Things that make you go hmmm...

Things that make you go hmm… Spiders in Where???

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A few nights ago, I made my way to the outhouse behind our house. As I often do, I looked around to see if any unwanted visitors had made their way inside. This time, my looking was not in vain… A rather large spider about the size of my hand was on the wall. Its death must have upset its family, because the next morning three of its close companions awaited me inside… But hopefully their fate will help spread the word that the outhouse is not a good place for them to live…

Other posts in this series:

Things that make you go hmm… An Unwelcome Visitor

Things that make you go hmm… Geckos Dueling

General

New Year… New Location

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It is hard to believe, but a couple weeks ago was already the second Christmas that I have celebrated in Cambodia.  I took the final exam for my language right before Christmas, so I have now completed the year long Khmer for foreigners program at the Institute of Foreign Languages. I am thankful that God gave me endurance to finish the program. I am encouraged by the progress in learning Khmer that I have made in my time here so far, and I hopefully can continue to progress in my ability to communicate.

The New Year began with my next step in ministry here. I moved from Phnom Penh to a village in Kampot province. Missionary Esther and some of her students have been teaching English and Bible stories to a group of elementary and high school students at the village for the past several months on Saturdays and Sundays. The attached picture is of my new house. My roommate compared staying in the village to a never ending camping trip. With no running water and electricity, I think that it is a good comparison. But we do have a generator that we can run for a couple hours per day to recharge electronics and during the evening, we can use lights powered from a battery. It seems every time we use a computer or throw a football outside, a group of curious villagers gather to watch us.

I’ll be spending my time in several different ways: I’ll be continuing to study Khmer, preaching a few times per month at a church plant 7 km away in Missionary Esther’s village, gathering information about the village where I am living, and teaching English to Khmer grade school students.

Please pray for the following:

-adjusting to life in the village.

-that God would use my preaching at the church plant to convert and conform His people.

-that I would be able to form relationships with my neighbors and students.

-that God would give me a heart of compassion for the villagers that Ilive around that have no hope without the gospel.

General

Vision…

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Our team has been working on revising our core values, mission statement, and vision statement. Below is the new edition:

CORE VALUES
1. We value Christ Centered Churches
• We believe in planting reformed covenantal churches
2. We value Discipleship
• We believe in training national elders and deacons to lead church planting movements.
• We believe in training nationals to support church planting movements.
3. We value Word and Deed ministry
• We believe all our word and deed ministries are distinct and inseparable.
• We believe all our word and deed ministries should be strongly connected to the local church.
VISION STATEMENT
To see vital, Christ-centered churches worshipping the true God, transforming Cambodia, and spreading God’s kingdom throughout the world.
“Vital” – We envision Spirit-led, thriving churches engaged inwardly and outwardly for the cause of Christ.
“Christ-centered” – Christ is the center of all aspects of the church including the justification, sanctification, and glorification of believers. He is the center of our message – we preach Christ and him crucified.
“Churches” – a church is defined as a body of at least ten (10)* believing non-missionary adults, gathering regularly for worship which has a pastor. These churches should hold to or work toward the reformed distinctives, including preaching the Word, administering the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and exercising church discipline. Our goal would be to have self-sustaining, self-governing, and self-propagating churches.
“Worshipping the true God” – As the people of God gather together we will focus our
attention toward God with all our heart, mind, and soul, simply revering, and honoring God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
“Transforming” – Our vision is that as the lives of the members of these churches are transformed by the gospel, the society will also be transformed. We believe the gospel affects all areas of our lives – our families, our work, and our roles in society.
“Spreading God’s kingdom” – We seek to establish churches that from the beginning have a heart for planting daughter churches. We desire to see our churches sending and supporting missionaries to neighboring countries and even to the end of the earth. We envision establishing churches that heed Christ’s Great Commission out of a heart of gratitude, worship and obedience.
* MTW defines a church plant as having at least 10 believing non-missionary adults with an identified church planter meeting regularly for worship with the intention of becoming a self-sufficient, self-governing, self-propagating church.
MISSION STATEMENT
Called by God to seek and equip disciples who in turn make other disciples, leading to a Christ-Centered Church Planting Movement.

General

Why Language Learning?

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If I can get by in English, then why shouldn’t I? Is it worth the investment? Doesn’t it take too long? A recent article in MTW’s InVision Newsletter really summarized well some of these points of tension that missionaries today face in language learning, and the urgency for missionaries to still invest in leaning language well:

Imagine for a moment that the face of missions suddenly becomes dominated by Chinese believers who speak Mandarin. This is in fact not too difficult to imagine given the patterns we are currently seeing. Like the explosion of Western missionaries that took place after WWII, Chinese missionaries have spread out all over the world. Now imagine that because of their ethnocentricity they don’t learn other languages but insist that others learn Mandarin and Chinese characters if they want to be discipled. Seems ridiculous? Not really. This is in fact what has happened, and what continues to evolve as English-speaking missionaries seek to advance the kingdom through networks of English speakers worldwide. Read More>>

General

Another Small Step

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It is hard to believe that I have already been in Cambodia for 13 months now. I guess I can start counting in years now. Life is fairly hectic with taking the fourth language class at the Institute of Foreign Languages and going down to the village every other weekend. Plans are coming together well for the three month stay in the village which will start in January. A couple weeks ago I preached part of a sermon in Khmer. I think more than anything it reminded me of how far I have to go in language learning. Mixing the normal nervousness of public speaking with still stumbling along in a new language is quite the experience. Below are a few photos from the village:

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Waiting to preach.

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Teaching English at the village where we plan to live.

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The house that will be my new home for a few months.

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General

And the Rain Came…

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… and it kept on coming. It is the rainy season here, so it is not shocking that it was raining. However, it rained almost all day for several days last week, and the flooding was as bad as I have seen in the year that I have been here. The Cambodia Daily reported that the flooding caused about $70 million in damage. The drainage system in the city is just not built to handle a large volume of water, so water covered some of the streets for several days. Below are a few pictures from the flooding in the city.

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This man was undeterred by water, but at least he decided to roll up his pants first.

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I thought about driving though it too, but logic prevailed and I went a different way.

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General

A View from the Village

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bok bok bok… or cluck cluck cluck… take your pick on how you want to write out the noise a chicken makes. It is a noise that I have heard plenty of in my life, but recently I have realized that it is not a very soothing sound to try to fall asleep to. My roommate and I have started spending a couple weekends a month in countryside, and the lean-to that we sleep in is just a few yards away from the chicken house. I seem to wake up during the night countless times to the sound of the chickens. On the bright side, at least they caused me to wake up in time to see this beautiful sunrise…

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Things Along the Road...

Things Along the Road… Traffic Accidents

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100_0041A few months ago, my roommate made a traffic video to give a taste of how the streets are here in Phnom Penh. In someways, I have become more accustomed to the traffic patterns here. But having seen a couple of semi-trailer and moto collisions over the past few weeks, I have been reminded again of the danger of driving here. Some say that there is a pattern to the chaos, and I agree somewhat. However, semi-trailers and motos just don’t mix well on the same road no matter what the pattern may be.

I was recently reading an article entitled “Driving Tips for Cambodian Streets” by James Cottle (World Team), and was amazed by how accurate his description of driving here is. Below are his thoughts on the difference in the mind-set of Western drivers versus the mind-set of Cambodian drivers:

  1. Westerners say, “A road is a place of order where people follow and lead in an effort to get to where they want to go.” In Cambodia the attitude follows a thought more like, “The road is an area (dirt, paved or grassy area) that I can use however I see fit in order to be first in getting to where I want to go.
  2. Westerners say, “This is my side of the road, that is your side.” In Cambodia the lanes are places to be used no matter if there is a yellow divider line or not. Motos will frequently drive along the side of the road going the wrong way looking for an opening to cross to the correct side.
  3. Westerners say, “I have my highway rights.” In Cambodia you have the right to move over as three vehicles come your way “in your lane.” Hanging on to your highway rights just to defy the new culture of Cambodia is a sure way to get into an accident because the other quickly-approaching car is thinking you are going to get out of his way.
  4. Westerners say, “Just obey the signs, signal lights, and speed limits.” In Cambodia most of this traffic paraphernalia is suggestive only. You will not want to depend on others to place the same value on these things as you do.
  5. Westerners say, “This doesn’t make any sense at all.” In Cambodia many of the driving methods are ludicrous but some of them make perfect sense once you begin to understand the system. Unfortunately it will take time (maybe a few years) before you really begin to comprehend the reason behind the madness.
  6. Westerners say, “Thanks for letting me pull out in front of you; I’ll hurry and get out of your way.” In Cambodia take your time even when someone has shown a kind gesture, don’t worry about holding them up. They understand the cost of quickly crossing lanes.

Previous posts in this series:
Things Along the Road… Money Changers
Things Along the Road… Fried Crickets

Things that make you go hmmm...

Things that make you go hmm… An Unwelcome Visitor

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Living in a foreign land, I have tried to be friendly. But some guests just aren’t welcome. Such was the case with this rather large centipede that we found crawling across our living room floor. It seems like when it rains that lots of little, and sometimes not so little, crawling things try to seek shelter in our home. We have many geckos that aren’t too bothersome, and I figure that they help eat bugs. However, I wasn’t for sure if this centipede had much value, so its stay in our house didn’t last long…

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