Well, it's been a great and interesting week here in Cambodia. The first part of the week (Monday-Wednesday) was a big Buddhist holiday here, so a lot of people left Phnom Penh to visit their home villages. Most things were closed, and the ministry we have been working with, Children at Risk, also took the holiday off. So we were left to figure out what Jesus wanted us to do for those three days. We ended up spending most mornings at the hotel doing devotions, worshipping, praying, and reading Scripture. In the afternoons we prayed over the city a lot and did a little street evangelism on Wednesday.
On Monday, we prayer walked at Independence Monument, praying over Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the next generation of Cambodians. On Tuesday we did a Jericho walk around the neighborhood that lies between the place where we're staying and YWAM base. That means we walked around it 7 times, praying, singing, or reading Scripture, and generally inviting God in and breaking down any strongholds of the enemy that have been built up there. On Wednesday we had a real outreach adventure as we went out to pray and do street evangelism on the waterfront. As we were leaving, we heard that a lot of roads were blocked off in that part of town, so we would have to be dropped of at Independence Monument which is a ways away from the waterfront. As we approached the monument, we started seeing heaps of people, all wearing white shirts and wearing small black ribbons. We assumed it had something to do with Buddhist holiday that was going on, although we heard something about the King, too. Only later did we finally realize that the king had died, and that evening was his funeral. In the meantime, we walked to the waterfront to street evangelize. Seth, Melanie, and I ended up spending most of our time talking to the child street vendors, who know english pretty well so we can communicate pretty easily. We tried our best just to show them the love of Christ, and told them a little about Jesus. Afterward, as we were walking back to the monument to get picked up, we realized there were even more people and it was really hard to cross the roads. We ended up getting hemmed in and stuck waiting for the funeral procession to come by. We didn't complain though, because it was a really interesting cultural experience - how many people can say they've been to a king's funeral?
On Thursday, we were back with Children at Risk, helping with the adult cell group before the guys went off to play soccer and the girls stayed and taught the children a dance. We have so much fun with those kids!
On Friday, we worshipped up on the roof of the hotel and again prayed over the city. In the afternoon we had drama class - we wrote a skit about being a good student (for Children at Risk on Monday) and learned a skit about David and Goliath for Sunday.
Last night we also learned a bit about what we will be doing for the rest of our time here! Next weekend some time we will actually be leaving Phnom Penh to go to Svay Rieng, which is southeast of here really close to the Vietnam border. We're not sure exactly what the ministry does that we will be working with, but it will be an awesome adventure, I'm sure! Then we will come back to Phnom Penh and work with Children at Risk again for our last couple of weeks. Then it's off to New Zealand again. I'm sure the time will fly by.
Anyway, that's a really quick rundown of the past week! I hope you are all wonderful!
Our God is greater,
Dan
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia!
Well, I don't have much time at all, but I thought I'd let you all know that we're still alive and going strong. We made it to Cambodia without a hitch, and immediately starting adjusting to all the differences that we've seen here. For one, it's pretty much always hot (which is the opposite of the New Zealand winter that we left), but Jesus has really blessed our team by allowing us to stay in a place with air conditioning for a couple weeks because the nearby YWAM base is full of students! I think maybe He knew our Canadians would need a little time to adjust to the constant heat and humidity. For us Southerners, though, it's not so bad - and at least we're not here in April or May (when it gets up to 90s or 100 Fahrenheit + humidity).
The city of Phnom Penh is full of people, with lots and lots of traffic (especially motorcycles), street vendors, stores, restaurants, and people. There is a lot of Western influence to be seen, especially in the stores. Just a couple blocks away is the City Mall, which has an essentially Western supermarket, coffee shop, and fast food restaurants. It is really a city of contrasts, with rich right next to poor, developed with developing, Western with Eastern. You see Lexuses on the road (lots of them) right next to motorcycles and bicycles. Our team gets around using tuk tuks, which are motorcycles pulling little covered "wagons" with seats. They're essentially open-air taxis, and they're really fun to ride on.
We've been learning about the culture and religious beliefs here and have been so struck by the lack of hope in the Buddhism/Animism/Ancestor Worship that most people practice out of family tradition. This is a place that desperately needs Jesus, and a place that is thirsty for Him. So far our ministry has involved a lot of prayer, either in the place where we're staying or walking around the city, coming up against the strongholds and darkness that have covered this place by inviting in the Holy Spirit. We have also begun working with Children at Risk, which is a YWAM-affiliated ministry which seeks to invest in children and families around their community center outside the city. We will be singing songs, giving testimonies and lessons, doing skits, playing games, and generally showing the children (and adults) that they have value with us and especially with God. It's a really amazing ministry.
On Monday, we went to S-21 and the Killing Fields, which are a couple of the places where the Khmer Rouge carried out the genocide of many Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. S-21 was a prison and interrogation facility, while the Choeung Ek killing fields were where many executions took place. During the Khmer Rouge regime, the leaders (such as Pol Pot) wanted to immediately turn the country back to an agrarian communist society without any modern technology, currency, education, private property, etc. When they took power, they immediately moved everyone out of the cities and put people to work on farms with long hours and very little food. All political opponents and all educated teachers, doctors, lawyers, and professionals they also killed. Over the 4 years before the Vietnamese came and took control, more than 2 million people were killed or died of starvation (almost 30% of the country's population). It was an atrocity on the scale of the Holocaust, yet almost no one - at least in the US - knows about it. Maybe that's because the US bombing of parts of Cambodia during the Vietnam War may have partly led up to it. I didn't really know anything about it before I came to New Zealand. It's something that people all over the world need to remember, and something Christians need to pray for - there is still so much healing that needs to happen. At the S-21 site, several of us signed a guest book and were disheartened by the absence of Christianity in the comments. This is where we need to be because we bring hope and just our presence and prayers let the Holy Spirit into a place. Pray that Christians will invade places like this all over the world, bringing the hope of Christ!
So of course that was really sobering, and God apparently knew that we could use some encouragement. So on Wednesday we went to visit the Daughters of Cambodia store, cafe, and spa in the city here, and wow, were we encouraged! All of us felt the Holy Spirit in that place, and the saw the genuine joy in the faces of the women working there. As I mentioned before, Daughters is a ministry which gives women a way out of the sex industry by providing high-level vocational training, jobs, and support to women who want to leave prostitution. Of all the women who come to Daughters, 98% never go back into prostitution! Their approach really does work, and I'm pretty convinced that much of their success is due to the inclusion of Jesus in the ministry. The food at the cafe was wonderful, and everything in the shop was beautiful and well made. I went a little crazy buying gifts for people at home because it was all so nice, and for such a good cause. Our time there encouraged all of us so much!
Anyway, I'm running out of time, but as you can see we're all doing pretty well here. No one has really gotten sick yet, which is definitely by God's blessing! I'm sure we have many more adventures in store, which we'll tell you about when we have a chance. Thank you for your prayers!
Love,
Dan
The city of Phnom Penh is full of people, with lots and lots of traffic (especially motorcycles), street vendors, stores, restaurants, and people. There is a lot of Western influence to be seen, especially in the stores. Just a couple blocks away is the City Mall, which has an essentially Western supermarket, coffee shop, and fast food restaurants. It is really a city of contrasts, with rich right next to poor, developed with developing, Western with Eastern. You see Lexuses on the road (lots of them) right next to motorcycles and bicycles. Our team gets around using tuk tuks, which are motorcycles pulling little covered "wagons" with seats. They're essentially open-air taxis, and they're really fun to ride on.
We've been learning about the culture and religious beliefs here and have been so struck by the lack of hope in the Buddhism/Animism/Ancestor Worship that most people practice out of family tradition. This is a place that desperately needs Jesus, and a place that is thirsty for Him. So far our ministry has involved a lot of prayer, either in the place where we're staying or walking around the city, coming up against the strongholds and darkness that have covered this place by inviting in the Holy Spirit. We have also begun working with Children at Risk, which is a YWAM-affiliated ministry which seeks to invest in children and families around their community center outside the city. We will be singing songs, giving testimonies and lessons, doing skits, playing games, and generally showing the children (and adults) that they have value with us and especially with God. It's a really amazing ministry.
On Monday, we went to S-21 and the Killing Fields, which are a couple of the places where the Khmer Rouge carried out the genocide of many Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. S-21 was a prison and interrogation facility, while the Choeung Ek killing fields were where many executions took place. During the Khmer Rouge regime, the leaders (such as Pol Pot) wanted to immediately turn the country back to an agrarian communist society without any modern technology, currency, education, private property, etc. When they took power, they immediately moved everyone out of the cities and put people to work on farms with long hours and very little food. All political opponents and all educated teachers, doctors, lawyers, and professionals they also killed. Over the 4 years before the Vietnamese came and took control, more than 2 million people were killed or died of starvation (almost 30% of the country's population). It was an atrocity on the scale of the Holocaust, yet almost no one - at least in the US - knows about it. Maybe that's because the US bombing of parts of Cambodia during the Vietnam War may have partly led up to it. I didn't really know anything about it before I came to New Zealand. It's something that people all over the world need to remember, and something Christians need to pray for - there is still so much healing that needs to happen. At the S-21 site, several of us signed a guest book and were disheartened by the absence of Christianity in the comments. This is where we need to be because we bring hope and just our presence and prayers let the Holy Spirit into a place. Pray that Christians will invade places like this all over the world, bringing the hope of Christ!
So of course that was really sobering, and God apparently knew that we could use some encouragement. So on Wednesday we went to visit the Daughters of Cambodia store, cafe, and spa in the city here, and wow, were we encouraged! All of us felt the Holy Spirit in that place, and the saw the genuine joy in the faces of the women working there. As I mentioned before, Daughters is a ministry which gives women a way out of the sex industry by providing high-level vocational training, jobs, and support to women who want to leave prostitution. Of all the women who come to Daughters, 98% never go back into prostitution! Their approach really does work, and I'm pretty convinced that much of their success is due to the inclusion of Jesus in the ministry. The food at the cafe was wonderful, and everything in the shop was beautiful and well made. I went a little crazy buying gifts for people at home because it was all so nice, and for such a good cause. Our time there encouraged all of us so much!
Anyway, I'm running out of time, but as you can see we're all doing pretty well here. No one has really gotten sick yet, which is definitely by God's blessing! I'm sure we have many more adventures in store, which we'll tell you about when we have a chance. Thank you for your prayers!
Love,
Dan
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Without Any Pocket Handkerchiefs
Well, here we are. We've had 12 weeks of awesomeness here on the New Zealand countryside, learning new things, visiting new places, meeting new challenges, confronting new problems, and understanding all kinds of new things about God. Not that it was always easy. We were constantly given the opportunity and encouraged to step out in faith, surrender ourselves to God, and let Him perform the open heart surgery that we really needed. Stepping out, surrendering, and getting heart surgery are not easy things to do, but once you do them, the end result is so good. Hmmm...what an apt name for this place: the Land of New Zeal. I think all of us are full of a renewed vigor and zeal after our time here. And now we're so ready to go to Cambodia!!
In a few hours at 7:30pm, we'll be leaving our base in Tauranga to drive the airport in Auckland which is about 3 hours away. Then we'll get on a plane at 1:15am and fly 11 hours to get to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After a short layover, we'll have a 2 hour flight over to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. If all goes well, we'll arrive in Cambodia at 10:20 on Friday morning local time (11:20pm Thursday in the Eastern US). When we get there, we will spend a day in orientation learning about Cambodian history, culture, and religion. Over the next few days, we will be going to church, spending time doing prayer and intercession, and visiting places associated with the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia in the 1970s. We also get to visit Daughters of Cambodia (click for more info), an organization which rescues women from prostitution by giving them fair and honest jobs. Then, on Wednesday, we will start work with Children-at-risk Ministries. Children-at-Risk does all kinds of things to help children and families who are struggling just to have enough to live. They help children get education, food, and health care, they help parents get vocational training and start small businesses so they can be self-sufficient, and they tell everyone about Jesus. We'll be working with Children-at-Risk for four days a week for three weeks - I'm not sure what all we will be doing, but I'm sure it will be great. Besides that, we don't know what else we'll be doing, but we'll try our best to update you as we find out, in spite of our limited access to the internet.
Before we go, I want to throw out a few thank-you shout outs. First, thank you to all who have prayed for us - your prayers worked! Thank you to everyone who gave money to help us get here! Thank you to the Vine of the Mountains church for your amazing generosity in helping to provide our friend Melanie's outreach fees! Thank you to the Snyder, Blanton, and Grady families for sending us mail!! And last but definitely not least, a huge thank you to Joe and Martha Blanton for the RIDICULOUS amount of goodies that they sent over the course of our time here!!!
As I got ready to leave, I thought of Bilbo Baggins, who was swept off on a sudden and unexpected adventure which he was only partly willing to go on and hardly prepared for. In fact, he was so unprepared that he ran out of his hobbit hole without most of what he needed, including his cloak and his pocket handkerchiefs. Fortunately, I knew this adventure was coming and have spent these twelve weeks preparing for it, although when I looked for handkerchiefs (aka bandanas) this morning at the store I couldn't find any. Still, even though I am leaving without any pocket handkerchiefs, I am not leaving unprepared. Indeed, I can be swept off at a moment's notice without any chance of leaving behind what I need the most, because the Holy Spirit is in me and God is everywhere. If I have no resources with which to do ministry, I still have words that I can pray to spread love and truth and make great things happen. Plus, our God is One who provides. So with or without pocket handkerchiefs, I'm ready to go.
In a few hours at 7:30pm, we'll be leaving our base in Tauranga to drive the airport in Auckland which is about 3 hours away. Then we'll get on a plane at 1:15am and fly 11 hours to get to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After a short layover, we'll have a 2 hour flight over to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. If all goes well, we'll arrive in Cambodia at 10:20 on Friday morning local time (11:20pm Thursday in the Eastern US). When we get there, we will spend a day in orientation learning about Cambodian history, culture, and religion. Over the next few days, we will be going to church, spending time doing prayer and intercession, and visiting places associated with the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia in the 1970s. We also get to visit Daughters of Cambodia (click for more info), an organization which rescues women from prostitution by giving them fair and honest jobs. Then, on Wednesday, we will start work with Children-at-risk Ministries. Children-at-Risk does all kinds of things to help children and families who are struggling just to have enough to live. They help children get education, food, and health care, they help parents get vocational training and start small businesses so they can be self-sufficient, and they tell everyone about Jesus. We'll be working with Children-at-Risk for four days a week for three weeks - I'm not sure what all we will be doing, but I'm sure it will be great. Besides that, we don't know what else we'll be doing, but we'll try our best to update you as we find out, in spite of our limited access to the internet.
Before we go, I want to throw out a few thank-you shout outs. First, thank you to all who have prayed for us - your prayers worked! Thank you to everyone who gave money to help us get here! Thank you to the Vine of the Mountains church for your amazing generosity in helping to provide our friend Melanie's outreach fees! Thank you to the Snyder, Blanton, and Grady families for sending us mail!! And last but definitely not least, a huge thank you to Joe and Martha Blanton for the RIDICULOUS amount of goodies that they sent over the course of our time here!!!
As I got ready to leave, I thought of Bilbo Baggins, who was swept off on a sudden and unexpected adventure which he was only partly willing to go on and hardly prepared for. In fact, he was so unprepared that he ran out of his hobbit hole without most of what he needed, including his cloak and his pocket handkerchiefs. Fortunately, I knew this adventure was coming and have spent these twelve weeks preparing for it, although when I looked for handkerchiefs (aka bandanas) this morning at the store I couldn't find any. Still, even though I am leaving without any pocket handkerchiefs, I am not leaving unprepared. Indeed, I can be swept off at a moment's notice without any chance of leaving behind what I need the most, because the Holy Spirit is in me and God is everywhere. If I have no resources with which to do ministry, I still have words that I can pray to spread love and truth and make great things happen. Plus, our God is One who provides. So with or without pocket handkerchiefs, I'm ready to go.
 |
| There goes Bilbo... |
~Dan
Quite ready for another adventure
Well, here we are, at the end of the beginning. The lecture phase is complete, and our Justice team is leaving the base in approximately 6 hours. We'll drive 3ish hours to Auckland, then catch our flight to Cambodia (with a layover in Malaysia). It is hard to describe the emotions that we are all feeling at this point. We are excited for the next step, the next chapter in our story, but we are also feeling the pang of closing a very joyful chapter. Leaving behind friends is always hard, and grieving the loss of a exciting time in life is not bad. Sometimes grieving is good.
But enough about sadness! Our team is SO excited to go to Cambodia! After so much talk and preparation, we are all ready to simply be there. As Micah 6.8 says, we are ready to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. We are ready to start bringing the kingdom to earth in Cambodia.
As you may expect, Dan and I will have very limited interweb access while in Camboadia. Unfortunately, blog post may be infrequent or nonexest. However, what this means is that in 7 weeks when we return, there will be a influx of long posts about our time in Camobia. In other words, brace yourselves.
At this point, I just want to thank everyone who helped get us here. It is so incredibly humbling to see how blessed I am. I feel honoured to be in the position I am, and I can't express my gratefulness enough. Thanks for being Jesus to me.
Fare Thee Well!
Seth
But enough about sadness! Our team is SO excited to go to Cambodia! After so much talk and preparation, we are all ready to simply be there. As Micah 6.8 says, we are ready to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. We are ready to start bringing the kingdom to earth in Cambodia.
As you may expect, Dan and I will have very limited interweb access while in Camboadia. Unfortunately, blog post may be infrequent or nonexest. However, what this means is that in 7 weeks when we return, there will be a influx of long posts about our time in Camobia. In other words, brace yourselves.
At this point, I just want to thank everyone who helped get us here. It is so incredibly humbling to see how blessed I am. I feel honoured to be in the position I am, and I can't express my gratefulness enough. Thanks for being Jesus to me.
Fare Thee Well!
Seth
Monday, October 1, 2012
Not all those who wander are lost
Hello friends!
I’m here to give ya’ll a little update on our
weekend (last weekend, yes I’m a week behind. But last weekend was especially
epic, so you won’t want to miss out).
On Friday we had lectures
as normal. Come Friday night however, we
had a good old-fashioned worship night down in the Valley. The worship guys
hauled a generator and all the equipment down to a platform in Gideon’s Valley.
They’re hard work was rewarded with a fantastic night of worship. Even thought
the weather was chilly, everyone got warmed up after dancing and singing for a
couple hours.
The next morning everyone
woke up early, ready for the day trip to Cathedral Cove. Only a couple hours
away, Cathedral Cove lies to the north of Tauranga, up the Coromandel Peninsula.
Besides being a ridiculously beautiful stretch of beach, scenes from the second
Narnia film, “Prince Caspian” were filmed here. The beach is incredible, and
rock formations and caves abound. Several brave souls even went for a swim and
body surf in frigid water (okay, I was one of them. How many chances do you get to swim in Narnian
water?) The weather was perfect when we arrived, and only turned foul as we
left, sprinkling us with a bit of rain.
 |
| Trees! |
And because our day had
not been awesome enough, we finished it by watching “Back To The Future”. Days like this just make me love my life.
Sunday dawned bright and
early for Dan and I, as we did our slot in the chapel. To be honest, even
though our time in the prayer chapel the night before had been sweet, I really
didn’t want to get up. It took me a bit to actually wake up but once I did,
prayer started to flow. Its amazing how quickly time passes when you are
actively praying.
After praying, Dan and I
went to church at Mosaic for the last time. It was sad to realize that I
wouldn’t be coming back to this church again, but I am so thankful for all that
church has offered me. They have really blessed us with the messages that they
have spoken, and the community and hospitality they have shown us.
Now we come to perhaps the most interesting
part of this weekend. Several weeks back we we’re given the opportunity to
participate in a flash mob in Tauranga. The city has done a lot of work along
the waterfront, and they we’re holding a festival to celebrate the completion
of the work. The group “Do Something Tauranga” planned a flash mob for this
event, to draw attention to their organization, in a effort to get people
involved in the city. Somehow Marine Reach was contacted, and the rest is
history. A local dance group taught us the moves to the Korean pop song “Gangnam
Style”. Everyone had a blast, even my rhythmically challenged self!
Here we are! You can see Dan toward the front of the group, and I jump in the back for the second chorus!
Needless to say, I was wiped out after this weekend. But I can check two items of my bucket list: visit Narnia, and participate in a flash mob.
Needless to say, I was wiped out after this weekend. But I can check two items of my bucket list: visit Narnia, and participate in a flash mob.
At this point, I also want
to fill you all in on what God is speaking to me about my life after DTS. Several weeks back, I was asked about coming
back in January to staff the next DTS. Up until that point, I hadn’t put much
thought into staying. My plans had always been to come back home. Thus started
a long train of thought that has culminated only recently. As MUCH as I want to
come back in January to staff, I feel Jesus is guiding me back to the United
States. I feel like He wants me to go home. This was a ridiculously tough pill
to swallow. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE home. I love my family, my friends, and
my church. And I really love those Blue Ridge Mountains. But after living a
exciting Holy Spirit filled, Jesus following life halfway around the world with
friends who are now as close as family, going back home to work or college
seemed…well, rather unexciting. My eyes have been opened to just how BIG this
word is, but in the same way, I also realize that literally anything can happen
when you trust Jesus. It is precisely because I know that ANYTHING is possible,
that simply going home is difficult.
Being a silly guy, I even
tried to get myself psyched up about staffing; essentially trying to trick
myself into believe Jesus wanted me to stay. But when I finally got brutally
honest with myself, the decision was clear. When I looked at the reasons I
wanted to stay, they were pretty selfish. I love the people here, the
community. I love the place itself, the base, the Valley, and New Zealand as a
whole. And finally, I just really love this lifestyle. It seems a bit more an
extrovert than I though, and I feed off of the lifestyle here at the base. I
found that all of these things where the main draw to coming back. Not that
Jesus doesn’t want me to enjoy my life; I know He does. But when I make an idol
of things, and place them above Jesus himself, I have taken a dramatic step
away from community with God.
So, all that to say, as of
now, I’m coming back home for good in December. As to what I could be doing at home, I don't have the slightest idea. God has given me a peace about
going home, which is totally a supernatural thing. I feel good about it, even
though its not what I wanted to do. That doesn’t make sense in the natural
world, but I know that God provides the peace which passes beyond comprehension.
Having said all that, I am well aware that we
have 2 months of outreach left to go. No telling what in the world Jesus could
tell me in that time. There is always the possibility of coming back to staff
later (if I was sure my priorities were straight), as they run a Justice school
in July of 2013. If God puts it on your heart to pray for me, I would
appreciate clarity and confirmation on my decisions about the future.
Being a Tolkien geek, I of course relate everything back to LotR. In this situation however, the quote I think of really does fit, and actually encourages and comforts me:
All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost;The old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by frost.
Not all those who wander are lost. This applies pretty darn well to where I'm at. I may be wandering, but I'm sure as goodness not lost.
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