My Trip to Wat Kandal

On Sunday afternoon Bill kindly stayed home with Katherine so I could accompany the students to Wat Kandal.  Putee had told me that it was an hour away by moto, but it only took maybe 30 minutes.  He must not find it an interesting ride. 

This is what the traffic was like.  You can see the edge of one of the cows on the right.

And here was my ride.  I only knocked Srey Roat on the back of the head with my helmet twice.

Below are the PATC students and their respective classes.  The children in attendance said many of their classmates were absent because they had to help their families with the rice harvest.

This is Saveuet (there’s really not a good way to write his name in English!)

Sopheak

Srey Roat (pronounced “roe-ought”)

and Vanak

The school has five classrooms with broken windows, a thick layer of dirt on the concrete floors, and piles of dirt, broken glass and a few wrappers swept into the corners.  It is located beside the river on the grounds of the village wat.  I actually asked where the wat was when we arrived, because typically even in poor areas the wat is large and extravagant.  But this one was a small wooden building/covered porch more in keeping with the area.

Inside are idols representing Buddha.

This is where the monks live, across the grounds from the wat:

None of Savee’s students showed, so we went to talk to the monks.  He helped me ask them some questions about Buddhism.  I was asking them about how they know what will happen to them when they die; how they know if they’ve done enough good to earn a favorable reincarnation.  The typical answer is, “you don’t.”  And I was waiting for that answer so that I could reply with a resounding, “Then, have I got good news for you!” 

But I learned something new.  If you do good works AND, when you are dying, think about how you led a good life, then you will have a good reincarnation.  But if you focus on your bad deeds, you will have an unfortunate new life. 

After some discussion about that idea, we opened the floor for them to ask questions about Christianity.  In general, I don’t think I handled the let-me-listen-to-your-ideas-and-then-I-can-tell- you-about-mine approach to evangelism very well.  The discussion remained genial and respectful (with the exception of the one monk who snickered the whole time), I just think it was obvious that my primary purpose was not to learn about Buddhism, and they were humoring my questions. 

Nevertheless, they asked some good questions about Christianity (though they, too, were not primarily interested in learning about Christianity, but were obviously seeking to leave us unable to answer or confirm the validity of our faith).  For example, “How can you say Jesus created everything when he was only born 2000 years ago?”  “If everyone is born with sin, how can you say Jesus was born without sin?”  And “if God loved his people, why did He curse them and the world and animals with them?”  Good questions.

So for over an hour, 10 monks continued to initiate questions, receive biblical answers and hear the clear message of God’s justice and mercy from our well-prepared students of Systematic Theology.  (Saveuet and Vanak had joined us after their classes were over.) 

We then left Wat Kandal and went to Stung, where Sopheak’s family lives and a she and Srey Roat each teach another group of children.

And play games with them.

This is Sopheak’s mom (standing), working in the field behind their house.  She was thinning their patch of diakon radishes. 

She has been a strong and faithful member for a long time.

Jenn

Thursday Fellowship

We had our second “Thursday Fellowship” yesterday.  We plan to get together once a month at a church member’s house for worship and a meal.  We all had a really good time together, and it is already evident that spending this extra time together is strengthening the relationships between members. 

Also, according to custom, this gathering is broadcast by loudspeaker over the surrounding village, so every month a different area gets to hear a few hymns and a message of salvation by grace through faith in the Only True and Living God, Jesus Christ. 

Our hosts this month were Kim and Nyen:

Here are some ladies preparing the meal.  I can’t remember the name of the dish, but it sounded ironically similar to “don’t eat.”

This is Sopheak, Chheng’s niece, whom I mentioned in the previous post. 

This is how to cook rice for 50 people.  The wood has already been removed from underneath, and most of the rice eaten, for that matter.  I’m not sure about the banana leaf.  Maybe a potholder?

These girls are playing a game called “catch the lice.”  (Really, lice?)  It’s basically jacks but with rocks.  The girl in orange has them here.  And in case you were wondering, Taylor Doyle sent Flat Susie for a visit! 

 

You can see the local pool hall across the street.

These guys (the 6 in front) are students at the PATC.

We’re riding the ferry back across the river.  The girl behind Chheng is Srey Leab, a student and faithful worker for almost 3 years.

The lady on the right is Sarun, Chheng’s sister.  She was the first to believe, and the church—7 or 8 people—met in her home when Chheng began his ministry here in 1999.

Missionaries have laundry, too.

Since I received enthusiastic fan mail in response to “Ordinary Life,” I am emboldened to offer—at least to that fan—a sequel.  (Yes, it was just one piece of fan mail, but I couldn’t really say, “a fan mail,” now could I?)

So for you who are interested (singular or plural), I present our dryer:

It has become necessary to hang our clothes on the fence, rather than on the line:

because banana trees drop sap that dries to a deep (though not unpleasant) brown and scoffs at all stain removal techniques known to the modern world.  Except bleach, which has obvious limitations. 

This is not such an undesirable situation, though, seeing as how shirts which have been hung in half over the line turned out lighter on the south side, producing an effect that is undesirable.  On the positive side, Katherine’s sun-dried diapers remain surprisingly white.

In the way of artistic outlets, about 6 weeks ago Bill asked me to make an enlargement of one of the maps in the back of his Bible so his Sunday school class could follow the movements of Jesus as they study through the book of Mark.  So, several Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons later, we have a map: 

  

My other (long-term) project is painting the black-and-white illustrations in one of several little Bible story books we picked up for some of our students to read to their students.

I was hoping this project would be a very fun and relaxing way to spend a couple of hours per week during a naptime.  I was, to be honest, rather disappointed and irked that in reality it is turning out to be a frustrating chore.  I have almost no experience with watercolor, and don’t really know what I’m doing.  There are many pictures left.  I might just use colored pencil.

What our students are doing with these Bible story books is a more interesting story, though.  On Saturday and Sunday afternoons three students go to Sopheak’s family’s house, and five go beyond to Wat Kandal (Central Pagoda).  Sopheak’s house is about 30 minutes away by bicycle, and the pagoda is an hour by moto.  There are about 30 children at each location, and our students teach them English for an hour, then play games and read them a Bible story for another hour. 

At Wat Kandal there were originally over 100 children, but after our students told them about Christ, most of the older ones quit coming.  As one of our students put it, “They are afraid of the name of Jesus, and afraid to believe in Him.”  Several teenagers and a group of monks actually hung around (on the fringes) to see and hear the first story that was read. 

Sopheak said the children who continue to come love to hear the stories and see the pictures.  Most of them, especially near Wat Kandal, are very poor (They don’t have pencils to study with, which cost 5-7 cents at the local markets.) so for them, having a story read to them—in terms of frequency, novelty and delight—is rather comparable to an American child going to Disney Land. 

Which is why I want to color the pictures.  If colorful pictures can make the books a little more interesting and enjoyable, I think there is some value in that.  I mean, which would you rather look at?

But the truly wonderful thing about these books is not the color illustrations.  It is that those Khmer characters spell out the story of Jesus, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. 

Jenn

Ordinary Life

I have nothing extraordinary to report, (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) just some glimpses into everyday life of late.

We had a school holiday a while back, so Katherine and I worked on reclaiming the garden from the nutsedge.  If you have ever tried your hand at nutsedge removal, it is rather like one of those trick birthday candles that keeps relighting itself.  Though you huff and puff like the Big Bad Wolf, it WILL grow back.  Judging by the depth and ubiquity of their tubers, I believe I dealt with not just the same species, but the same specimen in my garden in Allen, making nutsedge the second largest organism in the world.

After applying our homemade compost, we planted green bean seeds and some flowers from Sophorn’s garden.  Unfortunately, now that vacation is over, I’ve hardly been out there since.  There is always—for the willing—something to learn in the garden, though.  For example, composted egg shells make a tasty, crunchy treat.  Katherine tried some, and offered them to me as well.  I was not willing.

Here is Bill (and his trusty sidekick, Leatherman) with the trellis he made for the blackberry bush.  We hope to soon have a blackberry-covered screen for the burn barrel.

  

Here is Katherine ready to take a walk.  Notice the “noom” in her pockets.  (Animal crackers.  Though here they’re shaped like shrimp.)

 

After my class time and her naptime, we made hand and foot prints.  Fun times!

On the teaching front, I’m really happy with the progress my English students are making, especially in pronunciation.  Khmer has almost no final consonant sounds.  The last letter is there basically so you’ll know how to shape your mouth to stop the last vowel sound.  So “six,” “sick,” “sit,” and “sip” all sound the same when issuing from a Khmer mouth.  Words like “thanked” (/nkt/) and “costs” (/sts/) are particularly tricky.  And you can just forget about plurals.  But not so any longer!  You’ll not find my students responsible for anything like, “Sin I wah a boy…”  Oh, no.  If you pass my classroom you’ll here things like, “Sinccce I wasss a boy…”  Ahh, the sweet sound of sssuccsssesss!

Jenn

I Can’t Believe They Posted Again!

Enjoy it while it lasts, I can’t promise to keep blogging this frequently.  I wanted to give you a couple more things to pray about that I haven’t mentioned yet.

 Daniel – 3rd Year PATC Student & Our Khmer Teacher

One of our PATC students, Daniel (pictured above), started an English school about 4 miles from the Vietnam border.  That means the school is about 15 miles south of Prek Ambel.  The school has been extremely successful so far as they teach some 400 plus students everyday, and he is doing a great job of managing everything.  Two weeks ago he asked me if I would come on a Saturday morning to share the Gospel with his teachers.  I happily agreed to his request and we set a date for January 18th. 

When I arrived almost all of the teachers were present.  There were 15 teachers, 2 of which are believers and the rest are Buddhists.  We read the book of Acts chapter 10.  We discussed how God taught Peter that the Gospel was for Gentiles too!  And then I shared the Gospel with them following Peter’s words to Cornelious (Acts 10:34-43).

 

God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.  Acts 10:34-35

 

Following the message we discussed the possibility of a weekly Bible study.  They were eager to learn more and studying weekly sounded good (Praise God!).  So this morning we met for the second time.  I decided to go through the book of Mark with them.  This morning we read Mark 1:1-28.  It is quite a powerful chapter, I think.  John says Jesus is so high he is not worthy to untie his sandals.  God the Holy Spirit is with him.  And God the Father is pleased with him.  We are taught the worthiness of Christ; He is the best!  And then we see he is immediately led to the wilderness to be tempted.  “He’s so good huh?  Let’s see what happens after I offer him the whole earth.”  But the Devil was defeated because Jesus passed the test.  Christ passed the test; he did not sin.  We can trust him; we will not be disappointed or ashamed.

Please pray for me and for these teachers.  For the next little while we will be meeting together weekly and reading about the life of Christ.  Pray the Lord would open their eyes, ears, and hearts.  And pray the Lord would help me to teach effectively and truthfully.

 

OK, update number two.  Jennifer has been working with Katherine for many months now (and doing a wonderful job).  Many times she receives comments about how she did this or that and their apparent disapproval of her methods.  One lady tried to “tell on” Jennifer for spanking Katherine.  She said, “Bill, I saw Jennifer spank Katherine,” thinking I would disapprove.  I told her Jennifer did that because she wants Katherine to be a good little girl. 8-)

And Jennifer has just endeavored to do good and follow God’s word and hoped it would be a testimony to the people she comes in contact with.  After being here for two years we are starting to see fruit in this area.  Two of our female students have seen the benefits of starting child training at a young age and have said, “When we have children, we want to train them like you train Katherine.”  Another student said that she didn’t know children could learn things at such a young age.  She said, “It’s nice how you talk to Katherine and explain things to her, the Khmer people don’t really talk to children like that.”  Jennifer, as you know, is not a perfect mommy, but thank God his light is shining through her.  Please pray for her work with Katherine (and mine too).  Pray we would obey God and raise her well.  Pray the Lord would open Katherine’s eyes to her sin and to the forgiveness of God in Christ, in due time.

 

God bless you all,

Bill

More Basketball Stories

As most of you know I have been teaching basketball part-time as a way to meet people and show the light and love of God.  I have also tried to be alert for opportunities to share the Gospel.  Last year I taught at a high school in Saang District. This year, actually starting in December, I am working with a middle school a couple villages away from Prek Ambel.  The name of the village is called, Kah Kile.  I have been teaching them 3 days a week and it is a good time.  They had never played basketball before so we had to start very slowly.  Today I was teaching them about passing and moving without the ball.  I think they were starting to get the idea.

This particular school’s setting is pretty interesting.  The school is inside of a large Buddhist temple complex.  There are idols literally everywhere, some of which cast their shadows onto the basketball court in the evening.  I often see monks sitting down and watching our practices.  It is a place filled with much darkness.  However, I was so thankful to have the opportunity to teach in such a place and have been praying for the Lord to open doors according to His will.  And He has been opening doors!  Let me explain the providences of God. 

I had my cell phone stolen from the side of the basketball court during practice one day, which was a Monday.  On the following Wednesday, I didn’t go to practice because it was a national holiday.  But the students thought maybe I had decided not to coach them anymore because of the incident.  So about half of the players (10+) came to the church by bicycle (about 3 miles) to meet with me and ask me to come back.  After assuring them I was not angry with them, Vanak, a PATC student, and I sat down with them and had a lengthy discussion about the grace of God in sending the Lord Jesus as a substitute for our sins.  This conversation happened because of my phone being stolen.  Fret not, Christian, when dark providences come your way, for you do not know the good that lies on the other side.  Thank God for His providential care!

Another opportunity came when I invited the team along with the school administrators to our annual Christmas play.  Almost the entire team came and heard clearly the story of Christ’s birth and God’s love for mankind.

Guests eating breakfast at the Christmas party

And today after practice, I finally had the chance to speak with some of the monks.  Three of them, who were in their early twenties, were walking around the complex close to my car.  As we approached each other I said, “Hello” in English.  This almost always gets a smile in Cambodia, and I use the technique often to break the ice and get conversations started on friendly terms.  The standard Khmer greeting, Chum Rip Soouh, I have not found to be as effective.  All three of them could speak English fairly well, and they were asking me many questions about my life in Cambodia. 

I told them that I was a computer teacher and also a Bible teacher.  I asked them in the Cambodian language, “Have you ever heard the Word of God about Jesus?”  They answered, “Yes, but only a little.”  In all we spoke for 30 minutes (In Khmer! Thank you for your prayers!) about the total hereditary depravity of man, our inability to obey God, our desperate need for a savior,  and the good news that God the Father had sent His Son, born of a virgin, to redeem His people from their sins.  At this point darkness had set upon us and we said our goodbyes.  They were quite polite and we agreed to speak together again in the future.  Thank God!

Please continue to pray for our work here.  The soil here is rocky, the thorns sharp, and the dark winged fowls of the air plentiful.  But, thanks be to God, some seed will find the good soil and produce a crop 100, 60, and 30 fold.

 

He who has ears, let him hear.  Matthew 13:1-9

 

Grace and peace,

Bill

Sre Trang Christmas Program

The Sre Trang congregation had their Christmas program on Dec. 13th.  We met in the new church building that had just been finished a few days before. 

 The new building.  The old one is just to the left.

Several of the local police were there, as well as some area government leaders.  One of the leaders got up and spoke, having highly favorable things to say about the church there and Christianity in general.  What a blessing to have the support of the local leaders out there.  We can't be naive.  It wouldn’t be unheard of to, at the Christmas program, extol the church and affirm his most affectionate commitment to its prosperity, then shut it down the next day.  But thus far local support has seemed genuine, so we thank God for this blessing and pray that it would continue. 

Guests arriving on the road toward the church

All of our students and a few church members went to the program.  (We left at 4:30 AM!  Yikes!)  Groups from both congregations presented songs and skits.  I missed most of it.  The crowd of children around Katherine (and I) was causing a significant distraction to the audience, so we went outside.  There were over 100 children there; most without an adult counterpart, all without adult supervision.  Some of our students played games under a tent with the ones who weren't interested in the program. 

 Some of the children checking out Katherine

On a side note, Sre Trang has actually had over 100 children attend their Sunday worship service consistently over the past few months.  Please pray for them as they figure out how to wisely manage and effectively teach them about the One True and Living God. But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." Matt 19:14

Children waiting for the program to begin 

When the program was over we all ate curry soup together, then our students taught the Sre Trang youth a series of gestures/movements to go along with the song "God Will Make a Way."  They really enjoy doing gestures along with songs. 

  The tent under which the children played and we ate lunch

Overall, it was a really nice time for the two congregations to worship and fellowship together.

Jennifer

End of the Year

We’ve had a good year and are thankful for all of your prayers and interest in the Cambodian work.  There is still much to do though, as there always will be; it is the proliferate nature of our great God to perform mighty works and lead His sheep to greener pastures.  All praise and glory belongs to Him!

Here is a link to our latest newsletter:

http://thechurchofmercy.org/newsletters/Jan2009Update.pdf

Also, a recent picture of baby Katherine at 14 months. 

She is growing up so fast.  And btw so am I!  The gray hair is coming in like a flood now.  A crown of glory indeed.  I used to do computer work for a construction company named Centex.  One of the project managers had a sign in his office that I think about often.  It said,

Experience is a hard teacher, she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

Hopefully my gray hair is proof of my increasing wisdom from life’s experiences. ;-)

 

God Bless,

Bill

Khmerry Christmas!!!

This was the headline in today's paper.  Too funny.  We went in to Phnom Penh this morning to have a nice American style Christmas breakfast.  Eggs (over medium), bacon, sausage, pancakes, coffee, etc.  We spent the remainder of the day just piddling around and enjoying each other's company.  It was a quiet day but a nice one.  Here is a picture of us after arriving back at home, safe and sound:

We want to say, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."  We miss seeing you all, especially during the holidays.  This season of our lives has us far from home but we try to keep the perspective that the USA is not our real home either.  We long for that better country and heavenly city which the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare.

Hebrews 11:15  If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

 

John 14:1  "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2  In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

 

Thanks be to God and amen!

Bill, Jennifer, and Katherine

Siem Reap Vacation Pics

Ok, I promised you guys some pictures from our vacation to Siem Reap so here they are.  We have been asked many times in the last two years if we ever went to see the Angkor temples.  We always answered, to their astonishment, "no, not yet."  The locals think that every foreigner has been to see them.  Well, now we can add ourselves to the list.  We had a great time and the temples really are amazing.  In the worldly sense they are quite beautiful however, knowing they were built as idols for Hindu and Buddhist gods they kinda lose some of their luster.

(Click to enlarge map)

Anyway, I have organized the pictures according to which particular temple we were visiting.  The temples cover a seventy-five square mile area and there are many to see.  We spent one whole day looking at them and we only saw six temples. 

 

 

Enjoy!

Bill