Col and Grace

We are having a hugely blessed month with our visitors. Colin and Grace Shaw, long-time precious friends from Toowoomba, have just left after four days with us. Colin brought Prayer Summits to New Zealand - which is how I initially connected with him in the mid-1990's.

Some days we move devotions into Daa's bedroom so that he can participate. Sopheap is leading this day. That is little Long with his mum in yellow outfit on the bunks - the little guy who came to us as a cripple last year and is now walking just great. I'll get a blog up on him sometime soon.

Four great days together - Colin and Grace heading out yesterday morning.

One of the highlights was connecting Pastor Mara with Colin and Grace. God has clearly spoken to Mara about relational unity among church leaders so Col's passion in this area found a ready resonance. Also, when Colin spoke about 'healing of the land' amongst villages in Melanesia, Mara was totally all ears.

Cambodia is a nation of villages. Pastor Mara was raised in a village and village people quickly comprehend the relationship between the sin of a community and the resulting curse on the land. I trust that this short visit from Colin and Grace has sown very significant seeds that will result in long-term Kingdom purpose.

Friendship month

Andrew and Jonathan were hardly out our door (on Saturday), when more good friends landed. On Sunday, Peter van der Westhuyen was back in Cambodia in his on-going commitment to the translation of resources to train children's workers. With him was longtime friend Phil Howan. Phil says that Deanne (his wife) could not come as she has her foot in a plaster cast - so he brought his next-best buddy, Antonie Eggink!

Peter's commitments here kept Phil and Antonie on the run until Tuesday lunch. Then we connected with the three of them, before Peter van headed for the airport. We have had the fun of Phil and Antonie's fellowship since then.

Phil and Antonie at Andong Village this afternoon. In the background is the school (grades 1-6) Abraham has established.

We've been on the go with them thru' this week. Today was a highlight, connecting with a remarkable pastor at Andong Village. Long story about Abraham - the short version has him quitting on nice, safe middle-class ministry and heading to the poor. In his case, he has moved into the midst of a relocated slum of 6,000 people 10km outside of the city.

Abraham is in the flower shirt; his wife is behind and to the left of Sue.

Abraham reminds me of a happy Fijian - a great sense of humour, tremendous faith and utterly fearless. When a government official threatened to have him killed because of his stand for the the land rights of the slum-dwellers, he just laughed and said 'you can't - only Jesus can take my life'. Some hired goons then ran him down on his motorbike, munching his legs. He was totally unfazed.

Our 'friendship month' is far from over. Phil and Antonie leave this Friday, 24 hours before Col and Grace Shaw arrive from Toowoomba. Then it is Marty and Robyn McKone arriving on the 29th - for 3+ months.

Yay

Nana nap - Yay taking a snooze in the afternoon

Yay (grandmother) is an absolute treasure - a character of an old girl who is with us while she recovers from a broken hip. She has been one of the old ladies who begs around the markets in Phnom Penh. She has a mentally impaired daughter and grand-child to support.

We have friends who run a night shelter for these grandmothers. Rosalie brought Yay to us a couple of weeks ago. Maybe after this stint with us her life can change. Yay really wants to go and live with her eldest daughter in Koh Kong.

Sue with Yay after morning devotions

Home Invasion

Our staff had seven people turn up at the front gates on Saturday evening - completely out of the blue. Sak, who has a real testimony of the Lord healing her heart, came with her husband and two children. In addition, Paeng's daughter, son and grand-daughter called in to visit mum for a day or three.

Paeng has been with us for a month now. She came weighing 30kg. Last weigh-in she was 33 kg. Her youngest daughter, Kia, has been with her for all this time. Kia has become a Christian during this month and has really taken a hold of the Lord. We've got our eyes on her for the future (possibly for when we open the next Healing Home) as she has tremendous compassion, genuine zeal and she trusts us very much.

That is Sak on the right with one of her sons. Sopheap is finalising their exit plans.

Anyway, seven new folk made life interesting for a few days. We do communicate 'do not just turn up' but stuff happens and we chose to go with it. There were good outcomes for Sak's husband and the young son with a gummed-up ear and on Tuesday everyone headed home again. Now we are back to five patients and Kia.

No worries at all - puss snoozing his way thru' our stretching days

Boys will be boys

New Life Fellowship had their first mens camp this last weekend. 45 guys loaded up early Friday for the 160km trip south to Kampot, where we had a great spot alongside a lake created by a recent dam.

Like I said - 'loaded up'. This lucky Toyota ute had 21 of the guys plus gear on board for the trip!!

'Home' for the next two nights was little huts, mostly two metres square, thatched roofs and no walls. Floors were made from bamboo. It was pretty no-frills in the sleeping department, helped along by a rooster that never made the switch back from daylight saving. The view was pretty nice to wake up to tho'.

Room with a view

Breakfast - that would be rice ...

Rain kept us from getting up to too much on the Friday. Saturday tho' had a wee hike planned, up the Bokhor hills to see a waterfall. The rain mostly held off until we stepped out of the cars. Thirty minutes into the tramp up a jungle path - and I could hear music. Step around the corner and behold, a shop - complete with generator, tv, kareoke dvds and three motos parked.

Onwards and upwards ... the river was too swollen to cross so we took route B - up a near verticle slip for longer than I care to remember. Happily, I had invested in a real pair of hiking boots before I left for camp. Many of the boys were in thongs and bare feet!

A few of the guys with the 'this is not the Huka Falls' behind

We came, we saw, we were amazed. For a kiwi, the stunning sight of brown water pouring over two 1.5metre ledges was ... hmm ... 'O' for awesome. For many of the guys tho' this was a camp highlight - hiking in the bush and achieving the climb. It was great fun together.

There were good input times too - Pastor Mara Friday and Saturday night, men's group leader Russmay on Saturday morning and I had the Sunday morning session.

There was one larger hut, maybe 3x6 metres, that was our 'meeting room'

The trip home was another highlight. We went via nearby Kep, justly famous for its seafood. These tasty b-b-q'd fish found their way into some happy guys stomachs!

Unbelieveably good - much better than a rotating pig on a spit!

To Takeo

It is always good to get out of the city. Concrete has a limited appeal - so I had been looking forward to this Sunday and a trip out to a village church in Takeo province. Pastor Met invited me out to preach a few weeks back.

Phanna was my trusty interpreter and guide for the 40km trip out on my Spider motor scooter. Villages are the 'real' Cambodia, as over 75% of this nation live in a rural setting.

The village church was full of heart and small on frills. The service was held in a shed on the back of a rented property. Perhaps 55 people squashed inside this shed, which doubles as a school during the week. What especially interested me was the number of dear grandmothers in the congregation. New Life Phnom Penh is very much a youth church - but not so out here.

One of the church grandmothers during the worship

Perhaps 30 people responded for prayer at the end of the service. I asked those who desired prayer for healing to stay on one side and people wanting prayer for another thing to move to the left side. Nobody moved. Everyone wanted prayer for healing. This is a good focus reminder - that Healing Homes in the future must take root in the provinces.

Phanna, Pastor Met and church cellgroup leaders, following the morning meeting

Teeth central

I like to drop into Centre of Peace Orphanage once a month and have a catch-up time with Bhopal. Always, I come away inspired and blessed. Last month it was the little mites singing their hearts out to the Lord that so moved me (see blog). This week - wow!

A team of 33 dentists from Korea were spending their last day in Cambodia checking the teeth of every one of the 70 children at COP. The front yard was completely covered in tables, equipment and green-coated Korean folk. It is brilliant to see people coming to this nation to give their skills away to bless the poor.

Happy kids waiting. It is all organised with every child given a numbered card. Their happy expectation is not what you usually see prior to a visit at the dentist. It reminded me a wee bit of the 'Farside' cartoon, where one dog is excitedly telling another 'Hooray, hooray, tomorrow I am going to the vet to get tutored' ...

Strike three

Andrew Smith is with us again - the third time in two years. He is getting well known and appreciated now, bringing huge value to Cambodia in his field of expertise - counselling. He's just finished two days training at Hagar - teaching their counsellors on the theme of 'resilience'. Interestingly, there is no word in Khmer for 'resilient'.

Andrew has done a couple of sessions at the Healing Home too, with another two mornings scheduled for this week. Then there was the men's breakfast last Saturday and a bunch of other things too.

One of the many things I respect about Andrew is his commitment to the young generation. Last year he came here with young Ben from Masterton in tow. This year he has brought Jonathan, a student at Faith Bible College, Tauranga. They leave us on Saturday.

Mucking in - we have a leak in our fishpond so, following his training session with our staff last Friday, we took full advantage of Andrew's willingness to lend a hand. I thought that I had plugged the leak yesterday, but my joy was short-lived. Meanwhile, the little fishies have taken up residence in a water trough inside the outside loo.

Home Alone

Phil and Anita with their friends Katherine and Sam, as they were about to head towards Downunder yesterday

Anita and Phil have been just the nicest folk to share our house over the last three months. We should have asked them to write a pamphlet on how to be the perfect houseguests! It does help with our house layout here - they lived out of the second floor mostly which has lots of space and light.

For such a delightful, quiet couple, they did manage to leave with a bang - of the power variety. They plugged the toaster in AND the electric jug at breakast time - almost do-able maybe except we also had the jug on the boil upstairs. Had is the operable word.

Once it was established that we had our own little private power cut happening, the mission was on. All power board buttons up. No blown fuses. Call in the sparky who established no power coming in. We had tripped the overload switch, which is conveniently placed on a lampost 50 metres away if you are a bird, but 200 metres away if you have to walk around the block. So now we know!

As for being home alone - that lasts just another 36 hours. Andrew Smith arrives on Saturday morning with Jonathan, a good young guy Andrew assures me. This is Andrew's third time to come over. He moves into first place!