Tim's Perspective: Chilling Moments

Our two weeks were full of chilling moments, moments that gave me chills, despite a climate that would never give anyone the shivers.  These are the top moments that gave me the goose bumps:

1. On our first day, we were given a tour of all (or at least most) that Agape International Missions (AIM) is doing in Phnom Pen.  It is quite mind blowing all that they are doing. My favorite thing though is the employment center where the girls who have been rescued and "rehabilitated" are working.  We walked in and were greeted with waves, smiles, and hellos!  So much joy! These are women who have been through hell on earth, however, they have been rescued and God has worked His healing power on them.  Such a beautiful, hopeful thing, it gave me chills!

2. Imagine 200 children, ages 3-11, in a room about 1500 square feet singing at the top of their lungs praises to our God. It happened most every day. On one particular day, it was especially boisterous.  I leaned over and said to Janelle, "I can only imagine how much joy God gets out of this."  It gave me chills!

3. As a leader of the team, you worry about how your team members are doing.  On two separate occasions near the end of our trip, two of my team members confessed to me that if they did not have families, they would not be going home.  It gave me chills both times!

4. Imagine sitting through a church service where 90% of what was said was in a language that you did not understand.  Boring, right?  Wrong! Almost everyone on the team said that one of their favorite things was attending church in Svay Pak.  Not that we could understand much.  But we shared communion.  And the presence of the Holy Spirit was palpable.  It gave me chills!

5. Near the end of the first week or the beginning of the second week, we are all a little bit weary.  I woke up early to prepare my devotional feeling particularly worn out.  As I open up my Bible, out fell a stack of 3x5 cards.  The night that we left, our church had a prayer meeting to send us off.  These cards were the things that they prayed for us.  At the end of the prayer meeting, when I was handed the cards, I thought to myself, "what am I going to do with these?".  When they fell on the floor and as I picked them up, I leafed through them.  I realized that God had answered EVERY SINGLE ONE of those prayers.  It was just the reminder and encouragement I needed. It gave me chills!

6. In the middle of the second week, we knew that that afternoon an altar call was going to be presented to the guys in the gym. As a team we prayed that there would be one, maybe two guys to accept Christ.  Later that day, near the end of the day, Clay came up to me and told me that not one, not two, but twelve guys had accepted Christ.  It gave me chills and almost made me cry.  Almost...

Twelve of these guys accepted Christ!

7.   Janelle astutely observed that the place that housed the foster children was devoid of toys. She asked the Pastor's wife about it.  She said that no one had bought the foster kids any toys for a long time.  Janelle took it upon herself to remedy that. During her lunch hour, she took $300 and went nuts.  You would not have believed all the toys she got for $300.  The very last thing we did was present those toys to the foster children.  It was better than the best Christmas you can think of.  It gave me chills!

8. Our last day, near the end of the day, we had a chance to meet with the Pastor and all of the Cambodian staff.  We thanked each other and we prayed over them. But then they gave us a Certificate of Appreciation.  When they handed it to me, I could not read it for several moments for fear of breaking down.  They were the ones that do the heavy lifting all the time. They were the ones that made us feel so welcome. They were the ones that prepared us lunch every day. They were the ones that blessed us.  And yet, they were thanking us.  It chocked me up, but also gave me chills.

Living in God's story is far from dull. When you have the opportunity to be a part of something where God is clearly working, it is so fulfilling and brings one such joy. I doubt there is any high like it. And in a country where people rarely experience goose bumps, I got the chills often! 

Tim

Tim's Perspective: Cambodia, The Land of the Unexpected

Cambodia is a very interesting place.  I had been to Thailand, so I thought I had a pretty good idea of what Cambodia would be like.  Although comparatively similar to Thailand, Cambodia was full of surprises.  These are my top ten (and maybe a couple of extras) surprising things:

1. Traffic!!!!!!!!!:  I have been in places with horrendous traffic.  For one thing, I live in Southern California.  But I have also been to Manilla, and I did not think that traffic could be more crazy than in the Philippines. But Cambodia takes the prize!  Traffic is unbelievable.  For those of you in Southern California, picture the 405 on a Friday with about 1 million motorcycles and tuk tuks thrown in.  There was one afternoon where we moved ten feet in one hour.  I decided to walk down the road to see what the problem was (an accident?; road construction?).  There wasn't any problem. It was just crowded and there is no intelligible right of way at intersections.  So it was just a logger jam! Traffic in Cambodia is absolutely insane!

This picture cannot even begin to exhibit how bad the traffic can get

2. Tuk Tuks:  I had never seen anything like a tuk tuk, the primary mode of transportation (besides scooters or motorcycles).  They are fun to ride in.

Clay with "our" tuk tuk driver

3. How Many Can You Fit on a Motorcycle / Scooter:  On our last night in Cambodia, I saw the record!  Six people on one motorcycle, including a naked baby being held by mama!  I never would have believed it.  Four people on a motorcycle is common, and a few times we saw five on a motorcycle!  We thought that could not be beat!  But low and behold, I saw six!  Oh, and all without helmets, by the way.

4. Good Food:  I was not ready for how good the food was going to be.  Yes, Khmer food is good. It is very similar to Vietnamese food.  But in Phnom Pen, there are tons of good restaurants.  While on our trip, we ate Khmer food, French food, Japanese, dim sum, in addition to several solid Western food restaurants.  My only regret was that we did not go to the Indian restaurant.  There are a plethora of food choices.  And, the local food has some interesting things to eat.  Frog was not as bad as I expected.  Most of my team loved it. I tolerated it.  Some of our team ate tarantula and said it was good. And then we all tried durian, a local fruit that is called the King of Fruits that most Westerners hate.  Most of us enjoyed it, although I will admit that one said it tasted like the bottom of her shoe.  Still, overall, I was blown away by the variety and quality of the food in Cambodia. 

The team at one of our favorite digs, The Grand River

5. WiFi:  There is WiFi everywhere! And it is fast! That was totally unexpected!

6. Gracious Cambodians: Cambodians should all be in service businesses.  They are so warm and friendly and anxious to help.  They are a kind and gracious people.  And it was not just the people we worked with. It was pretty much everyone from the hotel staff to our tuk tuk drivers.  They are so warm and anxious to please.

7. No Trash Systems:  If I was president of Cambodia for a day, I would establish some sort of trash system and install at least a million trash cans.  Phnom Pen is a very dirty city.  There is trash everywhere.  And finding a trash can is next to impossible.  Likely because even if you had a trash can, there is no place to take the trash once it is accumulated.

8. English and the U.S. Dollar:  Almost everyone in Cambodia speaks at least a little broken English.  English is taught in the schools.  You can go almost anywhere and find someone who speaks English.  And the U.S. Dollar is literally everywhere!  The tiniest street merchant will gratefully accept the U.S. Dollar and knows the exchange rate.  Most places show their prices in U.S. Dollars, not the Riel (the Cambodian currency).  There is never a need to change money in Cambodia.  In fact, you do not want to.  The Riel is $4000 to $1 U.S. Dollar. You can have a wad of Riel, and it will only be worth $10 U.S. Dollars.

9. Sleeping Arrangements:  First of all, there are very few actual houses in Cambodia. Most are places that also house some sort of business, in addition to bedrooms and a kitchen for eating.  Then there are quite a number of people who sleep in their tuk tuks.  Finally, there are a lot of people who simple string a hammock up and sleep in the hammock. 

10. Fancy Cars:  I have never seen so many Range Rovers.  I also saw more Rolls Royce in two weeks in Cambodia than I have in ten years in Los Angeles.  Lexus are everywhere.  Cambodia is an extremely poor country so it does not seem to make sense.  But the government is raft with corruption...  Need I say more?

Bonus Shocker:  One final thing was the prevalence of technology next to extreme poverty.  iPhone where everywhere.  It was not uncommon to see an absolute dump of a house with a satellite dish on top.  

Cambodia is land full of surprises.  It is a country of odd juxtapositions.  It is a country of great beauty that is, at the same time, full of trash.  It is an odd place. What surprised me most, however, was how much it stole my heart.

  

Tim's Perspective: Prayer Works

As of today, we have been here in Cambodia one week.  I cannot imagine this week going any better. We have so much to be thankful for.

I have been telling the team from our very first training meeting that the success of this trip depends on prayer.  We have all been praying for this trip for close to nine months.  I told the team that they each needed to recruit at least five people, who were NOT family members, to pray for them.  We started our trip with a prayer meeting send-off at our church.

The things we have been worried about have been non-issues.  Mary was worried about having a bathroom attached to her room; she has a great bathroom just steps from her bed.  Marissa was worried about access to good clean water; AIM has a cooler full of bottled water that we can access at any time.  As the leader of the trip, I was mostly worried about team unity and about the team member's spiritual vitality; the team has been great, has treated each other with love and respect, and have been strong spiritually.  We were all worried about getting sick; no one has had any issues.

At the end of the first week, we have so much to be thankful for.  Our God clearly went before us.  And we clearly feel like He is with us.

I believe there is one prayer that God always answers positively.  Everyday, we have begun the day with the prayer that asks God to "further His kindgom and that He be glorified."  This trip is not about us. Or even the Cambodians.  Or Agape International.  This trip is about God, His kingdom being furthered and about He being glorified.

I truly believe that our trip has been so successful because it has been completely bathed in prayer.  This is because He gets the credit and the glory when He answers our prayers.

And He deserves all the honor, and all the praise, and all the glory.  God has taken care of us.  God has blessed us.  God has used us.  

Many of you have been praying for us.  We thank you and ask that you continue to do so.  We want only one thing, and that is that He be glorified.  And we give Him honor when He has answered our prayers so powerfully.

Much love from Cambodia,

Tim

Some of the prayer cards from the prayer meeting send-off at church: