Home Thoughts From Abroad

On Tuesday I conducted a seminar on blogging where I work and I learned some things about what I do on this site. I learned that in the last two years I have developed some expertise in this medium; what it does well, what it can’t do, and now feel reasonably comfortable at sharing that information with others.

I learned that what I take for granted – blogging two or three times a week, checking for comments twice a day so that those who drop by aren’t offended by waiting – strikes others as impossibly demanding. I don’t see it so. I find it relaxing and enjoyable, an opportunity for me to develop the craft of writing, which I now teach for a living, and a goad to keep me in touch with family and friends and what is happening in the world.

Pam has recently come across some software that will allow us to slurp (yes, that is the technical term) our past two years of web logs and download them into a book format that we can print and keep in hard copy. That sounds to me incredibly rewarding and I am hoping that we can get some of that done before we head home for the summer.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by how much I like the medium. Writing has always been a joy for me. Translating this craft to cyberspace was a little daunting at first, but with a modicum of decorum, even one as outspoken as I can find a voice that is not too offensive. Recently I have had to take down a couple of posts and a picture that others found over the top, and I apologize for that. I do try to find a relatively neutral niche between what is personal and what is public, but no one is perfect, and if you are one of those I have offended, please forgive. And keep reading.

There is no doubt in my mind that there are times when people just need immediate aid in the form of food, clean water, shelter and healthcare.  But this week I saw first hand that “aid” given over extended periods can be very ineffective unless it is also accompanied by a real change in the heart and life of the recipient. 

This week I was able to visit about 250 families living in a well established garbage dump community on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.  As I have worked several times in the health clinic there,  I had already met some of the people.  Plans are in place to “relocate” these families to vacant land about two and a half hours south of the city.  Once there they will have to start afresh to built homes, find food, a source of water and work.

As horrible as life is in the dump, the families there have created homes, some in permanent structures but many in structures made from wood and materials salvaged from the mountains of garbage heaped around them.  They make a very meager living from “recycling” and some have even set up small businesses suchas making clothing from discarded clothing and materials, shoe repairs and selling products to their neighbours.

Most of these families have recieved a water filter system in the past two years.  These are a unique system that is produced locally and consists of a large plastic pail with a spiggot on the bottom.  Into the top of this pail is inserted a specially designed clay pot.  The dirty water is poured into the top and is cleansed as it filters through the clay pot.  The system costs $10 but an Australian church pays $8 of that so the family needs to come of with $2.  My task was to ensure that each family had a working filter prior to their relocation.

Two of the Pastors of the church in the dump and a CHE worker went with me to translate and as they knew many of the families well, were able to tell me a bit about the people.  I saw a marked difference between those who had found hope and peace and those for whom life appeared so futile.  Many told me stories of how their clay pot broke so they recycled their plastic or used it for other purposes, it was too much trouble to use and to clean and really had no interest in having a new one.  I got a chuckle from one lady, almost literally lying in a pile of garbage, who said the filter was of too poor a quality for her liking.

Others told a very different story.  They appeared happy and hopeful that their circumstances could improve.  They understood the importance of clean water and staying healthy in order to better their lives.  They were so proud of how well they cared for their filter and their homes and wanted to show me how clean their filters were.  There was a real joy in their relationship with God that was evident in their lives and a motivation to make the best of the little they have.

There are a number of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) working in Cambodia and most of them use a secular approach to development. CHE does not. CHE stands for Community Health Evangelism, and uses a strategy that according to its website, seeks to “integrate evangelism and discipleship with disease prevention and community-based development.” In other words CHE recognizes that while people may come to its clinics and health professionals for medical reasons, there are underlying causes of poverty, hunger and spiritual need that are at the root of their problems. CHE seeks to meet that deeper need.

CHE began in Africa about thirty years ago. Since then its unique training and outreach strategies have spread to 79 countries, including Cambodia. Their mission is not just to deal with the immediate need of treating sickness and preventing disease, but “to bring about a transformation of the human heart, to change behaviour so that the justice, compassion and righteousness of Christ is reflected in the life of the communities that they serve.”

Part of what Pam is seeking to do with Trans World Radio is get the materials that CHE provides  in the Khmer language and and integrate some of that health information into broadcasts to the remote parts of the country where both health facilities and evangelism are rare. This week she will be meeting with an number of key individuals who share this interest.  Pam is in a unique position to do this. She is a health care professional with extensive experience in programmed health care; she has a broad mandate from Trans World Radio, and she has taken the CHE training and has developed a number of contacts with that organization.

Once again I ask for your prayers as Pam seeks to get this program launched in Cambodia. It is not an easy country to get around in, and government restrictions on the use of cell phones (non-Cambodians are not permitted to buy Cambodian phones, or even SIMs) make internal contacts difficult. It is also not entirely safe, and she is there alone. I know that my thoughts and prayers go with my dear Pam this week, and I ask for yours as well. You can read more about the CHE network at https://www.cheintl.org/

I just returned from a wonderful, three day retreat that was a gift from a special group of women in the West who are part of a ministry dedicated to serving and encouraging women in cross-cultural service.

One of the real challenges of my life is the sense of being isolated from like-minded women.  There are many people who have a good sense of what I do but I don’t often get to share with women who really understand what that means.  On this retreat I met women who enjoy going into a prison as much as I do, who miss their kids and grandkids terribly but get great joy from impacting the lives of families in their country of service, and really appreciate the beautiful homes and conveniences of North America but would gladly trade that in for a little house in a remote village for the privilege of serving God. 
 
In a spectacular, safe environment with fabulous food, inspiring leaders and teachers, pampering and gifts, I was able to share with more than 70 other women that “get my life”.  Probably too much of that was done in the wee hours of the morning, when my room mate and I should have been sleeping, but we will get caught up on our sleep later. There was lots of laughter and even more tears but mostly there was joy!

It was a particular joy to meet the twenty-one volunteers who so freely gave their time, their unique gifts and even their finances, to come to Thailand and serve us, but I am also very grateful to an army of other women who work dilgently behind the scenes who made this possible. They have a unique and and valuable ministry and all of us came away encouraged and refreshed.

If you are interested in knowing about (joining?) this very unique ministry you can visit them yourself at

https://www.womenoftheharvest.com/home.asp

Ultimately, there is no way of knowing for certain anything about creation using the methodologies we humans have constructed for exploring knowledge. Those methodologies have been wonderfully successful in enlarging our empirical understanding, and woefully inadequate in every other area. That is to be expected. Scientific methodologies were never constructed to deal with the issues of God, conscience, morality, or love. This is not remarkable or even notable; it is simply a given, well understood by every serious philosopher.

What is remarkable, what is most certainly notable in the last 200 years or so, has been the importation of scientific methodologies into areas for which it is not equipped to deal. Some things cannot be computed, no matter how advanced the program or the methodology. Such is our love (self-love?) for these devices of our own ingenuity, that some believe that all knowledge must be subsumed under its rubric, and that those areas of understanding that lie outside its purview are of no great significance. Yet even those areas that lie with the range of scientific exploration recede from us the closer we get to them; the uncertainly principle ensures that.

Those issues that lie outside computation are at the heart of our existence. Why then do we insist that those things that lie at the core of what it is to be human yield up their secrets to mere methodology? That will never happen. The only answer to issues which are unknowable by methodology is by revelation. Science will never go there. Yet is precisely there that we must go for answers that are otherwise unknowable, and there’s the rub. All religions claim revelation, so where do you go to find truth? You examine the claims, using rationality as your guide.

Buddha claimed to have taken nothing but two drops of water in four years while meditating to find enlightenment.  Anything else he said, no matter how fair sounding, has to be filtered through this absurdity. Mohammed claimed to be a paragon of moral virtue, yet among his many wives and concubines at 55 was the six year old daughter of his best friend. Anything else he said has to be filtered through this uncomfortable detail. Vishnu claims to be interested in the affairs of man, but eight of his last nine ‘incarnations’ were all about protecting  the kingdom of the gods from attack by evil forces. Where is the concern for mankind in that?

Christ claims to be “the way, the truth and the life” for all who put their faith in Him, and that “no one comes unto the Father, except by me.” To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, only the foulest wretch who ever lived, or a complete madman, along the lines of someone who thought he was a poached egg, could say such things if they weren’t true. And yet Christ’s life shows none of the excesses of a fevered brain, only the most settled and kindly spirit, given to compassion and the needs of others. A truly remarkable life, as anyone who has read it would attest.

And yet this ‘man’ healed terminal disease at a touch, calmed raging waters with a wave of his hand and brought the dead back to life at a word. Nor are these things to be lightly dismissed, although many of the brightest minds have tried. They have either come to grief at the effort or ended up soundly converted by the incontrovertible evidence of the truth of these events. Nor does the story end there, because millions have put this ‘man’s’ word to the test in their own lives, and the change has been dramatic.

For some reason beyond scientific explanation, Christ has made an enormous difference, not just to individual lives, but to the entire culture of the West. You see that here in the East, how there is something missing from their culture, something that doesn’t allow them to ever get ahead of their own greed, indifference and self-absorption and ‘fate’. Science will continue to advance, and I welcome it, since all knowledge leads to a knowledge of God, and only the weak-minded fear it. But science will never have the answers to what troubles and heals the human heart. Only Christ can meet that need. Only Christ can make the difference.

During my trips to various countries I am seeking to learn the reality for women so that broadcasts can be written in a manner that is relevant to their spiritual, cultural and social reality, and be presented in a way that they can understand and apply to their lives.

One of the real joys, for me is to meet people who have a burden for the women and are willing to pay the price to help them. About a year ago, I was in Thailand and met a lady who has become a friend that I greatly admire.

Five years ago, Sandy “retired” from her position as a Nurse Practitioner/Midwife in Australia and was commissioned by her home church to work in Cambodia. The Lord led her to a group of people who live in a garbage dump on the edge of the city and make a living by picking through the garbage. This is now a village community, with a very strong church and she has a three room, clinic building. As we did on this recent trip, I try to arrange my time  in Cambodia, so that I am able to work in her clinic and I love it.

 When we arrived at the clinic people were already waiting and the morning moved very quickly. There are three full time Khmer workers and a Pastor who teach health care or spiritual lessons while individuals wait to be seen. They are also available throughout the week to provide in home follow-up and training. We took a quick look to see if there is anyone who needed to be seen urgently and then handed out numbers to the rest, in an effort to maintain some sort of order.

We had only one interpreter, but with Sandy’s “medical” Khmer, we could keep two clients active at a time. We saw around 48 patients in rapid succession and then sat back to regroup. Suddenly it dawned on me that what we had just seen was pretty much what you would see in a walk-in clinic in Ontario. Sniffles, joint pains, complaints of upset tummies and tiredness, mom’s with newborns, young women needing birth control injections, urinary tract and yeast infections, older folks with high blood pressure and some ongoing follow-up on injuries sustained accidently.

Through the vision of one women, backed by her home church, these people are healthy, clean, and know the joy that only God can give. Everyone there has a water filter and understands the need to use it, they know how to care for their children and their  families and are learning to advocate for their own rights. I did a dressing change on a man’s foot that had been run over by a truck and was kind of dreading what I might find when the bandage can off. It was certainly still open, right down to the muscle, but was totally clean with no sign of infection. 

I found it oddly reassuring that the chief concern of  several young moms was why  their babies sweat when they sleep.  I used to wonder about that myself and my son had recently done a blog commenting on how Ben sweats when he sleeps.

Somehow, in the worst of circumstances they were so happy and proud of the changes in their lives. Moms everywhere  want to do the best for their babies.

Christmas was tough. Miles from home, family and friends, Christmas Day can be a lonely time. But that is the exception, rather than the rule. More and more we think of our little apartment in Subang Jaya as home, and we are happy here.

For Pam it is the first time in her life that she has been able to do what she has long wanted to do: to serve the Lord in a missionary capacity. Much of her life has been spent in working to support our family and make a living. It great to see her joy in living this new kind of life.

For me, I get to do what I have long wanted to do: teach high school English. It was what I set out to do at the start of my career, and again got sidetracked. To be doing this in Asia is just the icing on the cake.

Neither of us have ever shirked our duty to provide for our children with enough left over the meet the needs of the less fortunate, and this is a sweet reward for our patience and perseverence. It is a very satisfying place to be in our lives and in our relationship, and we are hoping that it may last for a few more years. We still have something that we want to do for Him, and we want it to count.

I will never grow tired of the opportunity to visit in villages and meet the women who are regular listeners of  “Women Of Hope”.  Their faces radiate the joy of their hearts.

In the west, our contentment is so often dependent on having what makes us comfortable, our courage is dependent on our perception of our own strength and ability and our confidence lies in our own plans.  We are so blessed and have been given so much that few of us really understand what it is to be in want and to struggle amid unending pain and poverty to just survive.

When I listen to the stories of women who have nothing and yet are filled with hope and peace, I am constantly amazed.  In a very poor village, 30 ladies have formed a listener group around the broadcast. Led by a very vibrant young lady along with her mother and sister, they love to sing and learn together.  As it was a work day morning, many were out in the fields so I didn’t get to meet all of them, mainly the older ladies and the mothers of young children.  It was very evident that the best way to improve the life of a child is to reach the mothers.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

Heb 6:19

Here in Asia, Chinese New Year is a  very important event for the Chinese. And since the Chinese either own or operate every business in the East, it is an important holiday for everyone. Everything shuts down for three days, so we get a week off and most of the staff go traveling.

We went traveling too, to Phnom Penh, but not to see the sights. We went for a week of ministry in the midst of our ministry, and it was a surprisingly nice way to spend the week. Pam had a series of meetings to attempt to patch together a co-ordinated strategy for health care evangelism, including a morning at a health clinic in the town’s garbage dump. Pam will blog about her work tomorrow, but let me just take a minute to talk about mine.

I was asked to give a series of ten lessons on Eastern religions. So I did my research and came prepared with documents. What I was not prepared for was the audience. These are kids, and at 18 to 20 years of age barely more that that, who are hungry to learn. I taught through a translator, as their English is pretty limited, and they hung on every word, wrote down every reference, absorbed every concept. It was an awesome and humbling teaching experience.

It was more than that for them, as they have all come out of the slavery of Buddhism and their new faith is the first time they have tasted hope and freedom. They are desperate to understand how they can help their families to grapple with the chains that have bound them for a thousand years. They are the first fruits of a new life, and it was sweet to be in their presence.

I know many of you will not think it is very politically correct to speak of another religion in such terms. A shallow look leads one to the conclusion that all religions are the same, just a shallow look at the solar system leads one to think that all planets may hold intelligent life. A deeper look leads to the understanding that life on earth is unique. A deeper look at the world’s religions will lead to a similar understanding of the uniqueness of eternal life.

We have absolutely no idea of how fortunate we are in North America, of the emotional and intellectual freedom that we take for granted. We think it is the product of good fortune or rugged individualism. That is just our vanity talking. Our culture is the gracious gift of one Man. It was a privilege watching Him at work in the lives of these young people, and to be a part of giving them an understanding of how to share that hope with others.

For those who would like to take a deeper look at how the central doctrines of religion – the nature of God, the problem of evil, salvation, and so on – are understood by all religions, have a look at Ernest Valea’s excellent site www.comparativereligion.com

Before Christmas Pam and I arranged to go to Cambodia during the week we get for Chinese New Year and do some ministry. Pam has a number of meetings scheduled regarding her responsibilities to TWR and health initiative she is developing. I agreed to do some teaching at a training center, freeing up the regular teacher to meet with Pam, and just generally keeping out of the way.

I was asked to teach on Eastern religions, a subject I knew something about in my youth, but have largely neglected ever since (I studied Tai Chi for two years, a practice of Taoism, and consulted the I Ching on occasion, revered in Confucian tradition). The Chinese stuff I got pretty quickly. It is remarkably straightforward, if a little arcane. But the older mythologies have really got my head in a knot.

Egyptian and Babylonian deities are mental miasma, shifting from one into another with dizzying and logic defying results; yet they are fundamental to the development of later Hindu and Buddhist mythologies. But Hindism itself will turn your mind to mush; with so many different and contradictory schools promoting their own interpretation of an amazing plethora of gods and incarnations.

I copied my results over to the laptop I am taking with me, and even I was surprised at the number – 90 – of documents I have cut, pasted, edited, paraphrased and rewritten in the last month. I estimate about 50 hours of work, Pam puts it closer to 100. Whichever it is, I am looking forward to opportunity to present it finally to these young students and hope it will be a blessing to them and to others as they seek to reach the community around them with an understanding of their beliefs, and the message of Truth.

Please pray for us both as we minister this week in His holy name.