light to those around me. Especially in Cambodia, they may not see Christ anywhere but in my life and the lives of other believers here. If that isn't a sobering thought, I don't know what is. Through the grace of God, we will be the high-beam for them so that they can see the road ahead and enter the peace and safety that only comes through a relationship with Christ.

"Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16-17

Empty

2012-06-05T08:02:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago I had a real "LOL" (trying to relate to the hip younger crowd) moment. What made it even better was that I LOL'd at myself. Truly out loud. Why? I will recap the incident for you.
I have a dirt bike that I use as my main mode of transportation. I love it. It is fun, fast and I wouldn't choose any other way to get around town. However, it is also finicky...and can be high maintenance. In fact, Carolyn once said, "Your bike is more high maintenance than I am." (I will go on record that I never said that Carolyn is high maintenance...which she isn't :-). So a couple weeks ago I had an awesome team here from Hong Kong. They were a group of 27 from an international school and contributed greatly to our work in Cambodia. Since they were such a large group I had them split up into 3 separate service teams. It worked out great, but it meant that I was driving all around Phnom Penh visiting their ministry sites to check up on them. It was toward the end of one of these particularly long days that I noticed my bike "acting up". It is hard to explain what it was doing but suffice to say that I just knew that something wasn't right.
On may way to one site, my bike just stopped. I was in a time crunch and didn't have time to figure out what was wrong. I rationalized that it probably needed to just "rest" since I had been driving it so much. I decided to hail a tuk tuk. I explained that I needed him to drive to our guest house. As I held on with one hand and had him pull me along, I felt as if my arm would be pulled out of socket but luckily it didn't. I successfully lasted the mile to my desired location and left my bike. I continued on with my day not thinking much of it. Later that night, one of our volunteers had an incident where her purse was stolen. I had to quickly go and meet her down at the police station, which I did not know exactly where it was. However, I got some partial directions and jumped on my bike to head that way. It started up just as I thought . It just needed rest. However, 2 minutes into my ride, my bike began to make the weird sounds again and then just quit. Late at night, I had no where to park my bike. So I hailed another tuk tuk and tried to give him the directions to the police station that I didn't know directions to. Sound complicated? Yep, it was. Well, I grabbed on again and through rain and several phone calls and conversations, we made it to the police station.
Things at the station were sorted out as best as possible and I decided to find somewhere secure near the station to leave my bike. I successfully found a place that was also near my bike shop/mechanic, parked my bike and headed home. The next morning, I checked on the teams and went to retrieve my sickly property. I I got to the place where I had left it and it started right up again. I drove it directly to the shop. I explained to them the problem (luckily it was making the crazy noise as I drove up) and they got it right in. I decided to wait around for a bit to hear the bad news. With my description of the problem, they accurately decided to begin their diagnostics at the fuel pump. They checked the valve and quickly isolated the problem. They looked up at me and told me I WAS OUT OF GAS. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard at myself. I was embarrassed but also relieved that it wasn't more serious.
As I drove off, I reflected on the whole process. My gas tank was running on empty but I was still trying to do life as normal. I would get part of the way to my destination and then just quit. It reminded me of times that I would try and do life successfully without being filled up with God's Word. It just doesn't work. I try to live my life successfully but I am not running on the fuel that God created me to run on. God has designed our lives to work successfully ONLY when running on the strength of Him and His word.
But then I thought, how lucky I am that I HAVE HIS WORD. How selfish of me to think that God was trying only to remind me to fill up on His Truth's each day. This is important but it was not the only thing that God was trying to tell me. This thought came to mind when I saw our neighbor bowing continually in front of his altar of incense to the spirits of his ancestors. His hope is in dead relatives and their spirits. He doesn't have the Word of God. He can't fill up on the only thing that will satisfy him because he doesn't know about it. Neither do 90%+ of all of Cambodia. That is roughly 13,000,000 Cambodians. That is why we are here. To bring His word to those who have never heard. To fill up their tanks that are empty...when they don't even know what is supposed to fill them. To love on the sweet people here and help them to understand that they are filling their tanks with things that will not only not help them but will keep them empty and eventually lead to death.
Thanks God for the great reminder!

Believe

2012-05-21T08:14:00.001-07:00

I was challenged last Saturday during our weekly Neighborhood Kids Outreach (NKO). It is an event where we reach out to the kids in the community around our largest school, Logos. Each week anywhere from 120 - 320 kids from the neighborhood surrounding the school come onto our school grounds from 1 - 3:30. We divide them in 2 or 3 groups, depending on numbers, and have them rotate between Bible/English lessons, soccer and pool time. By far, the highlight for the kids is their time in the pool. These children rarely, if ever, have the opportunity to swim...especially in a real pool. Consequently, we try to avoid cancelling the swimming time at all cost. However, at times it becomes necessary, for safety purposes. to keep the kids out of the pool.

Well, that's the decision we were facing last Saturday. We had the kids divided into 2 groups. I was in the pool playing with about 50 kids and my friend Sato, the Cambodian man who oversees the activities each week, was helping out with the Bible/English time. During the first rotation of kids in the pool, the clouds started to move in and the sky darkened. As time passed, we began to hear rumbles of thunder and I was certain that the second group of kids would have to miss their swimming time. "That is such a bummer for them", I thought. "Oh well, nothing we can do now."

30 minutes later, the rain never started and the thunder kept quiet. The second group of kids had been in the pool for about 15 minutes already and still had about 20 left. "How cool, I can't believe the ran held out", I thought. I got out of the pool and went over to talk to Sato to ask how things were going for him and to make sure that everything was running smoothly. He said things were going great. Then, with a big smile on his face, he told me about the second group's Bible time. He said that the kids that were going to swim secod were concerned that their pool time would be cancelled. Instead of resigning himself to the fact that it would rain and we would have to cancel, Sato believed that God was in control of the weather and that He could and would hold the weather off so the kids could swim. He then lead the kids in a prayer asking God to hold off the rain and then they sang some praise songs.

Well, the second group of kids did get to swim for their entire time. And, despite the fact that this may sound like a Hollywood ending, literally as the gate closed when the last child left the pool area, drops began to fall. I was so surprised...but then not. God is in control and it took my Cambodian friend and a group of 50+ Cambodian friends to remind me of that...to remind me to believe. That encouragement came at just the right time as God knew I needed the push to believe Him for something big this week. It is so cool when God uses unexpected sources to teach us profound lessons.

A couple kids swimming at NKO

Alex pulling a train of neighborhood kids.

Add caption

Always big smiles in the pool.

My friend Sato keeping control at the outreach

Love those faces.

Cameron and I hanging with some of the kids

Abby helping one of the girls to the side.

Floodgate

2012-05-16T02:59:00.001-07:00

Ahhh. Mid-May....the time of year when the floodgate of visitors/volunteers/teams/interns/helpers...etc opens wide and our family gets to meet a whole new round of cool people coming all the way to Cambodia to learn and serve the Lord. It really is a pleasure to be able to be at the "front door" to welcome people to Cambodia. I love to be able to show people all of the amazing things God is doing in Cambodia in general and through Asian Hope in particular.
May always starts our busy season and it doesn't usually taper off until the end of June. This year is no different. Between now and the day I leave to fly back to the States (June 29th), we will have right around 60 different visitors/volunteers come through Asian Hope. They range from a "group" of 2 to a group of 27. We will have groups or individuals from New Zealand, Hong Kong and the US. The ages will range from mid-teens to...a lot older. The teams will pitch in and help in one of our Asian Hope schools, our village development program, one of our community outreaches or work with one of our partner ministries. There is no shortage of work to be done here.

A riverboat ride on the Tonle Sap river with a group from Louisiana

A game of cards with some Asian Hope students and a team from the US

Sharing exotic treats (bugs and snake) with visiting friends.

Part of morning school gang heading to "crazy hair" day at Logos.

A team of 51 college students from Washington listening to a presentation.

An amazing photographer and videographer who shared their talents with us.

A group of 28 from Hong Kong enjoying Angkor Wat.

More fun in our home with a team.

One of the things I love most about this part of my job, however, is to hear all of the amazing ways that God has called each person to a period of service here in Cambodia. God has uniquely wired each person in our family to really enjoy inviting visitors into our home, welcoming them to Cambodia and getting to spend one part of their life with them. We have really met some amazing people and I am sure this year will be no different.
If you or someone you know would like to spend some time visiting and volunteering in Cambodia, let us know. We would love to host you as well.

Chuckle

2012-05-07T21:02:00.001-07:00

As I found myself chuckling out loud several times on Monday, I thought I should share a few of those things that made me laugh and that remind me that we live in Cambodia.

The appointment: Carolyn and I had scheduled a meeting with our landlords for Monday morning. We were going to sign a new 2 year lease on our house. We were ready at 8:30 to sign and move on with our day. Well our landlords showed up a few minutes late. They were customarily well dressed and overly enthusiastic with their traditional greetings. We returned their greeting and proceeded with the pre-arranged appointment. There was a moment of awkward silence as we waited for the lease documents to be presented...it was then that our landlords asked us when we would like to meet to sign our lease...What? Inside Carolyn and I were both laughing, outside just smiling. Isn't that what we had arranged this appointment for? We meet again on Friday. Hopefully that works out.
Power: After the nearly futile appointment, I had to go home for a Skype appointment. I got home in time, got some coffee and had the computer all set. Literally within seconds of receiving the text that we were ready to begin, the power went off at home. Not to be discouraged, I packed up my computer and took off to a coffee shop to Skype and work. I was able to Skype but the power went out at the coffee shop soon after so I needed to find another place to continue working. Then I packed up again and headed to Logos, Asian Hope's largest school. I sat down, opened my computer and guess what happened...yep, the power went out. Really. It did return 20 minutes later but I did have to laugh, or else I would have probably said things that I wouldn't want to put in this post.
Meddling Kids: During my Skype time at the coffee shop I saw a group of 7 Cambodian teenagers walk in. I was thinking they were probably going to be loud and unruly. When I looked up at them 5 minutes later, they were all engaged in a game of UNO. UNO? I just had to laugh out loud. Certainly not what I expected from a group of older teens out for a good time together.
Diligent: Later that day, we had an absolute downpour. I was completely drenched when I made it home on the dirt bike. When I turned down our flooded street, I saw on old Cambodian man in front of his house just across the street from us. It wasn't until I stopped that I realized what he was doing. During super soaker downpour, he was using a small container to diligently scoop water out of the gutter and pour it on his plants. Maybe he didn't think they were getting enough water with the rain.
Frisbee: I was playing Frisbee in the rain with Alex and some of the guys from House of Hope (Asian Hope's Boy's home). At one point I had to go out of our neighborhood to grab an errant disc. When I walked out, I noticed an unnerving site. During the heavy rain, I saw an aluminum ladder leaning up against some electrical wires where workers had just been working. Nearby there was a large electrical box on a pole with the door open letting the rain run in. Maybe that has something to do with our power outages.

Although there are many things that we still look at daily that remind us of how different our lives are in our new culture, we do enjoy life in Cambodia. Laughter just makes the day go by easier sometimes.

I'll leave you with a hilarious sign we saw in Thailand a while ago. We see many like this in Cambodia as well. Makes you laugh.

Thanks for translating into English...but what does it say?

Perspective

2012-05-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

Perspective: "The state of one's ideas; the facts known to one." Everyone has one. Most of us usually think ours is right...until it is challenged. Until someone else comes forward and says "why don't you look at it from a different perspective?" I don't usually like that because more often than not when this happens I am already heading down the path of realizing that my perspective is either highly skewed or sometimes totally incorrect. That's what happened this morning.
I went for a run at my usual time, which is around 7:30 am. It was also the usual temp, which is around 84 degrees (heat index nearing 100). Dumb, I know. Anyways, from my perspective, I had a lot to lament during the run. I was listing them off as the kilometers ticked off:

"It is sooo hot" (I have a/c and a fan to go home to)
"These shoes are hurting my feet" (I have shoes)
"The stopwatch on my ipod didn't work correctly" (I have an ipod - actually it's Carolyn's but she is letting me say it's mine for this post).
"My eyes get stuff in them as I get blasted by dust, smoke and/or exhaust constantly" (My eyes work)
"I'm so thirsty" (I have a tall glass of ice-cold water waiting for me at home).

As I went on and on with my laments, however, I conveniently never included the parenthetical comments. I was only seeing things from my perspective. All of the parentheses would be filled in later when one chance encounter instantly changed my perspective. I never spoke to this person, never met them and am pretty sure they didn't even see me. It all happened within just a few seconds. It was during my last lament (and subsequent parenthetical statement) that opened the flood gate to all of the other ones. On the last stretch of my run (and always the hardest and hottest) I was saying to myself:

"My legs are sooo tired" ...then I passed a woman dragging her legs behind her as she scooted along the hot dusty pavement looking for someone, anyone, to give her some money or food. She also had a young girl walking alongside her. I was heartbroken. My perspective didn't only change, it was obliterated...(At least I have legs that work).

One of the streets I run along. Busy, dusty, hot...but it's home.

A boy loading bags of recyclables onto a trailer. The man sitting in the background was waiting for donations from people.

Monks walk from house to house in the morning. They stand in front of your house. Once you put some money into their bag they will pray for you.

These kids are walking in the exact spot where I saw the woman scooting along the ground.

Instantly I began thinking of all of the things I had to be thankful for. I am sure that woman would love to run and have her legs get tired. I didn't have anything with me but I knew I wanted to do something for her. So I ran the rest of the way home and told Carolyn about her. She had seen her as well after dropping the van load of kids off at school. She had also been profoundly affected when she saw her. We agreed to pack up some food, a water bottle and some money to bring to her. I quickly loaded it up and took off on the dirt bike to find her. Unfortunately she was no longer on the street...but the impact she made on me will be felt for a long time.

Sadly, this type of scenario is all too common here in Cambodia. In order to survive here there has to be some level of detachment or other coping mechanism in place. However, her presence came at the perfect time to snap me out of my lamenting and help me to view my life from her perspective.

Insignificant

2012-04-23T20:05:00.004-07:00

When we moved to Cambodia almost 2 1/2 years ago, I was excited to get busy working and making a difference here. One of the things I did first when we arrived was to familiarize myself with all of the various departments of Asian Hope and our partner ministries. That meant meeting a lot of great people and witnessing first-hand all of the lives that they were impacting. It was such a huge blessing and encouragement. However, as much of life here can be, I was simultaneously hit square on the forehead with the 2x4 of paradox. It was only a few months after we arrived and I had just left a small Christian school that Asian Hope supports with teacher training, material, resources...etc. This particular school enrolls very poor orphans from local orphanages (a likely place to find them). As I was leaving the school I had a sudden overwhelming feeling of insignificance. I felt like a drop of water in an ocean. What could I do in country that had so much hurt, pain, poverty and loss of hope? How could I help these wonderful people? I was one person. Still not sure of where I was going, how to get there, how to ask questions if I got lost...etc.

Some sweet kids that received clothing after their homes were burned.

Sharing the gospel in a remote village.

Some of our "neighbors" at our Christmas outreach at Logos International School

A young girl working at a fish market early in the morning.

Some happy neighborhood kids at our Spring outreach.

That feeling remained for about an hour or so until I listened to what God was trying to tell me. His words to me went something like this: "You are so hilarious and full of pride. Do you really think it is up to you to make a difference here? Do you really think you can do ANYTHING to impact these amazing people for good? I have been in the business of changing lives for thousands of years. I will orchestrate change in Cambodia, in my way and in my time. It really has nothing to do with you. The only thing I need from you is obedience".

It may sound funny but that conversation lifted a huge burden from my shoulders, heart and mind. All I need to do is obey what God has set before me and the rest is up to Him. Huge sigh of relief. It was then that I was reminded of a conversation that I had just had with one of my kids. I had asked child A to clean the kitchen while I was gone. When I returned the kitchen was still a mess. In a frustrated father tone I said "Why didn't you clean the kitchen?"
"I was busy."
Snickering a bit I said, "Doing what?"
"Putting the laundry away."
"But I asked you to clean the kitchen."
"I know but I thought I would put the laundry away since I know that needs to be done, too."
"But I had asked Child B (Not what I really call them) to do that".
"Ohhhhh".

This conversation illustrated to me the importance of doing what God has asked me to do and not trying to do everything. "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams" 1 Samuel 15:22. Don't sacrifice your time, money, talents on something that God isn't calling you to do. First, you will wear yourself out completely and second, you will be doing a job that He has likely asked someone else to do. If they don't do it, that is between them and God not between you and them and God.
When I think of the issue of each person in the Body of Christ doing what God is calling us to do, I often think of a huge, beautiful tapestry. The tapestry is the work of God in the world and each thread represents one of His faithful followers. If you are standing with your nose pressed against the tapestry, all you can see are a few threads intertwining. They don't make any sense and don't even approach a masterpiece. But when you back up and see the entire thing, you see a magnificent piece of art. The few threads that you saw up close are now an integral part of the whole picture. Missing any of them would be make the tapestry incomplete. In the same way, when individual believers don't do what God is calling them to do, threads are missing from the work God is doing on the Earth.
That is why God needs obedient Christians. What is He calling you to do? What part is He asking you to play in the tapestry? You are not insignificant!

"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10

Unanticipated

2012-04-17T03:10:00.004-07:00

When we moved to Cambodia nearly 2 1/2 years ago, I knew that we would run into many challenges that, although anticipated, would still take some work to navigate well. We were at least ready for them, even though there were still some surprises. For one, we had already experienced the traffic when we visited. It is crazy and sometimes drives us nuts (pun intended) but we were somewhat ready for it and have mostly adapted. We also expected the hot weather. There are some times that we would still looooove a day where it got down into the low 60's even...but if that happened there would probably have to be a frostbite alert issued in Cambodia. At any rate, we have also adjusted to the heat...as much as you can. I would have to say that the food is another anticipated challenge that we encountered on our move to Southeast Asia. In America, we loved Asian food. Carolyn and I had a favorite date place. It was a great Vietnamese restaurant that we frequented. Yummy white rice and spicy Asian flavors. What more could you ask for? Well, now we ask for anything but white rice. In an effort to explain food challenges here, I often have visitors here think of the one restaurant from back home that they would say, "I could eat there all the time and would never get sick of it". Then I challenge them to really think about how that might end up for them. What if you ate there every day (sometimes twice a day) for 3 months? 6 months? 2 years? Would you still like it? That is how it was for us moving here. Nevertheless, we have still adapted to the food since sometimes each of us will actually crave white rice if we haven't had it for a while. Weird, I know. I am so thankful that God makes us so adaptable.

Our family with a couple of dear friends on vacation at Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

However, I would have to say that one of (if not the) most profound and unanticipated thing that has happened in the past 2+ years happened mostly to Carolyn. Anyone who spends any amount of time around her (basically anything over 5 minutes...sometimes less), experiences her love, care and compassion. She has a gift to be able to make you feel like you are the only one in a crowded room during a conversation. She has a heart that connects deeply and cares immediately. You would think that that would be an asset with the kind of work we are doing...and it is. But as with so many things we have experienced, that positive is inextricably bound to a negative. It creates an unavoidable paradox. What I mean is that, we all left dear friends and family back in the US but Carolyn's connections run more deeply as a result of who she is. So to leave was heart-breaking but she is strong and we were all walking in the confidence of being in God's will so there was also great joy. However, the unanticipated aspect of this journey was that she has now made deep connections with people here. With kids that she loves almost as if they were our own. On the surface that doesn't sound like a problem. It may even sound noble and exciting to have moved here and loved so deeply in only 2 years. It is an amazing thing and neither of us would change the past 2+ years at all but there is a difficult reality that is unavoidable: for the rest of her life, her heart will be split in 2, on 2 separate sides of the globe. If we stay here, there are friends and family in America and eventually at least a couple of our kids. If we moved back to the States, there are deep bonds here that will always be. That will never change, unless all of our friends and family in America move to Cambodia with us (which is also unanticipated by me).

Carolyn and Abby on a service trip last year.

Alex and Cameron with David and Jonathan at a temple near Angkor Wat.

Carolyn with Calli and Abby at Angkor Wat.

We can only rest in that, although this was unanticipated by us, it was not unanticipated by our Creator. He has gone before us and prepared us for what we are facing. I have to remind myself of that often. We serve a faithful God who wants the best for us. I anticipate being thankful for that for the rest of my life!

Love

2012-04-09T00:19:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday our family had a unique opportunity to work together as the 6 of us to love on the kids that go to NKO, or Neighborhood Kid's Outreach (If you would like to read more about that program, go to this link). Typically, the kids who attend this weekly program get a chance to swim, play soccer, learn English and hear the Word of God. It is a great program but this week we had a spring celebration for all of the kids who attend our program. It coincided with Easter and Khmer New Year. Our goal was to love on each of the kids and bless each one of them. I love simple goals. And that goal was overwhelmingly achieved. When the kids got to Logos, they were divided into 7 groups of about 25 each. They rotated between 6 different game stations and just had a blast. The 7th station was manned by our family. That was the ice cream station! As the kids cycled through our area, we were able to serve them with a smile, interact with them as they enjoyed their treat and show them the love of Christ. As I watched each member of my family at different points throughout the event, I was so thankful that we were able to reach out to these members of our community together. It was a great enhancement to our Easter weekend. Please pray for the continued impact that this outreach will have on our community. As I tell my high school volunteers every week, "They will know we are Christians by our love", not our programs or talent...etc. Love on them and the message will get through! Thanks for your faithful prayer and support of our family and what God is doing through us here. We love and are truly thankful for all of you. I trust you all had a very blessed Resurrection Sunday! And by the way, if you weren't able to make it out to an Easter service, go to this link for a great message from Francis Chan. Blessings.

Ice Cream scooopers

Some of the kids waiting for their turn. The girl in green is one of our Cambodian volunteers.

Abby marking the hand of one of the girls. Wanted to make sure we didn't miss anyone.

Happy about Ice Cream

Love those happy faces

Content

One shift of the serving crew

As one final surprise, we helped the kids with heat-management. We had them congregate in the courtyard and....

...cooled them off with water, from 3 stories up. They actually waited until we refilled so they could experience it a second time. Such a blast!

Focus

2012-04-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

If you spend any time at all in Cambodia you would have to try hard not to notice the many smiles that greet you. I'm not sure if they smile more here or if the contrast of their white teeth against their dark skin just makes it seem that way but regardless, we see a lot of smiles here. One of the contributing factors, I am certain, is that many Khmer will instinctively smile at westerners. Even though there are a fair number of us here in Cambodia, we still comprise a minute percent of the population. We stick out. We look different. We act different. We talk different. In short, we can make for pretty good entertainment...even if we are just shopping or walking down the street. We don't even have to be doing something particularly interesting, smiles (and laughter) greet us.

However, what has struck me even more than the smiles themselves are some unusual times that I have seen them. For instance, one time I saw some kids riding on a bike with school books and some produce. When they slipped on some loose sand, they fell and their books and fruit scattered on the road. My kids would have likely learned some interesting new English words from me if I had fallen, but these kids were all laughing and smiling like they had just heard a funny joke. I took note of it.

Another time I saw a young child pulling a recycling cart along the road gathering anything that could possibly used by his family to make some money. It was relatively early in the morning yet he had a smile on his face. I again took note and wondered how my face would look if that were me.

On a different occasion, I was at the gym and saw a guy riding his bike by. He was probably in his 20's and I would guess he was heading to work. He was just riding slowly, taking in the view and just smiling, enjoying his ride. Seems fine so far. The thing that caused the disconnect in my mind was that he was riding a bike that would have been more appropriate for a 5-year-old girl: First, because it was obviously too small; Second, it was bright pink. Again, if that had been me, I would have worn a hoodie, pulled the hood up over my head tightly and rode like my butt was on fire until I reached my destination. I would have wanted as few people as possible to see me. Once again, I filed this sight away in my mind.

These 3 anecdotes are just representations of what we see on a regular basis. It has caused me to wonder what it is about the Cambodian people that makes them joyful much of the time. I think it gets down to what they focus on. I think, in general, they don't worry about tomorrow. They aren't concerned about how the stock market is doing. They don't spend time concerning themselves with complex political problems. The possibility of war or natural disasters don't invade their down time. They simply take care of what needs to be taken care of for that day. "I will collect enough recyclables to buy food for today and maybe save a little bit extra for tomorrow." That's it. That is not to say that some Cambodians aren't good at saving and making bigger purchases but in general they strike me as people who don't spend a lot of time worrying about things that will happen whether they think about them or not. It is such a great reminder to me as I can sometimes look for things to worry about.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[e]?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Traffic

2012-03-26T22:33:00.002-07:00

I am a horrible passenger. I would much rather be in the driver's seat in most circumstances (except on a plane or other commercial transportation system). However, I am realizing that driving here in Cambodia is also my biggest struggle. It isn't because I don't like the challenge of feeling like you are driving in a crazy, obstacle laden video game all of the time. For me it is more a sense of injustice that comes along with people not following the "rules of the road". Let me give you a few examples of how Cambodian traffic rules/laws.. differ from those in America, since those are the only 2 places I have driven.

Green Light:

America: Go
Cambodia: Go (so far so good) In fact, why not go early. The light is going to change in 5 seconds anyways, I will just start going now. Also on a green light, don't assume that cross traffic will be stopped or remain stopped. ALWAYS be on the lookout :-).

Yellow Light:

America: Slow down and use caution. Make sure the light won't be red before you get to the intersection.
Cambodia: Still green

Red Light:

America: Stop and wait for the green light.
Cambodia: When it changes to red, you have at least another few seconds of "go" time. Then stop unless you really want to go or if it seem clear or if you are in a really nice car and you are "more important" than whoever has the green light. Basically it is a subjective decision.

Right Turn Lane at a light:

America: "Right Lane Must Turn Right"
Cambodia: Right Lane Must Turn Right unless you want to go left. Go ahead and turn in front of all of the other lanes and make them wait while you inch your way through your left turn...from the right lane.

Left Turn Lane at a light:

America: "Left Lane Must Turn Left"
Cambodia: Left or Right or Straight. Doesn't really matter. Other people will gladly wait for you and miss their opportunity to get through the light all to accommodate your last minute decision.

Yield sign:

America: Yield
Cambodia: Don't Yield.

Speed Limit Sign:

America: Travel within a reasonable range of the posted speed.
Cambodia: A rare sight here. Vehicles in traffic travel any where between 1 m.p.h. (ox cart, elephant or person pulling a cart used to collect recyclables) to 70+ m.p.h. (buses, nice cars/suv's or anything that will go that fast...etc). Cops are not equipped to pursue so most people don't really think about it.

Diamond Shaped sign with exclamation point on it:

Self Explanatory

America: Not sure since they don't have them there.
Cambodia: Not sure because no one I have asked knows.

Big Pig Truck going through an intersection on a red light.

Many families work together during the day. This is just a visual example of what you may see in traffic here.

Mobile beverage vendor.

Small glimpse of motos collecting in the middle of an intersection...they had the red light.

Following the path of least resistance.

Morning Ice Delivery. Most people don't have refrigerators so daily ice blocks are a must.

Motos deliver sooooo much in the city.

Balloon vendor.

This little girl is riding in a trailer pulled by her dad's moto. Sweet face.

This 3-wheeled bike is pedaled around the area so he can sell the food that is cooking as he rides.

Local market right off the road.

Just a variety of "vehicles" that are seen here on a daily basis.

So those are just a few differences between traffic in Cambodia and traffic in America. Makes driving ~~fun,~~ challenging here. Maybe at some point I will post a video of it. Although I have made light of it, the blatant disregard for traffic laws by people here is by far my biggest struggle. It strikes a chord of injustice in me. "Why should they be able to break that law just to accommodate themselves and make us all wait?" It is an exercise in love and patience EVERY time I get behind the wheel (or handlebars). If I can eventually learn that lesson, through the patient, loving encouragement of my wife, I will be a better person in the end.

Alien

2012-03-19T08:11:00.003-07:00

I'm not a huge fan of "fitting in". I don't mind being different and doing things a bit out of the box. I am certain that God did that intentionally since it certainly played into my desire to move to a developing southeast Asian country. One way that that trait made itself evident here was shortly after we moved here.
Everyone here (not literally everyone; I always tell my kids to never use absolutes but you know what I mean) told us that everyone (see above parenthetical statement) who moves here goes to Sihanoukville for their first excursion out of the Phnom Penh. Sihanoukville is the most popular beach town in Cambodia. 90% of tourists who say they went to the beach in Cambodia mean they went to Sihanoukville. Although I didn't articulate it right then and there, when I heard that, something inside of me cringed. "I don't want to do what everyone does". So Carolyn and I decided to appease my petty desire to not want to fit in and we went to Thailand instead. A bit further of a drive but well worth it for many reasons.
This desire of mine has also helped out a lot since, as you can imagine, I don't really fit in with the locals here. I am not sure if it is my height or my accent when I speak. It could also be the clothes I wear or the fact that I ride a loud dirt bike. Or...maybe its because I'm white. Haven't quite figured it out yet. Anyways, I can never blend in. Ever. Even if I wanted to. This point is made more evident since Cambodians enjoy staring at foreigners. I have learned that they aren't being rude. It is just culturally acceptable here. This is how it played out for me one day: I took my dirt bike to a local "car wash" to have it washed. Since the workers there are thorough but not fast, I brought a book to read while waiting. I sat at small table (maybe 3' by 4') and drank some water while I read. Not long after, a Khmer man came and sat across from me. Although I did not look up, I could tell that he was staring at me. I could have reached out and touched him he was so close. To try and discourage this behavior, I thought I would look up at him and make eye contact. Certainly that would make him look away. Well, he just smiled, undeterred, as our gazes locked for 6-8 seconds. Then I smiled back and continued reading. Fun times.

Me driving kids to school on "crazy hair day".

All of us in the fam get stared at because we stick out. I have had several conversations with my kids about this. They will say something like "I don't want to do that. People will stare at me". I always (again, see parenthetical statement above) reply with "They will stare at you anyways. Why not give them a reason?" That is met with the typical teenage rolling of the eyes, even from the ones that aren't teenagers yet. Regardless, it is something we are all getting used to, whether we want to or not.
As we anticipate our time in America this summer, I think I will subconsciously breathe a sigh of relief. For the first time in 2 1/2 years I can walk around and feel like I fit in, even if I don't. Then, like God usually does, he caused me to think deeper. As a Christian, should I ever fit in down here? I was not made for this world. I am just passing through. This isn't my homeland...just like Cambodia isn't my homeland. And just like it is glaringly obvious that I don't naturally belong in Cambodia, maybe it should be just as obvious that I don't fit here on Earth. 1 Peter 2:11 speaks directly to this: "Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul." Maybe not fitting in was what we were all meant to do.

Breached

2012-03-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

One thing that we have gotten used to over here (some of us more than others) are insects. In fact, most of us have actually eaten a variety of the little guys. Just the other day I was grabbing a quick plate of noodles on the street. When I was halfway through my meal I noticed a small cockroach peaking out from between the toothpick dispenser and the roll of toilet paper (used in place of napkins in many locations). Without skipping a beat, I used my left hand to flick him off the table and continued eating. One of the most common creatures with which we have learned to co-habitate is the ant. During many meals we are brushing them off of our table while we eat. Ants don't even register a blip on our radar anymore....for the most part.
They do raise a bit of concern, though, when I notice a 4 lane interstate highway of them all leading to a particular location. This means that one has found a stash of candy, a dead bug or a crumb that was missed. He then radios in to headquarters and gives all of his friends the coordinates. Many times the situation culminates in a conversation such as:
Me: "Are you sure you don't have any old candy in there (pointing toward a stack of books, clothes...etc)?"
Child X: "Yep".
Me: "Really? They aren't usually attracted to the pages of a book or a pencil case."
Child X: "I'm sure."
Me: "Well I'll take a look just to make sure."
32 seconds later
Child X: "Oh yeah, I was wondering where that open bag of Skittles went".
Me: "Gosh, I am so shocked to find that (Dripping with sarcasm).

After the amazing discovery, the ant party is disrupted by a few shots of Raid and a broom.

However, this was not the case a couple days ago. It started out similarly. I noticed a trail of ants entering our kitchen from the outside door. Actually 2 trails. One led to the trash and I quickly took care of that problem. The other went the other direction. I followed the 4 lane highway as it curved under our ant cabinet (an ant cabinet is a glass and aluminum pantry that sits on 4 legs - see picture. Each leg usually sits in a small dish of water or some sort of detergent. This usually keeps the ants away. We basically keep all food that is not refrigerated inside the ant cabinet. This ensures that we aren't sharing our food with a million little friends). I fully expected to see the trail exit from the other side of the cabinet and head toward our dog's food bowl. When I realized that the trail terminated under our cabinet, my first thought was: we've been breached!

I know that may sound a bit dramatic but the ants had gained access to where we keep much of our food. Flour, sugar, cereal, chips, crackers, any of Carolyn's amazing baked goods, candy...etc. They were all now at risk. Immediately I began to assess the situation. How far did they get? What had been overtaken and ruined? I systematically pulled everything off the shelves starting at the bottom and moving up. On the bottom shelf and the 3rd shelf up there were large collections of ants but mostly isolated to a bag of sugar and a bag Blow Pops (brought to us from the US...bummer). I cleaned out all of the ants and put the food back but the most important step would be to figure out what caused the breach. This needed to be done otherwise they would be back again. After careful observation, I noticed that the cabinet had been pushed back less than an inch but that had allowed the leg of the cabinet to just barely touch the edge of the small dish. This provided an access point for the vermin to get in. I repositioned the cabinet and made sure that there was still enough detergent to discourage the little guys from hosting another free party hosted by us.

Not to overspiritualize this event but it did cause me to think of our lives as Christians. We can so easily move ever so slightly off of the path we are on but that movement allows Satan to breach our defenses. I have found that when I am not spending consistent time in the Word and analyzing the state of my defenses, I am more vulnerable to being "breached". To me, this story illustrated, in a sort of funny way, my need to be more diligent in protecting myself from the attacks of the Enemy.

"But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do." 1 Peter 1:15

Religion

2012-03-05T05:32:00.002-08:00

In a country that is 95% + Buddhist, religion is constantly in front of us. And with the type of Buddhism that is practiced here, we also experience religion in our noses, ears...etc. In Cambodia, the majority of those who are Buddhist practice extensive ancestor spirit worship and Animism more than traditional Buddhism. To appease the spirits of their deceased ancestors, most every morning our neighbors will place a variety of food and drinks inside the spirit house which sits right outside of their front door. Along with these offerings, they light an incense stick (or several). Many times this aroma makes its way through our windows and into our noses. The actual aroma isn't so objectionable as much as it is what it represents. We know that they are engaging in spirit worship. Religion also fills our ears when the monks at the large pagoda near our house begin loud chanting before 5am, or the eerie sounds of indigenous instruments being played from early until late at a funeral to give the spirit an adequate final departure. We experience many, if not all of these things, on a weekly basis.

A large Spirit House just outside of a Wat (Buddhist Temple)

A nicer Spirit House outside of a store near our house

All walks of life have Spirit Houses, even if they have to make their own out of playing cards. This one hangs on a tree just outside of a shop where we get our moto repaired.

Not only because of what we experience here, but in general I am not a huge fan of religion. While I am follower of Christ and we moved to Southeast Asia to in response to the Great Commission, I don't love all of the "requirements" of religion. As Christians, we inject a lot of our own ideas into what religion should look like. Many of them are ideas that are not found anywhere in the Bible (i.e. Dress up nice for church, do the right thing, say the right thing, say "I'm fine. How about you?" When someone asks how you are doing at church...etc). Those might be oversimplifications but I am sure you understand the generalizations. I love Christ and His people that make up His church but its the religious static that I can do without.

So when I read James 1:27, it made me stop and think. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Finally a simple explanation of religion. I like simple. Are you making religion too complicated?

Word of the Week: Faith

2012-02-26T22:39:00.000-08:00

So I'm trying a different approach to blogging. I am going to be picking a different word each week and then writing about it. This will hopefully achieve 3 things: 1. It will theoretically not be so long between posts (there was the option of "word of the year" too); 2. I'm not the brightest crayon in the box so simplifying the process should help me figure out what to write about easier; 3. Diversify the posts. They won't all be about ministry here but about life, family, reflections...etc as well.

The first WOTW I chose was faith. Now before you think I chose it because it is a good missionary word and it will be an easy platform for me to highlight my faith over the past couple years, that is the furthest from the truth. In all actuality, I chose the word faith because recently God has been demostrating to me just how much of my life I live without faith. Sure I have the "saving faith" that will allow me to escape hell (which I am eternally grateful for...literally), but in my every day life I realized that very little of what I do incorporates faith. Two different verses convicted me and caused me to take a deep look into my own life and motives. The first one is Hebrews 11:6. "And without faith it is impossible to please God...". Really? Impossible? I have been a part of some pretty cool things over the past 2 years here. Does that mean that God wasn't pleased? What I realized of myself was that so much of what I do is done because it is what I want to do, what I think is best or it will achieve something for me. He was please I am sure with His name being proclaimed...but in spite of my lack of faith. Whether it is ministry, interactions with my family, community projects...etc much of what I do has been selfishly motivated. Even if on the outside there is not a shred of evidence that would indicate that, my inner motives would convict me. Like it says in Isaiah 64:6, "...and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags...". Within ourselves, apart from faith, we have nothing good to offer.

The second verse that really hit me hard was Romans 14:23, "...and everything that does not come from faith is sin." Everything? Now I am not going to the extreme of saying "God, in faith I am putting a thin layer of strawberry jam on my toast...etc". However, this verse has convicted me to evaluate my motives in much of my every day life. I was a passive controller (probably still am, just trying to recover). I would try to manipulate my life to go the way I wanted it to. Whether it be in my marraige, with my kids, in my job, while I am driving here in Cambodia (which is as futile as herding cats), with our adventure in support raising...etc. I wanted things to work out the way I want them to. Depending on what I was trying to control, at some level I would be angry if it didn't. And that happened a lot. It was exhausting and frustrating. That is when God smacked me on the forehead and said "Apply faith, I have it taken care of already". I am still learning to walk in that on a daily basis but I can tell you that I have realized that I am happier now even when I don't get what I want than I was a few months ago when I got what I wanted through manipulation. Not sure why I am surprised that the Bible is true...but I am glad it is.

Next week the word is: actually I'm not sure yet. I will let you know.

Holidays for the Ohlin's

2012-01-12T00:29:00.000-08:00

Our second Christmas here was pretty cool and, for the most part, enjoyable. I say for the most part because we would have enjoyed some colder weather (but that would have to wait until New Year's). One of the highlights was on December 23rd when Asian Hope hosted their 2nd annual Christmas outreach. This was something that I was in charge of organizing since it was an outreach to the community where we are doing our Neighborhood Kids Outreach. For the event, we invited 300 kids and their families to our school grounds for a Christmas celebration. During the event each person received a plate of fruit, a Christmas t-shirt (with a Bible verse on it) and a tract with the Christmas message and an invitation to a Khmer church for a Christmas service. We were so excited to see between 350 and 400 people attend. We also had a local Khmer ministry come and perform a Christmas drama that communicated the real meaning of the holiday in a culturally relevant way. It seemed to be powerful and well received.
One of our friends was talking to some of the attendees at the event. The boys he was talking to were some of the "tough" boys of the neighborhood. He asked them if they had ever heard of Christmas before. They had. Then he asked them what they knew about Christmas. It is somewhat ironic but not surprising that they had heard of Santa, snow and exchanging gifts but not of the birth of Jesus. My response was "awesome"! Those are exactly the type of people we want at one our outreaches. Needless to say that they did end up hearing about the TRUE meaning of Christmas. We are trusting God to speak to the hearts of these young people.

Some Asian Hope volunteers wait to hand out food, t-shirts and tracts and fruit to our neighborhood friends.

Residents from the neighborhood wait to receive gifts in an orderly fashion.

The fruit, t-shirt, tract line.

A couple volunteers with a couple girls from the neighborhood.

Our volunteers were busy.

The crowd, many of whom already put their new t-shirts on (green colored shirts), wait for the Christmas production to begin.

A couple of neighborhood boys waiting to watch the Christmas drama.

An older couple from the neighborhood came to find out what Christmas was all about.

Our audience watched as the Christmas story was performed for them in a way that was culturally relevant without compromising any of the content. What a great night!

After that, we made it a point to spend some time together as a family. With the weather being in the mid 80's to low 90's it can be hard to get into the Christmas spirit. What can make it more difficult, though, is that fact that Dec 25th is no different to Khmer people than any other day of the year. Nevertheless we had a great Christmas. After skyping some family, we made some western food and went out for a western dinner on Christmas eve. Then on Christmas day we skyped some more family and celebrated our Christmas as a family. We felt so blessed as we opened gifts from here in Cambodia and from halfway around the world in America.
Then on Dec 27th we were blessed with the gift of a trip to Viet Nam. We left on a bus to Ho Chi Minh city. After 6-7 hours we reached our destination. We spent a lot of time walking around a new city and just enjoying time together as a family. Ho Chi Minh was a great break for us. It is more modern than Phnom Penh so we were able to enjoy some things that we aren't used to...two of the most popular for our gang were Subway and Baskin Robins. Such a treat for us. On our second day there we went and visited the cu chi tunnels. Those are the tunnels that the were used extensively by the Viet Cong during the war. It was an informative tour and well worth taking but at times a bit uncomfortable as an American. The tour guides are very friendly toward us but some of the exhibits and scripts they use to describe the war are very anti-America. Nevertheless we enjoyed our time.
After some more sightseeing in Ho Chi Minh we flew to Hanoi. For me, this was the highlight...mostly because I had to wear a jacket. It was probably 55 degrees at the coldest but we hadn't felt that temperature (other than in our refrigerator) for 2 years. It was so refreshing. We spent all of our time there in Hanoi's Old Quarter. That is a cool area with a mix of Asian, old French and modern architecture. While in Hanoi we also got the opportunity to do an unusual tourist activity...we saw the body of a man who has been dead for over 40 years. One of Viet Nam's former leaders, Ho Chi Minh, is on display for people to walk by and view. Weird, I know, but interesting to learn more about him.
New Year's Eve was also spent in Hanoi. It is fun since, unlike Cambodia, the Vietnamese people do celebrate Christmas so most of the decorations were still up. Another highlight was that there was an old Catholic church near where we stayed. We are so used to Buddhist architecture so this was a real treat to go in and walk around. It was so refreshing to look at the large nativity scene that they had displayed out front as well. That night they had set up a huge stage right near the lake. As I was listening to the loud music, watching all of the excited people and participating in the countdown, I was struck by the fact that here we are in Viet Nam, celebrating New Year's with people from all around the world and the entire celebration was done in English. Anyways, midnight came and went and we ushered in 2012.
The next day we went back to Ho Chi Minh and then on the 2nd bused back to Phnom Penh. Even though our time was busy and full of new things and places, we came back refreshed and excited about the year ahead. We are really seeing God make some exciting changes and adjustments in our family and ministry, which are not always easy or enjoyable but when they have God's stamp of approval on them, they are always good. We are also eagerly anticipating the first visit back to the States for our family since moving here. That is only about 5 months away now. Thank you again for being on our team. We appreciate each and every one of you.

Speaks for itself!!

Cu chi tunnels.

The many tastes of Viet Nam.

The nativity scene in Hanoi. So cool for us to see.

Calli, Cameron and Abby!

High School Students + Remote Village Part 3

2011-12-08T16:42:00.001-08:00

Here is the conclusion of Abby's account of our trip to the village. It truly was privilege to be able to serve Christ in this way. Thanks for sharing!

As the brisk morning began to unfold many of us once again were woken up by one of our neighbors playing obnoxious Khmer music through speakers. Most, if not all, of us woke up with a mix of joy and sadness because we would be leaving a wonderful village with wonderful people in just over 4 hours. And yet again, for breakfast we all met at the little “restaurant” for some delicious Mama noodles, eggs, and instant coffee. Nearing the end of breakfast about all of the guys and a few of the girls (including me) left to go and check on the lady who had sliced her foot open the night before and the little girl who had an oil burn. When we arrived at the woman’s house we noticed that the bleeding had not leaked through the guase that my dad wrapped around her ankle. That is one of the things that we had prayed for nonstop the previous night. After the visit ended at the lady’s house we made our way to the sweet little girl’s house. When we arrived at her home her parents communicated to us that her fever had gone down a fair amount. Praise God! And her burn was already looking better. When I was making my way back to the Chief’s house with Victoria we talked about how we were all brought here to this village for a few reasons and purposes. A few being that if we would not have come in the time that we did the lady would have possibly died and the little girl would have been severely injured. So, again we all praised God when we arrived back at the house.

Soon after we came back from visiting the little girl and the woman we were all packed and ready to start the 5 kilometer hike again. I have to mention that I think that it was a bitter-sweet moment for all of us. We had all gotten attached to the village and its residents. The people there are some of the sweetest people on earth. As the 5k walk began many of us had the wonderful idea to try and get a cart to take our stuff to the van for us. But as it turned out, we ended up not getting a cart for our luggage, so we swung our backpacks on our backs and started walking. In the middle of the long walk Stephen grabbed his iPod and my speakers and started blasting all sorts of different music through them. As he did this it interrupted many of the conversations that were going on at the time, but it turned out to be okay. As a result, many if not all of us joined in singing to Hillsong, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Carrie Underwood, and many other artists. While we were having fun singing and jumping to the beat of the music I heard so many laughs coming out of my friends mouths. For me, it was an awesome time. Not only because it really helped pass the time of the walk, but it was fun to all be singing our hearts out again. As the 5k came to an end, and we reached the van I looked around and everyone was sitting under a tree in the shade with soaking wet shirts from sweat.

After about a 20 minute rest we piled all of our luggage and ourselves into the hot van and headed back to Phnom Penh. During the ride back to Phnom Penh we all did the same thing that we had done as our journey began on Sunday morning. We got Pierre’s guitar and Peter’s iPod and started singing and playing music together. About 3 hours into our trip home, which actually felt more like 45 minutes because of the music, we stopped at a shop/restaurant in a village for some lunch. When we all got settled down in our seats around the table we all ordered some pork and rice. Although noodles and eggs were an option, no one wanted it. While we were all scarfing down our rice and pork my dad had the idea for us all to go around the table and share our high and low part of the trip. When each of us were going around the table sharing our thoughts of the trip I noticed that a lot of us had the same highs and lows. There were also some people whose highs were someone else’s lows and vice versa.

When we finished lunch we once again piled into the van and continued our trip back to PP for three more hours. When those hours came to an end we made our way to Logos and climbed out of the van where we all went in our own separate directions. It was sad to see the awesome trip to Kraviek come to an end. But hopefully we can go back to the village again.

My short testimony of the trip:

This trip changed me so much. Because before the trip even began I knew a lot of the people who were coming with on the trip but I didn’t know them well. To be honest I was scared that during the trip that I would stay quiet and I wouldn’t talk very much. However, God really changed me while we were serving the people in Kraviek. I became closer to a lot of people and I am not as shy as I used to be. Also, I am so thankful for all 17 of the people who came on the trip with me. I could not have asked for any other 17 people to share this adventure with. God knew who was going on the trip and what was going to happen while we were out there before any of us did. And he also made the timing of this trip perfect for each of us.

This trip was amazing in so many ways, and I honestly wish I didn’t have to leave the village and go back to school. I would give anything to go back out there and eat noodles, eggs and instant coffee for three days or even a week.

High School Students + Remote Village Part 2

2011-12-04T17:22:00.001-08:00

Here is Abby's account of Day 2 in the village:

The next morning we all woke up to our neighbor blasting our ears with crazy Khmer music through at 5:30, and also to the cold, brisk air blasting the rest of our bodies. I crawled out of my hammock with my blanket wrapped around my shoulders and went to the little “restaurant” where hot instant coffee was waiting for me. Soon after I arrived at the “restaurant” more of our team members started to wake up and come over to get coffee. A little later into the morning after we all shared a nice breakfast of Mama noodles, coffee, and eggs we changed back at the house and made our way up to the little schoolhouse where we were going to share our awesome Bible lessons with the village kids. However, God had different plans. When we arrived at the school house we found that there were about 8-10 kids at the school who had just finished being taught by two men who were being supported by the government to come to the village to teach the kids. They explained to us that it is hard to teach the kids because they are working in the rice fields all day long, and they don’t have the supplies to teach the children properly. So, the teachers asked us if we could bring pencils, crayons, note books, and other supplies for the children. And sure enough that is what we had packed along in our backpacks for the kids! I think it is so cool to see that before we had gone to the village God had already planned for us to bring all of the supplies that the children needed, and also that what we were going to bring was just what the teachers asked us to do. God is so awesome

After we finished talking to the teachers some of the kids had started to leave because they had to start on their chores in the rice fields. For a few minutes we thought about waiting until the afternoon to do our lessons. Then Ms. Harris had the idea for a few of us to go walk through the village to try and get some kids to come to the school house with us. So, Deborah, Dillon, Tia, Ms. Harris and I walked through the village for about and hour trying to find kids to come with us back to the school house. At many of the houses that we stopped at in the beginning there were kids at home who were either too scared to come with us or they were working with their parents in the rice fields. I have to admit that I wanted to give up looking for kids and asking them to follow us, but then I said to myself, “What would Jesus do? I bet he wouldn’t just stop looking for children because it was hot outside and wanted to do his own thing.” As a result of that I decided to press on in the heat and do what God would want to see me do. While we were walking through the village, we came across a house where a little girl was laying on a table and 3 adults were watching the little girl. When we walked up to the people and the little girl we asked what was wrong with the girl. The adults communicated to us that the young girl had gotten an oil burn two days before we arrived in the village. Not only did the innocent girl have a bad oil burn, but she had a high fever and her skin started to get very hot and red looking. Before we left that house we decided to pray over the little girl, and that God would heal her completely and take her fever away and also to make it so that her burn did not get infected anymore. Later on that day, my dad came back to that little girl’s house and treated and covered her burn and gave her some medicine for pain and for her fever.

When we left the little girls house and made our way back to the school house there were at least 15 kids sitting in their desks waiting to be taught. I was so shocked and amazed to see so many kids at the school house who had stopped working in the fields with their parents just to come listen to what we were going to share with them, what had burning in our hearts to share with them ever since we heard that we were assigned to this trip. Yet again we can see how God was already working in the hearts of these young wonderful children, and the hearts of my team and me. God is so good!

After we finished two awesome lessons with the kids David and Goliath, and the creation story we took an hour break and went to have Mama Noodles, eggs, and coffee. Then we gathered the kids again and led them down to the river where we were going to give the children baths and get them all cleaned up. About half of the kids who had been at the school house followed us down to the river to get cleaned up. While we were down at the river I saw about 4 young girls who were afraid to get into the water and play with us, so I decided to get out of the water and I walked over to them, talked to them for a few minutes then asked if they wanted to get their nails painted. They all said yes immediately. So, I sat on the rocks and in the dirt cleaning the dirt out from under their nails and painting them in brilliant colors. The rest of the students either played ball with the kids in the river, helped paint nails or scrubbed the hair of the village kids. Right before we left the river we hung a large rope from a large log that fell over the river. It made a really fun rope swing for the kids.

When we came back from the river most of us changed into our PJ’s for the night and talked and hung out for a while. Soon it was time for another round of Mama Noodles, eggs, and coffee. A few minutes after we got settled for dinner and started eating our noodles and eggs about 10 Khmer people came up to us and waited until they got our attention. When we finally noticed that they were there they explained to us that an old lady had sliced her foot open with one of the tools that you use to cut weeds with. Immediately almost all of the guys on our team dropped their cup of noodles and were headed towards the woman’s house, including my dad with his first-aid kit. Time flew by when the guys were gone and finally I couldn’t take it anymore because I was so scared for the lady and no one had come back to tell us if she was okay or not. I said that we should all gather in a circle and pray for the lady, and that God would give my dad and the other guy’s wisdom to help the woman. After we finished praying the guys came back and told us that the lady had sliced open one of the arteries in her foot and if they had not gotten to her house and fixed her foot when they did, the lady would have slipped into a coma because she lost so much blood. When I heard the news I was so thankful that we were in the village that weekend. If we hadn’t been, the lady with the cut foot might have slipped into a coma and maybe never would have come out of it. And who knows? The little girl’s oil burn might have gotten badly infected and something might have happened to her.

Later that night we had worship time and again, quite a few Khmer people came to watch us sing. During the time that we were worshiping a Khmer lady asked Deborah what our purpose for singing was. And Deborah told her that we were singing because we were praising our Father in Heaven, and giving thanks to Him for all of the amazing things that He has done for us. After Deborah explained that to the lady I saw an expression on her face that I had never seen before. It was almost as if she understood. When the worship time was finished Ms. Harris and my dad decided that we should all walk up to the schoolhouse and have devotions. When we reached the schoolhouse we all gathered in a circle and sat on the desks. It was pitch black outside except for a few dim flashlights that a few of us brought along to make the atmosphere a little more comfortable. As the devotion time began, my dad spoke from two different scriptures, Matthew 14:22-33 and Psalm 37:4. While my dad was talking every once in a while he would stop and ask us questions about what was happening and he also applied some of what was happening in the scriptures to his own life, like what had happened with his previous job. As my dad closed up his talk, a few people took a courageous step to share some of their testimony with us all (I’m not going to name the people.) Anyway, as the testimonies continued to pour out of the hearts and souls of my friends and classmates I could feel Satan trying to make us scared and not believe in God. I am so glad that I can lean on the truth that God is so much more powerful than the Enemy.

As the wonderful devotion time came to an end, my dad and a few others prayed to God and thanked Him for bringing all 17 of us students together to a tiny remote village so that we might become closer to each other and to our Creator. When we started making our way back down the trail that would lead us back to our hammocks, many of us walked without saying a word to one another. Some of us were still replaying the scene that we had just witnessed at the schoolhouse in our minds. Some of us probably didn’t know how to react at the moment. When we arrived back at the Chief’s house many of us grabbed our toothbrush’s and brushed our teeth and got ready to crawl into our hammocks for the night.

Our students helped wash the kids' hair in the river.

Some kids waiting for us to do our program for them.

Giggly girl enjoying time with our students.

Treating a little girl's leg. She had a fever and a bad oil burn. Praying she recovers.

Abby doing one of the things she loves most.

Abby and the rest of the girls on our team took time to clean under the girl's nails and then paint them.

Beauty time in the river.

High School Students + Remote Village Part 1

2011-12-01T17:25:00.001-08:00

Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking 13 students and 3 other leaders with me out to the tiny, remote village of Kraviek. We had a great time and really saw the Lord move in this "uttermost part" region of the world. In the 36 hours after returning, Abby wrote about 6 pages chronicling our time there. I would like to share it with you in its entirety...but over the course of 3 different posts since it is quite long. I hope you enjoy.

Here is the first day:

It was Sunday morning when all 17 of us students and supervisors gathered at Logos and started to pile into a 15 passenger van that would lead us to a tiny village where we had no idea what was ahead of us…or what was going to happen. The car ride was very enjoyable because the whole 5 hours we were singing our hearts out with every song that we knew accompanied by Peter and Pierre who were playing the mini guitar. On the way to the village we made a stop at some hot springs where we had a nice lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chips…etc. We also hung out for a little while by the extremely hot water. Then we continued the adventure toward Kraviek. After a very bumpy, slow trek we arrived at the village where we would leave our van. We all started to unpack our luggage from the van and prepared ourselves to walk 5 kilometers…in the heat and through river crossings on a path through the jungle. Besides our bags of clothes and hammocks that we had brought for the 3 day trip ahead of us, we had boxes of water and Mama noodles that we purchased earlier that morning which all had to be brought with us as well. I have to admit that many of us had complained a few times about the walk, and how horrible it will be to walk in the scorching hot sun not to mention the fact that we had extra bags on our backs but Pierre had a great attitude and encouraged us by reminding us that we needed to keep our attitudes in the right spot. God brought us out in the middle of nowhere for a reason and we were going to the village to serve our Father, not for our own benefit.

The walk lasted about one and a half to two hours long. During that time we came across a few ox carts that offered us a ride to the village. Although we all wanted the ride the price was too high. However, we managed to get the price down from $12 to $7.50. Since we had bargained down the price with the Khmer people we took the ride and piled all of our luggage and food onto the cart, long with Daehan, Deborah, Stephen, Dillon, and me. Surprisingly enough our driver for the ox cart was a little boy that was about 10-12 years old. The ride on the ox cart was a great adventure. At least I thought so, even though the cart did almost flip over a few times because of the bumpy roads. While Deborah, Stephen and I were holding onto each other and the luggage for dear life and trying to not fall off into the mud, Daehan was in the very front of the cart swinging his hands in the air saying, “everyone lean left, lean right!!” haha. When we arrived at the Chiefs house in the village we thanked the young boy for driving us through the mud to our destination.

Soon after we arrived in the village we started setting up out hammocks in the cow shed and in trees. Then we decided to go the river to wash the sweat, dirt, and mud off of our bodies. In my opinion, the river was actually pretty nice because the water was cool, clean and it allowed us the chance to get “cleaned” up. After we dried off from being in the river we walked back through the village and to the Chief’s house where some of the guys (Aaron, Pierre, and Peter) picked up their guitars and started playing worship music. They played music for a little while but had to take a break for dinner. We walked across the dirt road to a little “restaurant” that was run by a man and his son. This is where we ate our meals every day that we were in the village. For every meal we had one package of Mama Noodles, one hard-boiled egg, and as much instant coffee as we wanted. To be honest, after the second or third meal I was already sick of having the same thing for breakfast, lunch and, dinner. After dinner we went back to playing guitars and singing together. Before we knew it, time had flown by and it soon got dark and there was a crowd of about 20-30 people who came to watch us sing. It was fun having people watch us sing praises to God. I had to keep telling myself to give the glory to God and to not draw attention towards myself. After we finished singing at about 8 pm many of us kids gathered in a circle with Ms. Harris and talked about last year’s chapel when Satan and Jesus were having a battle in front of all of our eyes. As the conversation continued I shared with my friends and Ms. Harris that lately I have had a feeling to share my testimony with the school. However, every time I want to do it I feel the time is never right. So as I was finishing up talking Pierre and Stephen told me that if it is something that I feel like I want to do, and that I also feel like God is telling me I should, then I should share my testimony with the school. As the conversation ended that night around 9 o’clock I went to my hammock feeling blessed to have friends who cared for me and encouraged me to do the right thing during the conversation.

I will post day 2's adventures in a few days. Thanks for reading!