Cambodia trip - part Buen

I went around the house yesterday for a little while without shoes – just to remind myself of Cambodia where it is impolite to wear your shoes inside. My feet got crumbs and water on them and yes, the memories of constantly dirty feet returned. In the hot weather, the cool tile floors felt nice. But here in East TN where the weather is beginning to be cooler, I needed to put my shoes back on.
We spent at least part of each day in prayer for the nation of Cambodia. A few days we took time to split into smaller teams and walk different ways to our favorite restaurant and spend time praying as we walked. Many of us found ourselves praying for the leaders and business owners in Kampot, knowing that they carry great influence and if won to Christ would be a tremendous asset in helping the young church there spread the Gospel.
We went to the market one day and walked through the stalls in an attitude of prayer. Of course, we also had to get in just a little bit of trouble along the way. Sarah, Katherine and I were caught with our shoes on in one of the shops. Evidently one must also remove her shoes when in a tiled store in the market. From then on, we were careful not to step on the tile.
Another day we traveled to a church building that is no longer in use to pray and ask the Lord if this building could be a blessing to the new church Vutha would plant in Kampot (at this writing, the new church had its first meeting last Sunday morning! So they will meet in homes or wherever until the Lord says otherwise). This particular building was somewhat of a contradiction as it had a Christian cross painted above the doorway, while it also had symbols of Buddhism in other decorative places. Were the previous tenants confused? We were unsure.
We took two different days to spend time praying at the schools the children are attending. The first school was for K-8th grade, where most of the children attend. The second school is for 9th – 12th grade (the one mentioned in an earlier post). Both schools are Buddhist. Therefore, all the Heritage House children will face a challenge to their faith each day in that they will be swimming upstream against the religion of their nation. Again, please remember to pray for them as often as possible.
We also found ourselves praying for the children on other prayer walks through the city – and not just Heritage House’s children, but all the children in the city. I don’t know how many times I saw a young person or a young child out alone – riding a bike or in the street and my heart ached for them. Maybe you’re thinking they’re safe enough, but Cambodia is not really a safe place for children as they are often mistreated in ways I’d rather not go into. The Lord must bring justice to the young in Cambodia as they are crying out in their hearts for love and freedom!
I know that freedom will come through the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it spreads in the cities and towns of Cambodia.
As it stands now, there is a missions team consisting of a young couple and their daughter, dorm moms, and several children ages 2 to 18 who will be faithful to cry out for freedom in their city.
Please join them in their cry!

I'm the Boy You Never Had?!

I'll get back to my Cambodia posts soon...
The above statement was made by my 15 (16 as of November 1st) year old daughter who just Saturday night broke either her hand or the base of her pinky finger.
Keep in mind that I do have a son. But she claims he's the "nerdy" type who works on computers, reads, etc. She's not wrong - although since he's been in college he's been diving into volleyball and swing dancing ;).
Katherine - Roonie - has always been a bit of a tomboy - although I hate that term, because she's a graceful, beautiful young lady! But if there was a boy around who was trying to out-run or out-wrestle her, she'd rise to the challenge. She is VERY competitive physically and will not tolerate being "beat" by anyone.
So when she came home Saturday night from a youth group outreach with a broken limb (yet to fully be determined - we'll know later this afternoon after visiting the orthopedic clinic), that was her comment to my sighing about yet another doctor visit.
I'm the boy you never had, Mom.
Yea.
This is not the first of her injuries (or her sister Abigail's). Both girls dance so there is always the strained this, the sprained that, the sore this, the damaged that.
But Katherine was quick to announce (and too proudly say) - My first break!! She thinks a broken limb is exciting. I'm convinced that's because she doesn't have to pay the unending medical bills...
Oh - and a little bit of a "mom" ramble..
Both doctor's offices hinted at my inability to be a good parent because I had not taken her to the ER Saturday night. "Both", meaning my primary care physician's office and the orthopedic office. You mean you didn't take her to the ER late Saturday night and sit for hours only to pay 4 to 5 times what it will cost you today? Call me a bad parent, then! ;) We do have her hand/finger splinted with the good old-fashioned tongue depresser / medical tape. What do you think they did in the days before hospitals and ER's?

Cambodia trip - part By

But before we began our physical work. we walked the property and prayed over every inch, both inside and out. We also spent some time worshipping (me on a broken keyboard with no pedal, and Shane (Kristen's brother) on a barely tuned guitar). Thankfully, it was not the lack of proper instruments that the Lord heard, but the voices and hearts lifted in praise to Him.
We were setting the property apart for the work of the Kingdom of God. We were "taking ground" in the Spirit. The Heritage House children and staff are being sent out as evangelists in Kampot and prayer coverage is a must. God's Word is clear in that no man comes to faith unless he is drawn by the Father (yes, that includes women too ;). John 6:44 says this: No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him...
There is no drawing without the prayers of the saints. God has chosen the preaching of the Gospel as the means for salvation, and the preaching of the Gospel (the good news of Jesus Christ) goes hand in hand with prayer.
Therefore, will you please pray for Heritage House's staff and children that they will be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ in Kampot?

Once prayer and worship concluded, we got to work scrubbing bathrooms. Sarah and I tackled the office bathroom, while Heather tackled bathroom #2, and Srey #3. What a "fun" job! But it was honestly a blessing to see the bathrooms clean and ready to be used by our team and all of Heritage House.
Then off to the paint store to pick out colors. I remembered what some experts have said about choosing no more than 3 colors, so went with that in mind. Yes, Lewis allowed me to pick the colors! That was a truly fun part of my job. When we got to the paint store, and please do not imagine your local Lowe's or Home Depot here. No. The paint store was a household type store - very small and jam-packed with everything imaginable. The store employee produced a color chart, which surprised me. I wasn't sure how we'd go about choosing colors. So I chose three colors - one a brick red (although more on the brown side), one a sage green, and one a wheat yellow. They went to the back to get our paint. I naively thought they were going to mix colors, but no. They had premixed paint in 5 gallon containers. They were out of two of the colors I had chosen and there was no ordering the color in. We would have to choose two more colors. So I looked at the one color we did have and tried to pick two that would still coordinate in tone and depth. We finally settled upon 3 colors that were in stock and proceeded to pick out paint brushes, rollers, etc. Oh, how I wish we had brought our own brushes! They had the "stubbiest" brushes that I knew would be difficult for cutting in. But we determined to do the best with what we had.
How were we to know that when we opened the yellow paint, it would look more like sheetrock mud? David Butler, our hardest working man on the team, was very puzzled by the look of the paint. We tried to read the bucket - no luck. Were we supposed to add water? Was this some strange Cambodian paint? We finally decided that we had no choice but to water it down if we wanted it to stay on our brushes and rollers. So someone rigged up a drill with a mixer paddle so that we could have ready-to-use paint.
We started with the office and moved into the common areas as they would be yellow. The ladies' rooms would all be done in the reddish brown, and the boys' rooms would be the green, which ended up more of a dark sea-foam green than a sage. At one point, I had the idea that it would be nice to do some contrasting walls in some of the common rooms. So two walls in the kitchen, and one in the living area are/will be red. I say "will be" because some roof repairs will need to be done before that will be finished by the Heritage House staff. We also contrasted the upper wall vents in red. The home took on a dramatic change in appearance!

At this point, all of our days were running together, so forgive me that I do not remember which day it was when the rest of the staff and children arrived! But oh were the children precious! They were shy at first, but it didn't take long for them to smile and greet the team. Some helped them move in and get their beds set up, while others continued to clean and paint. The home quickly filled with the laughter and chatter of little voices. Everyone was excited!
Sarah and I led worship with everyone one night, but by far it was more precious when we gathered with Heritage House on other nights and two of the teens led prayer and worship. It was a joy to see them stepping into leadership roles and taking ownership of their roles in the body of Christ. Therefore, none of us minded giving up places of leadership in deference to the children.

Cambodia trip - part Bee

Our trip began at 4:00 Tuesday morning, September 9th.
We left for the airport in Knoxville and arrived at 5:30 only to find out our plane had been delayed by around 2 hours.
Already we were concerned about making connecting flights in Atlanta and Los Angeles.
We checked our luggage through to Bangkok, Thailand and waited for our flight.
Our trip was uneventful until we reached L.A where we literally had to run from the domestic flight area to the international flight area to catch our plane to Seoul, Korea. We made it - just minutes before they were taking off. We even had Asiana Air employees running with us to make sure we would get to the gate.
Since we were so late in getting on board, our previous group seats had been given away and we were scattered throughout the plane sitting by total strangers - mostly Asian.
I ended up beside a Korean lady who spoke no English - we spent lots of time saying "thank you" to each other for various reasons, and smiling :)
On the other side of me - yes, I ended up in a middle seat for the 13 hour flight - was a Vietnamese man who said he was a Christian, but after listening to his conversation and the things that interested him, I doubt he was really a Christian.
I made several trips to the back of the plane (I was near the front) to visit with Katherine and to stretch my legs. I watched two or three movies - there was no sleeping on the plane for me!
What a relief it was to arrive in Seoul, Korea and then to move on to Thailand where we stayed overnight at the Sara Inn - a real bed with some real sleep!
Unfortunately, due to us having to run to catch our flight in LA, our checked luggage didn't make it onto our flight. So we spent the night in Thailand with what each of us had in our carry-on bags, which was not much, but enough to get by on.
We were positive that all of you were praying when we discovered that we would indeed receive our luggage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia the next day and would not have to go without it the entire two weeks.
Two of the men on our team stayed in Phnom Penh to get our luggage while the rest of us got into the back of a pick-up truck to make the 3 hour trip to Kampot. Yes, 3 hours in the back of a pick-up truck... there were bench seats on either side of the truck bed that we sat on - and bounced on. There were times when we literally left our seats with the bumping around on the dirt road. We mostly laughed each time this happened, further evidence of the grace of God with us. We sang songs and prayed and some even slept. Sarah and Katherine were at the very back of the bed and I was afraid they'd both be bounced out when they fell asleep! But we lost no one.
We arrived in Kampot at about 2:00 a.m. Cambodia time - which is 11 hours ahead of Eastern time. We checked into our motel sans luggage and went straight to sleep. The rooms were nice - they had a.c., two double beds, a fan, and a bathroom. The bathroom was unusual. It was a tiled room with a shower head, sink and toilet all combined. There was a drain by the shower head.
Each morning, we were awakened by the Buddhists going to the pagoda next door to make offerings. They chanted as the sun rose.

On our first morning in Kampot, we found a nice restaurant that I mentioned in my previous e-mail - the Coco House. I had pancakes with banana and honey almost every morning. The pancakes were more like thick crepes, but very good.
After breakfast, we headed to Heritage House's new home. The orphanage is housed in the private residence of a widow who agreed to rent to them. When you enter the property by a sliding, decorative, metal gate, you see a beautiful yard with shade trees and flowers. Granted, the yard did require some cleaning up, but was still very nice. The house has a covered front porch, on which we left our shoes as it is impolite to wear shoes in Cambodian homes. The house is huge - and was very dirty. When one first enters, there is a very large living area with two bedrooms off to the left. The first bedroom was prepared as an office, the second was prepared for the head dorm mom. Both bedrooms had their own bathrooms, which were very dirty and had to be scrubbed from top to bottom. After going through the doorway from the living area, one was in a large hall area with a bedroom on either side. The bedroom with bathroom to the left was for another dorm mom. The bedroom to the right was one of the boys' dorm rooms - with no bathroom.
Continuing forward, one came upon the kitchen/dining area, which stretched very wide from left to right. To the right was a door that went out to a tiled area where much of the food prep was done, as well as cleaning of dishes. This was an outdoor area. To the left was plenty of space for the long tables that the children and staff sat at for meals. Straight ahead was another boys' dorm room with bath area.
Continuing left past the dining area were the door to what appeared to be a garage area, and the stairs to the second level. On the second level was a loft area, and two more bedrooms - one with and one without a bathroom. These two rooms were for a dorm mom, and for all the girls. There is also a covered porch area upstairs.
After touring the house, we knew we had lots of work ahead and that we needed to work as quickly as we could to be ready before the children arrived in two days.

Cambodia trip - part Moi

For anyone wanting to know part of how our trip went, here is a copy of what I sent to our church e-mail groups - we arrived home at about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday.

We're finally home - well, we got home last night at about 11:45 after dropping Jonathan off at his apartment.
We stayed up until almost 1:00 getting a shower, eating something, telling about our trip, etc.
Then I was pretty much falling asleep as Jeff prayed over me before we went to sleep.
As I was in the shower last night, I really got a sense in the Spirit that the enemy was very angry with our team and with the Khmer Christians still in Cambodia, and that he was going to try to interrupt our sleep with nightmares. So I prayed and asked Jeff to also pray.
This morning, I told Katherine about it, and she told me that she had had the same thoughts and had also prayed before going to sleep.
That tells me that contrary to the negativity I was hearing from the enemy in my heart at times on the trip, we were having great effect in Cambodia!
In particular, as we prayed at the high school that three of the Heritage House children will attend (Coy, Marie, and Srey) there was great spiritual darkness that met us. I was hearing in my heart a cry that said our prayers would have no effect there - that we were wasting our time and if anything would only barely scratch the surface of what was needed for that area. As we wrestled on in prayer, Lewis told us that it was very likely that the campus had previously been a concentration/torture camp during the reign of the Khmer Rouge - a place of horrible atrocities in the past. It was evident that the spiritual climate over the school grounds was very dark. So we prayed, prophesied, sang, and spoke prophetically over that area in great measure and I believe we had GREAT effect - contrary to the voice of the enemy.
With that said, please remember to pray for the three who will attend classes there - they will need the Lord's protection and boldness. They may well be the only Christians in the school and they will certainly face difficulty as the whole school is required to make prayers to Buddha as part of their training. Please pray for the wisdom of the Lord for them also.
I feel that our greatest effect was in prayer, though I know that Vutha (pronounced Woota) also told Lewis that our team unity and the way we worked together was a great example for the Khmer children and dorm moms. Vutha said that he has been trying to train the children and moms to work together to accomplish their work, but that they are used to doing only their own work and not helping one another. He said that our working together made an excellent example of what he's been trying to teach.
Our team consisted of those who are used to leading within their own churches. What we found was that each person was willing to submit to one another to accomplish the different tasks. No one fought for leadership; everyone "fought" to simply serve.
The city of Kampot (pronounced as it sounds - Cam-pot) is a great city. It's small - at least in comparison to the very busy and very loud city of Phnom Penh (pronounced P-nom Pen). We walked everywhere we went - except when it was raining and the Heritage House truck was available. It rained a little every day, but was by no means a wash-out. The people are friendly, kind, and gentle. Oh, but their driving! :) They are quite daring in their driving - horns honking - moving in all areas of the road. One sees bicycles, motos, cars, and people walking everywhere. We did see a few wrecks, but no one was seriously injured - thankfully.
We ate most meals at the Coco House - a sweet little restaurant in the city. Three ladies were there to serve us each day - they lived above the restaurant as is common for business owners in the area. They greeted us each morning with beautiful smiles. Srey Moi (meaning Girl One - no kidding!) was our main server and she spoke great English. We were very sad when we had to tell them we would be leaving the next day to begin our trip home. But we were able to buy a Bible for each of the ladies and give them an additional $20 tip each to thank them for their hospitality while we were there. Also Lewis asked Vutha to let them know that if they had any questions about the book or about Christianity, they could talk with Pheakedey (I'm not sure I spelled that correctly, but it is pronounced Peck-a-dye, who is Vutha's wife). Already there is an opportunity for friendship evangelism!
I know I have much more to tell, but honestly, I'm so tired ;)
I slept 12 hours last night and could already head to bed again and it's only 9:00.
So, I will leave you all for now.
I promise to send out more information over the next few days and would love to answer any questions anyone may have.
Thank you to everyone who prayed over our trip - we were effective because your prayers were effective!
With love in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Maria

p.s. please continue to pray for our team as we adjust to being back in an eastern time zone. It's very hard to adjust back! And Katherine is sick with a stuffy nose, cough, stomach upset, 104 fever. Our doctor friend from church will come by to check on her after work today.