Coconut anyone?

As I have said before...I love lists. Any kind of list, really. To-do lists. Pro/Con lists. "How-I-love-thee-let-me-count-the-ways" lists. Funny statement lists. Lists about lists (apparently). You get the idea. I love the order and logic that has to go into them. I have a long running mental list of all the things that will never get old or normal to see here in Cambodia. This is one of them:

If I ever want a coconut, I go for the convenience of a market. Mostly because I do not have the ability to climb a tree like this. If there were branches, I could maybe give it a shot. But my Cambodian friends have this almost innate ability to shimmy up a palm tree with the greatest of ease in order to retrieve coconuts.

Pretty amazing in my book.

Respond With Love...

The floods in central and northern Cambodia, the worst the country has seen in more than a decade, made an already fragile economy even more strained. In the affected provinces, homes were lost...crops were lost...lives were lost. During a prayer time in the Harvesters Class, God began to prompt our hearts to respond in some way. The students asked "What can we do to help?" The answer from God's heart came very clearly...first, He said "I am going and I want you to come with Me." And second, the phrase "Provision come with obedience." We felt like we were supposed to purchase rice to distribute to an affected village, but weren't sure how that would all look...where the village would be, where the finances to purchase the rice would come from, how we would be able to do this. But we knew this was what we were asked to do. So we said "yes" and moved forward in our plans. We stood on the words God spoke and watched as the provision came! Thanks to some very generous donations, in a very short period of time, we were able to purchase 1000 kilograms (2200 pounds) of rice, as well as some other very necessary cooking basics. We prepared 100 packages of food for the people of a small village in the Kampong Thom Province. And as we distributed the food to the families, we prayed and asked God to bless them and reveal Himself to them in a big way.

Below you will find many pictures from the weekend. In the first one, you will notice the water line around the bottom of the building, showing how high the water came...and stayed for a long time. Further down, you will see the mass amounts of rice, an example of the contents of one "package" of food, dramas, testimonies, as well as a picture of me sharing a message with the community before the distribution (and yes, I am wearing a light hoodie because it was actually cold on Sunday morning...I was so happy!)











We spoke love in words as we shared testimonies and the Sunday morning message. We spoke love as we shared the Good News of God's love and Christ's sacrifice for them. We spoke love through action as we blessed them with this food. And as we served and loved this community, many people took notice of what was happening...and who was doing these things. The village chief commented to us that he was amazed to see this group of young people that came really did care about the village and at the work that Christians do to serve and help.

Please continue to pray for those in the affected areas, especially in this village, as they move forward after this flood. Pray for miraculous provision and crops to flourish in a way that will only be able to be credited to the goodness of God. Pray for those that received the words and actions of love that the Harvesters allowed to be poured through them.

One Year...

December 4, 2010...one year ago today...

That was the day that Cambodia officially became home. I stepped off the plane and it was instant. This wasn't an outreach. This wasn't short term.

This was LIFE.

And during this past year, I have...
...woken up 365 times in a place that I love.
...been challenged and stretched in ways I didn't know were possible...or always think were "necessary."
...been misunderstood a great deal...and done a lot of misunderstanding myself.
...been hot and sweaty.
...learned to look forward to showers with cold water...and rejoice when I get hot water.
...laughed until tears were streaming and my cheeks hurt more times than I can count.
...been unable to answer grammar questions for my English students more than they like.
...accepted helmet hair as a normal thing.
...attended a lot of meetings that I only understand 50% of what happens.
...developed an addiction to iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk.
...painted church buildings.
...waited patiently (and not so patiently too) for the power to come back on.
...killed flies with rubber bands.
...paused for my sentences to be translated when I speak and teach (so I actually feel like I talk less here).
...shared love.
...missed my family and friends.
...prayed...A LOT.
...eaten more rice than I thought I could.
...learned to eat more (and dare I say...like) vegetables.
...been visited by friends from the States.
...struggled through Khmer language lessons to read, write and speak.
...cried.
...seen motos transporting a limitless variety of items including people, chickens, pigs, refrigerators, and bicycles.
...had my heart broken for the things that break God's heart.
...taken LOTS of pictures.
...fed kids in the villages.
...had my calling confirmed time and time again.
...led others into the presence of God.
...followed with a desire to learn.
...helped with rice planting.
...been stared at, talked about, wondered about on pretty much a daily basis.
...squeegeed the flooded floor of my bedroom after a particularly hard rain storm.
...been to the beach 4 times.
...made new friends that bring such joy to my heart.
..."accidentally" climbed a mountain and rocks while wearing flip flops...and have the scars to prove it.
...given in to the temptation and spoken improper, broken English.
...lived well.
...had NO doubt I am supposed to be here in Cambodia.

I could go on and on and on. Suffice it to say, this year has been full. Refining. Rewarding.

And I am looking forward to what this next year (and hopefully many more after that) will hold for me. Thanks to all of you who have prayed, supported and love me to walk out this adventure. You are a part of my testimony.

Village Adventures...

Cambodia LOVES holidays and festivals (and rightfully so). I am in full support of celebrating with them as I also get the days off work. The most recent holiday is called the Water Festival and I went to Preah Romeas village to spend a couple days. I absolutely love going to Sophea's village! He is the pastor that I work with and I also live with him and his family. I have spent a lot of time with him and his wife, their kids, his brothers and sisters, cousins, mom, aunts and uncles and they are definitely my Khmer family. This time, I also invited another foreigner friend, Eileen, to go with me and see what kind of adventure we could have. Here are some of the things that were on our agenda for the two days:

Fishing (by net and by pole)...
This was purely a spectator activity for me. For the nighttime fishing, I did go down to the water for a few minutes, but there were only two poles, the bait smelled less than appealing (they were using a very potent fermented fish), and we found that experimenting with my camera in the dark and using the flash light was more entertaining to us.

Volleyball...
Once again this was a spectator sport as they are extremely intense about their volleyball, but it's fun to watch.

Various rubber band games...
I must say they are quite creative around here to come up with these games. They make a "super rubber band" by twisting around 5 or 6 together and then you shoot it at a pile of individual rubber bands to see how many you can knock out of the stack. And trust me when I say you don't want to be shot with the super rubber band...it hurts.

I also learned how to kill flies with a rubber band. Yes, you read that correctly. I felt like Mr. Miagi with his chopsticks (still a impressive feat I must say)...when the flies land on something, you skillfully hold the rubber band in a certain way and snap them quickly. It became a quick obsession of ours (Eileen and I) since we had always grown up with the convenience of a fly swatter (which, I gotta say, I still prefer).

Cow rescue...
When we were at the volleyball court, a number of my friends began running back towards the house to see something about a cow stuck in the mud. That was all I caught. So we went to see what all the commotion was about (and I was a little confused as to how a cow gets stuck in the mud quite honestly). We quickly found out that it was NOT mud, but a large hole that had been dug for a septic system of some sort. The cow had managed to walk across the hole and have it's hind legs fall in. This was quite the event for the day. Everyone came with their ideas of how to free the cow...the winning method was a few old tires roped together, strapped underneath the poor animal, and then putting a long stick through the top to give them a way to pull him out. But do you know what happens with you actually get the cow out? The "water" that the cow is stuck in goes flying everywhere and everyone knew what kind of "water" this was. I felt very bad for the guy off to the side that got doused in this "water." Again, I stood safely on the other side of the wall as a curious spectator.
Nature Discovery...
This is the biggest snail I have ever seen. I am not sure what was so funny at that moment, but whatever it was gave me quite a laugh. These are also the biggest ants.
They are huge! And I can tell you from experience, they hurt when they bite you! And just as a side note, they catch and stir fry these bad boys. I very politely declined when I was offered them in the past.

Comparing leg white-ness...
This is a contest that I will always win. It is amusing though...

Photo shoot with massive construction items...
This thing made me laugh...partly because the brand is "thinh phat" which is an oxymoron if you pronounce the 'ph' like an 'f' as we do in America. I have no recollection of skipping, but that certainly looks like what I am doing in this picture. It is what it is.

Harvest Spectators...
{Are you noticing a theme with the things that I "did" ...lots of spectating going on...} We went for a walk through the village and came across some people bringing a portion of their harvest. We stopped and talked with them a while and took a few pictures before continuing on our way...
And these pictures hardly do justice to trying to convey the beauty and peace that is this land...this goes down in my books as a GREAT holiday.

Say and Do...

There are very few days that I can say I haven't learned something..and most of the time it comes in unexpected ways. I feel constantly amazed by the lessons that come my way if I keep myself in a attitude to listen. On the last outreach with the Harvesters, we went to the Takeo province to serve and love and I learned a lot from my students and the people in the village.

When we got there on Saturday morning, we split into two groups to walk through the village and talk with people. At one of the houses where my group stopped, there was a man building a chicken house. A couple of the students offered to come back later in the afternoon to help him and we then went on our way. At another house, we met and spoke for a long time with the village chief and a leader from the pagoda. This conversation was very enlightening for me as the temple leader was sharing with us what he knew about Christians. He said that other religions and groups say that the love and care about others, but then they don't do anything. He went on to say that Christians are the only people he has seen who say they love and actually have actions to back up their words.

At this very time, unbeknownst to me, the other group of students was on the opposite side of the village building a small house for a little old grandpa to live in. It was the first house they stopped at and when they saw them busy building, the students asked my co-leader if they could stay and help. So for two hours, they labored to build a little house addition.
When our free time came in the afternoon, the couple students from my group were heading back to help with the chicken house. I assumed that it was only those two going and the others were staying back to rest. I decided to go with and as we were walking, I turned around to just take a note of which ones came along. It took me back as I saw that all eight students were there. All eight of them sacrificed their rest time to love this family and put action to their words. The fact that it was hottest part of the day and that we were going to have a full evening didn't matter. They wanted to serve.


I unfortunately don't have an "after" picture because we did not actually finish putting together the whole thing, but here is a photo of my students with the family.
Neither of the building projects were planned or initiated by us leaders, but came from the overflow of the hearts of the students. That says something great about this group and I am so happy for the privilege of working with them!

On Sunday morning, I was given the opportunity to share with the adults......while the students were outside leading a children's program with games and songs and skits.




After we finished the program, we brought all the kids inside (about 100) and fed them lunch...
This is one of those pictures that touches my heart and couldn't have been posed. I happen to look over as Seyla, one of my students, had knelt down to talk to one of the kids and the gentleness in his heart as he did this impacted me a great deal.
I love that these young people are being the love of Christ in action. We will be going on our next outreach in a couple of weeks and I am looking forward to seeing what more I will have the chance to learn.

Where did I go?

Here something you should know: Good intentions do NOT write blogs.

I was doing so well at updating my blog, writing and posting pictures on a frequent and regular basis. Then life got really busy and while I would think about the things that I wanted to post, the fact is that they never made it past that. Here is one of those "thoughts" that has be floating around in my head for a while...


::HARVESTERS::
I would like to introduce you to the newest group...
{L-R...Dara, Leakena, Makara, Bahn, Seyha, Makara, Seyla, Pagna (pronounced Pahn-nya), Heather and Socheata}

The new term started on October 4. As we were preparing for this class, there was something stirring in my heart...and the best way I can come up with to describe it is "great expectation." (Sorry Dickens, Miss Havisham, Pip and Estella, this is not a shout out to you.) I have this feeling of excitement and expectation for what is going to happen in this group. One of my favorite things about teaching and leading is getting to watch people see God bigger than they did before. And in these few short weeks, that has already happened. We will be going on our first mission trip in a week and half (November 5 & 6). I will post more details about this later.

About a month ago, before this new class started, we had a Harvesters Gathering. This was a lunch for all the "alumni" and included the two classes from 2011 as well as the inaugural group from 2008/09. As I looked around the room at these 25 beautiful people, my heart felt full. The relationships that I have been able to build with each of them have been such a blessing to me. I feel as if my love for them has been poured out directly from God's heart to mine. I've seen them grow and develop, struggle and pursue God's heart, live and love well. At that moment, I saw in them a loud and clear affirmation to my calling to live here in Cambodia.

We had a time to do some processing and sharing of where each one of them is now after being a part of this class and how they are walking out in the callings on their lives. One question I asked was about how they were challenged through the Harvesters...by God, by the leaders and by themselves. As I listened to a few of them answer, one of them stood out in bold letters. He shared that while he listened and learned the lessons that we as the leaders taught on God's character, on hearing His voice, on living out the design God has made us with, he was also busy watching us...were we practicing what we were speaking? Were we living out the things that we taught or were they just words that we were asking them to do but not for ourselves? He said that he was challenged by us because he saw us teaching out of a place of experience....it was not just theory, but it was our lives. He saw it possible to do these things and live this way because he saw us doing just that. I was so humbled by this statement. It was a reminder to me that others watch me...not just because I am a foreigner, but because I speak truth and they want to see if I live out that same truth. I want my life to point to Jesus. I want my actions, my words, my thoughts all to bring Him glory. I want others to see Him shining through me.

Best Laid Plans...

They may not celebrate Thanksgiving and Easter and Fourth of July in Cambodia, but there is certainly not a lack of holidays here. The most recent one was called P'chum Bun and I happily took a few days off for a little rest and relaxation. My friend, Eileen, and I planned on going to one of the northern provinces, but at the last minute, we had to change our location because of mass flooding throughout different areas of Cambodia. It is still a little unclear to me if we really would have been affected by the water, but it all got so complicated and messy (it's a long story) that we decided to go to the good ol' standard backup vacation spot...the coast.

I love escaping the busy-ness of the city, enjoying lazy days, sitting and reading, eating food right on the beach (...and it's cheap!), having great conversations with an amazing friend...what more could I ask for? Well, for starters, I would have preferred less rain. {Sidenote...it is the rainy season here in Cambodia. This means that on the average day, it rains for a couple hours in the middle of the afternoon. Let me assure you though, it is certainly not restricted to this schedule and it unfortunately rained a good portion of the few days we were there. And if you throw a typhoon off the coast of the Philippines in the mix, there is bound to be a bit more rain than normal.}

I am not necessarily a beach enthusiast, which is surprising since I am from Florida, but then again not so much since I manage to get sunburnt in record time. Even in the shade...it's a talent. This beach is very different from those that I always went to growing up, though. Lining the beach are papasan chairs, lounge chairs, umbrellas and restaurants, women walking around selling food, others offering massages, manicures and pedicures.
If you follow my blog, you know that I am doing a photography project, taking a picture each day that says something about what I did, what I saw, what I experienced that day. I have realized that many of those pictures are food. Sometimes out of the curiosity in my mind when it comes to food differences between the States and Cambodia. Sometimes out of pure delight because I love that particular food so much. My picture for Wednesday was a combination of both those reasons...

If there is a name for these wonderful little treats, I don't know what it is. I do know, however, that they are GOOD! They are little balls made from rice flour with a palm sugar filling, topped with shaved coconut and a brown sugar/sesame seed mixture. Every where we went, we were on the look out for them. We were so excited when we found the first lady, we paid her initial asking price and didn't even bat an eye really. The second day, as I went to purchase some, the seller was quoting a price to another customer...in Khmer. So when I asked how much they were and was given a price that was almost twice as expensive more than the guy two seconds before, I quickly (and gladly) used my Khmer skills to tell her that I wanted them for the same price the other guy got. I said it all with a smile, of course...and she smiled too as she realized that I spoke the language enough to get the local price instead of the foreigner price (which are never the same!)...but trust me, even not knowing, I would have paid the higher price for them. Yes, they are that good!

My language "skills" (I use that term loosely) did not kick in a couple hours later, though. It comes and goes apparently. I am going to be heading back to this same beach in a week and a half for a youth camp with English students from our church. It will be very similar to the one we took back in January (to read about it, click here). We tend to rent a section of beach to play games and eat dinner at, but we didn't have the phone number for the people that have their shop there. Eileen and I went to that same place and saw signs posted on the trees, all with the same two phone numbers, so figured these were for the owners.I came back to work yesterday feeling like I was going to be very helpful with this phone number that I got so we could plan and organize ahead of time (as I very much enjoy doing). I passed my phone to a co-leader and he had a strange look on his face and then showed it to someone else. There was a very confused silence in the room for a second...which was broken by laughter. This was not the phone number for the owners, but for a locksmith. You know, in case you lock your keys in your car at the beach. I don't understand why it was posted on all the trees, as if you would need to see it 10 times in one location. But there it was. After they told me what it said, then of course I could read and understand it, but only after everyone had a good laugh. But no one is going to be laughing if we lock our keys in the van next week!!

NOT from a can...

I would consider myself a fairly "on the ball" type of person and I very much value common sense...but sometimes, the reality of things catch me off guard. There are things -- maybe conveniences is a better word -- that I am so accustomed to and when I faced with them in another light, it feels foolishly foreign. Case in point...

Food products that I usually buy in a can in the States don't originally come in a can.

Yes, I am aware this statement may sound a bit ridiculous and may also elicit the "duh" response in a few readers. I had this first "crazy realization" last Christmas as I made pumpkin pie and couldn't just run to the grocery store and buy a can of pumpkin. You can read about that here.

This time my revelation came in the form of a coconut...or rather the milk from coconut to be exact. I know that there is water inside the coconut. I know the "meat" inside the coconut is dried and shredded. But I have never thought about the milk that I have always so conveniently bought in the form of a can. On Saturday, though, I learned the non-can process:


Step one: Shave coconut meat and put in a bowl
Step two: Put a little water in the bowl, squeeze the coconut shavings and place said shavings in another bowl.
Step three: Strain out left over shavings.
Step four: Repeat process until you have successfully gotten all the milk out of the shavings.
Step five (optional): Smile and try not to get frustrated as Heather documents this process with her camera rather than actually helping. Heather appreciates the smiles ;-)


This is Phansy (pronounced Pan-see). She was in the Harvester class at the beginning of 2011 and is an amazing cook. All of this coconut milk process was to make a delicious curry that we ate on Sunday. Making the curry took much longer and was so much more involved than I ever imagined. I was so blessed by Ma Phansy and all her help to make our meal possible!