Healing Home?

On Tuesday Sue and I followed No-worries, son of landlord, to a place he knows that is up for rent. I had been telling him about our focus and purpose when we return here at the end of March and he is keen to help. So, he drove Spider, with Susie and I perched on the back, to a little side road literally three minutes from our place - and a property that has hugely got our attention.

So much so, that we set up an appointment for the following day to take Jesse our pastor and Patrick and Carol Kelly (who have much experience in setting up educational centres) to come and walk the land with us.

Jesse and Patrick; Carol and Sue on the swings in the background

The property has a great 'feel' - very good amount of land for Phnom Penh, mango and fruit trees and a large concreted area for children to play. The house is very interesting - a strange design for a residential house, but very promising for a caring facility. Downstairs has a huge bedroom (would take six people); and two additional good-sized bedrooms. Open rooms on the left and the right of the entrance would allow admin centre on one side; dining and waiting room/lounge on the other.

There are no interior stairs to the second floor. This actually could work as a positive in our situation. Access is via a metal staircase hung off the right side of the house! Upstairs has big kitchen, big lounge (training room and prayer room) and big bedroom. Additional outbuildings include a big kitchen area, garage, loo and storage.

This is a critical step for us and we know that we have to get it right. There is the opportunity to get an excellent facility with a May start date before our 5-weeks break - giving us a full-on focus from the time that we return. Our preference would be to keep our existing place too for teams - and find a couple to take over our top floor and anchor the rental.

It is all ears on here at this time!

Seven weeks floor time

I've been teaching a '9.10' Bible study class every Sunday morning these last six weeks. '9.10' is the time - positioned after the 7am early morning church service, and before the 10.15am service.

Sopuan has been my trusted translator. He's a great young guy - and the brother of Sopheap who worked with us at Stepping Stones. She has been in my class, too - one of the 18 or so keen students.

Here is Sopuan - he could sit like this all day

My greatest challenge has been to sit one hour, cross-legged on the floor. The locals are natural at this - legs crossed, knees flat on the ground. My legs are crossed, knees tucked somewhere around my chin! Then when it is time to get up I try to stand still for a bit and find someone to talk to - as if I walk, it is all waddle for the first few minutes!

My last class is this Sunday. There are three more weeks after we leave for Austraila and NZ, so my buddy Mark Dennett will cover those. Mark was telling me about Valentines Day here - that girls txt girls; blokes txt blokes with 'Happy Valentines Day' messages. I'm all for engaging the culture. I have just txted Mark a warm, caring Valentines message.

Stage 1

Yesterday marked 8 months since Sue and I arrived in Cambodia. In a couple of weeks we head back down-under for five weeks - two weeks in Australia and then across the ditch for the Big Event of our son's wedding to Becs.

June 2007 - February 2008 has always been 'Stage 1' in our thinking and focus. Apart from getting anchored into Cambodian soil, we have had three objectives during this 'Stage 1' - language learning, connecting/establishing relationships and serving/being a blessing. Stage 2, beginning March 28 (our return date here) heads into new faith challenges, as we focus on establishing the first 'Healing Home' in what we are calling 'Compassion with Power'.

So, how has 'Stage 1' panned out, I hear you ask.

Language learning is a work of art in progress. It is happening and we are incrementally going forward! I'm just moving my focus from vocab acquisition to sentence formation. I have maybe a few hundered words now sloshing around in my brain - but the challenge is to string words into sentences. Of course we do this at every language class - but using sentences in the street is the challenge.

My good loyal buddy, Kerry Hartley, is often on my case about how our language learning is going. Having learnt Mandarin Chinese himself, he knows how dumb you feel every day in this process - how frustrating and difficult this game is for the first year or three. Motivation to keep consistantly studying is the big one - especially when this climate is so energy-draining.

Connecting / relationship building has been great - in three arenas:

Relationships with Khymers - especially through now being planted in New Life Fellowship and what has eventuated from belonging there - teaching Bible classes, running Stepping Stones pre-school, the mentoring small-group

Relationships with ex-pats in ministries here - we have connected with a great variety of people who serve in a wide variety of works and ministries out here - from Hagar folk, to Servants to Asia's Urban Poor, to WEC, Transform, Sozo Children's Home, Patrick and Carol Kelly's many initiatives to the poor and more.

Kerry Norman, a fine Aussie import who works with street children in a slum district of Phnom Penh.

Relationships with Aussies/Kiwis who come - this area of us being a 'door' for people and teams to come into this nation has happened faster than what we anticipated. We see this acceleration as yet another indicator of the focus of the Holy Spirit upon this nation at this time. We are thrilled that 12 people have trucked to our doorstep in the last eight months. Everyone who has come have fallen in love with this people - and nation. Already, Andrew Smith is signed up to return in July - with Kingdom purpose. Donald Scott too asserts that he will return with a team and is committed to focus the church he leads into long-term involvement here. Wonderful!

A blast from the recent past - Donald Scott and sons, in the days of St 460 being dirt by dry season, mud by wet season.

Serving / being a blessing - When the Bible speaks about 'as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people ....' then this is surely the land of opportunities galore. It has been neat to serve in the transition of Stepping Stones; to do a little at Centre of Peace, stand in the gap over six weekends at Sozo and other stuff too.

So, we soon take a break, then head into Stage 2. One of the many benefits of putting in relational foundations before we start to build in ministry areas is that, in the process, the 'how' becomes clearer. For example, rather than heading into the second stage as white folk doing stuff for Khymers in Cambodia, we have shifted our perspective to kiwis working in and through the local church. In discussions with Pastor Jesse, we have explained that we desire that everything we work on be rooted in Cambodian soil; that 'Compassion with Power' be a ministry of New Life Fellowship. We will give leadership, train people, receive teams - but the work is Cambodian, not ex-pat. Jesse is most supportive in all of this.

Stage 2 - Compassion with Power

Our vision is to represent Jesus among the terminally ill. Without love, we have nothing to offer - hence the 'compassion' title. Very importantly, without power we do not truly represent Jesus or His kingdom. So, 'Compassion with Power' will involve a facility where the sick and dying can come to. Care and prayer will be at the heart of the home. We will train local believers and we will welcome overseas teams for the work.

We are very aware that 'Go' is the operative word for Christian ministry. I believe that too often, churches and ministries are geared to 'come'. 'Compassion with Power' will have a 'go' approach too, with a mobile medical clinic that connects into the world of the poor - and that connects them back into the healing home. We envisage that stage 2 will be two years in the establishing. Stage 3 will be then to multiply the healing homes.