Home Thoughts From Abroad

It’s Monday I am off again, this time to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  During our last visit to Cambodia I learned of an organization that utilizes a strategy called Community Health Evangelism that seeks to address all the needs of individuals: physical, spiritual, emotional and social.  They train local villagers and then these villagers put this knowledge into practice in their own lives and share it with neighbouring families.

CHE’s are trained in disease prevention, simple treatment protocols and how to recognized more serious issues that require medical assistance.  They teach people about growing crops to meet the famlies’ nutrional needs, sanitation and water purification practices and spiritual principles that have a direct impact on physical health.

I will be attending a five day Training the Trainer Workshop to learn more about the concepts of this program: how to gather information to assess needs and resources of target communities and how to plan a successful CHE program.  This concept is in use in 54 countries and has been effectively integrated with radio programming in PNG so I am very excited about this opportunity to see if it can work with Trans World Radio as well.

Cambodia is amazing but it sure can be overwhelming to be exposed to so many different experiences in a week!  Some aspects of life there are pretty awful.  Like getting  trapped in a rabbit warren of stalls in the “wet” portion of Central Market, walking in sandals through blood and guts, live fish flapping around your feet, people chopping up meat and fish and selling buckets of things that I can’t even imagine eating.  The smell is grotesque and lingering and I was glad to escape without doing something very embarrassing.

However, the people that we have met and worked with there are also some of the most hardworking and caring people we have ever met and that is why we love Cambodia.  We would like to take you through our week and introduce you to a few of the people and projects we are growing to love.

On Sunday we attended Lighthouse  Church, and were priviledged to be in attendance at their first ever English service.  The church is one of four churches started by Pastor Nora, a single Phillipino missionary who has served faithfully in Cambodia for 13 years.  The Pastor of the this church is a fine young man with a vision to reach the educated and business class so now they have a second morning service in English along with an English language day school.

Foreign Language Training Center

Sinath is a young Cambodian factory worker with a burden to offer hope to his fellow workers.  He has started a training center in the industrial area on the outskirts of Phnom Penh were he runs four English classes each evening after work, two for adults and two for children.  As a result of the realtionships he has built there, he now has added a Bible Study group on Sunday evenings.  Steve was able to teach the Bible study on Sunday and two English classes each evening allowing him not only to teach some English but also to demonstrate some teaching techniques to Sinath and his fellow teachers.

Cambodia Training Center

Trully and Dewa are two Indonesian missionaries who came to Cambodia in early 2007 to set up a Bible training center.  They have secured a building which houses eleven full time students and provides space for classes and outreach programs.  Although they follow an established curriculum,  they have to find teachers for each module and organize the scheduling according to their availability.  The first class of eleven young people will graduate this May and return to their villages and work places to reach others.  Steve spent Monday teaching a module on Missions. The students were eager to learn and rewarding to teach. But our week was about to get a whole lot harder.

We are in Cambodia this week. It is Chinese New Year, which means a week off for Steve and the opportunity to further develop our ministry in Phnom Penh. Pam is meeting with colleagues from Trans World Radio here and contacting hospitals and health care workers that can assist in her outreach project. Steve is teaching English and Bible and developing his own contacts among education workers.

Both of us having a growing sense that although Steve’s job in Malaysia might have got us to this part of the world, the Lord intends something more for us down the road, and that it is likely to be in Cambodia. The needs here are so great and the opportunities for the Lord are wide open. The people are desperate for both health care and education. We are letting the Lord speak to us about our role and place in meeting that need.

We have no intention of making a hasty decision about this. Steve has committed himself to work for Taylor’s this coming year and Malaysia has much to offer in terms of support and access to ministry. Any future ministry in Cambodia would have to be thoroughly thought out. But we would have to have hearts of stone not to be touched by the needs here. We are willing to let our hearts be led by God, wherever that takes us and are looking to see what doors He will open. We would appreciate your prayers.

I have read the Koran twice. I will read it again this year. You cannot fight for what is reasonable unless you know what those who oppose you are fighting for. Perhaps there is some middle ground of agreement you can reach. Perhaps there is something you can learn from their holy books. Perhaps not. I will let you be the judge as I reproduce for you 27 verses taken from Sura 68 (chapter 68). I have not chosen to edit a word. It speaks for itself:

Sura 68. The Pen, or the Letter N

68.1 Nun. By the pen and that which they write therewith,
68.2 Thou art not, for thy Lord’s favour unto thee, a madman.
68.3 And lo! thine verily will be a reward unfailing.
68.4 And lo! thou art of a tremendous nature.
68.5 And thou wilt see and they will see
68.6 Which of you is the demented.
68.7 Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who walk aright
68.8 Therefore obey not thou the rejecters
68.9 Who would have had thee compromise, that they may compromise.
68.10 Neither obey thou each feeble oath-monger,
68.11 Detracter, spreader abroad of slanders,
68.12 Hinderer of the good, transgressor, malefactor
68.13 Greedy therewithal, intrusive.
68.14 It is because he is possessed of wealth and children
68.15 That, when Our revelations are recited unto him, he saith: Mere fables of the men of old.
68.16 We shall brand him on the nose.
68.17 Lo! We have tried them as We tried the owners of the garden when they vowed that they would pluck its fruit next morning
68.18 And made no exception
68.19 Then a visitation from thy Lord came upon it while they slept
68.20 And in the morning it was as if plucked.
68.21 And they cried out one unto another in the morning,
68.22 Saying: Run unto your field if ye would pluck
68.23 So they went off, saying one unto another in low tones:
68.24 No needy man shall enter it to-day against you.
68.25 They went betimes, strong in purpose.
68.26 But when they saw it, they said: Lo! we are in error!
68.27 Nay, but we are desolate!

Now read any 27 verses from Matthew, chapter 5.

This is Nary. He is a Cambodian believer, saved while still a young teenager in the early 70’s. He had some education, so he was immediately suspect when the Khmer Rouge came to power. He was village kid though, and that is what saved him. If he had lived in the city he would have been killed immediately. Instead he was sent to another village near the Vietnamese border to work in the rice paddies.

At six he and the others who had been ‘relocated’ would be awakened by their guards. They would get a small bowl of rice gruel and be sent to work. At noon they would get another small bowl of gruel which they ate squatting in the fields. They worked until 10 every night. If they were sick or injured their rations were reduced. If they complained they were killed. They were not allowed to talk, read or sing. Nary buried a copy of the New Testament in the field. On a good day he would dig up his copy, tear off a page for that day and rebury the scriptures again. At night he would destroy the page so he wouldn’t be caught. The scriptures kept his faith alive.

He was allowed to return home for two days to be with his mother while she died, but he was not allowed to feed her. Not even the milk from a coconut. Food was wasted on those who were dying, he was told. Thirty years later telling us this story, he quietly cries. He was ‘relocated’ again, this time near the border with Laos. During the floods they would harvest rice in water up to their necks, placing the sheaves in tree branches to dry. The leeches, as long as your hand, would cover their bodies, weakening them further as they worked.

Incredibly Nary not only survived, but when the Vietnamese ‘liberated’ Cambodia, Nary was set aside for education and training. He studied in Moscow and eventually returned to Cambodia rising to the level of govenor of one of the provinces. Beside his quarters was the jail, where the captives of the ongoing insurgency were kept. Nary could hear their cries as they perished, and through their voices heard God reminding him of all those who were dying in Cambodia without the hope of Christ that had strengthened him through the horrors of war.

He resigned his position and left the Communist Party, an almost unheard of event. He should have been executed, but again God miraculously intervened. After obtaining his Masters at the Asian Theological Seminary in Manilla, he returned once again to Cambodia where he now teaches at the Bible College. In his spare time time he pastors three churches, one in Phnom Penh, and two in neighbouring villages.

Nary, and those like him, are why we are here. We want to be a part of the effort to bring hope and encouragement to countries and people who have suffered for too long under all the man-made “isms” of the world and the horrors they have wrought. Yes this was a tough Christmas and New Year’s without our families and friends, but for all that it is still a tremendous privilege to be here in Christ’s name, serving Him in this needy part of the part, and therefore it is indeed a Happy New Year.

Pam’s ministry is in Singapore and Cambodia at the moment. We’re not exactly sure why the Lord chose to locate us in Kuala Lumpur. I did apply for a position in Singapore, but God chose Malaysia for us. Perhaps it is because KL is just about equidistant from those two endpoints: it is 5 to 6 hours travel time all told in either direction. It is also in the middle of those two extremes in terms of living standards: we can afford to live in KL, and we could not afford Singapore.

Through sheer dumb luck (I’m just teasing a response out of you. You know that, right?) my exam schedule gave me an extended weekend off, provided I worked like a little beaver on the marking. Since marking is one of those activites that is best done in an agony of intense activity, I finished in just under nine hours. Mission accomplished we headed for Singapore once again.

Once in your life you should visit Singapore, if you are able, just so that you can see that it is possible to build a city that actually functions properly. Recently voted among the top twenty ‘most livable’ cities (http://beaulotus.blogspot.com/2007/10/singapore-is-17th-most-liveable-city-in.html ) it is, in my humble opinion, much better than it is ranked by this Euro-centric magazine.

Its moniker is The Garden City, and unlike its American counterpart, it lives up to its name. Everywhere there are parks and greenspaces, and some of them, like the park in the east end, are just enormous. We spent three hours walking through it on Saturday, and didn’t get anywhere near the end of it. We did, however, get to a little cafe overlooking the lagoon watching waterboarders scoot around the lake on a cable wire device that provided the thrust of motorboat without either the noise or pollution – a typically Singaporean solution. The chicken wings were great, and the ‘show’ was very entertaining.

But even more impressive are the sidewalks. Understand that we live in a city where sidewalks are an afterthought at best: thin, broken brick affairs that endanger and discourage pedestrain traffic. As a result nobody walks in KL, and the narrow roads are impossibly clogged with cars. By contrast in Singapore the roads are wide, there is a clear verge between the road and the sidewalk, and another wider verge between the sidewalk and the buidings. Practically every verge is planted with graceful trees that provide shade and enhance the charm of the streetscape.

It is said that Napolean did more to transform France with his edict to plant trees on every French roadway, than any other decision he made. Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s visionary founder, has done the same for his country. We love the end result. Ok, so we can’t afford to live here; it is still awfully nice to visit for the weekend. And yes, we do appreciate what KL has to offer and are grateful to be here.

My son, Jon, keeps a very interesting weblog of his ramblings and musings (www.jonandnic.com). We don’t. We do mostly ramblings. I’m thinking I should emulate my eldest more and muse more. So this is going to be the first in series of lessons the Lord is teaching me about Himself, and myself, and other selves that are important to me. I’m sharing them with you in the hope that the Lord may have something in this for you as well.

Lesson 1: God is everywhere. This hardly seems earth shattering, does it?  But stick with me a minute, I mean more to it than you might think. Yes God is everywhere in the sense that when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur He had a job/ministry for me and one for Pam as well. That may not be necessary for every couple, but for Pam and me it was, and He knew that. He was here in the sense that we found a place of Christian worship immediately, within minutes in fact. He was here in that He had a lovely place picked out for us to live that is neither luxurious nor wretched, but something that nourishes our minds and bodies without extravagance. We have friends that know Him, and others to witness to, and He has been in all that.

But there is another way that God is everywhere that I am coming to understand. It is said that crossing an ocean doesn’t make a man a missionary any more than crossing a street makes him an evangelist. What is important is the intention of the heart. I have been learning a tremendous number of things about God that I am hoping to share with you in this space. But the thing is, I could have learned these things just as easily at home, if I had been listening.

I didn’t need to come to Asia to serve Him. I could have served Him equally well at home right where I was working. I didn’t need to give up everything to listen to Him. I just need needed to put those toys down and listen. God is everywhere, including London, Ontario where I am from. Why do we figure we have to jet half way ‘round the world to find where He wants us to be? Where He wants us to be is open to His leading, obedient to His training, serving Him by serving others without regard for the cost or the inconvenience in order to show the world a picture of Christ. Little Christs, that’s what the diminutive ‘ian’ ending means.

You can be a little Christ, a Christian, right where you are. You don’t have to live in the world, or for the world. You can live in Christ, and for Christ regardless of the external circumstances of your life. External circumstances are not going to promote or hinder holiness, or servanthood, or anything else of eternal worth. It is a decision of the will: to trust Him, or not. That seems like such an elemental lesson, doesn’t it? But I’m happy to have learned it, even if I had to come half-way ‘round the world to do so. More on Trusting God later.

It is good to be home again and to have time to digest all that I experienced in this past week.  I know for sure that the task we are looking at is huge but the people of Cambodia are so amazing that I am excited about the prospect of working together with them.  We spent many hours bouncing around in a van, talking with listeners, seeing what others are doing in that country and exploring ways to present information through radio programs.

The country is a real mix of crowded city streets and wide expanses of rice paddies but everywhere, life happens out of doors, either on the streets or under houses built on stilts.  People are very poor but are very industrious and are able to set up a business with very little resources.  If you have wheels of any sort, it is a moveable business.  carry a fire source and you have a restaurant.

It is quite amazing to walk down a street in the evening and watch as large amounts of inventory disappears and is replaced by families eating supper, watching TV or playing games.  As the evening progresses the family moves deeper into the building and the shop floor becomes the parking area for safe storage of the “moto” overnight. 

From the “Lonely Planet”

Cambodia promises a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences to the intrepid traveller. Your heart will race at Angkor Wat, one of the world’s greatest achievements, only to haltingly derail when faced with the impact of humankind’s darkest moments. After two decades of war and isolation, only now is Cambodia truly starting to recover from the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal 1975-79 rule. 

Cambodia is a fertile land along the Mekong River in southwest Indo-China. Its wise and able people once ruled what is now Vietnam, Laos and Thailand from its capital at Angkor Wat. Its rich culture borrowed from the Chinese, as well as India. However, the terrible genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979 nearly destroyed Cambodia. During their regime three million people were forced into the countryside as slave labor. Currency was abolished; religion was eradicated; education was suspended; medicine was forbidden; and people who could read were often massacred all in the name of Marxist social reform. Starvation led to the deaths of over one million people.

Today Cambodia still struggles to recover from the decimation of its best and brightest. Although relics of ethnic religions such as ancestor worship and spirit worship remain, 94% of the people are Buddhist, seeking the path to nirvana through gaining merit in this life.Christian missionary work is permitted in this needy land, and many agencies are here seeking to mend the ravages of war and poverty, and bringing spiritual light to this dark land. Trans World Radio is one of those agencies, broadcasting in the Khmer language a message of hope and renewal. I am priveleged to be a small part of that effort in preparing messages that are practical and life changing.

My plans are finalized to visit Cambodia and meet the team members of Project Hannah -Women of Hope http://www.twr.org/give/projects/project_hannah who produce weekly radio broadcasts that are broken into two segments. There are “Lessons for Life” which advises women about health and family matters and “Lessons for the Soul” which offers true hope for inner peace and joy. I am so excited to finally be able to share in this work. I am also very grateful to be included in this morning service at West London Alliance, our home church in Canada. http://www.wlachurch.org Both Steve and I thank you for your ongoing prayer support for our ministry here in Asia. God bless.