Party party

The annual Healing Home Christmas party is a very big deal with our staff.  It is only a week until we head to NZ for Christmas with our family - so the party needed to happen on Friday just gone. We really had fun!

This is our fourth Christmas in the Healing Home.  We followed last year's pattern: give each of the girls money to buy their own present (it has to be something that 'spoils' them: what they would really like) which they must wrap and put under the Christmas tree.  Then we plan a menu according to what they wish for (banana cake from Susie's oven; chook from Kentucky, big fried fish ...), set up a long table upstairs and have a whole lot of fun.

Sokha's first Christmas with us - and like a duck to water ... She is our week-end cook as now Vanny, our previous week-end cook is now promoted to a carer position. Darra the guy works for Donnie and often transports our patients to clinics. Sypho is next to him, with her new curly hair-do, and sandwiched is Sopheap.

We invited Heng to come and join us too.  He is such a great guy even tho' life has not been easy for him since he went to a rehab place.  Talk about excited - this party invitation has fixed a huge smile on hs lovely face.  We're kidnapping him for four or five days now; he loves being among our staff again.

I'm in a girls world - here are all our choice staff.  Rin, the girl next to me volunteers two days a week, as part of the 12-month internship church training program she is part of; all the others work for both love and money!

The girls all bought us pressies too - very, very sweet!  Here is Touch our cook - she has been with us since Day 1 in the Healing Home.



More!

One of the cultural mind-sets we have in Cambodia is 'more must be better' thinking.  This reasoning pops up everywhere.  If two pills are good, 17 must be better.  If 70 decibels is great, 145 decibels is wonderful!  The list goes on ...

I mention this because I recently came across a very puzzled Donnie.  His trusty Nissan Patrol was just back from the fix-it people.  One of the jobs - sort out the leaking tyre that is the spare, mounted on the back.  Now, here was a quizzacle Donnie: he wanted to open the back door and it would not open - it hit the spare tyre.  He had places to go, things to do, so he pulled off the spare in order to sort the issue another day.

Next connecting time, I asked him if he figured it out. Sure did - the answer was: let some air out of the tyre.  As in, if 35psi is good, 70psi must be better ...!!

Provincial prices

I was back in Takeo province recently to speak at a great little country church again.  This is about my sixth time with pastor Samdy.  He is an excellent young guy who has a recent miracle testimony about his wife conceiving and giving birth to their first child.  Docs said this was not going to happen :-).

Samdy has plans for his congregation, which includes moving the 80 or so folk out of their neat but very small church building and into a larger place.  There is to be a school, an English class, homes for the elderly ... the faith plans are all on the wall.

Therefore, he was pretty excited this visit - they have been able to buy land just 40 metres from their present site.  It is 40 metres in the right direction too, as at present the last 80 metres of access is off a decent country road and down a one-horse track. Takeo Province price: US$6000 for the 2000+sqm plus another grand to shift a few hundred cubic metres of dirt on-site to raise the level.

By comparison, our church in Phnom Penh has been seriously looking for a block this size for over three years now.  Land prices in the city are way out of kilter with real value.  My take on this is that so much of the money out here is not 'earned' - it pours into pockets by dodgy means. Therefore true values are twisted and some items like city land become enormously expensive.  What is $6000 just 75 minutes down the road becomes $1.5-2 million here in the city.  Hence, our church keeps on looking!

My buddy pastor Samdy, with Donnie and Sophea's daughter, Naan.  That is the new land in the background; all 42x56 metres of it.



Wiggly toes

Sreynoone popped in for an overnight visit last week.  She is one different little lady to earlier this year - looking healthy, happy and hopeful.  Over six weeks with us, she has had 28 radiation treatments for a brain tumour.  She was unable to walk and looked pretty terrible.

Back for a check-up, the news is very positive.  She is feeling well, doing well and really trusting Jesus in her life.  One of her big excitement points - 'look, now I can wiggle my toes.  I have not been able to do that for a long time!'

Sreymom, Sue and Touch praying for Sreynoone (above) and the big toe wiggle (below). These pics were taken upstairs - Sreynoone got herself up the steps and, leaning on the bannister, got herself into the chair.  After being prayed for she did a gutsy, unaided walk around the pillar in the background and then headed on downstairs.  We love this girl!

Six months in the saddle

The born-in-2006-bought-in-2007 Spider machine has just ticked over 20,000k's.  95% of those wee miles have been spent riding all over Phnom Penh.  Scary stuff, thinking that I could have almost gone clean around Australia (that would be 24,150km, Google educates me) with those k's; or to Wellington, NZ and back.  I would be very lucky to average 20kmh travelling in this city so number-crunching on a 40-hour working week basis has me sitting on this little steed for 6 months of these last four and a half years!

Happy birthday to the faithful machine - today I finally got a round tuit and have given the Spider a new chain and sprockets.  These footpath mechanics have Kiwi can-do aptitude; this young guy worked with care and skill.  

Da's death

The longest anyone has stayed at the Healing Home is a year.  Da came to us with horrendous bedsores.  Paralysed after falling from a palm tree, he was close to dying.  He had three more years of life.

Donnie had spent huge time, energy and money on Da since he left us. One of the huge frustrations here can be the fatalistic dependency mindset.  Susie was despairing over Da, as he would not follow through on self-care instructions.  The bedsores quickly returned from self-neglect and he eventually died from the associated infection.

Da's resting place. Pastor Paulie, the New Life pastor who is based in this area, visited Da regularly also and we are understand he kept his faith firm until the end.

His funeral was not so sad though - as we bumped into two lots of former patients in Da's village. Great things are quietly happening to our patients as they return home, and it was just so heartening to have sadness turned to rejoicing as we witnessed some happy happenings.

I had this lady come to me all excited and say 'you must come to my house and see my husband'.  Ahh names and faces ... but as soon as I saw this guy, I remembered him. He had been totally unable to walk; all the time we knew him he was legless and we actually sorted a wheelchair for him.  Now he is up and about - and his wife told us how all the neighbours ask 'how is it you can walk now; what medicine did you have?? - and he answers them 'no, it is not any medicine; I pray to Jesus'.

Nite (centre) had been with us at the same time as Da.  Literally dirt poor, she had malnutrition and arthritis.  Vaan, her husband was the village rat-bag who really got saved.  Now, he helps Pasttor Pauly, and runs a smallgroup from his house.  I've been to their place once before - then it was a tragic hovel.  Now, their home is their castle - I'm not sure of the story but I saw a plaque from Tabitha NGO on the side of the house.  Touch, their daughter, is 200% happier these days too!

Funny money

Burma (or Myanmar; there are very foggy 'rules' as to which country uses which name) has just wonderful bank notes.  Like Cambodia, there are no coins.  Unlike Cambodia, they do not weed out notes that have reached their 'totally used by' date.  Their notes just never die - they just keep on hanging together.

The real advantage of this system is two-fold.  Firstly, you are never in need of selotape.  There are layers of the stuff on one of the notes in your pocket. Secondly, you feel that you are carrying antiquities of great value, every day.  This is ancient art; the stuff that should be framed and hung in the pool room. 

Here's a few close-up shots of two or three remarkable survivors:

Bright kid

Meet Sreynot.  She's two years old, tho' we have her decked out in nappies for 3-7kg babies.  This little lady had her hair lip sorted the first time she was with us.  Now, her cleft pallet has been operated on and she is on a food catch-up, bigtime.  Sue makes and meulis and she just sucks in more than you could believe.

Last Friday Sue had Sreynot sitting on the table in the kitchen just like in this picture, spooning the mush into her.  Suddenly the little lady became all animated, making noises (she has not yet begun to speak), waving her arms around and then clapping her hands.  Sue figured something was happening behind her so she turned around.  Strolling into the kitchen from the outside door was Rat.  All Cambodian Rats need the capital R - they are not little critters out here.

Rat saw he was busted and made for the back of the fridge.  Sue made for her husband.  That would be me.  I remember the t-shirts; the ones that say 'No Fear'.  So, they lie.  Rat did exit and the drainage hole I suspect he scampered up and down is now nicely covered in wirenetting.  Bright kid tho' - even if she was wanting to play with the monster.

Sue's crack-up

Sue was looking totally mystified.  Sypho had come into the Healing Home office and asked Sue where the special oil was.  Special oil? - special for what?  'The one to help the patient with their wind' Sypho says in all innocence.  Now Sue is really puzzled - and shaking with laughter too.  What is this special flatulence-inducing oil that we are meant to have??

The story slowly comes to light.  A day earlier, she had anointed Bin, our sweet guy with severe liver problems, with oil - and prayed for him.  He quickly felt relief ....  Bin has returned home now with a bottle of anointing lavender oil tucked into his bag!

 

 

An earlier picture of Bin (far left).  This is his third time at the Healing Home; a long trek from his home in Kratie Province.  The last time he came, we got a phonecall while he was on the bus saying that he was also bringing two of his neighbours too as they really needed help also - was that okay?? He's such a great guy.

NextGen

We're back after a great couple of weeks back in NZ.  Number 1 priority was to get introduced to grandchild number 1 - Judah Gabriel.  He's a pretty excellent little guy who is in a hurry to get on with life.  Sleeping is good - in small doses. 

Time with his grandmum (top) and me in male multi-tasking mode: bonding with the little guy and getting my afternoon nana-nap.

NZ spring-time - outside the window at Kara and Josh's house, the tuis are busy in the kowhai tree.  This is something I really miss in Cambodia - we have such an absence of bird-life

We all had time in New Plymouth too so that my mum could meet her third great-grandie.  Also accomplished - brand new, super-chipped passports.  Our old ones were literally down to the last page. 

24 Aussie hours on our way home gave us enough time to zip up to Toowoomba in time for Sunday morning church and to watch the AB's final with Melody and Dave.  Good friend Adrian joined us around the telly and together we got much older over 90 minutes - not the walk in the park that the French were meant to give us.

It is so heartening to return to the Healing Home and find everything going forward with excellence.  Patients being cared for; staff in good spirits.  Just the washing machine to sort - mousies have got into the control panel and eaten a kilo of wiring!





Toowoomba Times

Long time no blog - which can mean that we have nothing happening in our world or that frenetic is our every day - or both.  And both of the above is about it over the last few weeks.

We've had a happy invasion from Toowoomba - firstly Jason and Julia who also towed David Geoghegan out for his first Cambodia experience; then closely followed by Toowoomba Christian College teachers Chrissy and  Claire together with three Year-12 students (Malita, Ben and Colin ).  Unhappily my pics of the TCC team fell off my phone - very sad.  They had three full days with us; David G had eight days and Jason and Julia - well they know now that 'three weeks is a minimum' to be here.  They leave when the Healing Home is re-painted and the garden fully flourishing, which has a deadline of happening by 2pm Thursday!

David catching up with Dr Mary at the CSI Clinic.  Dave used to work with her in the emergency ward of Toowoomba hospital, so he was most keen to connect with this outstanding lady.  We have many patients attend this clinic and I'm always very happy when they draw the Dr Mary straw.

P'Chum Ben, the annual ghost festival, has also been over this time.  Apart from feeding the ghosts and hitting multiple Wats to keep the good luck flowing for another year, this is a time when the nation slows right up and people head home to the province. 

Keeping the ancestors happy - what gave me a giggle about this particular altar (in the local paint shop - we're painting the outside of the Healing Home at the mo) was the serious stack of fake $100 bills just to the right of the incense. It is very sad tho' how fear permeates every aspect of this culture - hence the endless offerings.  Another giggle - when Dave picked up a handful of lollies on a plate at a local restaurant and was about to scoff one.  Julia tactfully pointed out that this plate of lollies are on an altar, Dave .....

We closed the Healing Home for a bit over a week so that all our staff can have a good holiday and be with their family.  Big floods cover much of the area north of Phnom Penh, so when I phoned Sreymom to check on how her homeward journey was progressing, she answered the phone whilst in a boat!  Moto had been left with an 'uncle' en-route and she was floating into her flooded village - like tens of thousands of others. 

Sue and I took JnJ out to White Elephant, like a motel with a SWIMMING POOL 7km out of town.  Three days of r'n'r and knocking over most of a serious biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer was just great.

Workers are always welcome - Jason on the end of the water blaster as we prepare to paint. Not sure where Julia is - somewhere behind the plant ...

Did I mention that the law has changed? - only two people per moto permitted now.  The driver must wear a helmet ...

Slowing up Susie

My girl has had 'the best of weeks and the worst of weeks'.  The best would be the joy for both of us - little Judah making his belated entry into the world.  He's the sweetest little guy and we are the proudest grandies.  Kara is well and Josh is air-walking.

The worst - that would be the little mozzie that snuck up on Sue somewhere, sometime.  She got very flattened with dengue all last week.  Energy was running at 4%, severe headaches, joint pain, temperatures and a taste in her mouth that was like eating chook manure - not a good week.  Now the rash is out and things are going forward, tho' too slowly for my Sue!

A spotty Sue - a good sign that the bad days are soon behind her.

High place home

After four years and two months living at 8c, Street 460, we have made the move.  Our area had become just too noisy.  The airport-hanger-sized volleyball centre built on the vacant land directly opposite our front door was surely the last straw.  It is nice to sleep at night ...

After a couple of months of looking, Susie spied a great pad - and she found favour with the landlady too.  Nice and close too - two blocks straight ahead, then three blocks to the left.  Now we are half a kilometre closer to the new Healing Home but the same distance from the Russian Market - on a quiet, quiet street!!

The only wee challenge - moving our houselot of furniture into our third-floor location ...

There are few things in life I find as exhausting as moving house.  Neverthteless, onwards and upwards ...

The ground floor is below this pic - we have the top floor, minus one self-contained room where a Korean couple live.  They run a Korean restaurant 14 hours a day - mice make 5x the noise of these guys!

Now that we are in, we are happy campers.  64 stairs up saves us ever having to consider a gym membership and the elevation gives us a lovely flow of breeze.  We have an excellent, spacious guest room with ensuite too!

A great report

Chum Yun has been with us for about seven weeks.  This sweet young mum came to us with a cancerous growth in her uterus.  Over these weeks we have had her two daughters, her mum and her husband coming and going also. 

She was told that she needed three lots of chemo, 30 treatments of radiation and then an operation.  With a little help, there was money for two chemos and the radiation.  Her last radiation treatment was yesterday - and the news has been very good.  The tumour has so shrunk that there will not be a need to have the very expensive operation.

The gratefulness of Chum Yun to our staff and ourselves was very touching yesterday.  She has so responded to love and to prayer and she left a very different little lady.  God has been good to her!

A last hug as she heads home - Chum Yun with Sue yesterday.

Back from Burma

Burma is like no other nation.  Where else can you find a vintage 1961 Vauxhall Velox alongside early 1960's Mazda utes in daily use?  The people are poor but wonderful to be among.  It was such a privilege to return pretty well a year to the day since we were there last.

Sue and I were based in Yangon for the nine days under the care of Pastor Nung.  Nung and I did a quick side-trip up to Mandalay for a couple of days seminar teaching also - overnight buses each way.  It was a full-on time that we thoroughly enjoyed - 20 meetings all up and getting to pray for many fine folk.  Mostly we did Holy Spirit themes as the church of Myanmar has been taught to death by doctrine - but are so hungry and receptive to the presence and flow of the Spirit of God.

Pastor Nung with a lovely young guy in Mandalay.  This boy had been discarded by his family and approached Pastor Joshua (where we were in Mandalay) and asked him please if he would care for him - that he would do whatever was asked of him.  He is thriving in an atmosphere of love!  Pastor Joshua also introduced me to a lovely young Muslim boy who loved coming to church. Dad was so angry that he shaved the boy's head to shame him.  Pastor Joshua bought him a cap!  He's in church every opportunity!

 

 

Yangon accommodation for the millions is mostly in these Soviet-inspired apartment blocks that are as uninspiring as they are ugly.  The basic layout is a living area, a bedroom, kitchen area and tiny washroom and toilet.  It is extremely difficult to get permission to build churches in Burma, so congregations mostly meet in an apartment.  Thirty or so people can cram in - but the trick is not to annoy your neighbours.  One complaint and goodbye church location.  Pastor Nung has his congregation on the eighth (top) floor - the higher you climb, the less neighbours to upset and the cheaper the rent!

Waiting for the 8pm bus to Mandalay, Burma's second to largest city.  Note the wonderful makeup on the lady seller - it resembles a mud-pack that has not been washed off.  I understand it is a combination of mosquito repellant and beauty enhancer, worn proudly every day by pretty well all women and a few guys too.

This guy has eaten one bad apple too many ....

Mandalay - we had 30 or so people gather for two days, tho' that number sure grew when Nung and I started to pray and minister to people ...

Tiki-tour around Yangon on a train (top) and designer top hats heading to market.

Pastor Sompee and his family at a church on the outskirts of Yangon.  He is a magnificent man, just 29 years old, who has managed to build a great little church facility - as a preschool.  He has just completed a state-required preschool course.  This is the guy who we first met last year, who a few months before that had been beaten and left for dead by local youths who had been set up by men higher up the food-chain. 

Eat rice

We've been juggling a few things these last few weeks. Good friends Antonie and Jenny Eggink blew in from India (7 weeks) and Burma (1 week) for 10 days recently, so there has been lots of discussions and leg-pulling. Then there has been the settling into a rhythm of life in the new Healing Home.  It must be busier - we used to take an average of 19-21 days to go thru' a 50kg bag of rice.  We've been thru' two bags in these last 23 days.

Staff God-time at the beginning of the day.  We use upstairs - a great, open area where we've made a staff worship and prayer nook.

It is interesting how different people respond to being cared for in Jesus name.  Yun and his wife arrived recently after being scraped off the road. Wifey had a broken collar-bone; Yun had full concussion in his helmet-less head and a decent amount of stitches in his leg.  He was a sick boy, wretching with the slightest movement.

Yun seemed a bit of a hard fella.  I should have learned by now - so often, these are the softies with defence turned on.  I noticed the other day how he, above anyone, locked into the devotion that Sypho shared.  He's healed up incredibly fast and gone already - excellent excellent.  I'm persuaded that his time with us has been a God-designed stepping stone.

Sue dealing to the stitches with Sypho looking and learning

Out to it - Sreynoone is undergoing a course of radiotherapy.  It is wiping the poor little chicken out, but she is plucky as.



Donnie is due to bring a couple of new people in tomorrow.  He's been up north in Battambang. Fortunately we've had a wave of people head out over the last two days.  Sopheap is in charge - Sue and I head out to Burma in the morning for 10 days.  We're among the fine people we were with last year, teaching in two or three pastors gatherings.  What an amazing life God has given us out here!

Ahh, that everyone would have this level of wisdom ...





Courageous little lady

Yesterday Hak took a big step forward into a new future.  It is nearly four months since this young mum and her two children came to us.  Hak's ankles were busted up and her lower back fractured.  Jumping from a three-storey building is hard on the human body.

Hak has been in hiding with us and slowly healing up since April.  The hiding has to do with bad guys hunting her as a result of her escape. The dodgy organisation she escaped from both wanted her to keep quiet - and to come back under their control. 

She had been recruited by a firm to train as a domestic servant in another Asian country. Once inside their 'training centre' she was locked in -and never allowed out.  A friend of hers became ill - and was refused medical access.  She became critically ill (appendicitis??).  No doc.  She died.  This organisation is serious about control.

So Hak jumped - literally.  She was so desperate to see her kids that she bailed from the third floor.  We received her after she had the metal bits stuck into her legs at a hospital.

Here's the little soldier - with Sue as she heads out from our place yesterday.  Sreymom (left) and Sypho (right) are part of the farewell team too.  Hak is walking so well now - the last couple of weeks Sue had her doing the Healing Home stairs three times a day!

 

 

God has done so much for Hak in spirit, soul and body.  She's got a good little faith growing in her and a good expectancy as she leaves us to be trained in a real job by another organisation.  Her two kids are now in school and love Jesus too.  There is a court case in progress but that could take a decade or two as we understand the recruitment agency ownership tracks back to a very influential person here.  There is big money to be made from the poor.

5x

In the four years that we have been in Cambodia, Andrew Smith has been with us now five times. He's had an intense couple of weeks this time, starting with an expat retreat that we organised the Friday that he arrived (going through all day Saturday) and finishing with a visit to the new CSI Mercy Hospital.  CSI is a fine Christian clinic that are walking through miracle waters as they near completion of a faith-venture hospital after seven challenging years operating out of rented facilities.

In between, Andrew had a full workload of counsellor training - and fitted in a side-trip to the Thai-Burmese border to scope out a situation there.  A large Burmese refugee camp have a school and many teachers - but the teachers have no training.  Bethlehem College in Tauranga, New Zealand, have been approached to set up and deliver a training program - and they can do this!

Dr Andres from Stuttgard, Germany (right) graciously gave us a thorough tour of CSI.  Canadian Matt is in the background.  Andrew and Susie complete the pic!

Paul the talented sparkie - I finally got a picture of this great young guy who has been a huge help to us.  Andrew is big on mentoring in word and in deed - every time he has come, he has brought a young bloke out with him.  This is Paul's second trip.  Beef (or is it really dog??) kebabs at the local night market are a must-do in the dining department. I have yet to convince Sue but the guys always love it!