There's no greater reason for living!

Busy times!

2009-09-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally feel like I'm in school! It's weird having so many assignments due for the same week. But I can do ALL THINGS through Christ my strength. So it'll work out!

Last Monday (not yesterday), a bunch of us went to a beautiful beach called Cape Kiwanda. The water is too cold for swims, but the view is simply amazing. Here are some pics :

Then the rest of the week, and up till now, most of it has been spent in blitzing through homework. book reports, learning Greek, and working. I'm feeling a little bit tired, but it's all good. God's even blessed me with a physio grad roommate who gives amazing back massages!!! It's fun to be challenged in learning like this. I may be a geek, but essays and book reports and learning new stuff is actually quite fun. I never thought I'd be going to school at this point of my life, but I'm really not complaining about it. There's a time for everything under the sun, and I'm grateful for God's provision in bringing me here in this season.

Camp, The Pacific and Back to School!

2009-09-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

Getting settled in a bit more in my new home and environment, I actually, looking back, haven't been here all that much yet.

After being in Portland for a little over a week, we packed our bags and headed off to camp out East, in a valley in the middle of the desert. I'd never been to the desert before. It really is dry, and you don't realize how quickly you can get dehydrated. But this camp was a man-made Oasis in a valley, surrounded by big brown hills, and felt surreal. Pictures can't quite capture it, though I've tried.

A deer coming to eat from the rich grass and leaves in the valley; there were 4 : 2 moms, and 2 babies. They came as close as a couple feet from me! I guess they figured they needed to compromise with human presence in order to get the goods. You can see the dry mountain in the background. That's what the area looks like for miles around there.

Here's a view of the valley from half-way up the hill I climbed I sunrise. The lake and the pool and the green grass are visible, and you can see the difference between the lushness of the valley and the dryness of the hill I'm on. Got up at 6 am for this trek.

The area had been built by the Rajnishi, followers of this Indian guru who tried to take over the government in the 80's. However, they got in trouble with the law, and ran away, leaving some well built structures and a beautiful oasis. It was later bought by a Christian businessman who converted it into a Christian camp. It's now called Wild horse Canyon, though I saw more deer than horses...

We had chapel time every evening after dinner. Each session was very good and challenging, and we had Pr Jude Fouquier and a few of our own pastors from City Bible Church speak. There would always be some activities after chapel, like night-time in the pool or the rec centre, with wall climbing, games and volleyball and basketball courts would be open. In the morning, after breakfast, we'd have either another teaching session, or small group time, etc. Lunch, and lots of afternoon free time. We had ziplines, aka flying foxes, etc, volleyball courts, a swing that reminded me of a mini extreme sky flyer from Canada's Wonderland, some big jumpy things called The Blob, and the pool and some more activities in the lake. There was always something to do.

Every year there are camp olympic with relay races, human hog-tying, belly-flop competitions, synchronized swimming, etc. I didn't really participate, cause being my first year, I didn't really know what was going on, but it was quite entertaining to watch - and our team won.

This is an attempt at catching pics of the Zipline. That "thing" on the water is someone splashing in. That was me a few moments ago.

The blue water of the pool is starkingly bright compared to the flat colors of the hills. This was one of the games during the pool olympics. Our team won - all from my cheering ;)

On the last day, I got up a little earlier to catch a bit of the sun rising over the hills. I went for a walk up a steep hill, quite the work-out. On the way to the path leading up the hill, I spotted the deer that were happily at breakfast. Such beautiful animals!

Though I really enjoyed all of camp and was very challenged by some of the teaching sessions, and will now take proper steps to apply some of what I've learned to my life, I think what I enjoyed most from camp was getting to know some of the people here a little bit better.

I admit it's been a bit difficult adjusting. I don't feel quite as independent and confident as I did 5 years ago when I took off to Brazil all by myself. Sometimes I've been getting discouraged. But then I began to pray about it, and remind myself and my silly mind that God's with me here like everywhere else, that He's got a good purpose for this year, and that others need my friendship too. It's easy to get focused on your poor self, but really, pity parties ruin everything. I've really been taking a stand against discouragement, and it's been getting better and better.

In order : Rachel, Mary, Shalane, and me, in front of Shalane's house and a giant something or other with a specific name that I forget. Lovely beach house though, about 20 minutes drive from the actual beach.

Saturday, Rachel, my roomy, and Mary and I headed to Longbeach, Washington, on the West Coast. I'd never been there before, and it was so exciting! Very chilly and cloudy all weekend, but still very much worth it.

Rachel and I in front of the pacific ocean.

Mary, Shalane and Rachel. Mary and Shalane graduated last spring. Shalane was preaching at her church that Sunday, and did a great job.

I'm a ballerina!

Getting arrested by Shalane and taken into the police station... I've never seen a police station look this rustic, so I had to take a pic.

The world's longest beach in America! something like that...

Now we're back to routine. I've been thoroughly enjoying my classes, and even my assignments, though I wrestled with one of them today. We have an assignment due tomorrow for our homiletics course; it's an outline of a sermon on how to be born again. See, I can sit with someone and explain the message of salvation, the Gospel, the cross, the history of mankind's sin and restoration to God, no prob. I love talking about it, taking it as closely as possible from the other person's point in life. But how so you put it into a sermon without over-simplifying it, or giving it the "accept Jesus and you'll be happy" swing, etc. I fought with this assignment all day, wanting to give a clear picture of who God is, what it means to know Him, and what Jesus did on the cross.

Finally, I just threw in the main message of it and a bunch of scriptures. I'm not sure that's exactly how I'd preach it, but it's a start. I'll see what my professor says about it, and learn from it all. All in all, he really just wants to see our ability to draw out an outline.

Another thing that's been really neat is, sitting in Lanny Hubbard's class on Hermeneutics, exploring the history of interpreting the Scriptures and how it's been done, what's influenced it, etc. I love listening to Lanny. He's such an endless fountain of knowledge and wisdom. And history is so fascinating, and he knows it so well. I love seeing the patterns of philosophies and culture that have affected our theology and thoughts as a society and as Christians. I know it may sound dry coming from the reader's end, but everyone here enjoys it. It's the same kinda interest that's peaked sitting at tea with John and Susan Boyce.

So I'm quite excited about this upcoming year. It seems to me like I'll be learning a lot of head stuff, history and such, but also heart stuff. I already have been.

God's provision

2009-08-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

So, I mentioned already how I'm working on campus. It's a 20 hr a week job, doing custodial. So far, this whole trip, I've seen God taking care of all of my needs, big and small. Firstly, there was this job, of course, which I'd originally been told would not be available, but found out things had changed by the time I got here. Then, there was the man I met when I arrived.

I was waiting for the suitcases to come out on the carousel, and randomly, a guy made a mention to me of how long it was taking. I agreed, half mindlessly, only thinking of how I'd get to school from there (no, I had not worked that out before departure). So I asked the gentleman how to catch a taxi here, and he explained. From there, he asked me where I was going, and we chatted for a few minutes. During this time, I discovered he was a Christian, and his wife's family had been involved in founding PBC in its early years. In the end, he offered to drive me to the school if I didn't mind! So I got a taxi ride for free!!

The next day, as I registered for courses and paid for my semester, I found that it cost less than I expected.

Then, there's also the fact that I haven't had to buy much at all here, as far as blankets, or towels, etc. We have a freebee pile here in the dorm, from things left behind by past residents.

And then this morning... Yesterday, after purchasing an online library software called Logos, I found I couldn't upload it into my computer. My built-in CD player was broken... I'm assuming that was from those Cambodian DVD I watched on it. I was really frustrated, and simply said "God, I don't know what to do about this... please help me!" Then I moved on. I only mentioned it once later in the evening when I hung out with some of my new co-workers.

This morning at breakfast, I introduced myself to one of the guys I hadn't met yet. When I said my name, his response was "oh, you're the girl who has the Mac problems..." It just so happens that he works for the Mac store!!! One of the guys told him about my problem last night, and he just so happened to get up early and have breakfast this morning, at the same time I did, and just happened to sit beside me... that's really cool. And now he's going to help me solve this problem!

Before I left, I got a little nervous about finances, to be honest. The severance pay I'll be receiving from work hasn't come in yet. Fortunately I'd been saving up, so I had enough for this semester. But I didn't know how things would work out.

But, once again, God's proven how much he watches over me, over all of us, even in those things we don't think are worth that much attention! Oh, I'm so glad! It's so reassuring to know that wherever you are, God is always with you!

My first week of school!

2009-08-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

It's late afternoon on a Thursday night, my first Thursday of school at PBC, and I'm sitting in the shade, enjoying the soft breeze of Portland on this lovely sunny day. As always, a few of my fellow students are playing a game in the open lawn in front of the dorms. There's a frisbee involved, but it doesn't look like extreme frisbee, and I'm not sure it'll last for long... In a couple minutes, Nami will come join me to do some reading. I've adopted the habit of doing my reading and studying outside. I would hate to stay cooped up in my tiny dorm room... Fortunately, when winter comes, I'll be able to use our really cool open common area in the dorm. There are comfy couches, rugs and colorful decorations. There's even a fireplace in there, but we can only light candles in it. The dorms date from the 1930's. They were barracks for army. Some of the other buildings on campus are more recent, but they've kept the same style of construction, so it looks pretty good. All except the sand colored church building int he shape of a giant dome; during a short discussion with some co-workers earlier, we agreed that electric blue would be much more becoming for the place.

I had my first day of custodial work today. Portland is a city of about 2 million, and it's pretty spread out. Plus, there are neighbouring cities, like Vancouver, Washington. City Bible Church, which is the church attached to the school, has a "one church, several locations" vision. So they have campuses spread around the city which use simulcast for services and communication. My work today was at the Mill Plain campus, where I cleaned bathrooms, washed floors and cleaned out the garbage, along with my fellow co-workers Dylan and Nate. Nate is a highschool student at City Christian School, and Dylan is a graduate from the school, a surfer dude Australian. Many of my other co-workers are also international students: Canadian, Nepalese, Indian, Brazilian, Japanese, etc... Though cleaning work is never glorious, it needs to be done, and it's a job (20 hrs a week), and we do it as team work, which makes it quite entertaining. Today, I found some playdough, stamps and finger puppets... no, I didn't rummage through the garbage; they were in boxes of kids curriculums that were being thrown out, and we thought it was too bad cause I'm sure some pre-school programs would've considered them treasure!

My classes have been taking up most of my time. They've been really really good. Wisdom literature is looking at the books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, the wisdom you can glean from it. Hermeneutics is study tools for deep Bible study. Homiletics is about preaching and teaching, communicating God's word basically. Mentoring Epistles is about mentoring, obviously... looking at a few of the epistles and what we can learn about them for better coaching, pastoring others, etc. Local church is looking at the role of the church in history and today in the world. But that quick overview really doesn't do it justice. I so appreciate that each course, teacher and class is so balanced, so down to earth, realistic, and inspiring. in class discussions are very open, and students aren't afraid to raise questions, and teachers not afraid of discussion and questions. They're humble too, which is awesome.

Right now, a handfull of girls are sitting nearby and singing together. One of them is playing guitar, and the other, violin! It's so lovely, I may have to join them right now... in fact I think I will...

So, that was fun :)

And we just got some homemade deep fried delicious chicken given to us... This studying (well, blogging right now) outside deal is quite beneficial!! The cook is a jovial black guy who reminds me a lot of Pr Hughe! And now he's singing along in good ol" black gospel style to "trading my sorrows"... awesome!

Oh, food, that's another thing about here. We get breakfast and lunch provided. I expected some stale or mediocre cafeteria food, but I was so wrong! There's always delicious full meals available. Then there's a whole make your own salad bar, and a vegetarian foods bar, and a make your own sandwish bar, and delicious homemade desserts, and homemade breads, and iced tea and lemonade, soft drinks, tea or coffee... all you can eat! The lady in charge used to own a bakery! I'll have to be careful; I've already been gaining weight. Fortunately, a couple of the girls and I have started a running routine at 6:30 am three mornings a week before classes... One of them is my roommate, Rachel, so I won't escape it, I hope!

Rachel is a Kiwi. She's got the whole accent and mannerism too! It's great! She's mature and serious and organized and clean, very studious, owns a Mac, and loves to wear bright red shoes! We get along really well. Last night her parents and grandmother, who have been touring the American and Canadian West coast took us out for dinner, and I got to know them a bit. I asked a lot about New Zealand, and it sounds like a lovely place. Apparently there are no wild animals other than birds on the Island, at all!! Also, Rachel is 24, which is really nice. There are several girls in our mid to late 20's. I don't think there are as many guys our age. Not on campus anyway. There are older people in classes that are not staying on campus as well. But I'm glad to be on campus. It's a really nice atmosphere. Kinda like home, but like having everyone living in a comppund. That would be really nice, I admit. But it's not real life, I know.

I do miss home. I miss everyone. I miss the long lasting friendships, the inside jokes, and everyone that I love... I'm feeling better now that I've been here for a week 1/2, and I'll probably feel at home even more after camp this coming week. But nothing can replace those I've left behind. Though this first week has seemed fairly slow, I'm certain things will speed up and it'll be Christmas before long...

Hello from Portland Oregon!

2009-08-15T12:52:00.001-07:00

Well, upon request from a few people, I've decided to update my blog. It's lunchtime right now, so I won't write much, but soon I'll give you a description of my surroundings and my experience here so far at PBC. It's a lovely place, and I'm blessed to be here and have this opportunity to study. But yes, I miss home... I hope everyone is doing wonderfully :) Much love and 'till soon!

Mondulkiri - The Adventure!

2009-04-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

The way there

So, I’ve been able to see some pretty cool things so far during my Cambodia stay. Angkor Wat was amazing, and the beach breathtaking. But this time, the Mondulkiri tops it all.

It all started at 7:00 am this past Monday, Khmer New Year’s Eve, as Amber, Sopheak and myself boarded a tuktuk with our 3 suitcases. We were meeting Eileen, Kim and Jaymie at the bus station. We had the slowest tuktuk driver in the world and thought we’d miss our bus. Even a little moto pulling a cart full of fat jiggly cut-up pig passed us. But when we finally got to the station, we found out that our bus had been delayed and would leave around 8:30 (an hour from original plans). So the three of us ordered breakfast from the little station restaurant. Mmmm noodle soup with meatballs… Not the cleanest of places, but we didn’t care. It was a fit start for our adventure.

So here are the characters : Eileen is Canadian, from Manitoba (so are Kim and Jaymie). She’s teaching grade school at an international school. Kim, her roommate, is a nurse with an NGO called Daughters of Cambodia. She works with women that are being abused. Jaymie, whom I met that morning, is a bit younger, and she works at Daughters too. She teaches the women photography. When she returns home, she’ll be doing expositions to sell the work her students have been doing. Amber, Sopheak and I are roommates. Amber is American, from Oregon, and might get married soon. She’s Pr Jesse’s admin assistant. Sopheak is dating an American, and they plan to get married when they’re done school and found an orphanage. And then there’s me.

So 8:30 ish, we get on the bus, and a provincial woman sitting next to us somehow mistakes Kim for a Chinese. Not sure how. Kim is as un-chinese as anyone can be… But for the rest of the ride, this woman and her daughter, about our age, decide to adopt Kim. They blow her kisses, touch her arm, knees, face, and spray perfume and hairspray on her. Finally we land in Snuol.

The bus was going on from there, but that was our stop. Middle of nowhere Snuol. We needed to find a taxi somehow to take us the rest of the way to Mondulkiri. We asked around, and the villagers directed us toward some fruitstands at the intersection coming into town. There we asked and were told the bus would come around soon. So we waited, went to the washroom (that was an adventure too) and were told that the bus had arrived. Only this was no regular bus. It was a pick up truck, already full and overflowing. The back of the truck was packed and bulging. We were to sit on top of all the stuff there. And it would cost us $10.

Ya. No. There’s no way. But the fruit lady there assured us that it would be the last ride into Mondulkiri for the night. We couldn’t believe it! Even the fruit lady was in cahoots!

So we decided to wait it out. We’ve all been in Cambodia long enough to know not to take those statements seriously. Eventually, a nice Cambodian man called his friend who has a taxi service to Mondulkiri. It would cost us each $6. The bus ticket to Snuol, which was more than half way, had cost us that much. But that was the best deal we could get. And we knew it. So much for there being no other way, Mrs. Fruit lady!

The taxi driver arrived. Soon, we nicknamed him Tiger. He drove us in his old standard Toyota Camry, and packed us 6 girls in there. Then we took off. Sopheak asked if there was any way for him to slow down, but he replied that he was planning on making the drive back that night, and that be wanted the way to be quick, in case it rained. We later found out why.

So we zoomed across the red dirt road through the jungle, not sure at what speed – the speedometer was broken. And so was the gas meter. And so was, we discovered later, the e-break. We drove past a large monitor lizard, and saw beautiful colorful birds, and the trees and scenery were simply breathtaking! God’s creation is incredible! But man doesn’t always do a great job…

After zooming on for a while, we came to a jungle traffic jam. Road work is going on right now, aimed to be finish in about a year or so, and a large semi carrying a huge block of cement had lost footing and drifted off a small cliff, blocking the road. An alternative road had been built in the meantime, but a truck packed with pigs had gotten stuck on that one too! A crane was trying to push the pick-up along from the back, hence was pushing against the pigs and scaring them in the process. There was a line-up of other cars, mini-vans, pick-ups and a full size bus waiting to go through. And our driver was letting several of them pass. I admit I got frustrated after a while, not knowing we had no e-breaks. The blockage was in a deep dip in the road, and Tiger wanted to go down and up that kill as fast as possible. But communication was a bit of an issue at that moment.

Eventually the way was cleared, and on we went. The road was treacherous. All dirt, with construction all along the way, constant ups and downs. At one spot there’s a guard rail – made of bamboo. I would not want to cross that jungle in the rain or dark.

We landed finally in Mondulkiri. The sun was about to set, but “Tiger” dropped us off right at the guesthouse, so we were set. We would all 6 of us share a cabin where there was a double bed and a single bed. The guesthouse guy that spoke English had dropped off an extra mattress for the other people.

There was an army of bugs waiting for us on the balcony. We learned to leave the balcony light off for the rest of the week. But the bugs had taken over our little mattress, so it was quite the ordeal to get rid of them. We had a few pet crickets and flying ants for the rest of the week because of this.

So in the end, we had 3 people sleeping sideways on the big bed, Sopheak and I shared the small bed, and a couple of girls rotated on the thin, folded over mattress on the floor. Except for the first night, where I was actually very cold for lack of a blankets (something I had yet to experience so far during my stay here) we all slept very well.

Dinner was quite the thing. We soon realized that waiters in Mondulkiri do not like to write down orders. So it took a while, and a couple of things got messed up, but in the end it was still delicious. Khmer singers came on and we had to shout to hear ourselves over it. I found out that in Cambodia, when something is called “happy”, like happy pizza, or happy soup, or happy shake, it actually contains marijuana. Jokingly Amber asked the English speaking guy what a happy shake was, and he casually, and honestly, replied “sorry, no happy shake, out of marijuana”. I don’t think it’s illegal here.

We finished the evening by deciding to go hiking to a nearby waterfall the next day. It would be Khmer New Year then, and should be a vacation day for the Cambodians, and the waterfall wasn’t supposed to be more than an hour’s walk away. So it sounded like a good idea.

Day 1

We had a slow start the next morning, which got slowed down when our breakfast order got all mixed up. But then we headed out. Everything is so beautiful and rural in Mondulkiri. The air is pure and fresh, with beautiful rolling hills, and a lovely mix of lush greenery. Most houses are built on stilts and made of wooden planks. We got some great shots during our hike. I especially love the ones of the Cambodian roadside beauty salon, the convenient store, and the gas station. The people are very sweet and helpful. We walked and walked and walked, and enjoyed all the beautiful and particular sights and sounds of the place. Then, we were in the middle of nowhere, and were still walking. No waterfalls. Still walking. Still no waterfalls. Still walking.

Finally, we arrived, exhausted and foot sore but still thrilled at the adventure. We swam and explored a bit around the waterfall. It was small, but lovely and refreshing.

But several of us didn’t want to walk back. I prayed that God would help us get home somehow. It was Sopheak who, after several failed attempts, finally got the response from a French Cambodian guy “sure, we’ll take you!” They were 9 guys who had rented a pick-up truck for the day and they let us soaking wet and non-stylish girls squish in with them! As we drove off, the asked if we wanted to join them on a tour to the top of a nearby mountain. We were a little cautious at first, but accepted. They were very friendly and so helpful, and so much fun. Finally, just before sunset, they dropped us off at our guesthouse. We offered to pay for gas, but they would have none of it. We were so blessed that none of them tried to flirt with us or show any bad intentions. I think it was a blessing straight from God.

We got cleaned up and showered, and then decided we wouldn’t have dinner again at our guesthouse. So we headed out walking in the pitch dark toward town, not sure where we would eat. We expected a motodop to stop and offer us rides, like they do in the city, but no one did! We later found out that Mondulkiri has no motodop service. But a couple men on motos did stop and accept to drive us for hire. We sat 3 girls on each (so that’s 4 adults per moto), and drove up to the small town centre.

There we settled for a nicely decorated restaurant called The Green House. But as we were getting comfortable, a hippy looking Cambodian waiter with long hair came over to us and said “I’m sorry, tonight, we have no food left”. Of course, if was Khmer New Year’s day, and what he meant was no meat left. But it sure gave us a few giggles. We finally did get dinner though. Then, we got a ride home with the same moto drivers who’d driven us earlier.

Day 2

We woke up earlier that day, as we had booked an elephant tour. Some more mix-ups relating to breakfast, time, and prices. But we eventually made it by pick-up to the small “minority” village where we were to board our elephants.

It’s quite different there. They still have some homes that look like little huts with large thatched roofs. There was a sow feeding her piglets, and small gardens all around. And children, all with short hair and clothes discolored from wear and lack of spares. The little girls all wore traditional skirts. There was one man riding an elephant, waiting for us.

Then, from behind a few huts, came two more elephants, waddling along with their big legs and bodies. Small children were riding on them in baskets. And 2 small boys were “driving” them. These 2 boys would end up being our elephants drivers, along with one of the boys’ dads and the other man. That would be the coolest summer job ever.

We boarded our elephants by walking from a little stair tower onto their heads and into a large basket that is saddled onto the elephant’s back. Eileen and I went first. Then Kim and Jaymie, and Amber and Sopheak. They’re the 2 smallest of our lot, and they got the smallest elephant. Eileen and I’s elephant, we discovered, was around 100 yrs old!

Riding an elephant is an adventure to itself. It’s quite bumpy. And then, doing it through bumpy jungle trails is even more exciting! We walked up and down the sides of jungly hills, through patches of cashew plantations, and past small solitary huts that dotted the landscape. We walked through creeks and ducked for branches. The elephants feasted along the way, taking down whole banana trees in the process. Our young elephant drivers led us along at a slow pace. Finally we arrived at the waterfall, which we nicknamed Red River Rapids. The water was muddy looking because of the red soil flowing in it. It was actually small rapids, but pleasant to swim around in, and quite refreshing. Our elephants had been let loose and were munching away somewhere in the jungle, but after a couple hours, our guides brought the back for their own swim. Our guides themselves had shampooed earlier in the same water.

The elephants were scrubbed and washed. They went completely under water and seemed to enjoy the routine. Then they were re-saddled and we got back on for the trek home. We took a short cut that went up a path climbing very steeply to the top of a hill. We realized it was actually dangerous when Sopheak and Amber, now at the front, warned us that their driver was very nervous. But we eventually made it to the top, and the main guide asked if anyone wanted to ride on the elephant’s head, like the drivers did. I jumped on the offer, and had a very interesting ride from there on. It felt like sitting on a moving, spikey leather couch. Elephants have little hairs on their thick skin, and they’re quite coarse. I wished I’d worn something other than shorts.

When we’d returned to the village, we sat and waited for our ride back. We saw a man from the village walking completely drunk. It was 3 pm. We had also smelled alcohol on one of the drivers earlier. And in retrospective, we found our two little boy guides to be very solemn. I don’t think they get treated very well. Beating and abuse is part of life in Cambodian families. But especially in this remote village, where the men have little more to do than getting drunk, it seems even worse. When the men were away or asleep, during our hang out at the waterfall spot, the two boys played and laughed like 8 year old should do. But other times, they were solemn, overly serious and had an absent look in their eyes.

When we got back to the guesthouse, we decided to try a small restaurant called Bananas. But we found the owner/cook completely drunk, rude, and offering to seat us at a table with a bunch of sketchy looking foreigners. I was late coming, so didn’t see the scene, but apparently the girls came running out of there. We settled for the greenhouse, where there actually was food that night, and enjoyed our meal there.

A few guys from the church had decided to go to Mondulkiri as well. They came a day later than us, and we ran into them that night at the greenhouse. They’d had their own adventure. They’d rented a couple motos to drive out to Bu’sra waterfall, the most popular one in the area (which we didn’t end up seeing). On the way back from the falls, one of them got a flat tire. They had to walk the moto back to a nearby village to get it fixed. And it was no short walk.

Day 3

This day we decided to rent a pick-up truck and drive around to a few plantations. But first we wanted to get breakfast at “Nature Lodge”, and get our bus tickets back settled. We were all tired that day, so had a bit of a lazy late start. By the time we had breakfast it was lunch-time, and we wound up combining both. Nature Lodge is a lovely place, and it’s earned its name. It’s an eco-tourism spot where you have to bring your tent. The bathroom has no roof and both stalls are surrounded with pretty flowers (one of the guys commented this was not such a good idea – snake bites on the bum would not be pleasant). The restaurant is beautiful, all built around a tree, a bit like a tree house, with hammocks hanging around and tables made from tree chunks. They have a couple horses that walk around, sometimes into the restaurant (which has no walls), and the most beautiful German Shepherd in all Cambodia (most dogs here are quite ugly). The place is owned by a tree-hugger looking couple who were very helpful and nice. They seem to communicate a lot with NGO’s and people coming in to help Cambodians. One girl that was staying there teaches women with AIDS how to sow to make a living, and recycle old shirts and materials to make fashionable unique clothes.

We eventually got our bus tickets booked, after being told there would be no buses running on Friday, and any taxis or anything going back would cost $130, and so on. But in the end it cost us each $12 to book room in a 14 seater mini-van.

We visited a coffee and pepper plantation, and saw how pineapple is grown. We drove around and got some nice views and pictures. Then we ate in a little Khmer restaurant, and went home for our last night there. We got to bed really early, as we were all quite tired and had an early day coming up.

The ride home on Friday was pretty eventless. In the end, our trip cost no more than $120, including food, stay bus and all our crazy activities, and was worth every penny and every minute of it.

Amber, Sopheak and myself came home by tuktuk at around 4ish. We arrived to find out the electricity had been out again, for 2 days. Apparently, a drug dealer in the slum nearby got in a fight with his parents, and set the place on fire. The fire spread through the majority of the slum. A 3 yr old girl was caught in a room and burned alive. Innocent people often pay for the folly of others. In the end, the fire was stopped and the rest of the neighbourhood was saved. The slum is in ashes though.

The house was really hot that night, especially after returning from Mondulkiri, which has weathee similar to Canadian summer. Normally we have fans to cool us down, but not this night. So we came up with another plan.

Amber has a small balcony where she keeps beautiful potted plants. We placed her mattress there, and her mosquito net. But the net was making it warmer, so we opted for spraying ourselves head to two with Off, and going without mosquito net at all. I think it did the trick. Amber, Sopheak and myself laid sideways on the mattress so we wouldn’t be close together and therefore warmer, but that also meant our feet were sticking out from the mattress. Mine, being the tallest, were about half on half off. But I slept great. The cool breeze was nice and refreshing.

Saturday - Thunderstorm

It seems it’s the beginning of the rainy season already. This afternoon, Sopheak and I went for some last minute Russian market shopping. We got caught by some serious rain though, and couldn’t leave. It had been heavy and humid until then, but now it’s nice and cool. It poured and winded for over an hour.

Amber wanted to go to the night market, so I tagged along for the ride. Sopheak drove the moto with Amber and I behind her. As we got to the road close to the market, we found it flooded. We tried to pass through, but the water kept getting deeper and deeper, so we decided to turn around. But other cars were causing waves, and turning a 3-seater moto around just ain’t that easy, not in a couple feet of water anyway. The moto tipped over and we stalled the engine.
We called around for help, and eventually Hak came over. He’s amazing. He was at a restaurant about to have dinner, but he left to come help us out. He walked Amber’s moto to a roadside mechanic shop (literally a truck with the bed open and tools to do the work) and then left us once all had been explained and settled. It took about 15 minutes to do the work, and around $10, and then us three girls walked over to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant for noodle soup. After all that, we found out that the night market wasn’t even on tonight! But we had a good time and got to escape the warm electricity-less house. Still no power now. Hopefully tomorrow it’ll be fixed. Apparently it was supposed to be back on today, but because of the rain it got postponed till tomorrow. We’ll find out soon!

...

BTW, it's now Monday and our power still hasn't come back on... The church has been raising funds and goods to help those affected by the fire. Vimean, the kids ministry leader, runs a children's joy club as outreach in that slum, so he knows the children and knew the one that died.

Night out at the market

2009-04-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight was quite eventful. After a swim workout with Amber, we met Kim and Eileen, two Canadian girls (from Saskatchewan I think), for dinner. Kim is a nurse working at a clinic called Daughters. It’s a ministry that reaches out to women and girls that are being abused, either in their marriage or in the sex trade. Eileen teaches 6-8 year olds at an international school. They’re both great fun and I’ve really been enjoying getting to know them. They’re coming with us to Mondulkiri.

We had a great time at the Mexican restaurant where we met. The food was good, and the humor was awesome. Then, we headed over to the night market.

I needed to take out some money first. Amber drove us to an outdoor ATM. The concept itself is fine. But there’s a light right above the machine, and it very much attracts bugs. I walked up to the ATM, and within seconds I ran away squealing. They swarmed me! They were in my shirt, in my hair, all over my hands and mouth and eyes! I went back for a second try, and managed to slip my card in, but I just couldn’t stay! I tried another time, and another, and another, but the swarming was terrible! It felt way worse than it looked (or sounds)!

Finally, we gave up and Amber took me to an indoor ATM down the street. We shopped around for a while, and I got a couple cute things. I ended up spending $5.50 (which was so not worth braving that bug army!). As we were getting ready to leave, a young Cambodian girl walked up to Eileen to ask her a question. Eileen had bought some earrings from her booth earlier, and seeing her again, she came to ask “excuse me, do you have time to teach English?” Eileen said she didn’t have time, so we piped in about New Life’s Office Skills Training School (where I’ve been teaching, at the church). We told her it’s a free school, and we do have foreign teachers. Her friend walked up to us and heard the conversation, and both of them stepped back in amazement. They couldn’t believe there was an English school with foreign teachers, for free! Someone mentioned it was held at the church, and the girls looked a little uncertain, which shows me they are most likely not Christians. But they were so excited at the idea of coming. I invited them to join my classes for my last week, and gave them details about times and such. I included the times of Moo’s class and Jason’s class (Jason is from Hamilton – he’s Angie’s husband and basically oversees the foreign staff, but also teaches in the afternoon). They were so happy and excited that they gave us each a fancy little hair-tie from the shop.

We were so excited and amazed at this encounter. God’s hand was so over it! We walked away thinking “wow, that means a couple families that will be reached for Christ!”

By the time we left the night market, it was much later than we meant it to be. It’s not safe to be out alone at night, especially girls on a moto. I was leaning over and talking to Amber, and was not paying attention to my purse. I should’ve had it on my lap, between Amber and I, but I was carelessly holding it on my shoulder. However, my arm was bent, and I had both hands holding onto the bags containing our purchases. As I leaned forward, in the middle of conversation, I felt a violent thug on my arm. When I looked up I realized what had just happened.

In Cambodia, often at night, a couple guys on a moto may try to steal another moto driver or passenger’s purse or belongings. They’ll drive up really quickly and come close beside their victim, and then grab at whatever they want. It can be very dangerous, especially if the owner doesn’t let go. They can get thrown off of their moto and hit by oncoming vehicles, or simply get seriously hurt in the fall. It actually happens quite a bit.

But tonight, maybe because of the way my purse is made, or maybe because of how my arm was bent, they didn’t get anything from us. They just gave us a little scare. All I have now from the experience is a small bruise on the inside of my arm.

God’s protection is with us all the time. I can see His hand over all that happens. Not that it always makes things easy, but in the end it all works out somehow. A couple days ago, in my English class, I asked them what they thought the difference between “difficult” and “impossible” was. That was the same day I had the really cool lesson. I’d gotten my students to act out the story of Jesus walking on water. My little script ended with the disciples crying out “You really are the Son of God!” One of my students asked what that meant. So I explained the trinity, as simply as possible. That led to a question about us having a body, soul and spirit. Then another student asked where demons come from. Then “so, when a person does something bad, it’s because a demon made him to it?” After which I explained all about lucifer’s fall, and mankind’s fall, and Jesus coming on earth to identify with our sin, and then dying on the cross to pay for the penalty of our sin. All this in an ESL class… not bad. I think God just knew how tough of a month it’s been for me, and wanted to give me an extra boost and show me some of the early fruit of our work here. He really is such a wonderful, loving Father.

Well, anyway, the difference between impossible and difficult. Well, it’s simple. But in life, we confuse the two. The Bible says that with God, nothing is impossible. But when we face difficulties, we (or at least I) tend to get angry at God and say “why are you putting me through this??” So often I’ve thought “God, I really can’t make the next step this time!” But then, I look back, and I realize I really have done it, with God. Nothing is impossible with God.

And tonight, it was totally Him watching over us. I’m surprised the thieving attempt wasn’t more serious (silly me, I wasn’t wearing my helmet). And I’m surprised that the girl approached us about the English class. I really hope they come. If you guys can pray for them, that would be awesome! And also pray that I can remember their faces. It’s actually hard here. People do look the same! Their eyes, hair, height and skin is usually about the same… But I think it would be extra special for them if I do remember when they come. Hopefully this week! I’ll keep you posted!

11 things I learnt in Cambodia...

2009-03-29T22:59:00.000-07:00

1. A moto is a great replacement for a transport truck.

2. All the earth-days in the world don’t beat Cambodia’s method of saving electricity : turn it off for a few days.

3. A beauty saloon is not what you think.

4. Red lights are useless. So are line-ups.

5. Five dollars is way overpriced for a GAP t-shirt. I’ll offer you $2.00.

6. You can use plastic bags for just about anything. They’re great for take-out drinks, especially coffee.

7. Beef makes great chewing gum. It’s all in how the butchery’s done.

8. Helmets are only necessary until 5pm. That’s when police officers go home, so you won’t get fined anyway.

9. A moto is also a great replacement for a mini-van.

10. If you do have a truck to use, pile as much stuff as you can on it, as high as you can. Make it 3 times the height and size of the truck. Then, have your buddy sit on top of the pile to make sure it doesn’t fall off. Don’t worry, there’s a slight chance you won’t topple over.

11. Life IS much better when you nap at lunch time.

I'm staying longer!

2009-03-29T22:58:00.000-07:00

Moo and I with some of our students and some of the cell group girls at the end of term party yesterday

So it’s official, I’m staying now in Cambodia until April 20th, just after Khmer New Year. I do miss home, but I’m not quite ready to leave here yet. It felt too rushed. There’s still quite a few things to do, and we’re hoping to spend Khmer New Year up north in Mondulkiri, a beautiful Cambodian province. It’s an eco-tourism spot. Apparently, even in the dry season (which is now) it’s still lush and green with rolling hills and waterfalls. And it’s a bit cooler. We may actually have to wear a light sweater in the evenings. Oh, I’m so excited! Mondulkiri is also much more tribal. I think it’ll be really interesting. One of Moo and I’s students, Savy, is from there. The only 2 things we have to watch out for are malaria probabilities and actually booking a guesthouse for 6 to 8 girls. So hopefully it all works out!
This weekend was the Encounter. There was so much excitement. I didn’t know any of the people that went to it, but it was still cool to see what God was doing in their lives. And it’s such a blessing to be here for it. 3 years ago, it was our little team from Canada who helped get them started. God is so good.

Moo planned an “end of term” party for Sunday 4 pm. I ended up playing piano at all 3 services that day, so it was a bit hectic. Between being there for practices and for each service, skipping out in between the first two for breakfast with Leah, Omy, Anna and Karen, then going home, prepping the pasta salad, having a short nap, and being back to church for piano class at 3, and then the party and last service…. Somehow it all fit.

The party was an outreach idea Moo came up with. Michelle teaches one class from Tuesday to Thursday. Most of them also attend my small 10am class. So we invited them to a party on Sunday, and combined it with our cell group. Chanra, our cell leader, organized some of the food. I just made the pasta salad, which is western food, so it was their first time trying it; and they loved it! The cell group girls had organized games and it was quite fun. Many of our students showed up. It’s hard to know for sure, but I think the majority of them are not Christian. We met on the roof of the church. And after the party, everyone joined the Encounter celebration downstairs.

The place was packed to overflowing. It was a sea of people. It was a lot like our Encounter comeback at home, except that the lights were off (all except for the stage ones) and they used candles to light the path for the Encounter participants to run in. And they were so excited! Their testimonies were more shouting that God is great than anything else! I think freedom from unforgiveness was the greatest testimony for these people, as most of them have had a difficult life. I know that there’s a lot of deliverance ministry at the Encounter here, people who have been plagued with generations of demonic influence. The Encounter has been such a blessing to this church!

Khmer Traditional

2009-03-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

Sarah Chea, this one's for you! I'd put up more pics, but you know how long it takes to upload things out here... I'll try to show you the group ones, maybe scanned or something... we'll see what can be done! Definitely a moment of hilarity! Wish you'd been there!

On we go

2009-03-25T00:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not updating this in a while. It’s been a very challenging couple of weeks. But things are settled now, and I feel I’m able to write again.

I feel like I’ve settled into life here now. Weekly going into the office, where I have English and piano classes to teach, Sundays with church, and then the random shopping excursions at the market, or riding around town, or hanging out with expats or some of the people from here.

Sarah Chea, one of the Australian expats that was here for a couple months, left a week or so ago. We had a goodbye party for her at Pr Jesse and Soar’s house. I’ve never seen such a gorgeous house (although I’d seen it before 3 yrs ago when Pr Chuck and Cynde lived there). It’s surrounded by a wall, as all houses are here. When you enter, you see a small yard with green grass and beautiful flower and fruit trees and palm trees. There’s the most beautiful palm tree right in front of the huge entrance door. It looks like a Chinese fan. You walk in through the main door into this huge room with high ceilings which serves as living room, kitchen, and altogether living area. You can fit quite a few people comfortably in there. Yet it’s cosy at the same time. And they have a pool table in the middle of it too.

The outer walls are not closed walls. Instead, they’re made like a gate, with a mosquito screen as sole protection from the outer world. It keeps the house cool and airy. The other two walls are closed, but have doors leading into the 3 bedrooms and the most beautiful study room. It’s one of those houses that doesn’t seem that huge, but really is, and that looks so classy yet without being uncomfortable or rigid. You gotta see it to understand I think.

Last Friday, I went with Leap, Michelle and Marie (another expat) to the Russian marker, or Toul Tompong, for a bit of shopping. It was so incredibly hot and stifled in there. I tried on a couple brand name t-shirts over the shirt I was already wearing (no changerooms there) but nothing seemed to fit quite right, so I quit after only a few tries. Marie couldn’t be deterred though (she’s a real shopper girly girl) and she walked away with lotsa treasures. Brand name t-shirts that should cost $20 or more back home for $2,50. Right now, because it’s so hot, I prefer settling for Pink, a small store in the mall close to our house, where we can get the same deals, but with AC and a change room! Or there’s also the night market, where it’s much cooler. They have it every weekend by the riverside. I think Moo, Amber and I will be going this weekend, if all goes well.

The market is pretty amazing. Clothes and things are piled up high and tight, and with no apparent order to them. Yet somehow the vendors seem to now exactly where their stuff is. Only pictures can explain that properly. Some markets are really stinky though, especially where they sell food. There’s one near our house that’s open 24 hrs, so it never get cleaned properly. Rotten fruit and veggies (including Durian, the stinky fruit, which I have yet to dare try), fat and blood from the meat and fish, mixed in with sewage overflow from the toilets that don’t get cleaned properly. Even Cambodians often don’t dare to venture there, though it’s the cheaper of the markets, the wholesaler place. The mom where we live doesn’t like to go there. I’ve been close by, and some days you can really smell it. It’s known as the stinky market. Couldn’t imagine working there everyday!

Monday afternoon, some of us girls went for a traditional Khmer photo. It was awesome. Angie, Marie, Amber, Moo, Soar and I paid $15 to get all done up and have our picture taken. It was hilarious. Like a combination of 1980’s and asian style. They put little crease increasing stickers on our eyelids, and covered us in golds and reds, then put on the biggest fake eyelashes in the world – total eyelid workout – we call them spider legs, cause they’re huge, plastic and fake looking. You could barely see the white of our eyes by the time it was done.

Then the hair! Teased to the max, and with hair extensions too! Amber looked hilarious! She called her do a curled mullet. Several of us got crowns. Marie and I ended up with the same hairstyle, maybe cause people here think we look alike. I disagree, but definitely take it as a compliment. Marie is gorgeous.

Then we got our traditional Khmer outfits on. Definitely a work of art! The girls from the studio dressed us of course; there’s no way we could’ve done it ourselves.

It was such a fun afternoon; now we’re looking forward to seeing the pics!

Other than that, I’ve been focusing on my lessons, reading, and going swimming with Amber. She found a small pool at a hotel near our house that no one ever uses. It’s big enough to do a bit of a work out, yet really cosy and the water is beautiful. I got my first sunburn of Cambodia on Sunday there. No one is around so it’s really private. But it’s close enough to the stinky market that we can get whiffs of it here and there. Still, it was definitely worth it! Last time we went, on Monday, we got to swim with bats! They go there to drink the water. They didn’t bother us. It was after nightfall anyway, so it was their time I guess. It just made it interesting – never swam with bats before!

Personally, as I said, it’s been a hard few weeks. But I can see through it all that God is involved, and somehow He knows what’s best. Just this morning, I got an e-mail from Frances Coker back home telling me “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt 6:33). Then I read an e-mail from Brianna that quoted the same scripture! Again I’m aware of God’s presence when things are tough.

Other than that, it’s fun to be here. Everyday is a bit of an adventure. My students are great. Some of my piano students are learning really well. A few of them come in to practice everyday. This morning, I taught my morning English class why it’s a bad idea to cheat. Simple things like that are just not taught in a culture where you can buy off marks and certificates. But they seemed to appreciate my concern and instruction this morning, even just the fact that I actually cared enough about their education to mention this... so hopefully those little seeds will bear good fruit. It's rare for teachers here to care about anything more than getting their paycheck. Most children haven't grown up with teachers who really wanted them to learn, and who believed in them.

Well, now I’m off to prepping for Bible classes tomorrow and Friday, and for one English class tomorrow. I have one piano student this afternoon. Onward we go!

The Ocean!

2009-03-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

The expat staff at lunch! you can see Jason and Angie, Matt and Marie, Michelle, Sarah, me, Karen and Amber... Caleb, Justus and Emma are hiding amongst the adults.

mmm BBQ squid!

beautiful beach!

Marie, me and Michelle

Just came back from the staff retreat – and guess where it was held! At the Oceanside! We packed 2 bus loads of people (most of them are fairly young, young adults mainly… this church is young), and all headed down 240 km to Sihanoukville, by the gulf of Thailand. Actually, I ended up being on the worship team for all 3 Sunday services (the buses were leaving right after the 1st service in the morning), so I got a ride in Pr Jesse’s SUV – 6 of us crammed into a car that should not contain more than 5, for 3 hrs… But it was great!

The hotel was nice, not the best, but it did have AC, comfy beds and accommodated us well. Only thing they didn’t provide was toilet paper… yeah. Wish they’d warned us about that one. But we all slept wonderfully and enjoyed our stay there.

Monday morning, the day started with breakfast at 7:30. We walked over to a nearby restaurant that offered typical Cambodian breakfast (like chicken and rice or noodle soup), and some special American breakfasts! Amber and I opted to try the sorombled (scrambled) eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Not quite like home, but it was a good attempt. BTW, I love the typing and spelling mistakes they make on menus and sdvertisement signs here. You gotta give them some credit, using so much English when their official language is so different. It must be such a challenge. But you end up with lovely combinations like “Beauty Salloon”, “first aid supply kids” and “sorombled eggs”. Never a dull moment!

After breakfast, we had some training sessions about staff policies and such. Then, we went out for lunch at a seafood specialized restaurant. And then headed out to the beach!

My only experience at the Ocean was going to the Maine with my family when I was a tweenager. The waves were really cool looking, but the water was ice cold! We still tease Mom cause she went in, trying to be brave, and then couldn’t get out; the water was so cold it literally paralyzed her! My step-dad had to eventually run in and carry her out.

So you can imagine my wonder when we arrived at the beach… The water felt like soup! Not quite, but it was definitely not cold. More like a shallow pool on a really hot day. But it’s the ligit, salty watered ocean! It was awesome! We found a star fish, a bunch of sand dollars (even a really big one, around 20-30 cm diameter, and hermit crabs and such fun stuff. I spent the whole afternoon in the water.

Cambodians don’t like the sun very much. They like being lighter, and most of them are very dark. Apparently the race is Asian (Chinese like) mixed with Indian (from India). A lot of the religion here is more hindu than buddhist. So the majority of them stayed in the shade, or waded fully clothed, with long sleeved sweaters on.

I eventually wandered out of the water to get a closer look at what Cambodians actually do at the beach. Most of them were resting in hammocks or lounge chairs, but several were buying trinkets from the little vendors that walk around, or snacking away on things they’d bought. A couple ladies had settled their portable “kitchen” by our shelter area and were cooking soup and typical Cambodian foods to sell. One of these curious items was skewered bbq-ing squid. They taste pretty good actually. Not rubbery like I’d thought. I even had a couple…

Finally evening came, and we unfortunately had to leave the beach. We went back to the same seafood restaurant where we’d eaten lunch, and were served “family-style” again. That’s when they bring you a pot of rice to share as a table, and everyone takes a large spoonful of it in their bowl or plate. Then, the servers bring the dishes to each table one at a time, and everyone at the table shares the dish by scooping however much they want onto their rice. It’s kinda like “all you can eat” except it’s limited to the 6 or however many dishes they bring to each table. A table in that restaurant sits 6 people, so I assume they count it as one dish per person.

Anyway, I don’t think I can eat anymore seafood, especially squid, for quite a while now. I had my fill on Monday.

That night we finished with a session on the 4 temperaments, and then some social time, and finally bed. Next morning, breakfast at 7:30 again. Then we had a session on the 5 love languages, led by Chuck and Cynde McCaul, Pr Jesse’s parents.

Chuck and Cynde moved their family from Oregon, USA, to Cambodia more than 10 years ago, when Jesse was 17, to take over a brand new church called New Life Fellowship. Pr Dooley, an apostle and church planter, was ready to move on to Thailand, where he felt the next church plant needed to be, and needed someone to take over. Chuck, then assistant pastor in Oregon, had come on a short trip here, figured out someone needed to come out here to do the work, but didn’t want to do it himself. Until finally God convinced him, and they packed and came. Jesse did not want to come at the time, at all.

Today, Jesse has become the senior pastor at NLF. He’s married Soar, a wonderful and hilarious Cambodian woman, and they have a daughter, Jessica. But it’s only been about 3 years that Pr Jesse has taken over for his dad.

Shortly after our missions trip to Cambodia, where I’d had the privilege of interviewing Pr Chuck personally for a Bible College project I was doing, He fell morally. For the church it was heartbreaking. It tore up his family. And it crushed me too, though so many miles away. But God had been watching over the whole thing. Pr Chuck had been preparing Jesse to take over, cause he knew he was playing with fire. And Ministers Fellowship International, the pastoral umbrella under which NLF, and our church back home, OCC, are covered, stepped up to the plate immediately. They couldn’t convince Pr Chuck to return to his family. But then his visa ran out, and he was forced back to the US. Through the love of a church there, the forgiveness of his wife and family, and counseling and care, and much prayer, he has now been completely restored to his wife. This month was his first time returning to Cambodia since. And it’s been healing all over.

The church welcomed him with open arms. They don’t ignore or hide what’s happened, but they’ve forgiven. They’ve recognized man’s weakness, but also God’s grace. And for me, I happened to be here right at this time. I really believe God had intended it that way, for healing for me too, and a ability to trust more again. To see that God is truly able to turn the greatest disaster into the most wonderful blessing.

As Chuck and Cynde taught the lesson this morning, tears kept creeping up on me. I remember there being a cold, a breach between them 3 yrs ago when I met them. And here they were so affectionate, laughing together, teaching together, joking around with each other. Complimenting each other. And saying how much they love each other. When God restores, it’s always to better than it was before. Faithfulness is so beautiful.

We had some more fun at the beach after lunch. This time all the expats took off to a cute little restaurant where I had an American style chicken fajita and salad. The store also had a lovely little fair trade souvenir shop of handmade things upstairs. The beach was still as great as the day before, but the time there was a bit shorter.

The bus ride home was long, but fun. It was great getting so know some of the Cambodians and other staff better this weekend. One of the girls I met, Sinight, is awesome. She was rooming with us and had brought her little daughter with her, Si danae. Sinight is gorgeous, and not married. She’s a teacher at New Life School. She’s never gone to college or teacher school. But she learned everything from assisting other teachers, and from the Lord’s own creativity. She loves what she does. She had me, and herself, in tears as she spoke of the ministry she has there with the kids. It’s the Christian school that’s run by the church, but it’s also open to non-christian students. Many of them meet the Lord there. They don’t get beaten by teachers. The teachers actually care about their well-being and education. And they love the kids. You can tell it so clearly when she talks about it.

As for her daughter, well, she’s a story of how God has set up things for this young woman’s ministry. Sinight was 21 years old. She had a friend who told her of a new neighbour that had moved in next door. This neighbour was also beautiful. But she was in trouble. She had moved there because she was running away from the wife of the man she was having an affair with. This girl was an orphan, and the man – already married to several other women, which is not uncommon here – didn’t treat her well or care for her at all. She was working in a factory. And she was pregnant. She knew she couldn’t take care of the baby when it came.

Sinight’s friend, for some reason, recommended her for the adoption. Sinight was not interested. For months she said no. Then the baby came. Several couples, unable to have children of their own, offered the mother to by the baby from her, to adopt her. But for some reason, the mom didn’t feel right about any of them. Sinight was still her first choice. I think she knew Sinight was a Christian. Somehow, she felt that it was her first time making a right choice in life, and she didn’t want to steer from it. But maybe it was just a God set-up, or Jehovah Sneaky, as they say…

Anyway, after a few days, Sinight’s mom, who had heard of the whole situation, of course (Cambodians live with their parents until they get married, and sometimes even afterward too), asked Sinight to at least go see the baby. She finally consented, and when they got there, a God moment took place. Sinight had one look at the baby girl, malnourished and tiny, and beautiful like her mother, and couldn’t turn away. She went home with the child that day, and has been raising her as her own since.

Although Sinight is pretty in looks, it’s really her heart that makes her so beautiful; her passion for God, her love for the children, her love for her daughter, and joy in serving, her conviction over the will of God for her life, and passion in living it out every day. It’s amazing to meet people who have such a simple relationship with God, such a love for Him. Faith is beautiful. The Bible says to have faith like a child. And when you see it in someone, you want part of it too!

ps : I tried posting pictures from the beach, but it's taking much too long. I guess the connection's not that good right now. I'll try again another time.

2009-03-02T00:05:00.000-08:00

Angkor Wat

2009-03-02T00:02:00.000-08:00

I think Wat means temple. This weekend we got to see lots of those; but the ones we traveled 6 hours north to see were about 1000 years old. It was like stepping into another world.

Friday Afternoon, Michelle, Leap and I boarded our bus to Siem Reap. After sore bums and heat for several hours, we finally arrived to be assailed by tuktuk drivers. One of them finally got our business, and we headed out to the guesthouse where we’d spend the next couple days. His name was Sterlin I think… very smiley, as most Cambodians are. We secured his driving services for the next day, and then took off to hunt for food.

Only problem was that I’d gotten ill again since that morning. I think it was from lack of sleep. The electricity had still been out when we left, and I didn’t manage to sleep hardly at all at night because of it. I don’t want to sound fussy, but there just isn’t any airflow in my room without a fan.

Anyway, I wasn’t well enough to walk around for long… but we found a lovely little spot for dinner, and the evening started. When we got back to the guesthouse we swam for a little in the pool, but went to bed early. Big day tomorrow!

Oh, the bed was so comfy, and I slept so well that night. Next morning, we prayed for God to heal my tummy and help us enjoy the day.

We got up at 4:30 am on Saturday; our tuktuk showed up at 5:00am. We were off to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

When we got there, all was dark still. We found our way around by following others, and got to a spot where we could sit and watch. We didn’t see much except for the sky getting lighter, but that was still cool. It was kinda cloudy. We set off to visit the first old temple ahead. It wasn’t till an hour later that we got to get some cool shots of the soon peek-a-booing from behind some stone walls.

Most of the statues in the temples are headless. Apparently they were chopped off to be sold. I thought it was a Dagon mass re-enactment, but not quite. There were some people there selling incense to offer idols, for good luck they said… we passed by though with a ‘no thank you’. But other than that, it was so cool to walk around in these buildings that are so old; people carved each stone so carefully centuries ago. And here we can walk around, climb all over, wherever…

The 3rd temple we went to see was the one I was looking forward to. It had trees all over, growing under, over, in between rocks. It looked surreal. Like a scene from a fairy tale or something… Leap thought it hilarious that I was more excited to see the trees than the temples themselves… but you had to see it to understand!

The carvings are impressive. So much detail in everything that was done. These temples were lost for quite some time, from what I remember, and only rediscovered not that long ago, I think it was after the Khmer Rouge regime… Imagine walking in the woods one morning and coming upon these huge old buildings with magnificent trees all intertwined… that would’ve been amazing!

Oh! one of the pastors here told me this morning that there’s a carving of a stegosaurus in one of the temples. It’s been carved alongside the swans and other ordinary animals the people of the day, hardly even 1000 years ago, would see. Pretty cool. Another proof on the creation side!

We got to see wild monkeys walking around – they’re kinda scarry… one of them was walking closer and closer to me… but apparently they can be pretty nasty, so I took a pic and walked back to the path asap. There were tame elephants too. And birds making lots of cool noises, and bats, and a flying cockroach…

Before nightfall, we walked up a mountain. There’s a temple up there from where we were to watch the sunset. It’s old, like all the others, and some parts have crumbled. But it’s also very tall, with very steep stairs. It’s dangerous. Apparently they were built that way so people would have to go up on all fours as they climbed to the place of the gods. I don’t think a temple God designed would’ve been made like that. God would never force someone to come in on all fours… He always prefers our free will in worship.

We didn’t wait for the full sunset. It was kinda cloudy, and all we could see ahead were trees anyway. I’ve seen more beautiful sunsets in my life… The only difference was that we were sitting on an old relic watching it. So in the end, we decided to head back down while we could still see clearly. The sun set as we were riding our tuktuk back into town.

God answered our prayer and I felt fine walking around throughout the day. But then Michelle got sick near the end of it, and she’s just recovered overnight last night. Maybe it was a virus or something, not sure…

I’d love to post our pictures from the trip – they really speak way more than anything I could say. I’ll try to put a few of them on anyway, however much the internet connection allowed. I so wish I could’ve brought more people from back home with me!

Did I say unpredictable?

2009-02-26T02:02:00.000-08:00

Yes, things can be quite unpredictable around here.

For example, in the middle of the night, I started to get unusually hot. I started waking up, feeling suffocated. Normally, at night, I sleep with my fan pointing at me directly, and it keeps me cool while I sleep. I hadn’t realized how much of a difference that little breeze makes until last night. Our power went out. Completely. And stayed out.

Sometimes here, power can stay out for days if the city needs it somewhere else. The only way out of it is if you live near a rich home. They never get their electricity cut out. But our home isn’t that ritzy; we even have a slum nearby. Moo told me they’ve had their electricity cut for a day ½ before. And yeah, the food went bad, but that doesn’t seem to concern the city much… That’s why families here usually go to market early every morning. Most families have a mom who stays at home and cooks for everyone. She’s also the one who goes to market at 5am to get the food for the day, as the others are getting ready for school and work.

Second thing : my 8:15am class was supposed to last only 3 weeks, as I’m covering for a Filipino missionary who had to go home for a family funeral. But, we just learned yesterday that he’s been delayed, until end of March! Talk about God timing, huh! So I’m keeping both classes. I was looking forward to a break, but I guess God wants to stretch me some more… so now I’m happy about it.

Oh, and the worship schedule… I found out today that I’m supposed to be on worship this Sunday playing piano… Except I’ve already planned to go away! This weekend Moo and I and Leap are heading out to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat, the famous historical site. Fortunately, Pr Pisit said a switch would be no problem. At least, though it may be unpredictable here, it sure is flexible!

It's gettin' busy!

2009-02-24T18:29:00.000-08:00

Monday Feb 23

Phew! Monday’s not even over yet, and I’m exhausted! But it’s a good kind of tired, like that feeling you get after a hard workout.

The day started with a bit more editing for Moo, and then my 10am English class. We did adverbs of frequency today. Some of the questions they ask leave me speechless though!

I got to play piano a little before lunch, then Moo and I walked over to this Chinese home restaurant we know of and had lunch there. When I came back, I carried the keyboard up to the baby cooking room (that’s gonna be my new name for it from now on). That was 3 flights of stairs (although it didn’t help that I felt like wearing a skirt today, and therefore also had my high heal sandals on). Srey Mech and I had a lesson there. Then I left her to practice. At this point is was around 2:30, and hot as can be. AC still wasn’t working. I managed to get a fan for my 4pm lesson with Sopheak – she came to the church, cause she usually doesn’t come home till 9, and we figured it’d be easier that way.

Went back to the AC cooled office at 5 when Sopheak left. I sat and did a little bit of work, but at 5:30 I decided to bring the keyboard back down, and the fan back to where it belongs, across the street from the church. It was still really hot then, and I was exhausted once I finished.

6pm Sophea, my next student, showed up. In the middle of the lesson I left her to practice while I ran up to eat dinner. Then I went back down to see how she was doing. Wut, one of the guys from the church, watched me finish my lesson, and I ended up teaching him some of the piano basics as well. At this point I was beginning to feel like a broken record!

Wut did tell me a really cool story about Srey Mech though. She’s his cousin. When she was born, her mom had to leave her with his mom because the company she worked for didn’t allow children to come to work. That’s the norm here usually, it seems. I haven’t really heard of daycares. Children go to work with mommy, or they stay with close relatives.

Anyway, as the years went by, Srey Mech lived mainly at her aunt’s, and mommy came to visit whenever she could. Then, several years ago, her mom got shot. Srey Mech's not sure why it happened, she never asked. But her mom was brought to a hospital, and after about 4 months, since she still wasn’t well, she agreed to be taken home. They didn’t have the money to keep her there anymore. Her sister, Wut’s mom, cared for her but she didn’t get better.

During her stay in the hospital, Srey Mech’s mom heard the Gospel as people from the church came to read the Bible to her and pray for her. I guess Wut was already a believer at this time. She eventually accepted Christ.

Then one day, she said she saw dark men standing around her bed, telling her she had to go with them. She told them no, and to go away. They did. When she shared this with the family, Wut prayed “Lord, if she’s got to go now, don’t let her go that way. Open up the door of heaven for her, and let her in”. Later that night, at around 7, once it was dark, she was sleeping, and Wut says suddenly he saw a part of the sky light up very brightly, and then next minute Srey Mech’s mom had passed away.

I love hearing cool stories of people’s faith and testimonies. That’s what makes being a Christian so exciting. And here, they seem to have such a childlike faith.

For now however, I have to switch my focus over to lesson planning. This should be my last week with my big class, and I think I’m supposed to give them a test… eek…

Tuesday Feb 24

Lessons went well today. I was particularly excited about my second class, the smaller one. I got to explain the Gospel using Genesis 1:27. I did an object lesson using my camera to show that we’re made in the image of God (we’re not God Himself, but are meant to be like Him is several aspects), but that sin distorts that image. Jesus came to restore the image we’re supposed to have. It took the whole lesson, explaining words and concepts across both culture and language. But I think they understood.

It’s repetitious explanation of different aspects of the Gospel that leads the students to faith. We never do altar calls or press people for decisions, but simply explain and set up the stage for questions and discussion. It’s really cool.

2009-02-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a pic of a monk. They all dress the same way; you can see them walking the streets asking for offerings.

Starting to feel at home…

2009-02-22T17:20:00.000-08:00

Feb 21

It’s the subtleties of living in another culture that cause culture shock – usually, not so much the different types of foods, or the clothes, or transportation, but it’s when you get past those obvious things, and into the subtler worldviews that it gets more difficult. I’m not there yet, obviously. Culture shock doesn’t usually set in until after at least 6 months. To me, this is still just an adventure, sometimes awesome, sometimes really difficult.

One of the tough things for me is not feeling free to go where I want, when I want. It dampers my usual independence. I’m pretty much relying on Amber and Michelle to get around. I did try the mototaxi the other day, but I’m still really shy cause I still can’t speak the language. And I still don’t know my way around the city. But Amber and Moo are awesome. They're great at driving their motos, and they're always happy to take me as extra luggage.

Today, Amber and I went shopping for some furniture for her apartment. We headed out on her moto. The shops are so different here. It’s a little bit like China town, and a bit like Brazil too… but you really need to know where you want to go for what. Then there’s the white tax… because you’re an obvious foreigner, vendors will try to get the most possible out of you. So, once Amber found the furniture she was looking for, she bargained. I was outside waiting (today was hot), and a tuktuk from across the street called out to me. He wanted to offer his services. I knew we needed a tuktuk, so I nodded to him. He threw the stuff in the carriage part, and I sat back there too. Amber called a Cambodian friend to explain to the driver where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to do. And off we went, me in the tuktuk and Amber driving her moto alongside us.

Finally we came home with stuff in the tuktuk, and a shelf unit roped up to the little roof of the carriage. This driver was particularly kind; he even carried the large furniture all the way up to Amber’s apartment, which is on the 5th floor. He got $4.50 out of the whole venture.

Then there’s the dirt. When we got home, I cleaned my face with a little cotton pad, and it was filthy. At night, in certain parts of the city, they burn garbage piles. The smoke from it helps ward off mosquitoes. But it also leaves a thick unhealthy cloud at ground level. At least that doesn’t affect daytime hours.

Certain things here bring to life Biblical principals. In Proverbs, for example, when it says that the Lord hates dishonest scales. Here, at the markets, that actually happens. Vendors will tamper with scales so that buyers simply don’t get as much as they think they’re getting. And there’s the bribing system. You can bribe a teacher to pass your exam. Or doctors may ask for a bribe to give proper care to a patient. These are cultural impacts of war and genocide.

I guess in a system like this you can really tell when someone is a true believer. They treat others with fairness and integrity. How precious godly character is!

Being here is a daily adventure. These challenges can be frustrating, but they make little things rewarding. And some parts are just plain fun.

Tonight, Amber, Moo, Hak and Jenny, and Sopheak and I went out to eat after the Youth Outreach party (one of Moo and I’s students, Raksmay, who is not yet a believer, came out to Y.O. He’s also wanting me to teach him piano lessons. He seems very open, which is exciting!). We all went back home on 2 motos. It was so enjoyable, a lot like what we’d do back home, except for the moto part. BTW, riding a moto is a blast.

Amber, Moo and I live at the house Sopheak’s parents own. Sopheak also lives here with some of her siblings. She used to work in an orphanage, and that’s where she met her American boyfriend. They’ve now been dating long distance for over a year. He’s a Christian, and his parents have adopted several Cambodian children. He and Sopheak are currently studying and getting ready to one day get married and then found an orphanage, a school and an old age home.

While working for the orphanage, Sopheak got to go to the dumpster slum a few times. That’s the lowest of the lowest of lifestyles. Workers sometimes go there to bring some food and try to help. Interesting thing is, even though the government’s tried before to get some of these dumpster dwellers out of there and re-house them somewhere else, to many, the dumpster’s their home and comfort zone. They’ll actually refuse to go anywhere else! That boggles my mind. How can they seriously prefer that lifestyle, full of diseases, stink, etc.

CS Lewis said it best : "If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

In the end, Sopheak, Moo, Amber and I came home. Moo went to bed, but the rest of us played Dutch Blitz. Then Amber and I swapped 15 minute massages, and that was awesome. For the first time since I’ve gotten here it felt a bit like home. I even thought “I think I could live here, if that’s where God directed me, as long as I can have my own moto…” But then, I’d also have to bring quite a few Canadians back with me…

Feb 23

Yesterday was also lotsa fun. After church, Moo and I took some of our English students out for lunch. Moo had invited them on Thursday, saying “We’re taking you out for lunch, so meet us after the second service at the church”. Most of the ones who showed up already are Christians, but Raksmay isn’t, so that was good. I think he’s really close though.

It was a good lunch. We got to know our students better, and I think it’ll make teaching them a bit more fun.

I had to be back at the church for 3pm for my first piano class. I forgot to take down the names, but I had around 7 students there. Moo stayed for the class too, and it seems that she’s gonna join us for all the classes. Most of students are from the children’s church ministry.

Raksmay and another one of our students also joined us for Cell Group time. I’m getting used to not being able to understand what’s going on… Now I understand how Deg feels when we’re at my parents’ church in Quebec!

By the end of Cell Group, I was exhausted. The heat really drains you. But now I’m ready for a new week, with lots more piano lessons, meetings, editing, and English teaching. God is good!

2009-02-18T04:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a pic of me teaching my class of 80 students up on the roof. You can see that it's covered, but has no walls. It's nice 'cause of the air flow, with it being so high up and under a metal roof and all, but you can hear all the street noises (dogs fighting, construction, motos driving by and honking their horns...) It makes for interesting classes...

This is little Rachel - she's our office mascott. She comes into work with Mommy Sopha every day. She's 4 years old and speaks English and Khmer. She definitely brightens up the place.

This is our bathroom. See, the toilet, shower and tap all fit in this small room about the size of a closet. But it works for us. You just have to keep the toilet paper really high up on a hook, so it doesn't get wet...

I'll have to put more pics on later... this is all I could get through at this time...

Oh summer...

2009-02-18T02:07:00.000-08:00

It’s getting hotter and hotter everyday. Now, the cold water from the shower is a welcomed blessing! I could start taking longer showers again… but I won’t. Water is not as readily available here. Usually I’ll shower in the evening, and a little in the morning as well, if there’s water.

My English classes are going well, but I’m still in need of new ideas, especially for my bigger class. I’m looking through “Dave’s ESL Café” right now, which is an online resource I’d heard about while doing my ESL course. Hopefully I’ll find stuff there…

I’ve started teaching piano now, to one student, Srey Mech. She’s a really sweet girl, and teaching her is fun. She’s actually the host on a Christian music TV show (kinda like MTV I guess) that’s on every week for ½ hour. It’s been a scramble getting started though, and right now she’s practicing upstairs on the roof. The roof here is covered, and part of it is used for the English classes. That part is all open, and even though it gets hot in the afternoon, there’s still a breeze. But there’s also a part that’s closed in, for the kids’ church offices, and for the nursery. AC doesn’t work well in that room. That’s the room we’re using right now, cause it’s the only one that’s available. But it actually feels like a stuffy closed in attic, with no airflow whatsoever. It’s kinda suffocating. And usually my lessons are in the afternoons (my English classes are in the morning, so I wouldn’t be able to do piano then)… eek.

Other than that, things are still pretty relaxed right now. I’ve been editing some of Moo’s documents. Her job is Donor Relations. It may sound boring, but she’s actually the one who communicates with donors, writes up reports of how the support is being used here, and articles to encourage people to keep giving. It’s cool cause she gets to hear all the testimonies of what God is doing, and tell them to others overseas. It’s more like a reporter job, so it’s actually quite interesting!

Oh, and I caught a tropical disease… it’s called “the attack of a bloodsucking mosquito army”. Amber, Moo and I got a good laugh out of it. I was watching a movie up in Amber’s area a couple nights ago, and it was so hot that I was just wearing a thin short dress. I never felt a single bite. But the next morning, it looked like I had a terrible case of chicken pox. Becca may remember the night we stayed out chatting in the backyard, and how ugly my feet looked the next morning, all polka dotted. Well, it’s kinda like that, but all over my legs!

Buddha prophesied Jesus!

2009-02-16T01:56:00.000-08:00

So I just found out this cool tidbit of info ; I asked Pr Jesse and Soar if there was anything in the Buddhist religion that pointed to Jesus or the salvation message at all. There is! Buddha had spoken a prophecy about a Lord of Mercy who would come one day, and abolish all injustice and such! No joke! One booklet Pr Jesse saw a few years ago went as far as saying that this Lord of mercy would have scars in his hands. But that fact isn’t as commonly known. Truth is, some Cambodians have even been waiting for this Lord of mercy to come. Here, out in the provinces, when encountering someone who is deeply Buddhist, evangelists will use these facts to bring in the Gospel! Ravi Zaccharias wrote a booklet called the Lotus and the Cross which compares Buddhism and Christianity. Basically, I bet you Buddha would’ve become a Christian had he met Jesus. The Gospel is really what he was longing for all along.

Unfortunately, the majority of Cambodians are not so Buddhist as they are animist and superstitious. Many wear a guardian spirit belt, which they’ve acquired by bringing sacrifices to a witch doctor. Most Cambodian homes have shrines where they worship ancestral spirits. Here, deliverance from demons comes hand-in-hand with salvation. Pr Jesse knows a fellow missionary who came here as a Baptist, but soon realized he’d have to learn to cast out demons, or he’d get cast out himself!

The Buddhist monks are another story altogether. You can see them walking in the streets, with shaved heads, long orange toga-type robes, and a shade umbrella. They stop by homes and businesses, and wait for the owner or inhabitants to come out and donate money. Then, they’ll mumble a blessing and walk away. But in truth, the monk society here is actually a welfare system for singles. If a single person is very poor, he can sign up to be a monk. Then, he gets shelter, money and food. Buddhism is supposed to be about detaching yourself from all material need and attachments. But many of these people, as they gather money, start going to school and building their wealth. They’ll walk around with cell phones, use computers, sometimes put on a disguise and sneak into dance clubs. And when they’re back up on their feet, they drop their toga and walk away. I’m sure some are sincere. But this seems to be the norm here.

Total subject change : Friday and Saturday I went to the worship team retreat. It was really cool. The spot was gorgeous. I shared my cabin with 6 other girls, and the mattress was so comfy. It was out in one of the provinces, up a mountain. Beautiful site! I got a chance to meet some of the young people of the church. It’s so hard to remember names though! Some of my new acquaintances : Srey Nikt, Srey Meng, Ata, Mata, Hung Lee, and others I can’t pronounce. One guy’s name is Nate, so that one I remembered, cause it sounds like something I’m used to. His story is really cool actually. He is Pr Mara’s younger brother. He used to be a Buddhist, living out in the province with his family. Then, about 12 yrs ago, Mara met the Lord, probably while he was here in the city studying. Pr Mara is a fiery evangelist. Eventually, the rest of his family also started coming to church, and they’ve now all met the Lord. Nate is now one of the main worship leaders.

Bible classes!

2009-02-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

It was so much fun! This morning, I decided to do both of my Bible classes the same day, as I don’t have classes tomorrow. I’ll be heading out with Pr Jesse and a guest speaker to the worship team retreat that’s currently going on. They’re picking me up at around 7am. I don’t think a lot of “expats” are going, but a lot of the worship team people also speak English, so I think I’ll be alright.

Things are so unpredictable here. When I arrived this morning (my first class starts at 8:15), I was going to stay for staff prayer (which is from 7:45 to 8:30) only for a bit. But all the worship team members had left for the retreat, and no one left behind could lead worship. So I volunteered. Anyone who plays piano would know how painful it is to play a little keyboard without a sustain peddle. As soon as I can, I’m buying a peddle to carry around with me wherever I go, just in case! Anyway, no one seemed minded. Worship time here is very spontaneous anyway. I sang in English, and Pr Mara sang along with me in Khmer. Then, at 8:10, I snuck out to make it on time for my class.

Oh, side story : as I was waiting for the sound people to set up the keyboard, I saw a little creature bumbling along on the stage a few feet behind me. It took me a few seconds to make sure I was seeing correctly. But I was. A cockroach about the size of a small mouse is apparently part of the sound equipment here. Cambodians really don’t mind them. No one made a move to kill it, even though they saw it as plainly as I did. In fact they were teasing me a little for my reaction. On the other hand, apparently they hate geckoes! Weird, huh!

For my first class today, I started teaching them Jeremy Camp’s “Beyond Measure”. I had to do it acapella, but they didn’t seem to mind. We got through the first verse and I sang through the chorus a few times. I talked about the poetry and imagery behind the song. Then I shared a testimony of when God really blessed me. It’s so cool to know that a lot of these people don’t know God, and this is their Bible exposure time.

For my small class, I pulled out 1 Cor 13 about love. We started looking at the scripture itself, and the vocabulary. That took a big chunk of the class. I did it like Small Group format, with discussion questions after, and it made me think a lot of back home.

Oh! I just saw a tiny gecko walking on the carpet in front of me! Awww. It was really cute. As long as it’s a gecko and not another cockroach, I’m ok.

An adventure in town

2009-02-11T01:36:00.001-08:00

Until you’ve tried it yourself, this may not sound like such a big deal. But, when you consider the language barrier, and the fact that people here are eager to make a living, and will try to take advantage of foreigners if they can, this is quite a feat.

So, a couple of the “expat” girls here wanted to meet at a coffee shop at the mall near our house where there’s wi-fi internet access. They invited me to join them. Moo would have liked to come, but she has to do her work at the church as her computer doesn’t have wireless access. So that meant I had to go there on my own. Walking it would’ve been no more than a half hour, but nobody walks here. The city is full of moto-taxis, or motodops, which will assail you if you try to walk, especially if you’re alone. Plus, I had my trusty laptop to carry, which can get heavy after a while. So, moto taxi it would have to be.

I got some of the words I needed to be able to communicate where I wanted to go. Then I set out on foot. Just around the corner, a moto taxi driver stopped (whithout me needing to signal to him or anything). I asked him how much he would charge me to go to Sovannah mall. He asked for $1, which is way overpriced (yeah, crazy, huh), so I said no, I wanted lower. As we were bargaining (and picture it while taking the language barrier into consideration), another taxi driver stopped by hoping to get me instead. Finally, the first driver and I agreed to 3000 riel (which is still a little overpriced, at 75 cents), and I hopped on side-saddle. It’s actually quite comfortable and steady. You don’t even have to hold on. I would never do that at the back of Moo’s moto, where I usually ride, cause the seat is too small and she’s still a new driver. But the motodop guys drive around all day, and have seats large enough to fit several people. I have to take pictures to post onto here for you guys to get a better idea of all I’m talking about!

In the end, I arrived here safely and was glad to discover I had exactly 3000 riel to give him. Here, 4000 riel equals $1 American. When they give you change, instead of coins, they give riels.

On another note, my classes went well this morning. I went in better prepared and knowing more what to expect. The prep time is a little stressful for me, cause you never know exactly how the lesson will go, and our resources here are rather limited and unreliable. Still 80 students in my early class, and then 11 in my later class. So I’ll take that to mean I’m doing alright. I taught my early class about pass progressive and we did some activities concerning that. Then I did a game and looked at some pronouns and possessives with my second class. Saying all that makes me sound smart, but I’m almost learning these things as I go. Some of the students know more grammar than I do. It’s more practice and exposure to the language they need at this point. And then, other students can’t speak a word of English.

Hopefully I can start piano lessons soon. I have at least one student lined up, but I have yet to talk to Pr Pisit (who is in charge of worship) or to get access to the keyboard.

I did find out however yesterday afternoon a bit of what Pr Mara wants me to assist him with. He wants help setting up a better system to provide pastoral care to the people. Yeah. It took me a while to understand how on earth I can help him with that. But we’ll see.

Other than that, my days so far have been pretty simple : get up at 6, shower and such, time with God, eat a breakfast of bread, fruit and yogourt, and head out to work with Moo on the back of her little moto. I teach my classes, then Moo and I have lunch somehow (we’ll either go out or order lunch from Pakhaday’s mom). In the afternoon, it’s hunting time as I try to figure out what to do and how to do it. I’ve also been trying to help Moo do some of her work, which is keeping clear communication between the church and donors here. It’s actually much more interesting than I’d imagined before I came here. At around 5pm, we head back out on Moo’s moto and figure out things for dinner. At some point in the evening I work on my lesson plans. Then I’m in bed at around 10pm.

Oh, one thing Bri and Stacey would be shocked to know: my longest shower her lasts 10 minutes. The secret? Cold water. Literally. I’ll have to post a picture of our washroom here too. We do have a north American toilet. But showers here are not in a separate little cubicle. The washroom is very small, and it all comes together in the same little room. It is different. I’ve been showering in the mornings, but the water seems to run very low at that time, and it’s colder too. So I might change my schedule a little.

Tonight we have mid-week service at church. It starts at 5:30, so I should wrap things up. Prayer requests : God’s grace and creativity on my lessons and lesson planning, and good health. Also, that I’d be able to get things organized for Pr Mara and help the school along a bit…

First day as a teacher

2009-02-10T00:40:00.000-08:00

So, I’m finally an ESL teacher… To try to explain a little better how things are here, I have to go back to yesterday however.

Yesterday was a Buddhist holiday. The school here was closed (as many students don’t know Jesus yet), but the office was open. So I came into the office with Michelle to get my material for teaching from the teacher coordinator, and get familiarized with my new environment.

First thing in the morning, I went to see the coordinator, and asked him about my teaching materials. So far, I’d been told that I’d be teaching one English class in a small room from 10 to 11 am. When I walked into his office however, he said “can you teach an 8:15 am class?” The teacher had to leave the country on emergency, and they needed someone to replace him. “It starts tomorrow”. Ok. No prob. Understandable. Then, I asked for the material for both courses. Uh… ok… not sure… And so it went. Finally, I got a couple books out of him. One turns out to be for a classroom of 80 some students! That wouldn’t be so bad, except that the material in the book really didn’t relate to anything 80 Cambodian students wanting to learn English could understand…

In the end, everything worked out well. So I came in this morning and faced my 80 students… yeah, overwhelming? Just a little… Especially when the largest ESL class I’ve ever taught had no more than 20 students… Yes, it does make a difference. Especially when you’re teaching on the roof of the building, and there’s a demolition project going on below next door!

Fortunately, the students are all very sweet. They were excited to have a new Canadian teacher, and are always all smiles. Prayer request however : creativity with my lessons and good ideas for teaching students as best as possible.

I also have my 10-11 am class, but so far there are only 7 students in that one. Apparently, though, seeing that I have white skin and a long nose (which are the 2 main requirements here according to Cambodians for you being a cool foreigner), the class may grow quickly; the thought saddens me a little, but at the same time, if it can reach more for Christ that way, then so be it.

I now have a little desk just outside of Pr Mara’s office. I’ll find out in a half hour what kind of work he’d like me to do to assist him while I’m here. Apparently he’s quite disorganized, and his wife Leah is the administrative one of the family. She works nearby for Samaritan’s purse, but I’ve already warned her that I may call on her aid for what I’m supposed to do around here to help the most.

I also offered my help in maybe organizing things a bit better here in the school coordination department. I have NO idea how I’ll do that… But something needs to be done, so we’ll see what we can come up with. If anyone has any ideas let me know! ;)

I miss everyone from home. I am starting to settle in a bit though. My health is not great right now, but with God’s strength somehow I’ve been able to go through the classes without a problem this morning. Maybe I’m already climbing up out of it.

If anyone from back home is actually reading these updates, know that you’re constantly in my mind and prayers.
Lotsa Love!
n

Update on a first few days in Cambodia

2009-02-08T19:11:00.000-08:00

Feb 6th

I made it! After over 25 hrs in the air, I am finally in Cambodian soil. I’m also 12 hours ahead in time of everyone else back home. It’ll take some adjustment, but I think I’ll adjust.

The rest of my flight was pretty steady. I spent a lot of time reading. On my last flight, the 5 hr one from Seoul to Phnom Penh, I sat near a very talkative Cambodian man in his 40’s who has been a trucker in the US for 25 yrs. His name was Hi-Way! ;) seriously! He was a teenager during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, which means he survived unimaginable horrors… He said his family was split up during that time, but met up again when the Vietnamese came into Cambodia in 1979. They went to Thailand as refugees. Eventually, after about 5 years, he was sent off to the US for a new start in life. Surprisingly, most of his family seems to have survived all the hardships of the civil war. That encounter made me realize again how much people here have gone through. The people around my age wouldn’t have lived this, but older people would all have a story to tell. They’re all survivors, who lived against all odds.

This is really an amazing country. I’m looking forward to going out this afternoon and seeing some more of it. Right now I’m feeling a little shy to do that, and I’ll wait and go with my new roommate Amber this afternoon. I met her last night after giving Moo the big hug and love from everyone back home. Amber is the other girl who lives here. She’s 27 and has been here working at the church now for about a year.

I tried to sleep in this morning, but despite the fact that Amber actually sacrificed her bed for me to do just that (I don’t have a bed in my room yet), I woke up a little after 6 with no hope of sleeping more than that. Still need to adjust to the new time zone. I was also feeling rather homesick and needed some time with God. But now I’m trying to settle in and get my room prepared for the furniture I’ll get, probably this afternoon. I also discovered I have a little friend living in here with me. Ghekos here are bug eaters, so I’m glad to have one to protect me! It’ll be a good partnership.

The other thing my room comes with is a lovely view… of someone’s bedroom! The way this house was built, the floor I’m on is smaller, and the floor beneath has a bedroom with cathedral ceiling… and of course, my room has a window; it looks out over and into this Cambodian family’s bedroom! Can’t say I’ve ever encountered this predicament before… So I need to get curtains for privacy as well.

Today at 2pm I’m heading over to the church to find out what I’ll be doing while I’m here. Apparently it’s been carefully planned out. I’ve heard rumors however of teaching English and piano in the morning, and assisting Pr Mara in the afternoon. We’ll find out soon!

Feb 7

It feels like I’ve been here for a week, but really, this is my second day, and I’m still getting over the last little bits of jetlag… Yet I wonder what I can tell to best describe my Cambodian experience so far…

Maybe with yesterday afternoon’s adventure on Amber’s moto : I needed a mattress to sleep on, and there happens to be one just around the corner from out house. So finally, early afternoon, just before my meeting at the church, we headed out on her little moto to look for one. But then, I had to bring it back. So guess how that worked! The sales guy folded the mattress for us, and then we set it right in between us on the moto, and drove home. It is common here for people to carry way too much on a little moto. I haven’t seen this yet this week, but sometimes you can spot a family of 7 on a little scooter!

This morning, Moo and I went to Russian Market to buy sheets and towels and other essentials. Jenny, Moo’s Cambodian friend, was our guide, and she not only drove us there, but also bargained with the vendors and guided us along the crowded market isles. There's no Canadian comparison to the market here. I'll have to post some pictures when I get a chance, to really describe it properly!

She drove us back to the church, and as we were debating what to do for lunch, a couple girls in a tuktuk waiting there struck conversation with us. It was Sarah (who completely looks Cambodian but us actually Australian), and Leap, and Leak. Leap reminds me a lot of Lucivane…

In the end, we ended up joining their tuktuk party and headed out for a quick lunch and an afternoon at the pool! I’m suffering for Jesus ;) And I’m starting to get a tiny bit of a tan!

Tonight, we went to the Youth Outreach meeting at the church. They had worship, games, and a very short word. It’s an outreach meeting, and a lot of young people that don’t yet know Jesus come out, so they keep the message very simple and evangelistic. I met a girl who has been coming to the church for over a year, but has only known the Lord for about 3 months.

Their evangelism method here is different from back home. Cambodians tend to include Buddhism, Animism and Spiritism mixed in with a good dose of superstitions. And if you give them Jesus, they'll just add Him to the pile unless they really understand. Usually the process of gaining that understanding is rather lengthy. So there's a lot of focus here on clearly explaining the Gospel and the Bible to people before ever inviting them to accept Jesus as their Lord. The good thing is that when they've got it, it's for good.

Part of my role here with be gospel exposure. All English teachers pick a class a week where they focus on the Bible and teaching a Bible story. I'll get that privilege too!

Oh, also, sidenote, it's funny how, when you travel, you'll see people you "know". And by that, I mean I've seen a Cambodian Lucivane,and a Cambodian Kevin Lippert... and that Aussie Sarah girl that took us to the pool, her name it Sarah Chia! Yes, I laughed alone at that one...

Vancouver - no snow!

2009-02-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

Vancouver Airport - I wish I had time to go out for some fresh air... indeed, there's not even a trace of snow out here! I do have a bit of time though to get something to eat (I found fruit! yum!) and get a little update in. Another hour till my next flight, which will then keep me in the air pretty much till I get to my destination.

On the flight here, I sat beside this sweet little Korean woman named Zhin-Yong (at least it sounded that way). She had been visiting her 2 younger sisters in Canada for the first time. She stayed 3 weeks and saw TO, Ottawa and Quebec city. I admit I had the thought "I wonder if she's ever heard of Christ... This may be her only opportunity to hear of Him, and here I am tempted to cocoon in and read my book"... So I kept chatting with her instead. And then, it turned out she's already a Christian! Praise God! Plus, I got plenty of time to read too! Zhin-Yong is also on her way to Korea right now, but I was disappointed to find out she's on a different flight from mine. I wonder who I'll sit with during the next couple flights... It's funny how traveling alone highlights that need for companionship, even from a stranger - at least in me it does...

And now here I am, in Vancouver, quietly watching the mix of humanity around me. Airports are so cool that way. I don't think you could find a more eclectic mix of people in one place (except in Heaven I guess - where yes, there will be lots of Caucasians, but tons of other people too ;). I even saw a little Amish lady walking around in her conservative blue dress and little bonnet.

I'm kinda missing home already... but this is day 1 of a 2 months trip, my longest so far in fact. Only God knows the adventures that lie ahead!

Going to Cambodia!

2009-02-03T08:18:00.000-08:00

Well, it's now January 2009, and so much has happened in the past 2 years - some of which I'll keep unposted here until its proper time... It has been an adventure, as life always is with God.

And now I'm heading out tomorrow for Cambodia. 2 months! I remember the days when that would feel like an eternity. But I've learned by now that really it'll skip by. So I'll be updating this blog both to keep time from slipping by too fast, and to keep in touch with my loved ones back home...

I'll be writing again soon... from the other side of the world!

Bowling, sleepovers and God times!

2007-03-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

So, things have been busy as spring is coming. I'm back from Brazil now, altogether. Even though my body got here on March the 7th, I don't think my mind was fully back until a few days ago...

I'm now back on full swing with everyday life, my kind of everyday life, I guess... with a packed schedule from Monday to Sunday. We've started the rehearsals for our Easter drama "Choices", which promises to be really cool. It'll be an all out musical/dance/drama... I hope lots of people come!

I'm also back to teaching some of our Highway to Maturity, really cool classes, and I love it! Teaching God's word is such a joy, and I'm becoming more and more comfortable at it every time.

The main thing I'm focusing on, however, is planning, praying and talking about our plans for the young adults in the months to come. See, we used to have a young adults' group at our church a few years ago, and it was really good, but ended up dying off. Even though I was busy enough at the time that I didn't really mind, I've felt the need since then for something to happen for the young adults. And, somehow, God is now setting it all up, and allowing me to be a part of the process! It's so exciting too, to see how all the pieces are falling into place! I wish I could relate all the intricate details! But I know there's too much, so I'll try to summarize.

When I returned from Brazil and told Pr Frank that I would not be going away to Cambodia anymore, but would be staying here for sure, we started discussing right away the possibilities of my life group becoming a young adults' group by September. Supernatural things had been happening here in Canada, especially in our life group, while supernatural things were happening to us in Brazil. I got to hear about it all through e-mail after the Acampamento, and it was all really exciting.

So, by the following life group night, God had grown a dream in my heart for what can happen with our group as everyone does their part, sorta like on that cleaning day in Brazil. As I shared it with the life group, everyone got really excited. See, there's something innate in human beings, especially young people, that we need to be a part of a challenging, exciting dream, something way bigger than ourselves. Otherwise we feel bored, lost and confused. So these plans that God is giving us, they're way bigger than us, but the Bible says that we can do amazing things by God's strength!

After I shared the vision for a young adults' group, we prayed, and it was awesome. Wowowow... there are few things more beautiful to see than a group of 20 some young Christians storming the heavens with sincere prayer! And that intercessory prayer thing is getting so strong amongst this group of young people, it's amazing.

The following Friday, 3/4 of the people who showed up at Friday night prayer were people from our life group. And, once more, it was a powerful prayer time. At one point, I looked at Janine, and she had sparkly gold dust on her nose. But when I quietly asked her if she was wearing makeup, she said no. I looked at her hands, and they were covered in gold dust. Mine were too. And so were Rebecca's beside me. So were Dina's and Sarah's... and Pete's! By the time we finished praying, we all looked at our hands and realized everyone had it. Lucas had some on his neck. It's like the gold dust was sweating out of our pores... it was so cool. It had become almost normal to us in Brazil, but I was quite surprised to see it happen here... random, but so cool!

Saturday was our bowling party. That was really fun. And then, we continued the evening at Rebecca's house for a girls' sleepover party... a sleepover with very little sleep. We hung out, took random pictures, laughed alot, ate... and oh, another miracle here: with all the cake and goodies that were on the table, we ended up leaving most of it and chomping away on the cucumbers and red peppers instead! And not because we were being weight conscious... really. Now that's a rare occurrence at a girls' party! ; )

At 1am ish, we got the urge to start praying. And we kept praying. I got up and went to bed at 2:30ish, cause I was leading the music team in the morning and needed energy somehow. But the rest of the girls didn't stop. They woke me up at 4:30 am cause they were praying so loud! I don't think they stopped until 5am... and I was up at 7:00 to be at the church for 8:00... Now that felt like Brazil!

After a great church service Sunday morning and a bit of rest in the afternoon, everyone was back for life group at 5pm. I started off by clarifying some things about our plans for September, all very exciting things, and I asked Pete to share a vision he'd had the previous week while we were praying.

The Bible says in Joel 3:28 "Then after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions."

And that's what's been happening. Sunday night was evidence of that. Pete told everyone what he had seen: a small dragon boat racing really quickly with a team of rowers rowing in complete unity as God is leading them. Then the picture changed, and he saw oars of many colors and shapes as a part of a great huge structure. It took him a bit of time to see what the structure was, but as he looked, he recognized it as being a big huge ship that wasn't done constructing yet. The meaning of all this was really that right now our group is advancing as we work together as a team, each doing our own unique part, and that God is building us into something much bigger that will include many people who need to know Jesus.

Friday night, Phil had also had a similar vision, of a large old fashioned ship packed with rowers rowing in complete unity. But as they were rowing, they turned around and realized it was God who was actually pushing the boat to make it advance. So they stopped rowing, but then God stopped pushing. God would only push it as we did our part by rowing together in unity.

As we were sharing these things in life group, Dewald chimed in a "woh, that's so cool... I've been having dreams about boats! And boats in dreams are supposed to represent ministries..." He went on to share what he had seen in his dreams, and although I can't remember now, I know it was really in line with what the others saw.

Then someone else chimed in "wow, I've been having visions of a huge cruise ship with tons of people on it..." and so on. It was like vision pingpong... so cool! I've heard of things like this, but it's different when you witness it first hand!

And so it has been in life group, in prayer time, in church, while bowling, in sleepovers, at Timmies, in parking lots... and it's just the start. This year is a new year, and God has been building us and preparing us as young people and as a church to step up to a new place... it's so exciting, and so real! Some of the things God is doing, I believe he's just doing to build our faith, cause he has so much more planned! Our God is an awesome God!

Here are some pics from our bowling night:

Some of the crew : beside me is Lucas, our friend from Brazil... it was in his bedroom that I spent my first 2 weeks in Brazil, in Aracatuba... but no worries, he wasn't there. He's been studying in the USA for a few months and stopped by for a couple weeks before going back home to Brazil... and he's lovin' it!

Check out the sexy shoes!

Wow! Myriam is so good she can play backwards! ; )

Supasta!

Luv.....

Luv....

Luv... teehee...

The accidental red team : Kyle, Noemie, Kile

Proof : Brianna did beat me by 114 points!

Congrats to Brianna, but not for beating me at bowling... this was for her graduating High School! She just went back in the fall to finish her diploma, and did it! Good job, girl! Reason to celebrate! Beautiful cake Sarah and Rebecca!

What girls do when no boys are around... silly things! Here were some of our photo shoots...

Bri wasn't feeling well, so Dina and some others tucked her in... awww...

Not sure if we were actually tucking her in, or keeping her up...

oh well.... good night anyway!

Brazil and back!

2007-03-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

Well, 3 weeks go by so quickly... yet so much manages to squeeze into that time! Where to start?...

Hmmm, well, I guess from the beginning.

The plane trip was pretty eventless. Travelling with me this time were Kyle, Krista-Lee, Chris, Christine, Jimmy, Papa John, and Phil... although Phil went ahead of us and had already been in Brazil for a week by the time we left.

We travelled the whole night by plane, on Valentines day. The next day we travelled by bus to Araçatuba and arrived very late at night, where we were welcomed with a typical Brazilian late night yummy BBQ!

Next day, we already packed our bags for the Acampamento de Jovens (Youth and Young Adults Camp meeting) which we were going to be a part of for the next several days.

Accomodations? Classrooms and open showers... we were sharing a room with over 20 girls (and the guys in a different building, with guys, of course) and a few bugs... but it turned out to be lots of fun. Krista, Christine, Leticia, Renata and I were all in the same room. It was so good to see these two Brazilian friends again! Krista, Christine and I were so white compared to the others, and so many people asked us if we were sisters.

The schedule for the camp meeting was as follows : two services in the morning, with intense praise and worship time and awesome preaching. Then a really yummy lunch. A free afternoon for swimming, sports and resting and mingling, and another awesome service at night. God met each of us in personal and supernatural ways. Several of us, especially Christine, often found our arms, hands, or entire bodies covered with gold dust during the service.

Brazilians are very expressive, passionate people. And the services were very characteristic, which was awesome. Each service, everyone would end up dripping in sweat - and we would definitely take a shower after! It's an amazing thing to see hundreds of young people dancing, jumping, shouting and singing praises to the Lord. yaya!

During those 4 days at the camp, we got to meet a bunch of really cool people and make new friends; of course, I spend alot of time translating and speak on behalf of our team with many curious young people. There were also themes for the evening services, and then a Festa das Criancas (Kids party), where we all dressed up like kids.

Personally, God met me powerfully during those 4 days, especially on the last day, where he spoke to me in a supernatural way about His plans for me this year. I'd been praying alot and reconsidering my decision to go to Cambodia. Mainly because God has been using my life here in Canada with the young adults in our church, and giving me such a passion for them, for seeing God do smething powerful in my generation. I've been praying for many months now. But it was in Brazil that God gave me a clear answer and peace about what I need to do : stay in Canada. I'll be travelling still, doing short term trips, but I'll be staying here to help build what God is doing in Canada, in Oshawa, and in my church... and I'm really excited about it! Since that camp meeting, God has confirmed my decision both through prophetic words and through that inner peace that you get to know so well the more you walk with God.

Once the conference over, we headed home for some laundry and rest. I was staying with Leticia and Pr Samuel and Pra Denise. So was Papa John. By evening, the house was packed with young adults who were over for pizza and mingling. But when people started leaving, and only the girls were left (that is, Christine, Krista, Leticia, Debra and I), we ended up spending several hours worshipping the Lord. Krista and I kept alternating at the piano, and we all sang together in beautiful harmonies, love songs to our Lord. We went on till 2 am. By the end, Christine was covered with gold dust. Pra Denise, who was meeting in another room of the house with a couple pastors and Pr Samuel, could overhear us... and she was covered in gold dust too!

The following morning, we headed out to Bairro Sao Jose, a slum like sector of town, where poverty and violence is the usual. Our church had funded a renovation project to bless several houses in that area, houses in much need, where people have less than $100 a month in income. In all there were 6 houses we were renovating. Our team got to help the hired construction workers in cleaning and assigned tasks, sorta like their gofers.

We left every morning at 7:30, and worked until 5pm. Some days were busier than others, but in all it was very rewarding. We spent 4 days out there, from the Wednesday to the Saturday, only half day that one.

Here's a pic of Papa John giving one of the mats he bought for each home to one of the ladies we got to help bless. To the far left are my hosts, Prs Samuel and Denise.

Then, we got to see the project for kids and women that the church in Aracatuba has there, in the Bairro Sao Jose. I had to leave to prepare for the evening. But the rest were a part of it. They have cell groups for the ladies, and nursery for the babies, and the other kids gather together for some games, and then some worship time, and then a drama. After that, they seperate into classrooms and discuss the subject of the day, based on the Bible. They wrap up the afternoon by giving soup to everyone, and they send the ladies home with bags of food for the week. It's really cool. They do that every Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, I went home to prepare, cause that night they were getting us Canadians as the special guests for the youth and young adults service, and I was preaching. We arrived there at around 7pm, but the service started at 8. I had told them I would talk about eternity, so a team came and spent the whole afternoon at the church decorating. They made up the entrance like hell, all dark, hot and all, and the front like the gates of heaven. And the welcoming team and ushers were dressed up like angels and demons. They decorate in such extravagant ways for every service they do - which is every other week. Intense.

That night was really cool. They don't use chairs in those services, cause everyone dances so much during the hour of worship time that it's not worth it. Again, everyone covered in sweat. Then, Kyle shared his testimony, and that went awesome. TJ, our faithful translator and team member for the weak and our new friend, was translating for Kyle, even though I know he was really tired from all the work we put him through those 2 weeks. Leticia translated for me. I got to speak on eternity, everything that was on my heart based on 1 Cor 3:11-15. In the end, about 6 people came to receive Jesus in their hearts, and many were touched by what we said.

After that, a bunch of us took off to a snack area for some food and hanging out. Then, I went with a bunch of girls over to another city close by for a sleep over. I was one of the first to go to bed; at around 3 am.

Next morning, I was up at 8 am. Then, we all went to the church cause it was the youth and young adults' turn to clean the church. This is done every Sunday morning to prepare for the evening service, and both the smaller and the larger new building need to be cleaned. Different groups are responsible for each week, and this time it was our turn. I went to help, but I was so blessed with what I saw.

There must've been over a hundred young people there. And we had the whole thing done in an hour! Everyone participated and helped in any way they could! There was such a team work and unity, it made it really fun to do! Those are such key elements in anything we do! Such a good life lesson for me.

Then, in the evening there was the Sunday service. It was awesome. Pr Samuel called us Canadians up to the front, and everyone prayed for us and our country. I'm so excited, because I know God is doing something awesome in this time, something new. He's been speaking to us to Prepare to be Amazed. And everyone there that night could testify to that by the Spirit.

That night, a bunch of us went out again for a snack, and I don't know what time we got to bed.

Next day was a resting and relaxing day at a spot by the river. unfortunately, it was also a cold rainy day, which after all the hot, sweltering days we'd had, was very untimely. I was freezing most of the day, so was quite glad to return home to Leticia's. We were having a bunch of people over for worship time and hanging out. Here's a picture of the girls imitating the Canadian crazy hair style... especially taken from Christine.

We ended th night with a ride over "the bump". They have this one street near the pastors' house where there a little hill and bump and, if you speed up enough before getting there, the car will actually fly up in the air for a second. It sends everyone, who are not wearing seatbelts, flying up with it, hitting our heads on the ceiling. So, we packed 7 girls in the car and flew over the bump 3 or 4 times. Quite the roller coaster!

Next day was goodbye. The rest of my team took off for Canada, and i took off for a different city, Londrina, where I've spent most of my time in Brazil. I was going to stay with Renata and her family, and visit the rest of the friends I've made over the years. That week ended up more like a vacation, between shopping and visiting. But it was really nice and restful and fun.

Here's a picture of Mayara, Marinalva and Zenga, a family very close to my heart.

This is the community centre/daycare/technical school our church has helped fund over the years. It's now ready to be used!

Here's a pic of Ronaldo and Zenga playing the dentist with the nice new dentist equipment that will be used to bless this bairro.

Here are some pictures from the Bairro Franciscato prayer night.

Marinalva and Zenga are pastors of that area, and through them, many have come to know Jesus. Many have been changed, taken from lives of addiction to drugs, alcohol and violence, prostition, and are now living in joy and sobriety because of this couple's obedience to the Lord. It's so beautiful to see. And slowly, that slum is being transformed by the presence of God. It used to be the poorest and worst part of the city, but that's changing. They now have 24 cell groups (Life Groups) in the area. Several of those are of youth and of young adults.

A class teaching pedicure and manicure technique to ladies, older and younger. Of course, the tall girl on the right is Mayara.

And here's the teacher, Adriana.

A very precious family: Ronaldo, Solange, and their daughters Laissa, Driele-Carolina and Beatrice (Bea).

Here's Renata, Renatinha and I cooking Brazilian dishes... Turned out a little dangerous...

Here's Graziela, an old friend of mine, and Daisy, whom I also met 3 years ago. She's surprisingly smart, and a real sweetheart.

My host family in Londrina : the Teixeiras.

Altogether, I had an awesome trip. It was so nice to see so many friends again, and to meet new ones. But the best part of it all is that I've come back pumped to serve God here in my nation of Canada. God has renewed my vision and expectation and excitement.

Since I've returned, I've been hearing of so many stories of supernatural things God is doing here. I found out today that little Josiah saw an angel in his house twice this week. Cameron and Sandra told me the story tonight. And several days ago, as a few of our young people were worshipping God together, they started playing some random chord progression. All of a sudden, Kenza heard a man singing a really cool song. But when she looked around, none of the guys were singing. So she wrote down what she was hearing, and the result is another new song!

The whole time we were in Brazil, God was doing some supernatural things in our Life Group.

So something is going on in Canada, in Oshawa... And our God is a God of surprises... so I can hardly wait to see what this year holds for us! In the meantime, I'm excited to live everyday drawing closer to my Awesome Lord!

Training & Tobogganing

2007-02-13T18:12:00.000-08:00

One thing you quickly realize when you own a laptop: it's not cool when it breaks down. Praise God for extended Apple warranty!

So, now that I have my little white computer back, I can update this blog with some of what I've been busy with for the last few weeks.

The last weekend of January was our Youth and Young Adults Life Group Leadership training seminar day... yeah. Anyway, it was so much fun - more than I could have ever thought! Why? Throw together a bunch of young people who love God,

4 fun teachers,

yummy Bonnie and Sharon cooking,

and the Holy Spirit, for one intensive learning day topped with a school bus trip to Hamilton in the evening... and it can't be anything else but fun.

The idea had originated from a conversation Frances (our youth leader) and I had during our Life Group leaders weekend conference back in September with guest speaker Dave Earley. It was so good, and so inspiring, that I wished I had brought every young person in the church with me. Janine was there, but I really wished I'd brought more peeps.

So, we decided to share the wealth of info and inspiration we'd gathered over the weekend in a one day training day for youth life group leaders and young adults interested in leading small groups. At first, I was nervous of the outcome, but it turned out better than I could have imagined. We ended the day with a trip out to Living Hope Church in Hamilton for their youth and young adults service, and although it was a very tiring day for me, it was such a blast, and so worth it!

I was especially blessed to work with our special worship team for the day : Brianna on the electric guitar, Sarah and Kevin on the accoustic, me on the keyboard, and Degory on the djaembe... great job!

Once the big training day over, I started focusing on the message God had placed on my heart to share at the youth night Feb 9th. I was so blessed to see Kyle preach his first message ever during youth on January 26th. He did such a great job sharing his testimony and encouraging young people to run after God's true love rather than seeking fulfillment in natural lust. If we have God's love flowing in us, it can flow through us and our relationships are complete. But without God's love, we'll always expect things from people that they're just not able to give.

My message this past Friday was on eternity. The book that has messed me up for good : Driven by Eternity (by John Bevere). Amazing, amazing book - a must read! It's entirely biblical and brings light to scriptures I'd hardly ever paid attention to, and that are yet soooo important! What I shared with the youth was based on this vital, yet often ignored truth.

Everything we do here on earth affects our eternity - actions, thoughts, words, motivations... What we do with the cross of Jesus Christ and His saving grace determines where we spend eternity, and how we live in eternity is determined by how we live here on earth in regards to obedience to God and His word... and to think of how long eternity is compared to a lifetime... wowowow! It's given me a renewed, healthy fear of God - that is, a fear of ever spending a moment outside of His presence, fear of doing anything that might separate me from Him and His will... Here's the ice breaker game the youth Life Groups did after my message:

Tobogganing - so where does that all tie in? Well, that was the fun night we organized for Life Group this past Sunday. I usually don't like tobogganing, and when I go, I'll slide down the hill a couple times, and then get bored. But give over 20 young people a bunch of toboggans, and a hand-made giant crazy carpet (Jasmine and Cassandra's invention from a fridge box), and how can you get anything but a riot? It was so funny, watching the overcrowded giant cardboard-carpet slide downhill, or a virtual snow wrestling match as the guys played Chinese down-hill... I almost got run over by the giant crazy carpet as I was filming the Chinese downhill. And the closing event? Everyone grab a toboggan and link arms - we're going down all at the same time!

We topped the night with goodies and hot drinks. It was definitely a bonding night, with funny stories, pictures and videos as memorials for years to come!

See, winter can be fun - it's all in what you make it, I guess. But that doesn't really matter to me right now anyway, cause I'm hopping on a plane tomorrow night, heading down to a land of summer : Brazil! Our team of interns, lead by Papa John and I, is escaping to the sun, getting ready to "suffer for Jesus"! What an awesome time it'll be!

Preon(g) Yesoos sralang ne(k)!

2007-01-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

The first sentence I coined after my first Khmer class last week (that's the language from Cambodia). Indeed, I'm now tackling this unique language, and it seems a bit overwhelming at the moment. The languages I've known so far all work with the latin alphabet. But not Khmer. Above is a transliteration of a very old sentence... using our alphabet. But the Khmer alphabet has 33 consonants, 23 vowels, each consonant has a leg-form (sorta like our upper/lower caps... but used differently), and the vowels are placed around the consonants. Letters are shaped so different from latin ones! Very artistic.

So far, I've memorized the first 24 consonants, and hope to have them all tackled by the end of this week. Gloria has taught me the song "eagles wings" in Khmer (which transliterates from Khmer as "sla(p) untree"), and I'm getting used to the different sounds of the language. Me/I/my is pronounced "khnyom"; think of how often we'd have to say that in our often egotistical North America...

So that's quite the challenge. Plus, starting up piano lessons with Sandra again, so I can learn how to teach what I know, and maybe joining some dance practices with the youth as well, at least for a few months... This is a year of new beginnings!

Speaking of "new" again, that was one of the themes of our awesome Mid-winter Meltdown conference we just had at our church this weekend. Tracy Stewart came from South Carolina as our guest speaker, and it was sooooo good. I could write down everything she said here from my notes, but I'll just recommend for you to order the tapes. It was a mentality shifting word, and I know God touched many people's lives through it! It was so cool too, cause, being a lead worshipper, music and praise and worship mean alot to me. I was so excited this weekend to have two of our own house-written songs as the theme songs for the weekend. "Prepare to be Amazed" was the bomb!

Frances Coker, our youth leader, woke up at 3 am Thursday night and heard a song in her head, full orchestra, everything. She wrote it out on paper, and, in the morning, played it for those who were at the morning prayer on Friday at the church (we're having all morning prayer every day of the week for this month). They liked it. Then, she played it for Sandra, and she liked it too. I was leading the music team on Saturday night, for the conference kick-off, and when Sandra told me about the song, I asked her to teach it to me so we could try to do it on Saturday night.

When I heard the song, I liked it, but wasn't too sure about it. It sounded different from what I'm used to playing, but I thought we'd give it a try. That is, until the team started playing it together. Suddenly it went from almost sounding a bit cheesy to becoming a majestic, praiseful, lifting-up-the-mighty-name-of-our- awesome-Lord kinda song. Needless to say, it was beautiful, and add several hundred people singing it out passionately to God, and it sounded like something straight from heaven. And the coolest part is that it was written in 5 minutes, with God literally downloading it into Frances' mind. Love it!

With all these new things happening, new songs, new focus, new miracles, I'm really excited for what God has in store for this year. It's gonna be good. God is touching the lives of people all around me, in my life group, in our church, at work, and, I believe, even in my family. We just can't always see it right away, but it doesn't mean it's not happening.

Anyway, just so you know, today's blog title means: Jesus loves you. That doesn't mean that those who know Him and trust in Him will never have trouble... quite the opposite. Rather, He says we'll never have to go through it alone - and the blessing in the end, after having gone through it, keeping our faith in Jesus, is more than we can imagine!

Preon(g) protiempo ne(k)!

New

2007-01-04T18:13:00.000-08:00

There's something exciting about the "new". Remember when you were a kid; that new toy, the new bike, the new grade... and then growing up; the new friends, new haircut (at least, for girls...), the new computer, the new vacation... But "new" also brings a bit of apprehension sometimes... I remember many of those "new"s too, like moving into a new house, a new school, or even a new province. Or starting a new job. You just don't know what to expect. It can be very intimidating, even overwhelming... I remember a dream a friend shared with me. She was on a stone path, in the middle of a forest, late at night. It was very dark; she knew what her surroundings were somehow, yet she really couldn't see them. The only light around was a small beam lighting the stone just in front of her, which would allow her to take only one step. But then what? Although feeling afraid and alone, she decided the only thing she could do was to step on the lit rock. She'd figure out the rest later. Yet, as she did so, the beam moved ahead one stone, so she could take one more step. She did. And the beam moved ahead one other stone. And so, she started walking along the path. She soon realized someone was moving that light so that she could always keep walking in safety, yet without being able to go ahead or see any farther than that next step.

Life is often like that dark path. You just can't see ahead far enough to start running along. Even if you do run, you'll find the unexpected hiding at every corner. Yet, there's a special promise given many years ago. It's from the book of Jeremiah (29:11): "For I know the plans I have for you", says the Lord,"plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

As strange as it may sound, someone has already walked that path you're walking, and is looking at it's beginning from its end. But, just like my favorite scripture (Prov 3:5-6) says, if you want that amazing person to help you out, you have to let him. How? Well, you need to ask him, first of all, and then, you need to do what he tells you to do. It's sorta like playing Marco Polo, except he's not trying to trick you or to run away, but is wanting to lead you to safety. He's the only one who sees the road fully...

As we enter this new year, my confidence is in my Lord, who's seen this year already. There are no surprises ahead for him.

But there are plenty for me. My heavenly Dady is delightfully planning surprises, both good ones, and difficult ones (just to keep working on my character, to keep me well disciplined). This is the year of "new": new life, new salvations, new friendships, new trips, new challenges, new disappointments, new joys, new growth, new direction... And I have no idea what lies ahead... I mean, I have some ideas of what I've planned, but when all is said and done, I really don't know.

And it's just as well that way. I'm not anxious, but I trust in my God's promise that He'll never leave me or forsake me, that even if I walk through the valley of death, I don't need to fear any evil, cause He's with me. Even if I hid in the deepest parts of the sea, I still could't get away from Him. He knows me entirely, every secret, every thought, every mistake, and yet He loves me fully, every inch of me. It's too awesome to really understand...

I'm facing 2007, and all its "new", with much anticipation. Not thinking of it as a lonely, tortuous path through a dark forest, but rather like a little girl enjoying the trail, riding on her daddy's shoulders!

Back to my roots

2007-01-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

That’s probably the best way to summarize my Christmas holiday week. After an eight hour drive through rain and freezing rain, along the highways and confusing Montreal exits, I arrived at my parents’ new home in St-Agappit, QC, early Saturday afternoon. We lived there around fifteen years ago, my mom, my brother and I, so it’s kinda funny to winde up in the same small middle-of-nowhere town that was my carry-over spot from English speaking Iowa to my French roots of QC. I was so young at the time, and nothing looks like what I remembered…

My parents’ home is a small, typically French Canadian house. Following tradition, the front door leads straight into the kitchen and eating area. There are four bedrooms upstairs, which is pretty good for the two adults and five children living here… but it gets a little crowded when you add a grandma and a big sister. Still, it turned out pretty well.

My family is well known for it’s large size and strange names. The youngest, Cassylia, almost 3, is a little doll. She reminds me of Shirley Temple, and she’s a smart cookie. She’s had to learn fast to survive life with big brothers and sisters. Here's a picture of her after Elodia straightened her hair... so cute.
Ysaac is the next one in line, now 9 yrs old. He’s a handsome little guy and, and he's pretty clever. He can be really sweet, when he isn’t teasing. Maika is 11, and she’s the monkey of the family. She’ll climb anything she lays her hand on. She loves to dance and to be in the spotlight. Isadora, on the other hand, 13 yrs old, tends to be more quiet. She’s the artsy one, both in talent and in style. And she loves cats. Elodia, 14, is a sports queen. She’s really impressive at basketball, and I’ve never seen her miss a serve in volleyball. She’s like a second mom to Cassylia, like I was to her when I was her age.

Then, there’s Jael, 22, who just got married this summer. We’re the closest in age, and we grew up together, through thick and thin. It’s been an adjustment to relinquish that friendship to his bride, Emily, but I guess the process took place over a few years, so I’m ok with it now. He’s a talented musician and songwriter, and also excels in sports. Emily is studying to become a doctor. When they first met, and Emily started falling for him, she thought she’d never have a chance with the cute Jael cause he kept telling her how she reminded him of his sister (that would be me). Who wants to date a girl who’s just like their sister? Well, apparently, to my brother, that was meant as a compliment. It’s true that we are alike a lot in personality, interests and compassions. Her heart is to be an overseas doctor, and mine is for missions… And I guess we look a like, a little bit… but she’s much prettier.

Oh, and then there’s me, the eldest. And my Chiropractor mom, and my step-dad, who's a carpenter. And there’s also my grandma, with a nose ring. She’s kinda funky like that. And that’s my family.

Saturday night, mom and I drove out to Jael & Emily’s house. They couldn’t spend Christmas with us this year, as they’re driving out to her family in Sept-Iles, on the East coast. But it was nice to catch up with them over a cup of herbal tea.

Christmas Eve morning, we went to church. It’s the church my family attends here, and the church I grew up in for most of my childhood. Many of the friends I grew up with are now missing. I just found out that one of my childhood friends got married this summer, around the same time as my brother. It was kinda weird seeing some of younger ones again, they were just little kids last time I saw them. Marie-Helene was the one that surprised me the most. She was born on my birthday, when I was eight years old, and I remember it so clearly. I remember babysitting her and her sister and brothers when she was just a little redheaded girl. Now she’s grown up to be such a beautiful young lady. And, to my joy, she plays piano and sings absolutely beautifully. Of course, the service was hardly over that we were sitting at the piano, playing and singing in harmony some of the songs we both knew.

Christmas morning was opening-the-gifts time. The highlight of the event, at least for me, is watching as Cassylia would pick up a gift and we’d try to decide who it belonged to. We’ve never spent that much on Christmas gifts, as it’s not the true reason for the season, but this year was especially frugal and simple. Yet it didn’t matter. It was still enjoyable, and the kids were grateful for what they had… praise God!

Tuesday, after several days of rain, freezing rain, and bare ground (which is a very uncommon scene for QC), we awoke to a world covered in a blanket of white. At some point between 2am and 8am, snow started to fall, quickly covering the ground with its thick, fluffy whiteness. By evening, there were several feet of sparkling snow. We spent a couple hours outside, shoveling and playing in it. As much as I don’t like the cold and look for any opportunity to escape to warmer weathers asap, I must admit that snow is really beautiful, especially sparkling in the starlight; and if you dress the part, it really is a lot of fun to play-fight and bury your siblings in it…

Wednesday morning we headed out to another childhood spot: les Chutes–de-la-Chaudiere. I have many pictures and memories of picnics, hide and seek and long walks in that park. We even sometimes swam in the falls. That day, it was even more beautiful after the fresh snowfall. We started off with some time sliding down a large hill, and Ysaac and Maika impressed us with their snowboarding skills.
Then, we headed out for a walk on the olden days’ trail. Except that Maika and Ysaac gave us a bit of a scare when we found them attempting to climb down the high precipice, trying to salvage something they’d dropped down below. Kids often don’t realize when their lives are in danger – they had no clue that they could’ve died… I guess that’s why God made parents!

The rest of the walk was very pleasant, with beautiful winter scenery. I would’ve loved to stay all day… but we didn’t.

In the evening, the adults all headed out to a prayer meeting at the pastor’s house. Another set of childhood memories flooded my mind as I walked in; even though the house has changed a lot, and the children too, I could remember coming over for many social events, dinners, or babysitting. Marie-Helene and I got to sing one of my favorite songs, and then spent a good portion of the night exchanging favorites and singing some more. She still blows me away with her piano skills; light years ahead of me! And Elizabeth, I remember her as a little girl, just a few years old. Now, she’s also growing into a lovely young lady, playing songs like “Take it all” (Hillsong) on the bass and the guitar. She’s the same age as my sister Elodia… and I can hardly believe how fast they’ve grown… I guess that makes me sound (and feel) old…

Marie-Helene, me and Elizabeth

Thursday, mom finally got her cross country skiing in. He headed out, her and I, along skidoo trails, just the two of us, in the beautiful winter afternoon. Growing up, cross country skiing was one of my mom's favorite winter activities, and I think she's passed that down to me a bit.

The closure of my week in Quebec was a game night with my younger siblings. Pictionary is alot of fun with kids that are too young to understand some words, it was a riot.

Then, the 8 hour drive home, and I was back in Oshawa. I love my family, and QC is a beautiful place, and it was nice to return to my roots for a week, but I'm glad to be home. Now, looking forward to the new year!

Life Story - Kyle

2006-12-21T19:29:00.000-08:00

Well, you've heard Bri's story about Kyle and how his radical transformation set her up for radical change. Now, read Kyle's story:

"When I was in grade school, I wasn't in the cool group. I never really had close friends, so I spent alot of time by myself. I was depressed and just hated life. Being a middle child, I also felt like my parents loved all my other siblings more than me. I went through a stage when I just wanted to die, to end my life. I used to hurt myself to displace my feelings. I'd cut myself and punch objects, punch myself.

"During high school, I still wasn't popular and I knew absolutely no one. So I made some friends by doing things to gain acceptance. I started doing stuff I wish I never did. Some things were as simple as getting tattooed, and then there were illegal things like selling drugs, and being involved in a few gangs. I had a few unhealthy relationships with women where I did things I can never take back. I got involved in occult stuff, and some of my tattoos testify to that.

"I used to hate christians. I persecuted them and made fun of them at any chance I got.

"To some people, on the outside, I still managed to look like I was doing ok. But inside, I never had peace, never felt accepted, or truly loved. I tried my hardest to hold all my emotions in because, you know, men aren't supposed to cry, or to have feelings. Let me tell you, when you do that for a good 10 years or so, you can mess up your body, physically and emotionally. I was a caring, sensitive person inside, but I was totally calloused. I was one hurting kid. But, God wanted my life, just like He wants yours.

"When I was 21, I was living with a friend. We would smoke anywhere between 5 to 15+ joints and a pack of cigarettes every day. We were selling lots of marijuana and, on the side, we also sold mushroom, hash and oil. That's how we paid for most of our expenses. Somehow, by Gods grace, we didn't get caught by the police. My roommate at the time was a backslidden Christian, but the rest of his family were devoted believers in Jesus Christ.

"Well, his sister Ruth, who lived in our appartment building, started coming over once in a while, and we'd talk about alot of stuff. We would go back and forth about our different beliefs. When I'd go get high, she would leave. She never got upset or offended. We had respectful conversations and didn't try to offend each other.

"On New Years Eve of 2006, she came over and invited me to church for the 10 pm service. Funny enough, that whole day, I'd been like waiting for her to come and invite me. I wanted to have a sober New Years that I would remember for once. So I said yes, which shocked her.

"I remember walking into Oshawa Community Church (OCC) that night and seeing all the people with their hands in the air singing and praising God. They had this glow about them and happiness that I didn't have, or even ever saw before in my life. When I sat down they were singing and I couldn't hold my tears in for the life of me. I started to cry like a baby. I knew at that time that my life was on the wrong track and I felt so bad about everything I'd done in my life. Ruth leaned over and prayed for me. Everything she prayed was exactly what I was going through, felt, and she had no clue about what was going on in my mind.

"That night they had communion. I was going to take it, not thinking anything of it. But I was told that I could only take it if I had Jesus as my Lord and Saviour and give Him my life. So I gave my life to Christ and took the communion.

"When I left the church that night, I had a smoke and said "Jesus, if you are truly real, take this addiction away from me."

"I've now gone almost a year without a single smoke. I started feeling nauscious everytime I smoked weed and eventually couldn't smoke anymore. God made weed repulsive to me and healed me from my addiction to cigarettes. For 7 years, I hadn't gone a day without a joint or cigarette.

"After becoming a Christian, so many amazing things started happening to me. Two of my friends became Christians, I never expected they would but my God is a great God. My roommate and other friend gave their lives back to Christ and stopped selling drugs. I also became truly happy for once and received this love that can only come from having a relationship with Jesus. Now I am actively involved in OCC and live for God and God alone. It's awesome!"

Well, there you have it, in a nutshell. I've had the priviledge of watching this unfold in Kyle's life, and it has been awesome. He doesn't remember this, probably cause at the time he was high, but I remember the first couple times Kyle showed up at our church, tall, wearing his bright green sweater, shy. And then, the night he gave his heart to Jesus. And the transformation after that! He's not the same guy. I've been put to shame sometimes by his love for God and his determination to hear God speak to him and through him for others. Kyle has become like a brother to me, and I keep praying that his life always continue to be a testimony of the power and love of God in the lives of many. Thank you Jesus!

Oh Christmas Parties, Oh Christmas Parties...

2006-12-18T20:46:00.000-08:00

Ah, the joys of Christmas and rejoicing with friends and family... the latter hasn't come for me yet since my family has left me for more northern lands (i.e. Quebec), but I'm enjoying the friends part so far...

Last night, we had our Life Group Christmas party. Some yummy finger foods and a few games called for a fun night. And it was.

We started off with old fashioned green light - red light and octopus (as organized by Kyle). Then we played the "guess who you are according to the sticker on your back" game... at least that's my name for it. And then, my favorite, was the "compose a new song using a set of key words on the melody of"... We Three Kings... yeah, that one was my idea. But I was pretty impressed with the result.

We had star-shaped kytes, orange snow, and Teddybear coming to Life Group because he likes Jelly Beans... very original guys... Oh, and the knock knock, orange you coming in?... And the best one, Dina came up with a rhyme for orange... but you have to say it quickly, are you ready?.... door hinge! It worked in the song at least... Love it! One of the groups even presented their song with actions and all, and they won!

We ended the night singing some Christmas carols and chatting.

Then, tonight was our roommate Christmas party/dinner, the 5th year of such for me (which shows how long I've been living on my own now, wow!...). Of course, this year, rather than being with Michelle or Janine, it was with Bri and Stacey. But it was still lots of fun!

Brianna cooked us a yummy made-up-on-the-spot dish, a creamy coconut sauce with chicken and veggies, served with rice... sorta looked like a Cambodian coconut curry. Yaya! And then, Janine showed up with a Christmas gift: cookies!! They're really yummy too...

As has become the tradition, we conclude our evening with a gift exchange (monetary limit of 10 dollars per person). It was very original this year. My personnal highlight was the hat Bri got me... Like my new Russian style? She thought it would match well with my new winter coat (since it's black), but we quickly realized it looked a little more interesting than that, at least on me. I could barely squeak the words out for laughter as I tried to describe how it looked to me: like a shaved mullet dyed black... We were in stitches all night over it. Then, there's the tea light frog (that's that first picture up there... gotta get at least one froggy thing for Christmas every year)... and a pair of earrings and a cool cushion to match my bed cover. Thank you girls, you're such a blessing.

Deny the Holocaust?!

2006-12-12T18:24:00.000-08:00

What on earth?!
Ok, I'm usually not too trusting of the media. Why? Well, I'll read the newspapers and such sometimes, but I've too often found that the media only gives an incomplete, biased and often twisted or inaccurate version of the facts. And I've seen it happen first hand.

So, when this article caught my eye this afternoon, as I was perusing through the 24hr magazine, I had a moment of doubt. But if this is true, then, my goodness, what a joke!

The article reads: "Iran opened a conference yesterday gathering prominent Holocaust deniers that it said would examine whether the Second World War genocide of Jews took place... The hardliner president has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map. Organizers touted the conference as a scholarly gathering aimed at discussing the Holocaust away from western taboos, but the 67 participants from 30 countries were predominantly Holocaust deniers... " (24 hours, Tues. Dec. 12 2006, p22)

What baffles me is not the fact that these antisemitic people are getting together to try, as many have before, to discuss why Jews should be destroyed, or whatever else they'll be discussing. That doesn't shock me, although it does disgust me. I'm too well aware of the stories and situations surrounding that nation to be surprised by that. And the statement about wanting Israel wiped off the map doesn't surprise me either. Just in the last century, we've seen many hate stories between peoples and aweful genocides (think Apartheid in South Africa, the killing fields in Cambodia, Rwanda's Hutu vs Tutsi, Sudan and it's government led genocide, Iraq and Saddam Hussein...).
(a Cambodian mass grave, picture souvenir of the killing fields; the relatively small space had been the burial plot for 160 victims of genocide)

But what does surprise me is that people could try to deny something that happened so recently and that is so well documented by so many different sources around the world and by personal stories and testimonies. There are still people alive today who can attest to it all.

Obviously, the world would never take them seriously. I mean, the thought itself is simply ridiculous. Everyone knows.

But then again, do they really? A look at history lets you question that security.

How many times have people denied obvious facts? And it gets more complicated when you back up in time. Especially when there are no eye witnesses of the event still alive. How easy it can become to convince a whole generation that something happened, or never happened.

Obviously here, I'm thinking of Jesus. Even just a few generations after He was gone, already people were trying to deny He ever came. Yet there's more historical evidence and documents concerning Jesus, what He did and who He is than there is about Julius Caesar. Yet Julius Caesar is studied in history books, but Jesus is often considered an offense, at least here in Canada.

How can someone deny a detailed, historically documented, so recent Holocaust? I guess they would if it makes them feel uncomfortable. I wonder how many people deny things just 'cause it makes them uncomfortable. Living in denial can seem easier than facing the facts.

I can't deny facts, even when I don't like them. I guess I just don't understand how and why people could...

Ain't raining pennies from heaven? Try gold dust and precious gems...

2006-12-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read correctly - gold dust and gems falling from heaven... This one'll be a longer story, if I want to really give it justice, which I do. It is as real and true as it sounds incredible. Personnally, I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't know those involved so well, and if I hadn't seen it myself. This is just a reminder of how supernatural God is.

It all started about a year ago now. See, every year, at our church, we dedicate the month of January, the first month of the year, to prayer and fasting. We do it to get focused for the year ahead, seek God more intensely and see what He has in store for the new year. Everyone in the church in encouraged to fast in any way they feel led to, whether it be for a day in the month, or the whole month, whether it's fasting TV, or sweets, or junk food, or everything but water. That's left between each individual and God. But the point is to focus that time to praying. And the cool thing is that God really does amazing things during that month, and as a result of that month.

Usually, near the end of the month, or at some point in February, we then have the Midwinter Meltdown - a weekend long conference that always gets the church all fired up. Supernatural things always happen at that conference. Last year was no different.

It was a couple weeks before the Meltdown, one night when we were at church, and someone called me over to check out Debbie Berlenbach's hair. I thought that was weird. I mean, she has cool funky hair, but why should I check out? Looking for lice? No. What they wanted me to see was the tiny sparkly dustlike gold covering her hair, even to the roots. My comment: "Nice, you put sparkles in your hair"... "No", she answered, "I didn't". "Oh", I replied, "so Kristen sprayed sparkles in your hair"... (Kristen is Peter and Debbie Berlenbach's daughter. She's just a couple years older than me, and she's always fashionable and beautiful. She'd be the type to spray sparkles in her hair, I think...)

Debbie answered: "No, no one sprayed sparkles in my hair; that's gold dust that's been falling all over our house for the last couple weeks. It's everywhere. Peter has it all over too." And he did, I checked.

My response: "WHAT?"

So, they went on to divulge the whole story. A few weeks before that night, Peter and Debbie had begun their fasting. They were seeking God for His supernatural presence. One morning, Peter woke up from a very vivid dream. He dreamt that he was covered with this gold dust and oil mixture, and that it was everywhere. I don't remember the details of that first dream, although he did tell me at the time.

When Peter awoke, he walked over to the washroom, still rehashing the dream. He looked in the mirror. Everything looked normal. He got busy doing some morning stuff, and then, happened to look in the mirror again. Suddenly, a golden dust and oil began to appear on his skin, on his hair, everywhere. He called out to his wife, Debbie, who was still sleeping in bed. When she joined him and looked at him, she was floored. There he was, all covered in gold.

From that day on, the finest gold dust began to fall all over Peter and Debbie's home. As it slowly fell from nowhere, it settled on furniture, tables, bed covers, everything, just like normal dust would. But this was no usual dust. It came to the point where Peter even had it incrusted in his belly hair. And they had to dust themselves off after stepping outside. This stuff covered everything.

One night, Kristen, who lives on her own, in her own home, was awaken by her dog who was being antsy and wanted out to do doggy duties. Her dog never had to go in the middle of the night, so she thought it was kind of odd, but went along with it. She was all sleepy, and let out the dog in the night. As she waited for him to come back, she switched on the light. The room looked different. As her eyes got adjusted to the light, she realized that everything in her house was covered with a fine layer of gold dust. She passed her finger on the dark wooden table, which left a distinct mark , whiping away a trace of the gold dust, leaving her finger covered with a film of gold.

At this point in the story, I was just amazed. I'd heard of things like this happening in other places around the world, to other people, and thought it was weird, although possible Hey, gotta stay opened minded - especially concerning God; He doesn't fit in a box. So although I was taken aback by this whole story, I knew Debbie and Peter Berlenbach, as well as Kristen, way too well to think they coud've ever made this up.

As she related the facts, Debbie went on to say that God had told her the gold dust was going to come into the church too. Cool. I wanted to see it.

So as I kept on my fasting and praying that month, I began to pray something like this: "Daddy God, I know you're all powerful, I know with you everything is possible. I don't need you to do any weird signs to prove to me that you're real or supernatural. But I think this whole gold dust thing is really cool, and I'd love to see it for myself... if you want me to..."

A couple weeks went by, taking us to the first night of the Midwinter Meltdown. I was leading the praise and worship team that night. I had picked out a few funky songs, even one for which I was concerned about my own ability to play it properly on the piano(Cover the earth). But I really felt God wanted us to do it that night, and it was the Meltdown kickoff night, so I went with it in faith. We started the pre-service practice with prayer, as usual. Right from the get-go, we could tell it would be a unique night - something was different in the atmosphere. As the other band members, knowing of my concern for how our team would handle that song, started to pray for me, God's presence became so strong. It was the most powerful pre-practice prayer we have ever had - at least in my experience.

That done, 20 minutes or so later, we took our places at our instruments to begin working on the songs. We were passing ideas around, back and forth. As I turned around to signal to Chris, our drummer, the proper tempo for our first song, I stopped dead in mid-action. Something was glittering, floating in the air. Zaza, Chris' wife, was standing behind the set of percussion drums. Our eyes met, mine probably lit up with question marks: "Zaza, see that?" She nodded. I looked at Chris: he saw it too. Then I looked around at the others on the team: they were all seeing it. There was fine gold dust sparkling in the air, like suspended for its light weight, barely even falling. Yet it was falling, as it was beginning to cover the keyboard, other instruments on the platform, and us.

I looked around the room, thinking "Maybe something else is causing these sparkles". There were a couple ladies praying farther out in the large room, waving flags as they went. But there was no way that was causing these sparkles all over the place. There was no way the gold dust would get behind our drum-cage either, not if it came from the flags. And the dust seemed to be falling from nowhere.

We all saw it. It was so cool. My response was "Daddy God, thank you so much for showing me that! I feel so special now - even though it really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things, you wanted to do that just to bless me." And it sure did.

Now, how about the gems... Well, the story isn't over yet.

I never saw that gold dust falling again. But it kept on raining at Peter in Debbie's for a while. Then, they moved into a new house, earlier this summer. A couple months went by, and gold dust started falling again.

Peter and Debbie are a very godly couple. They used to be in a rock band, and into the lifestyle that accompanies that, including drugs and everything else, until God touched and changed their lives. Now, they're just recently retired, and they take alot of their time to seek God and pray. They spend time every night doing this together.

Recently, Peter had a dream, or a night vision, where he saw an angel, beautiful and huge, standing at the edge of his bed. He began to speak to the angel. Then, God came and stood beside the angel and spoke with Peter too, but Peter couldn't see God, like He was veiled or something. Debbie woke up in bed, and heard Peter speaking, but couldn't see the angel, or anything else. This apparently happens fairly frequently in their home, enough that Debbie knew just to listen and wait until her husband later desribed the whole thing to her.

She listened on for a while, as the conversation carried on. In the vision, God apparently told Peter that He wanted to give him something special. Debbie watched as Peter began reaching up to grab something in the air. Suddenly, still in his vision, Peter reached out saying: "Debbie, this is for you."

She felt something fall from his hand. As she searched in the covers, she suddenly saw a red gem, which she picked up. It was hot as if it had just come from out of a fire.

Shortly after that, another gem showed up out of nowhere, this one for Peter. It was an ember colored gem. And a few days later, it was Debbie's turn to have a dream.

It was a powerful dream, where she saw gems falling all over the church. But people couldn't see them. Only Debbie and her niece, in the dream, could see these gems. Then, in her dream, Debbie saw herself in bed, and found a big pink square gem under the covers. She woke up from the dream, which had felt so real, and began looking for the gem within the covers. Nowhere to be found. Then, she noticed her husband's hand loosely closed up , as if holding a small object. She gently opened up his fingers to find the pink square cut gem from her dream.

These gems are beutiful - I saw them this morning. Debbie and Peter have taken them to several gemologists who have confirmed they are flawless and authentic, but can't quite pin-point what they are. They've been told that these gems are not natural, and are not man-made.

I was surprised with how heavy they are - I've never seen anything like it. As far as gems are concerned, they're huge! And they're cut so perfectly. Apparently, and I didn't notice this, you can see, in the red one, depending on the angle you look at it, a maple leaf, and a cross. I'll have to look at that to confirm. They shine so beautifully too.

The gold dust, they brought that to a gemologist as well. Indeed it is gold, pure gold. They could get money for it if they scooped it up off the furniture and brought it in... but Peter and Debbie aren't into that.

Now, why would God give someone gems, or gold dust? I think it's just cause He's such a loving, cool, supernatural God. And He wants to challenge us to think outside the box. Nothing is impossible to Him, and He wants us to be able to trust Him and walk in the supernatural as well.

Still Time for Christmas - dinner and... a play

2006-12-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

Well, this week has been busy, but relaxed compared to usual. I've actually taken time to just be at home, relax a bit, clean, cook, do groceries, and all of life's nitty-gritty things... Pretty cool. It all sounds a bit mundane, but really, when you go a few weeks without having time to do those things, it becomes a real joy to do them...

Then, tonight, I took my friend Melissa, from work, out to see the 'Still time for Christmas' play that Trinity Church put on. But not until we'd filled ourselves up with yummy homemade nachos topped with the works. We were supposed to make chocolate fondue afterward... but after we left the nachos with still 3/4 untouched, we voted out of that idea.

The play was very good: the story line sometimes a little hard to follow, but the actors very well practiced, even the kids did an excellent job, and the singing - wow - beautiful harmony layering and lovely solos. The sound was also of excellent quality. Melissa really enjoyed it. The only thing we both questioned was the comic-relief insert of a star wars introed scene where 3 "monks", who were Batman, Robin and Superman in disguise, fought the bad guys, and then went on to dancing disco and break dancing... ???????? huh?

But altogether, it was a fun evening. Here is Melissa (the little Philippino girl) and I posed with Supasta' Jordan and his lovely wife Jen after their outstanding performance in the play. Like my new haircut?

Christmas time is coming soom. For many people. it's just some nice time with the family, or an opportunity to give gifts, or a time to try to survive the holiday stress. Yet, I must say that Christmas is a time where most people feel more generous, more loving... The reason for that, in my opinion, is the fact that it celebrates the greatest generosity ever: a gift from God. See, man is seperated from God by nature because of sin. Nothing that has sin can survive in God's presence. But because He loved us, and wanted to give us a chance to come closer to Him, He sent us a gift. And that's Jesus - a man who was perfect enough to not have to die for his own sins (he had none, because his nature was 100% God as well as 100% man - don't try to figure that one out mathematically...). The plan was that Jesus would take on all the sins of mankind. Like a judge who both pronounces judgment and takes on the penalty. So what do we need to do? Accept His forgiveness, repent (that's doing a 180 degree turn, from walking far away from God to walking toward Him) and then He gives us His nature, like a new nature... that's His gift. The gift of a new nature, where we live under God's grace rather than His judgement, because when God looks at us, He sees Jesus' sacrifice, and our penalty paid - and that new nature. Not that we become perfect, but we become a new person, able to live with the purpose of serving God. It's free, but it costs us everything - yet it also cost God everything. And the truth is, anything worth living for has a high price...

Life story - Bri

2006-12-06T18:58:00.000-08:00

Enough of hearing from me. Here's a word from Brianna, one of my roommates and friends:

"Once upon a time there was a girl named Bri....(that's me)...I was a sweet girl...but then turned sour. I used to have good morals, but by the time I was 20, I didn't know where they had gone. I started looking for love in all the wrong places. I started drinking and doing drugs and hanging out in places that had nothing to offer me but bad news. I guess because of all the drugs and alcohol, I got really depressed and suffered from anxiety and really didn't want to have anything to do with the world -- (if that's not sad I don't know what is...).

"Then one day I went over to my friend Kyle's house to do the usual...smoke some drugs and feel sorry for ourselves....But then I was shocked when, all of the sudden, my friend Kyle said he didn't want any. He said God was good and that He didn't smoke or do any of that stuff anymore. He went to a party at Oshawa Community Church about a week prior to me seeing him. He said he gave His heart to the Lord...ummm okay then, I thought. I still didn't believe him, but I continued to drink and to wave drugs in front of his face so that maybe he would change his mind. I knew Christians in my life, but I always thought they were fake and people just played the "happy-plastic-family-going-to-church-on-Sunday" role. I never bought it. But to see Kyle change from what he was to..what's the word i'm looking for...godly, was truly amazing. He never preached to me, or tried to convince me of anything, he just showed a love like no other. Also he had a peace about him like, if the whole world was crashing, it wouldn't matter....he would still have peace. When I asked, he would tell me about the teachings of Jesus and it became fascinating to me. I decided I wanted to know God so I told Kyle I would go to church with him and take some Bible classes that the church offered. Then, when I went, something was pulling me towards the front of the church, where other people were standing and singing. So I just walked up and said in my head "God, if you're really there, here I am". BOOM! The Holy Spirit hit me like a ton of bricks! It was so awesome! I was with a friend too, it was her first time there, and when I turned around to look at her she was almost falling over and crying and just so consumed by God's presence. It changed me forever.

"I love life now! God is so good and He's showing me more and more of Him everyday. I'm back in school and working and living for God. He has freed me from all my bondage; cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, fake cheap love. I live for Him now and nothing is more satisfying. Actually, He is the only One who satisfies. This world is quick to take away your morals and rob you of who you really are. God has created you to be a unique creature of God, and he wants you to know Him. I couldn't imagine life without Him now. Don't get me wrong, in life we all encounter problems....but now I don't face them alone. God carries me through everything -- He is so faithful. "

Yaya!

CELTA comeback!

2006-12-03T20:04:00.000-08:00

CELTA - Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults; which today means more to me than a piece of paper. During the month of October, I had the pleasure of taking an intensive one month course at Language Studies Canada (LSC) to get that certificate. But I got more than a certificate. It was the load of information, the opportunity to put it into practice in a real classroom, knowledgeable and hilarious tutors, and a bunch of crazy great people I got to study with. Altogether, it was an awesome experience. I know I learned alot, from our tutors, our students and my peers. I think we spent more time laughing during that whole month than we did anything else, actually.

After spending a month working every day with that eclectic bunch of people, it was hard to say goodbye on the last day. I've kept working with one of our students, Lucie, from France, who comes in usually on Tuesdays from Toronto. It's been an incredible learning opportunity for me. As for my co-students that I learned to really love and appreciate, they're all getting on with life, finding jobs teaching ESL or buying plane tickets to teach or travel overseas.

So, before we all part ways completely, I wanted to invite some of them over to my little home in Oshawa, affectionately known to CELTA as "The Schwa", after the English phoneme... long story. Anyway, last night, they finally came, at least there were 6 of us here, only half of the original group in the end, but it was still a lot of fun. We had great desserts, brought to us by Chris and Marijke, and Jenn brought a yummy Philippino dish, and Felicity a lovely pot of flowers, and Krystina... her lovely self. We played Taboo (one of my all time favorites), and it was just really nice to see all of them again and catch up a bit after having said such a quick hello and goodbye. My how time flies!

The top pic is the shot we took on our last day of class, before all saying goodbye. We're there all mixed in with our great students, who were so patient with us and such a joy to teach!
This one here is the one we took at my home in the Schwa... Did we change much in a month? Can you find us hidden amongst our students up top?

Uhhh, what happened here? I think it was getting late... oh, no, wait, it was actually Brianna's idea...

By the way, if any of you guys from CELTA is reading this, Brianna (my roommate) said she really enjoyed meeting y'all, and you're a really cool bunch (and I agreed).

When it all comes down to it, I'm so grateful to God for setting me up for such an great month. Without going into all the interesting intricate details, it was kinda cool how it all happened. Over a year ago now, at the end of August, I was very confused and was praying and asking God to give me a sense of direction for the year ahead. I'd already been thinking about and looking into taking an ESL course for a few years, but it had just never worked out up till then, wrong timing. So as I took a day to pray and fast and set some goals, I felt that I should really seriously look into finally doing that course. So I searched the internet, only to get discouraged for my lack of qualifications for the courses I was interested in... until I stumbled upon the LSC website. It just seemed like the perfect match. I sent in a registration form, and within weeks, I'd gone to the interview and was accepted into the course for the date I had set: October of the following year... For several practical reasons, that seemed to be the best time to go.

And am I ever happy with how it all turned out! Besides it having been perfect timing lifewise, I also ended up with the best class of peer-students. I couldn't have imagined a better group myself. So all I can say is "Thank you God!"

Encounter Weekend - Awesome God

2006-11-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

God is so awesome. It's amazing to see how He can change lives, transform people, give them a new hope and heal them up. The Encounter retreat is something we have a couple times a year at our church, and it's really just a weekend where we receive awesome teaching from God's word and then have a chance to apply it to our lives. And the cool thing about it is that we always have a team of intercessors praying around the clock for those at the Encounter. And then there's always really cool surprises over the weekend. And God always does miracles in people's lives. This weekend, I was out there to help out, and 6 people from our Life Group went: Matt, Dewald, Kevin, Degory, James and Ruth. We had 20 people from PEI that came for the Encounter as well, and 4 of Lancy's friends from Queen's University, all fiery, God loving Asians - Collin, Michelle, Fran and Claudia (even though they live in Kingston all year, they consider our church as their home church cause the love us so much).
It was a beautiful weekend up north, and right by a lake too. Gorgeous. I wish I'd taken some pictures... but it was such a busy weekend that I didn't get a chance.

God healed Ruth from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrom from seeing the horrors of the war in Haiti - something counselors and doctors told her she'd never get over). She was so excited about it she kept telling everyone. That's really cool. God also showed Kevin how much He loves him, something he'd always struggled to understand. Several of the peeps received the baptism of the Holy Spirit this weekend, and that was so cool, and so God too. Jenna, one of the youth who was there this weekend, said that, although she's always been the type of person who didn't smile much, she just hasn't been able to stop smiling since she's come back from the Encounter, and people think she's weird cause she's so joyful.

The Encounter comeback was fun too. Here are some scenes taken from the platform where I was with the rest of the worship team. Really cool things happened then too. There were 13 people who got baptized. Several people gave their heart to the Lord, including Megan's mom, one of the youth who was at the Encounter. She had never liked Megan coming to church and youth, and even called it a cult, but now she's so excited she tried to convince Megan's brother to come out this week. And a couple girls too, friends Dewald had invited out accepted Jesus. They'll hopefully be coming out to Life Group this coming Sunday as well. Actually, one of them is a girl we've been praying for as a Life Group for several months... God answers prayer! Sarah's (another of the youth who was at the Encounter) little brother also gave his heart to Jesus, and he's totally changed already - he's got so much joy and peace. She's so excited.

With God, all things are possible. I've seen it so many times in my life, and this weekend was no different.

Touring T.O. with Renata

2006-11-18T17:53:00.000-08:00

(Renata and the CN tower)
It was a cool grey morning as the three of us headed out to the big city, Renata, Lucivani and I. Lu is Brazilian, she moved here to serve as a missionary several years ago, and she's just awesome. And Renata, she's a dear friend that I met for the first time 3 years ago on my first missionary trip to Brazil. At the time, it was like friendship at first sight. Now, she's here in Canada for 4 months to improve her English. She slept over at my house last night, her first time coming over since she arrived here in September (shame on me!), and today we went out to Toronto for her first taste of the famed city.

Finding parking was the hardest thing ever! But once we were settled in a spot, we hurried to find a place for lunch; it was already 1:00PM. We settled for a nice little Korean owned sushi restaurant, and Renata got a lesson on how to eat with chopsticks... she handled it very well.

Of course, we had to go up the CN tower, and we stopped along the way for a bit of shopping for Renata's friends and family back home. By the time we left the tower, it was already 4:30, and Re and Lu were going to be late for an Audio Adrenaline comcert. They were able to enter in for free since they'll be helping with cleaning after the concert. I like Audio Adrenaline, but I really wasn't ready this weekend to stay up until early in the morning to help with all that... so I came home... and got lost through Toronto... but made it back alive! Re and Lu are still at the concert, having a great time. I'm sure I'll hear all about tomorrow!

Brazil Booked!

2006-11-15T08:50:00.000-08:00

As of yesterday, our trip to Brazil this February has now been booked - whoohoo!! AND, I get to go to Londrina!!

As previously discussed and decided with Prs Frank and Chris, I'll be accompanying our church's internship students to Brazil for the Acampamento de Jovems and missionary serving down there (not sure yet exactly what we'll be doing...). I'll be helping out as a team leader and translator (help me Jesus!). I was really excited about it all, except for the fact that we'll only be going to Aracatuba (although Aracatuba is great too!). Each time I've gone before, I spent time in Londrina, and it's now become like a home away from home... and I was so sad to be going so close to there, and yet so far...

But now, as Valdir has booked the tickets for us, I've just gotten the ok, or the "of course!", to spend a little more time there when we go, allowing me to go to Londrina for a few days. Yaya! I'll get to see the educational centre our church has helped fund (the building was started 3 years ago, when I first went there on my own... and it was just opened up this October!). And I'll get to see all those precious people from the bairro Franciscato (it's really a slum, but they don't call it that)... and I hope to see my friends Marinalva and Zenga and Mayara and Gra, and everyone!

The trip will be from February 14th to 27th, and I'll stay behind until the 6th of March... It's gonna be awesome.

African Fun!

2006-11-12T19:53:00.000-08:00

(top: Laura, Ruth, Jazzy, Phoebe and Degory... bottom: Laura and Phoebe in the background, and Kyle, Degory and James)

Ah, the day has come and gone, and left us but memories of laughter and good times... and did I mention laughter? Who knew that a bunch of young adults could actually agree to dress so silly... and then go out to Tim Horton's dressed that way; not that Africans typically dress silly; but tonight, us wannabe's sure did!

Yes, tonight was our much anticipated African party night at Life Group. The idea started off when James and Phoebe, who are the more mature couple in our group, went home to Uganda for a month, and their vacation turned into a missions ministry opportunity. Our group prayed for them and helped them get hooked up with some resources to bring out to pastors and churches out there. And then, God really used them to bless that nation while they were there, and to help equip some of the awesome pastors in that country.

So, a few months later, after deciding to have them share their Uganda experience with the group one night, we decided to turn it into a party; and quite the party it was! Of course, like any party, we needed food (African food that is) and games, and then we had a Bible study and chat time, and a time of prayer for Uganda and the rest of Africa.... oh, and of course, the dressing up... very impressive with around 30 in colorful array!

Thank you James and Phoebe for setting up this whole thing. It was a blast!

Here are some pics:

Making green banana fries - and yes, believe it or not, I ate some, and loved'em... I think I'll go out and buy some green bananas! Cheese Janine and Cassandra... the guys are busy doing the frying...

Hmmm... do we look African???

Here's Sandra carrying baby Hannah, the African way!

Stacey and The Food! (storybook title?) mmmm, our African dishes turned out finger lickin'...

Now eating the food... yummy!

The game... nice dancing, Kevin!

Now, let's find out what the Bible has to say...

...and let's talk about it! (Dave the "African" preacher)

After-party fun... teaching Josiah how to play hacky sack

Couldn't call it a night without the guit's!

Time with friends

2006-11-11T18:26:00.000-08:00

Well, this is a weekend with old friends. My old roommate, Michelle, who just got married over a year ago (hmm, I guess it must be almost 2 by now), invited me over for a "sleep over" party at her house since her husband was away for the weekend. It was nice. We spent the whole evening just chatting, about all and nothing, and the events of the past months in each of our lives. We hadn't hung out in a long time. It's funny to see how things change so much in life, and yet they don't really. We laughed though when we realized how layed back she'd become with her husband - I know that was my influence on her life that caused that, cause if anyone knows Michelle, she ain't no layed back person !! :)... Truly, show me your friends, and I'll show you your future!

Here are some pictures of my best friends ever, Sandra and Cameron Jeffs, and their 2 little ones, Josiah and Hannah... Can you believe that Josiah is only 2 years old, a couple months younger than my baby sister Cassylia! See him on those drums! He can actually keep a beat, which is very impressive for a 2 yr old!

And Hannah, such a doll! We had a nice afternoon, just chatting and hanging out. Oh, and Sandra, well, she was born in Tanzania, and her parents, Mr and Mrs Bjorklund, were missionaries there. So, we got really inspired about tomorrow's African party, and she passed on a bunch of clothes and decorations for tomorrow. She'll even be bringing Hannah in a Katanga, African style! So cool!

Life Group? What's that?

2006-11-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

(in our Life Group, people just hang out until late in the evening - here's our guys' favorite thing to do: play hacky sack... somehow though, they're the only ones who can do it... as hard as we try, us girls are really shamefully bad at it...)

Life Groups are a small group of people that get together on a given day for fellowship (hanging out), Bible study, prayer and evangelism. In a constantly growing church, it's so easy to come and go and get lost in the crowd. But not with Life Group. Personnally, I think it's the bomb! Life Groups have changed my life, and I don't know where I'd be today without them!

Today, I lead a "small" group averaging 20 some people in weekly attendance, mainly all young adults. They're an awesome bunch of peeps, and each one of them adds to the life of the group in a unique way with their diverse personalities, backgrounds and testimonies. It's unusual for a group to stay that big, but we have a unique strategy geared toward young adults. See, it's common knowledge that young adults, especially single ones, are very social people. So, where most groups would multiply into smaller groups meeting in different homes once they reach 12 or so we're kinda sticking together, but then branching off for discussion time into smaller groups of 6 or 7. It's been working very well, and we've got new people coming in every week. We always have an awesome time!

My greatest joy in leading our Life Group is to see God working in people's lives. We have 2 brand spankin' new believers that are just awesome, Myriam and Matt. And then we have some people who accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior not even a year ago, but who are growing leaps and bounds spiritually, totally on fire for God, and letting the Holy Spirit work on their character. Then, there's the answers to prayer that spark up the excitement. And we always have some fun and funky parties, social events and outreaches that bring others peering in with curiosity.

Our group is swarming with talent too. Many of the people in the group can either sing or play an instrument, or both... So our times of praise and worship are always a blast, and sometimes we just don't want to stop!

Now, we didn't start there though. When I multiplied out of Cameron and Sandra's Life Group, I had a vision to see this kinda thing happen, but I had no idea how much work, prayer, patience, and not-about-me-ness was involved in the whole deal... I can easily remember the days when there were just 3 of us meeting weekly, praying for God to use us to tell others about Him, praying for people to come and join in with our vision... It was like that for a couple years. But God honors faithfulness, prayer and just sticking to it. I love how Pr Les puts it: "too stupid to quit"! I guess that was me... and now, look at what the Lord has done! He's so awesome!!

This has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever been involved with. I hope to keep on doing it for the rest of my life!

Gettin' ready for African night - My roommates!

2006-11-08T18:57:00.000-08:00

Ever played dress up? Well, we did tonight! Actually, this coming Sunday we're having an African Party night at Life Group. I kinda got creative here, and started picking out how I'll be dressing for it... and the enthusiasm spilled out onto my roommates, Stacey and Brianna. So here we are, all dressed up and looking like the palest Africans you ever saw! Now, we just have to find some African recipes for the food we'll be having that night!

(sorry for the sideways picture...)

Stacey has been my roommate now for over a year, and Bri just moved in with us in September. They're both in school, so we're a real busy bunch... And so, the house often ends up messy, and we don't really get to hang out alot, but we get along great and have never argued. All three of us love the Lord and that helps us cope with our differences! Let's say I've sure learned alot since my first roommate a few years ago... The joke around here is that I help get girls prepared for marriage (that's after 2 of my roommates have moved out to get married!) I wonder who's turn will be next!!

Some background - Why Cambodia

2006-11-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

Where my love for missions comes from...

Well, to be honest, I don't remember the day I was first interested in missions. I know it all started when I was very young, like a seed planted there by my Creator from the time I was born. I remember day-dreaming, at a very young age, about teaching little children in an African jungle school, or about founding an orphanage for little baby girls in China. I was around 5 years old when I gave my little heart to Jesus, and asked Him to become my Lord and my Savior. Since that day, I've always had this intense desire to serve Him, tell others about Him and spread His love in all the world. I always loved different cultures, peoples and languages, and I still do. I remember just loving to hear about and read stories of missionaries around the world, giving up everything and risking their lives to tell people that God loves them.

Not long ago, I was having a little heart to heart chat with my mommy, and I asked her (in French, of course) "Maman, will you miss me if I go away to be a missionary?" (You've gotta know that I'm the eldest of 7 kids, and my mom has much more than just me to think about). Her answer caught me off guard: "Noémie, I've known you would be a missionary from the time you were 4. Of course I'll miss you, but I know this is what you're called to do."

(here's a pic of me, my brother Jael and my mommy at Jael's wedding, in QC)

Coincidence??

Around the time when I started coming to my awesome church, Oshawa Community Church (OCC), an interesting phenomenon began to take place. I was 18 years old then. I'd made a decision very early in life that I'd do everything possible to never get into debt. For the eldest of a large family, that meant a lot of sacrifice. I wanted a university education, but I wanted it without loans or OSAP (not that there's anything wrong with those things, at all!). So I decided to work for a year before going off to university. My plan included Bible College at some time in the process, and then taking off to some foreign country as a missionary. But you see, the Bible says that man can make plans, but God ultimately has the final say in what happens... and He did!

I clearly remember my first chat with Pr Chris (I hope one day I can be as amazing as her!). She barely knew me from Adam, yet after a few minutes of discussion, and before I mentioned anything about my interests, she asked "Have you ever considered doing missionary work?" I thought that was kinda funny. She went on to lend me a couple books that are still, to this day, on my fav list: Bruchko and Peace Child, two incredible stories of people who risked everything to bring the Gospel to cannibalistic tribes, and how God changed these tribesmen's hearts and lives without changing their culture. Really cool.

Well, for the next several years, everywhere I turned, every time I met someone new, it seemed they all asked me about missions, or told me they saw a calling for missions on my life. And I wasn't asking for it. Each time I would laugh, and if a close friend overheard the conversation, they would laugh too. It was like God was trying to hammer in His point.

Until the winter of 2003. A crazy bunch of young adults from my church set out for our "Advance" weekend (cause we ain't retreatin'). We were looking forward to having Gary Hayes, of Living Hope Church, in Hamilton, as our guest speaker. I met him for the first time that day when I ran out of the car after our couple hour's drive in the beautiful snowy winter afternoon. I just barely said hello, and then ran off to the washroom (my original and ultimate destination at the time).

That night we had an awesome message on responding to God's calling on our lives. I still have the notes from that message, but what I remember the most is what happened after. Pr Gary called everyone up to the front who wanted to seek God on what His plans were for their lives. As I was just praying there, like everyone else, sitting cross legged on the floor, Pr Gary came over to pray for me. Then he started to speak a prophetic word from God to me (Pr Gary is a very prophetic man, it's really uncanny). He started off by talking about missions, and how this season in my life was a time of preparation for missions, and I needed to serve in every way I could cause I have a great ministry of serving, and faith comes by serving, and a bunch of other things that I'll keep to myself for now... Now, this pastor knew nothing about me. Call that weird or simple coincidence, I call that the Holy Spirit!

I noted down the main points of that prophetic word in my journal that night, and then put it on the shelf for a while, praying about it and watching to see what would happen of it in the months to come.

Not Brazil?

It wasn't long before things started to happen. During the early summer weeks of that year, I came out of a conversation with Alessandra and Valdir (wonderful Brazilian friends from my church) with a driving desire to go spend a month in Brazil on a missions trip, to serve there in any way I could. After much prayer and preparation, I decided to quit my job at the Ministry of Finance and take off, not knowing what would happen next.

I had a wonderful time there, saw some cool miracles, took a few risks and then spent a week without taking a shower at the NIKO survival camp in Parana, Brazil. I met some wonderful people and started to learn Portuguese. It all went by really fast, and then I returned to Canada, pumped and not having a clue what would happen next. I didn't consider staying longer at the time since my mom was pregnant with my little sister then, and I wanted to be back for the birth.

So I was back, after a month, and God supernaturally gave me my old job back (where I'm still working to this day). I got to see my baby sister Cassylia be born, and she was the most beautiful newborn I've yet to see (not that I'm biased, at all...).

(here's 2 yr old Cassylia, after big sis' Noemie put her hair in little curly pigtails... so adorable!)

But then I wanted to go back to Brazil. I had gotten to work with the people and the children in the slum, and I loved it. I started asking God if it was His will for me to go back for longer.

I did return to Brazil in 2005 after a very eventful 2004 year, and, through prophetic words, God clearly showed me that Brazil was not where He wanted me to go. I was disappointed and sad, but I've come to learn over the years that there's nothing good for us outside of the will of God, especially not in the long run. I know God has awesome plans for His children, and I don't want to miss out on them because of my stubbornness. Only He knows the future! Plus, I didn't have peace of mind about going to stay in Brazil, it just wasn't jiving.

(some of the peeps from our Life Group)

More prep time...

God had clearly said to me that He wanted me to stay longer in Canada so I could learn more. Wow, am I ever glad I obeyed!

Within the last year, amazing things have happened. Three of my close friends have gotten married, that's including my big/little brother. I did four more Bible College classes (as addition to the 15 some I'd taken up to a couple years ago). Then, our Life group exploded (I'll give more details on that in a few days). People were getting saved, giving their lives to Jesus and having their complete lives changed and restored, and I got to be an instrument in those salvations. It has been so awesome, and it's still going on to this day.

And personally, I started to be given opportunities to teach Bible study classes (highway to Maturity), and to do things I'd never thought I could do. God has been stretching me! I've also gotten to take an ESL teaching certificate called CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults). I'd been wanting to take that class for years, and now I'll be able to use it in missions.

And also, I went to Cambodia. I got to teach a Bible lesson there, while the pastor translated for me in Khmer (it was so cool). And I got to see the need there for workers and missionaries, a need much greater there than in Brazil... And something happened in my heart...

Cambodia!

The first time I heard about Cambodia and New Life Church, many years ago, I remember thinking "I want to got there one day". It just seemed like, even as little as I am, I still had so much to offer to help this beautiful people and their country.

But that ended up on the shelf for a few years. At least until I went there, and then came back, and then started thinking and talking about going there for a year. To my surprise, it seemed like everyone, my pastors, friends, family, everyone, thought it a good idea. And I had this strong sense of needing to go, like an urgency in my heart that it was what I should do. Every time I prayed about it, it seemed that sense of knowing got stronger.

But what about the finances? That has been a big area of struggle for me to trust God in finances. Not that He's ever failed me, ever! He has always been so faithful. But I've always been very independent, especially financially, and can't remember asking my parents for money for anything. So to know that God would provide without me working with a steady income was a big step of faith, it was... but it isn't now.

On my 24th birthday, my amazing, wonderful friends surprised me with a birthday party and a fund raiser for missions. I got so blessed, financially, but especially spiritually, as they spent a good hour praying for me that night.

Then, at Ruth and Andrew's wedding, they raised some more money for missions for me, as a surprise. Blew me away.

I've had a lot of expenses this year, and I didn't know how it would all work out, but, through people, and just through His supernatural providence, God has supplied for all my needs, according to His riches in glory!

As this year of 2006 is rapidly ending, I'm amazed to see that I've done all the things God had placed on my heart to do this year and that I still have the supply to keep going! And, not only are the finances I need for my year in Cambodia already provided for, but I also have enough for the missions trip to Brazil I'll be doing with the internship students from our church this February! Don't ever doubt God's ability to provide for you; He's got the resources of the whole universe at the tip of His fingers, and He's ready to hand them out to those who need it, especially those who need it for serving Him!!

Now, I'm preparing to go spend a year in Cambodia. I'm excited about it, although sad at the same time, as I know I'll miss everyone here in Canada so much! But I know God's hand is over my every choice, and He'll walk me into the right direction. Let's see what the months ahead hold in store!

The Bible says, in the book of Proverbs, chapter 3, verses 5 and 6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He'll direct your paths.
Ain't that the truth!!

And why am I doing this?

2006-11-06T18:24:00.001-08:00

Well, that's pretty easy to answer. As I'm getting prepared for my first "long" term missions trip, to the beautiful land of Cambodia, this seemed like the best thing to do to keep in touch with all my wonderful family and friends here in Canada. My God is awesome, and I hope that, as I use this little site to share my thoughts and the events that will come up in the next months and year, you'll be able to see that too.