Family

Susie has been navigating difficult days with great grace. Her mum has just come out of hospital after big surgery and a totally unexpected cancer diagnosis. In the midst of establishing the Healing Home, there have been many phone-calls to New Zealand as we have grappled with what we should do - fly to NZ immediately or monitor the situation from afar.

I was watching Sue care for Sroun last week. This is why he is with us - a shrapnel wound going back 30 years that is not a pretty sight. As I watched Sue care for him, I had such a strong sense of God's pleasure at her sacrifice - showing such tenderness and compassion while at the same time carrying the burden of her mum's condition.

Sroun's wound - that is Aussie Kaye's hand. Kaye is a district nurse visiting Cambodia and she spent nearly a morning gently cutting away dead skin from Sroun's backside.

We are privileged and glad to be in Cambodia. The most difficult part is missing family, especially our amazing mum's and our awesome kids. Skype phone calls are easy and great and certainly help bridge the gap, but there is a big tug on our hearts when one of our mum's is so ill.

Our decision is to come to NZ after our daughter Melody's marriage to Dave on September 20. Their marriage is in Queensland and we are so excited about our 'baby' becoming a bride and connecting with family and friends for the occasion - both from Toowoomba and NZ. We fly to Aussie in two weeks time and get some time back in Toowoomba before folk begin gathering on the Sunshine Coast.

After the wedding we will return to New Plymouth for three weeks family time. We know that the Healing Home is very young and that 5 weeks absence is a big ask. So, we are asking big and seeing amazing answers of people stepping up to help. Much more needs to be nailed down but of this we are confident - the Healing Home is in the heart of God and He will provide every necessary person.

Orchids over us - Rin in the background with Bunna and Sopheap

Sopheap with Rin. Check out that amazing piece of construction over the lane from us in the background!

Sue's second birthday

Now that we have been living in Cambodia for over a year, some things are coming around for the second time. Sue had her birthday yesterday - busy as ever at the Healing Home tho' she is beginning to feel her age ...

We went out for dinner with friends in the evening. Susie scored the meal of the night with one great Aussie rib-eye steak.

It was great having Marty and Robyn McKone with us too - long-time friends from New Plymouth. Robyn is off to teach English to the great kids at Centre Of Peace orphanage tomorrow but Marty is not allowed out. He is too valuable to me as a builder, making the bedside cabinets at the Healing Home.

And as a great bonus, Marty and Robyn came with a camera in their bag to replace my sad dropped one - a thousand thanks, Scotty and Pu Yi! It is good to get some pics back up on the blog! Earlier pics last week were courtesy of Patrick and Carol Kelly's little camera, borrowed for the day.

Nyum bai buyidong muay t'naiee

That would mean 'eat rice three times per day'. The question 'have you eaten yet?' is literally 'have you eaten rice yet?' There is a look of sadness and pain on people's faces if you respond that you have eaten sandwiches for lunch ... We bought 30kg of rice last week. The sack may just stretch to two weeks.

One of the winning things about the Healing Home is the space of our outside kitchen. This is where Douch and Bonna work by weekday.

This is Bonna. She put her name down as a volunteer six days a week. Bonna has worked for YWAM before and is hugely capable and cheerful. She's been sleeping over Monday-Wednesdays too, which has really helped us. Bonna now will also work as a paid carer on Saturdays, so that Sue and I can get a defined day off each week.

Woops, I lost my kitchen pic of Douch, so here she is as Ree's hairdresser. Read head shaver. Douch was a shy little thing, but not now - she's happy as Larry's Khmer equivalent and does a great job.

Just as well these girls are small - I sent them off to Wednesday evening church meeting on my motorbike, not realising that Sinart was also going. Bonna was driving; then Chantol, Sinart and lastly Douch. That's right - all four girls squeezed onto the Spider moto seat. If there is a next time I've got to get the pic!

Grandma Ree has this thing that if her hair grows, she will get sick. Cambodia is shot thru' with weird and wonderful superstitious stuff. A while ago it was green beans - word went out that if you did not eat green beans you will get sick and die. There was this nation-wide stampede to buy beans. I guess it was a tough time if you happened to be a cabbage seller!

20/20 vision

Opticians are springing up in Phnom Penh. For a fraction of the price at home (sorry, Nigel!) you can get your eyes into glasswear out here.

I used 20/20 vision as an illustration for our staff and volunteers this week as we gathered for devotions. We are determined that devotions do not become some token life-less ritual but that our times each weekday have focus and purpose. We call our time '20/20' - as in 20 minutes of teaching focus and 20 minutes of really praying.

Friday morning - Douch (our cook) Bonna (our full-time volunteer!) and Sinart (sick Sroun's daughter who is very close to trusting Jesus)

Phanna is now on deck 12 hours per week too. He comes on Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning. Happily, he plays guitar and he is very impressed with the instrument Chris Lee picked out when he was with us.

Phanna leading on The guitar - a great young guy bouncing with enthusiasm for God and life.

Catz

Not since Amos have we had what I would call a real cat. There was Jesse that was a stray found at the New Plymouth Baptist Church but she was never a true convert - just a royal visitor to the Bonnevie hotel for daily food and sleep.

Anyway, I answered an Englishman's ad for 'please love my cats' - as his family are leaving Cambodia. A good cat has got to be good for a healing home - so we took a trip to meet Hope and Feisty. They moved in on Thursday.

Hope is a prowler and a yowler. Her main redeeming feature is her love of delivering rat remnants to ones' feet (I am promised). She is an outside cat who disappeared on Friday - to turn up bedraggled and protesting when the rains hit later that afternoon.

An unhappy Hope on day one - looking thru' barred windows

Feisty is a real cat - I'm told a Tonkanese, as in half Siamese, half Burmese. She is a big affectionate cruiser. Her name speaks of her kitten-hood. We'll look at a baptism and a re-name I think. Her new home by day is Chantol's bed.

Life's a bed - Feisty in new home mode

Like mother like daughter.

It is late. It's been a good long day and I'm getting some shut-eye. Before I head off - here in a pic of Ree and her daughter Rin. They were sitting together outside today much to our joy!

S'bai jt

Chantol, one of our little champions, changing Sroun's dressing. Sue has wasted no time in teaching the girls how to do this. Peter Parker, please take note of the superbly painted bunks in the background ...

We want to introduce you to Sroun. He's just the sweetest man, patient and undemanding. He has been carrying shrapnel in his behind for the last 30 years and recently the pain became so bad again that he has been bedridden. The wound is horrible - raw, pockets of sores covering at least half his buttocks - plus a foot that is very painful.

Sroun came to us last week together with his young daughter Sinart. She is getting along so well with our staff and volunteers and happily sits in on devotions and comes to church. It is interesting how so much of our focus has been on the sick - but parallel to this we see another opportunity too: to share good news with family members.

Sroun in the sunshine. He's got two amazing teeth - amazing because they should have fallen out a decade ago!

Today Sroun took himself off his bed and out into the sunlight. This is a first and a giant leap forward for one man. He told me that he had a 's'bai jt' (happy heart). He made my day with this comment ... well, that plus Rin going forward plus two cats joining our family by invitation. Watch this space.

Love is the best medicine

Rin came to us this week, together with her 80-something year old mother who has been caring for her these last two years. Rin gave up on life two years ago, when her husband left her and took her six children away too. She went to bed, curled up and stayed there. That has been her life since; living with her mum in a shack without a door; covered in plastic sheeting when it is raining. She is extremely thin and came to us with blank eyes that stare past you.

Our girls have been magnificent in their care of Rin. Sopheap was with her on Wednesday and felt the Lord speak to her the words 'love is the best medicine'. So Sopheap wrapped her arms around Rin, hugged her and said 'I can be your daughter'. Rin cried. Later that day Sopheap got her out of her room and to a chair outside. These last days Rin has been sitting up more often and she has started eating a little.

Old mum is a treasure. She is bent over pretty well 90 degrees, toothless and bald as a badger. She's pretty blind and the hearing is not too good either. She loves God and has made two tuk-tuk trips to church this last week. It is fascinating, watching the honour that the elderly are held in. The tuk-tuk guy was shamelessly ripping me off with his price Wednesday night, but when he saw grandmother he gently gathered her in his arms and carried her into his chariot. Same on the return journey - it was pouring with rain but again he carried her into the tuk-tuk with such tenderness and honour.

Grandmother wants to go home tomorrow as she is worried that her house without a door is not secure. The fact that she is willing to leave her beloved daughter in our care is very lovely. She wants to come back in a week. By then Marty and Robyn will be here with a working camera (hurray!!). Grandmother is a photographers dream subject - so I hope that I can show you this beautiful woman.

Pastor Plumber Painter

A 3am phone-call seldom has good news. Donnie, who lives upstairs, had a certain edge to his voice as he requested info on the water mains tap. That was Thursday morning. He and Sophea were the proud owners of Phnom Penh's newest swimming pool, courtesy to a toilet plumbing fitting that came apart. The upstairs part of the house is just over a year old so stuff happens. Our house is 15 months old and we've now replaced three taps (thank you PP).

I had a good mastic session yesterday, attempting to seal the leaky windows. The ants were my helpers. I discovered ant trails heading under window sill areas. Lost ants with no-where to go was my best clue to having plugged the leaks. We've been having some exciting rainfalls this week and the mops have been out too often. Maybe I've nailed these leaks ...

House maintainance will no doubt become a way of life now. Property rental is pretty simple here. You rent it, you fix it. The alternative is nothing ever happens. We've had the sparkies in too and they rolled their eyes too much for my liking. They rewired some stuff and simply disconnected the switch that 'poofed' the circuit board every time. We never did discover what that switch was meant to turn on ...

'Wonderful Healing Home' begins

A good book I've read has words to the effect of 'do not despise the days of small beginnings'. When we look at the needs in this nation, having a house with eight beds for the poor, sick and needy is like so small, so insignificant. But that is not what we see. We see something that has great grace upon it beginning.

Soam is our first person to arrive. She comes from the province and may well only be with us for a couple of nights. She is shy, poor and spent part of today at Hope Hospital. Her only child, 15 year old Sreypon, is also with her. Soam was so moving when she spoke to Sue and I today at lunchtime. Sopheap translated as she said 'you are like my mother and father - even though you do not know us, you have taken us into your home and fed us and cared for us'. Wow.

Tomorrow we are expecting a lady in her 50's who has totally shut down and gone into a semi-comatose state. She will come with her mum who is in her 80's. There is also a very malnourished baby with HIV and her foster-mum whom Sue visited today who is deciding whether to come. And there are more ...

We do devotions each morning with our staff. Our third devotion talked about the parable of the mustard seed - that God puts life into every kingdom seed; that what begins so small and insignificant becomes something wonderful and significant. Chantol, Dooit and Bonna (who has been volunteering every weekday) have really embraced the truth of small beginnings.

Sopheap joined us today. One thing I love about our girls is that they all really pray. Sopheap prayed with tears this morning. She is a very special one. On her days off she plans to study English and Korean. She wants to be a missionary. Phanna comes on board on Monday. Why is it that good men are harder to find than good ladies?? Phanna is keen as - he's a perpetually happy young guy with just the greatest smile.

Susie's Sokha care

A few weeks back we had a call from Frank, the big-in-stature, bigger-in-heart Australian guy who heads up Hagar Hospitality. One of his staff had been in a motorbike accident a month prior and was about to come out of hospital. Could Susie please use her nursing skills to change his dressings.

What Frank neglected to say was that this boy's ankle was still in such a state that I did well to hold onto breakfast on our first visit two or three weeks back. Sokha had been hit by a car, causing him to lose control of his motorbike. Fortunately some local police witnessed the accident and were on hand to apprehend the driver. Fortunate for them. They took a bribe and the driver disappeared.

We've been visiting the young fella every two days for a few weeks now. He's not a Christian but was happy for us to pray for him. Day 1 was pretty messy - big hunks of raw flesh, steel wire sticking out of his ankle, two stitches buried in there with skin growing over it. Susie was shaking her head and wondering why on earth this boy was out of hospital. So she did her thing and we talked some about Jesus and prayed for him.

And we have been amazed ever since. He is healing up very nicely now and there are no infections. You need to be there to see how amazing that is. Sue is always surrounded by inquisitive eyes - last weekend I counted six 'aunties', four 'sisters' and ten 'cousins' all checking on proceedings. May good things come out of these days.

Limping Saints

Marion Fromm is one of the early people who inspired us in this nation. We first met Marion back in September 2006. An energetic Aussie who has clicked into her eighth decade, Marion has come to this nation to establish a business employing land-mine amputees. She has pioneered a fruit-drying, chutney-and-jam making enterprise under the name of RTC. RTC stands for 'Reverse The Curse'. All her 20+ staff, less one, have either shrapnel wounds or bits of their body missing through the scourge of land-mines.

Marion also oversees a church congregation made up largely of her staff. Sue and I got to sit in a circle with these folk on Sunday. Marion is back home in Adelaide for some weeks and so we are covering two Sundays for her. It was a wonderful experience, sitting among Khmer people who have been given a 'future and a hope' through the love and obedience of one awesome lady.

Where have all the people gone?

The house has suddenly gone quiet. It is five weeks since Andrew Smith from Tauranga opened the doors for a good kiwi influx. Peter and Larny were next; then Dr Annie from Christchurch closely followed by her friends Christine and Roberta Ward. Then Ben made it seven.

Dr Annie exited on Sunday - and will be back in Phnom Penh with a team (including her three daughters) in November. She is an amazing lady with more energy than an All Black on steroids. In her three weeks here she was a locum for an expat doctor, ran clinics, trained health workers, did physical assessments for nearly 100 children whose parents work the rubbish dump, connected with a wide assortment of folk and organised busy days for Christine and Roberta.

Roberta and Christine on the Mekong - Roberta has a great eye for photography

Roberta is a walking legend. She has had big-time bone cancer in her leg and now is facing secondaries in her lungs. She defies medical limitations constantly - and she and her mum show great courage in coming out here for their second visit to Cambodia to follow up on development work that they are supporting. They are at the airport as I write, heading back to NZ after three weeks with us plus their first week at Siem Reap. They are very determined to return to this land too - you go, girls!

Staff orientation starts

This morning was very special. Chantol and Dooit had their first day at 'Wonderful'. Little Chantol (actually all these girls are little - Chantol and Sopheak are like five foot nothing with shoes on and Dooit, whose name means 'little' hits five foot without shoes ..) was so excited that she said she hardly slept last night.

Chantol (I told you that she is short ...) - another archive pic from Stepping Stones days. The promise of up-to-date pics is getting closer tho' - Marty and Robyn arrive in a little over two weeks, carrying a Kodak (thank you, Scotty!)

This week has an orientation focus: imparting vision and values, lots of communicating and giving them some space to make the home 'theirs' as well.

Dooit was just stoked with the Peter-Parker modified kitchen. Many kitchens in Cambodia are the proverbial dark holes - so to have a 6m x 5m space was pretty exciting for her. I got Chantol and Dooit to make up a 'stuff needed for the kitchen' list later in the morning - and then sent them off shopping. The receipts made me giggle - these girls paid just on half of what I coughed up for dinner plates.