Cambodia Team

Wrecked

2009-05-20T09:57:00.000-04:00

I loved Kenya and I want to go back some day. Cambodia affected me in a much different way. The country reached down in my soul and stirred up a lot of questions and misgivings about America, or more specifically Atlanta. I just don’t want to be here. I don’t know where I want to be anymore. For so long I’ve talked about southern California. Maybe that’s where I’m supposed to be? What about Cambodia or even Singapore?

What I’m experiencing is normal. It happened when I returned from Kenya last summer. You come back to America and see the wealth, complacency, entitlement and the fast pace of life. You feel out of place and wonder if those around you realize how good they have it living here. You feel like you need to make big changes in your life. After a while you slip quietly into your old routines. You live by the clock and your calendar. Then you lose it, that feeling of grace and appreciation. Nobody wants to lose it but it happens.

Our Cambodia team leader John talked a lot about purpose leading up to the trip. He said, “Once you’ve tasted purpose it’s hard to go back to meaningless living,” or something like that. I’m experiencing that too. The past few days I’ve been fixing my laptop. It works. My phone is broken but I’ll fix it today. It seems so pointless. I love movies but I can’t justify sitting on my butt for 2 hours when I could be doing something else. Reading the news reinforces the soul-sucking purpose of the media.

Don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer. I know I’m painting with wide strokes and meandering a bit. This is where I am. I’m confused. The main thing keeping me in Atlanta is the house my brother and I have. It’s for sale. I’m not leaving until it’s sold. I want to be free and clear from any responsibilities here when/if I leave. The other things keeping me here are my friends and my extraordinary church.

I am reminded of the main point in Experiencing God, which is join God where He is already working. Is God working here in Atlanta? Absolutely. That doesn’t mean that my heart isn’t yearning for something new, for a new adventure. However, have I finished what God has planned for me in Atlanta? I don’t know. I guess no since this house is not sold.

Am I being a little hard on America? Maybe. Am I coming down from a mountain top experience? Most definitely. I’ve tasted purpose though. I worked with Cambodian orphans who taught me more about love and affection in 5 days than in my entire life. I will see them again. There is no doubt I want to return to Battambang and experience the love of Christ.

Psalm 40 (NPM Version)

2009-05-16T04:22:00.013-04:00

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire...

He set my feet upon a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Party Like a Rock Star!!!

2009-05-14T16:05:00.025-04:00

On Thursday, we finished laying the pavers, skimming the borders and sweeping the sand into the gaps. It was exhausting work, but we were treated very well. The kids are so amazing; they treat us like rock stars – clinging to us, carrying our bags for us, wiping our faces with cold towels, bringing us water, giving us massages, handing us our shoes…even putting them on our feet for us like worshiping servants. We’re celebrities here! Now I know what it feels like to be a rock star!

We had planned to give Rataa (orphanage director) one of our laptop computers with copies of all of our photos so the kids would have a permanent collection of all the photos we took…I mean they took! Thursday morning, he suggested we have a “picture party” that night with popcorn & soda and watch a slideshow of the previous week’s work. Unfortunately, none of our laptops had an HDMI output nor did we have an RCA adapter with us. So, John asked Rataa to drive us to the computer store to see if we could find one. When John mentioned this, Rataa said he'd also like to price a few computers while we were there - he mentioned three or four times to John that he need really needed one. When we told him we’d planned to leave him a laptop, he was so grateful; he said that he had been praying everyday for a computer.

Since, amazingly enough, we finished ahead of schedule, we headed back to the hotel around 3:00 to clean up. After grabbing a few supplies, we were back at the orphanage by 5:00 for dinner with Pastor Vek and his wife and the “picture party” afterwards.

For those of you who aren’t aware, Pastor Vek and his wife, Samoeun, worked for Campus Crusade for Christ prior to the revolution in 1975. They narrowly escaped death several times, either from starvation or from execution during the Khmer Rouge's bloody four year reign. He and Samoeun escaped to Thailand with a tiny group of other survivors in 1979. They emigrated to the U.S. and lived in Long Beach until 1991. He said he and Samoeun asked each other why they had survived when so many others had been killed; he said the only answer they could come up with was maybe God wasn't finished using them. When Cambodia “opened back up” to outsiders, he and Samoeun moved back to Cambodia as staff members of Campus Crusade for Christ. Around 2002, he left Campus Crusade and founded New Life Missions in Phnom Penh. Since then, they have expanded from one church to fourteen, started four orphanages (Battambang’s was the first) and purchased one radio station from which they broadcast 10 hours a day – 7 in Khmer & 3 in English, including messages from Charles and Andy Stanley.

After dinner, he thanked us for our help and support. He said that when he was a boy, he was the only Christian in his whole school. Everyone, including the teachers, used to make fun of him and call him “Jesus” as a derogatory name. Back then, there was no such thing as a Christian Cambodian - if you weren’t Buddhist, you weren’t considered Cambodian. He said that is slowly changing. He explained that one of the goals of New Life Mission is to have 5,000 people commit to sharing Christ’s message with someone new every week. They calculate that 5,000 x 52 = over a quarter of a million new Cambodian Christians a year.

All week, we had given the kids our cameras and let them take as many pictures as they wanted. So after a bit of ice cream & cookies, we set up the laptop to play a slideshow of all their photos on the widescreen TV. They got a huge kick out of the pictures they’d taken of themselves - we had almost 2,500 pictures!!! After about two hours, thankfully, Rataa said it was past their bedtime and the party came to an end; otherwise, we’d still be there looking at pictures.

When God Shows Up

2009-05-14T11:39:00.002-04:00

The amount of work we've done in the past 4 days is astonishing. Walking on these paths that we helped build is beyond rewarding. The transformation that has happened in the last 4 days can only be described as God-sized.

Yesterday after lunch the heat and humidity, the physical labor and long days got to us. We had so much tile to lay and all of us were doubtful we could finish, yet we weren't saying that out loud. Still there was a palpable sense we all felt. As we finished lunch rain came pouring down. The temperature dropped 10, maybe 15 degrees. The rain galvanized the kids and our team and we got so much work done. This can only be described as God doing for us what we could not do ourselves.

We worked in the rain for hours. The kids were all shivering because they were cold from the rain. We were all so happy for a respite from the heat.

Our God is ever faithful. Why do we get surprised when He shows up? I guess it's our human nature? God showed up in Kenya when we had to dig half a mile of trenches. God showed up in Cambodia when the odds were against us. Our God is an awesome God!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to the kids and head to Siem Reap. Then we leave on Saturday. Saying I'm blessed to have been on this trip is an understatement. God had a lot to show and teach me and He wanted me to come to Cambodia to learn it. I think I'll be taking lessons away from this trip for some time to come.

God bless.
James

Evening Matinee

2009-05-13T18:24:00.024-04:00

Scott was a member on last year’s Battambang construction trip and he made a movie from all of the photos from that trip and put in on a DVD. So, yesterday we brought a laptop and we all watched it. They were so excited to see pictures of their friends from last year’s team again and asked about many of them. Afterwards, we played a Veggie Tales Hero’s of the Bible DVD for them that we had brought. Unfortunately, ::Connections didn’t have a copy in Khmer, so we had to bring the English version. But as you can see from the last photo, cartoons are universal.

Scripture

2009-05-13T09:55:00.003-04:00

The highlight of my day, since it was short, was the scriptures we put under the pathways. John asked us all yesterday to write a scripture to place under the walkway so that the children would be walking on the word of the Lord. So this morning we gathered all the kids and each of us read our scriptures and then Kia, one of the older girls, and one of the older boys read the scriptures in Khmer. Everyone clapped and then the little kids buried the papers under the gravel. It is just so neat to see the excitement on their faces. Scott pointed out Kia's Bible and how many versions were highlighted. A true testament of the amount of time they spend in God's word.

Food Poisoning

2009-05-13T09:46:00.002-04:00

If you are ever in Cambodia avoid the vegetable enchilada at Riverside Balcony restaurant. I order the enchilada thinking it would be something different from the rice and whatever chicken dish I chose every night, but after a couple of bites I knew something wasn't right. Unfortunately Patrick decided he would taste it and he ate quite a bit of it. It turned out to pretty disastrous for us both. Right before lunch today at the orphanage we were both spent so John had Pastor and Mrs. Vek bring us back to the hotel.
I spent the afternoon being angry and sad. I wanted to be out there with the kids. I wanted to be helping my team work on the pathways. I have heard the team did an awesome job and completed most of the tiling so I can't wait to see their accomplishments tomorrow.

Cambodian Affection

2009-05-12T10:00:00.004-04:00

In our group debrief last night JB talked about how these kids are pure expressions of Christ's love for us. The way they shower us with affection is pure love and it's all action, no words.

All day long they embrace us. They come to us with towels with ice inside, wiping our faces and arms. During our breaks they pull out chairs for us and massage our backs and arms. It never stops.

One 10 year old boy in particular, Tuy (pronounced "T"), has touched me. He is so happy to see me. The only communication we have is our names. He'll come up to me, say my name and put his arms around me. He holds my hand while we walk. Today he wiped the sweat from my face. I've never experienced affection like this.

Tuy also works hard. He helped shoveling gravel and then with raking it along the paths.

It's not just Tuy, all the kids are like this. They love to serve us and they do it without one ounce of selfishness. It's humbling to say the least.

Every day when we leave they surround our bus. They scream goodbyes to us, wave and pound on the windows. When we arrive in the morning they run out to the bus to welcome us. They offer to carry anything we have.

The kids work alongside us and make any task fun. Today when we hauled load after load of heavy gravel and sand on the cart their game was to see how quickly they could unload it and return back to the piles.

The affection these kids give us truly is like Christ's love. Like the words from the Casting Crown song this love is intimate, intoxicating and it's extravagant. So strange I had to come all the way to the other side of the world to experience first hand such a love. However I have a new perspective for how big God is and how incredibly vast His love is.

James

And the work begins.....

2009-05-11T19:55:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, the whole reason for our mission trip finally got underway. We started working on the sidewalks that connect the boys & girls dorms with the cafeteria and classroom building…and I use the word “cafeteria” very loosely - it’s actually an open air pavilion with a few metal picnic tables, an open fire and a drain & garden hose to wash the pots & pans. We started by pulling up the old brick pavers which bordered the dirt walkways, running string where the new sidewalks would go and cementing the new brick borders. Actually, though, the kids did just as much work as we did - and seemed to enjoy it even more! Everyone on our team was so impressed with their willingness and even their joy in helping out. We were also amazed at their discipline and work ethic – they saw what we were doing and jumped right it, they even made a game of it. In fact, we took periodic breaks every hour or so because of the heat, but the kids kept right on going. They made us look bad; in fact, Chhaya would always ask Scott with a puzzled look on his face, “Another break, Scott.”

Just before lunch, Pastor Vek’s wife, Samoeun, arrived to thank us. It was an honor and very humbling to meet her after reading about her & Pastor Vek’s inspiring courage and faith in God to guide and protect them during their four-year ordeal under the Khmer Rouge’s savage reign.

During yet afternoon break, Keea brought everyone fresh coconut milk for refreshment – and when I say fresh, we literally drank it through a straw. One of the kids there developed a blister that got a little infected, so Lori quickly jumped into action and put her nursing skills to use.

At the end of the day, the girls all treated us to a free massage to relax our sore muscles and some of the kids began teaching us to count in Khmer: moi(1), pe’(2), boi(3), boon(4), praan(5), praan moi(6), praan pe’(7), praan boi(8), praan boon(9), dop(10).

We had hoped to complete the cement brick borders so that they could cure overnight and we could start on the tile work but we didn’t quite manage, so today we’ll finish that.

Hey, wait for ME!

2009-05-11T10:49:00.008-04:00

Thanks to Tad's nephew Jacob's second grade teacher, Mrs. Hargruder, we had a last minute addition to our team. Flat Stanley (no relation to Andy) arrived in Tad's mailbox just before we left and, since he didn't take up much room, we were able to take him along. To all the second-graders at St. John Elementary in Plaquemine, Louisiana, "Thank You!" Flat Stanley will certainly be a big help to our team.

Photos

2009-05-10T19:59:00.003-04:00

I am still learning how to use this blog so the slideshow to the left as some photos, but there are more at http://picasaweb.google.com/sawright76/Cambodia1#

Kids Kids Kids

2009-05-10T11:12:00.004-04:00

So here is my(Bill) first blog experience so here goes. So you have heard much news on our trip over so I will expound on today's events. Breakfast was finally first regular meal. French Toast & Scrambled eggs tastes good from US to Cambodia. So bottom line eat large breakfast and then you can be adventurous for lunch and supper. After breakfast we headed to Church. Awesome, not quite the Northpoint production but great just the same. Pastor was kind enough to give part of sermon in English. The kids all sung which was great. Afterwards we headed to the market, good deals and lots of food that well looks interesting, just wait for the pics. Apparently flies are a big deal on raw food over here. Then off to Cat Burger restaurant. Yeah I had Cat Burger, we still aren't sure about the meat maybe cat, rat or just mystery meat. After lunch to we headed to orphanage for all afternoon. Awesome doesn't describe it enough. They are soo loving. They are starving for love and attention from anyone willing to give. We brought toys and candy and they were soo happy. All of us played and played and sweat ed much more. You'll have ask Sally to see her sweat pics. Nice! I hope our pics can capture the kids inner and outer beauty. One day and I am hooked big time. We are going to start on the walk ways which will make theirs lives much better. No more walking to school and to eat in the mud. The kids can't wait for us to come back tomorrow but they don't know the half of it, we absolutely can't wait ourselves. We had dinner again at the hotel. I went for gold tonight and had Fried Frog with Cheese. May not sound that bad to some but you had to see the frogs at the market earlier in the day. Kudos to Patrick for trying a tiny piece. John keeps being adventerous but hasn't had anything that interesting, maybe the ant salad will tommorrow. Thanks for all of your support while in country, keep adding those comments! By Bill Hall

So Much To Process

2009-05-10T10:00:00.003-04:00

Hey everybody. Thanks for all your prayers. Today we went to New Life Church, worshiped with the congregation and listened to an entire sermon in Khmer, the language spoken in Cambodia. Many of the children from the New Life Orphanage were at church. JB, Billy and Scott are celebrities. The kids rushed to them with arms open wide for hugs.

After church we walked down the market. The sights, sounds and smells are difficult to describe. The smell is a mixture of garbage, fish, exhaust from mopeds and the heat the mixes it all together.

We ate lunch at place called BT Cat Burger. Unfortunately today they were not on their game. Our meals took a long time to get to the table. Overall it wasn't that bad.

After lunch we hung out with the kids at the orphanage for about 3 and a half hours. The kids. We took photos, played volleyball, made necklaces, talked and even made up weird games. Patrick and I made up some insane game of keep away with a football in this small room that was as hot as a sauna. There were 8 or 9 other boys in there chasing and tackling us. It was so much fun. Many of us were soaked with sweat. The humidity and heat here are intense.

Tomorrow we begin our project. We'll be creating walkways for the orphanage. They're in the middle of monsoon season and the dirt is muddy. Creating these walkways will keep the children from walking in the mud.

Thanks again and we'll keep everything updated as long as Teo Hotel has an Internet connection.

God bless you. James.

Battambang ...check!

2009-05-09T12:02:00.003-04:00

Battambang-we made it as Sally said. It was a long haul but we made it in fine fashion. I am excited about the team getting to experience the vastness of our Creator. It alway amazes me to see people living their lives on the other side of the planet, worshiping the the same God who formed us and blessed us with being born in the States. Being in Cambodia assures us of one thing...God is God in every corner of the planet and his people have no nationality, color, or creed...we are simply His! We will worship the Great I Am tommorow morning with New Life Church in Battambang and then we have the joy of hanging with the kid at the orphanage in the afternoon. We can't wait to see their beautiful smiling faces when we pull in the gate. Thanks to all who have been praying for us on this adventure. We feel it deep in our souls.

Fear Factor food update: Tasting has been tame so far...but rest assured we have some gamers on the team!

In His Grip, JB

We FINALLY made it! :o)

2009-05-09T10:47:00.002-04:00

After a nice evening in Phnom Phen we headed out this morning on a long journey. First we went to the orphanage in Phnom Phen that is operated by the New Life Church. There we toured the facilities; played volleyball and football with the kids; were treated to the kids singing Jesus Loves Me in English; and just enjoyed some time loving on the kids.
From there we headed to SG21 which is the old prison where Pol Pot tortured the Cambodians. That was quite a site to see all the inhumanity these people went through. Unbelievable.
Once our eyes were opened to these horrible things we headed to see the New Life Church and to see the new building they are working on. The new building will be a great place for them to worship. Very nice.
After that it was off to lunch. There we experienced some Sea Grass Juice. The name scared a few folks away, but finally James decided to try it and then several more tried. With a little sugar it would have been god ole southern sweet tea. :o) Scott and Mike tried some other interesting juices as well.
Once lunch was complete we were in for a ride. Six long hours in a bus on a very bumpy road. We made one stop at another orphanage also operated by New Life Church, and another stop for a quick bathroom break. Along the ride we saw several little shacks that were unbelievable. It is so amazing to see how these people live. We are so blessed.
We finally made it to Battambang, grabbed dinner and now some of us are geeking out on the laptops and others have already retired for the night.

We've got Seoul

2009-05-08T04:45:00.005-04:00

Hey everybody. We made it safe and sound to Seoul. The airport here has free wifi which is outstanding.

Lots of folks are wearing masks. It's not unnerving, just a little unusual.

Rian says his flight, "Was a lot faster than I thought it would've been. I sat next to a Korean dentist and I thought that was pretty cool. Tom almost got kicked off the plane." Today is Rian's birthday! Happy Birthday Rian.

Sally says her flight, "Was long and excruciatingly hot in there."

I watched a few movies, "Benjamin Button," "Last Chance Harvey," "Gran Torino." The guy behind me was pounding on the back of my chair hitting the touch screen. It was so bad I had to say something to him. He didn't realize he was hitting the screen that hard. I'm not complaining though. Overall it was a smooth flight and I'm glad we've made it this far.

The gentleman sitting next to Sally and me coughed up several loogies. That was nice.

John says, "The team is coming together nicely. James had great spirits." Thanks John.

Ok we're signing out from Seoul. Next stop Phnom Penh.

Cambodia Global X

2009-05-03T20:47:00.002-04:00

Here's a video on Cambodia from GlobalX, the ministry of our church that puts these trips together.

Meet The Team!

2009-05-03T10:05:00.004-04:00

Hey everybody. We're all so excited to be going to Cambodia. 4 more days until we leave.

We met one last time before we leave to pray, worship and hang out.

Getting Ready

2009-04-19T22:25:00.003-04:00

Hey Everybody. The team got together on Saturday for more time of fellowship, stories and planning. We are all anxious to get on the trip and to serve.

I am starting to feel comfortable with all the team members. We are coming from different backgrounds, but we're all on this trip for the same reason, to serve God and our brothers and sisters in Cambodia.

Today I ordered the Flip Mino HD camera. This camera holds 4 gigs of video and records in HD at 720p. I'm excited to take it to Cambodia to capture footage of all the new friends and the amazing experiences we'll have.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. We'll keep the blog updated as the trip gets closer.

James

Cambodia May Mission Trip

2009-02-25T20:31:00.000-05:00

Our team is heading to Batdambang, Cambodia to do some construction work on an orphanage. The trip will include extensive travel times, long hours working in the hot and humid conditions, and time to share God's love with the children.