Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Everytime I drive down my street after dark I see them.  Girls. For sale.  Every night.  It's painful.  I don't like that my kids are growing up in a place where this is normal.  Where men are expected to go there as a normal part of their day.  I would rather shut my eyes, or look at the restaurant across the street.  We sometimes drive down a different, less convenient road so that we can avoid seeing them.

In America, we kept to the nice areas where we didn't see this stuff.  It was easy to get where we wanted to go and not even think about the hard lives that other people live.  It's not so easy here.  I can't avoid seeing the dirty kids playing in the alley across from my house.  I can't ignore the place just a few doors down from us that sells people.  When I go to kid's club I can't help but notice that many of the kids are still wearing the same dirty tattered clothes that I've seen so many times before.  Poverty (and the pain, frustration and poor decisions that often go along with it) is very real here.

Jesus didn't avoid these people, He loved them.  That is my goal, to love them like He did.  To show them how much He loves them.  I hope the kids I interact with see that love.  I'm glad that God has moved me to a part of the world that has forced me to open my eyes.  I pray that I can be used by God here and wherever else he sends me in this world. 

Holding on

My dad is awesome.  He was a great father, and he is an even better grandfather.  He would always try to get my sisters and I a gift for Christmas. It was usually something strange, but when I was in jr. high he brought home a giant Toblerone candy bar for each of us.  That was the first time I ate one, and I still remember how good it was.  I've had a few more since then, and it always brings back good memories.


A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving our family drove 2 1/2 hours to the city with a grocery store so that we could have a turkey.  It was not an easy trip, but we managed to make it there and brought home the bird.  While we were at the store we looked around to see what else they had that we don't have here in our town.  I saw Toblerone.  They had a big one and small ones.  I went for the big one.  The problem is that it is still sitting in the fridge.  I'm afraid that if I eat it I won't be able to get another one.  Every day when I open the fridge I see it, I want to eat it, but I don't want it to be gone.  Silly me.

  I'm supposed to be a missionary.  I'm supposed to listen when Jesus says, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or whether you will be able to get another Toblerone bar."  Luke 12:25 loosely translated.

 I do worry about those things.  I hold on to things that don't really matter, because inside of me I believe they do matter.  This week my goal is to open the candy bar and share it with my family.   Luke 12:34 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  I want to pay more attention to where I'm storing my treasure, and what I really consider treasures. 

Merry Christmas from Cambodia!

 


   We are ready to welcome Christmas day.  Cookies, pies, presents, and stockings have all been prepped and are waiting for the big day. 

     We are in a place where most people have no clue what Christmas is really about.  Does that make it harder to focus on the Christ child or easier?  For me, maybe both.  It is harder to find things that are Christmas themed.  No big Christmas sales for gift shopping.  The weather is far from wintery. 

     On the upside we don't have constant reminders of how many shopping days are left. We don't have to plow people over in line to get that one thing that we have to buy. 


     We have the privilege of celebrating and telling the story of Christ's birth with people who have never heard it before.  We don't have a lot of gifts to give them.  It's not going to be a big American Christmas.  But we will make sure they know about the humble stable and the shepherds who went to visit the baby that first night.  I hope we can show them that the excitement is about Emmanuel, God with us.

      We are glad to be here.  Happy that our family is together.  Some of our traditions will be easy to repeat here, others won't happen this year.  We are doing things differently, and trying to make sure that in both the old and in the new we remember the big event that we are celebrating.

    

Family

The reason the word family is first in my blog name is because I want to give my family first priority.  As a parent, I am given the job of making sure that my kids learn everything they need to know.  It is a big job, and it gets harder as they grow.  I sometimes think I am not doing enough to make sure they are learning the really important stuff but then God gives me something like what happened yesterday. 

I was in bed with a stomach, ummm, problem (not an uncommon part of life in this part of the world.)  Benjamin and Georgia came to say goodnight to me and we had this conversation:

Benjamin - Momma, is your tummy better?

Me - Not yet, but you can pray for me when you go to bed. 

Benjamin - I can pray for you right now!

And he did.  My five year old boy and his three year old sister held my hands and prayed for my tummy to feel better.  It was so sweet, and I was close to tears.  That is what I want my children to do.  That is what I want them to know; that they can go to God at anytime, not just the usual times.  I am so proud of my little guy and I pray that he keeps this knowledge as he grows.  My tummy isn't all the way better yet, but my heart is feeling great today. 

Note to a lizard

Dear Mr. Chincha,

I would like to tell you how very much I appreciate the time you put in to eating disposing of any bugs who wander into my bathroom.  This job alone is enough to make me not mind when you run up the wall next to me when I am occupied there.  It would be nice if you could let me know before you run, but I understand that our language barrier makes this difficult.

There is just one thing that troubles me about the time we spend together. When I am in the shower, I would much appreciate it if you would not run about on the ceiling.  It feels a little creepy, and I am afraid that you are planning to jump on my head when I am not watching.  My preference is that you either stay still in one place, or better yet, stay in one of your favorite hiding places - behind the toilet perhaps?

Thank you for taking the time to read this note.

Your friend and housemate,
Diane


P.S.  I apologize for the incident with the door that claimed your tail.  It was unfortunate, but I am happy to see that you are already growing a new one.  

Sacrifice?

A few weeks ago a short term missionary said to me, "Thank you for all the sacrifices you are making to be here."  And I had to stop and think... What sacrifices am I really making?

 Compared to Jesus - NOTHING.

I look around me and I see a nice home, time to spend teaching my children, air conditioning and the money it takes to keep it running.  Our physical needs are well taken care of.  We have no problem getting our kids what they need.  We don't have to deprive ourselves or our children of things that we want just for fun. 


It took a while but I finally started to see things that we are sacrificing.  We only have 5 TV channels in a language we understand.  There are more bugs -shiver- here than we are used to having around.  It's hot and muggy.  We sweat - a lot!  Our children tend to get stinky because they sweat, too.  We can't pick up the phone and call our families because if we are awake, there is a good chance that they are asleep. But all these things are pretty minor.  Irritating sometimes, but in the long run not worth getting upset about.

Admittedly, we have days when we let the molehills turn into mountains.  We get tired of being hot and sticky.  We wish we could give our kids a bath... in a bathtub.  But we always come back to why we are here.

1 Peter 3:18 (NIV)
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

THAT is sacrifice.  Shopping in a smelly market instead of shopping at a supermarket?  Not so much.  So I think I'll stick to my story of not really making sacrifices to be here.  God seems to want us here right now, so here we are.  I can't do a fraction of what He has done, so I will just do my best to show Him to the people around me here.  

Short term

    Before I was a parent, I was the fun aunt.  I would color and play games with my nieces and nephews.   I often had someone hanging on my back or riding on my shoulders.  It was not uncommon for me to spin someone around or flip them upside-down.  I was really fun.  As a parent, I can't do that everyday.  We do play like that sometimes, but not often.  The reality is that I don't have the energy to do that all the time.  With other people's kids I knew that I was not responsible for taking care of them everyday, I could play and have fun and give them back to their parents.

  I feel like in missions we are now the parents.  We used to be short term mission people. We would go somewhere, do as much as we could to help in a short time and then go home back to our regular lives.  We were fun, we had a lot of energy and we were able to do a lot in a short time.  Now we have to be able to live here in the heat and humidity all year long.  Working so hard that we are exhausted at the end of everyday is just not an option.  We have to be able to maintain life here with our family while doing mission work.  It's hard.  The heat and humidity alone are enough to make us tired at the beginning of the day.  There is a limited supply of energy, and we have to use it wisely. 

     Short term mission teams are like fun the fun aunt or uncle.  They come in with lots of energy, excited to work in our country and with the people here.  Short term teams come and play with our Kid's Club kids.  They run and jump and spend more time with them than we can often do.  It's fun for them, and fun for our kids.  They see how the kids live, and learn about their lives.  They can take that home with them and tell their friends about the needs here.  The more people that know about the needs here the better. 

   We were recently able to spend about 10 days with a couple of short term teams.  It was a huge blessing to us.  It was hard because most days were filled with activities clinics and outreaches and it was hard for us to keep up.  I realized that they could keep up that schedule because they were going to go home and be able to have normal again soon.  It was good for us to let them share their energy and excitement about the mission with us.  We were blessed to have their encouragement. Thank you short term mission groups!