The Advent of Love - Cambodia

I love Cambodia. The people ... the country ... I love Cambodia! Plain and simple. So I was excited to return as part of the team to put on a conference for the leadership team and the families of World Relief Cambodia, which are majority Cambodian.

After spending the first few days visiting in rural provinces where World Relief is doing great work, we headed to the Koh Kong province in the Cambodia/Thailand border on the Gulf of Thailand to hold the retreat. (More on the 6 hour bus trip another time!)


This leadership conference allowed us to teach, minister to, pray with and genuinely love and serve the workers and their families. The group included about 120 people and the theme was The Father's Love from 1 John 3:1-3.



There were main sessions in the morning with breakouts for small groups and great, personal discussion.


Worship and prayer times.



While all that was going on, we provided youth and the children's programming with the same theme.



And then in afternoons, we had breakout sessions with everything ranging from mani/pedi pampering times, jewelry-making and legos for kids to How to Lead a Bible Studay, Christian Men's Leadership and Love Languages.(My duties included: facilitating the main group discussions, organizing the mani/pedi pampering and leading a breakout on How to Lead a Bible Study.)


And of course, I had to join in the lego breakout time since, with two sons, I'm very experienced.

We all had our own responsibilities and duties. And, while not everything ran "according to plan," it was great to see how the Lord showed up when we just let go of control.


As you reflect on the birth of our Savior this season, may you experience the Father's Love. And may that love compel you to live your life giving His love away.

The Advent of Peace - Cambodia

Peace on Earth is unfortunately elusive in this broken world. But as this is the the week of Peace in the Advent season, I'm back to my time in Cambodia. Cambodia is still recovering after brutal years of civil war, horrific genocide, including French and UN occupation. All which all left a deep and traumatic impact on this country and its people. And many times on this trip, their pain clutched my heart.



To realize what this small country endured, we toured Tuol Sleng Prison. Now a genocide museum, the site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-1979. An estimated 17-20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng. Entire families were often brought in to be interrogated and later murdered at the Choeung Ek, the largest and most well-known of the "killing fields."

This Buddhist memorial stupa at Choeung Ek contains more than 5,000 human skulls of the 8,895 bodies exhumed. Less than half of the site has been excavated and human bones till litter the site. It is hard to describe my emotions of walking in the now peaceful countryside, with clothing working its way back up through the dirt under our feet.

The only way to bear the horror of wandering these sites was to remind myself of the reason we were in Cambodia ... to help build into the people and ministry of World Relief. "World Relief is committed to working alongside the Church of Cambodia in building its capacity to serve the poor in the name of Jesus Christ so that the healing and transforming power of the Kingdom of God is manifested in all its fullness in Cambodia."

Along with the Hope Program, WR (through their CREDIT program) offers financial services and education to Cambodians provides them with capital so they can start and expand micro-enterprises. CREDIT is also an opportunity to develop relationships with clients, many of whom have not had any previous contact with Christianity. I love this program and the amazing fact is that 99% of clients pay back their loans on time (with over 37,000 clients and $20,000,000 in loans)!

A little view of our day as we traveled to the Prey Veng Province to a village training seminar:



We crossed the Mekong River on a ferry. While waiting, we bought a little snack of crickets fried in spicy oil. (pick the legs off first) Surprisingly, not bad!




Our transportation, 2 pickups for 16 people and rural roads with potholes so big that pigs could bathe in them.






Sitting under a tree to escape the blazing sun, the people get specific training on budgeting, saving and debt management. Obviously, I'm not gettin' it - it's all in Khmer, but I love being out with the people.


And I love the friends and food!

I will dare to say that Dave Ramsey would approve of this CREDIT. We (Bluefish TV) interviewed him for our marriage series this year. And as he is known to say and World Relief practices ... "There's only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus."

Peace.

The Advent of Hope - Cambodia

On the first Sunday of the Advent season, the focus is Hope and I am reminded of Cambodia. But the people and country of Cambodia are never far from my heart.

World Relief's Hope Program in Cambodia includes cell church planting and AIDS ministry for children, teens and adults. We spent the first couple of days of the trip seeing the work and ministry of the Hope Program in the different provinces. This was just one day ...



World Relief works through the village cell church and the cell churches typically start through the children's program, with health, hygiene, safety and Bible stories taught through puppet shows and skits.




After learning that fingernails need to be kept short and clean, they line up for nail clipping. We know just enough Khmer language to tell them "Looks good" and "Wash your hands." It's really just good to mingle with the kids.



We also join in teen meetings for girls and another for boys, as they have great teaching and discussions about making good decisions to prevent AIDS and incorporating fun games.




We then make a stop at the village chief's house for this wonderful lunch and then head to the AIDS education meeting with frank discussion about prevention and choices. And a different place for an AIDS support meeting ...


This was the AIDS support meeting. Everyone in the group has AIDS. Yes, So-phet, the smiling 10 year old boy in the front is infected. The baby in the back, and her grandmother who holds her, are both are infected. They only feel free to meet and talk because they are welcomed and support one another through the village church. So-phet was abandoned by his parents (who are also infected). The people of the church care for him and make sure he gets his medicine every day. The young mother of two behind him lost her husband 4 years ago and also care for two other children. We heard heartbreaking stories, and lots of tears were shed - but the tears were mostly of gratitude for a loving God, hope in the support of friends and World Relief, and sadness for those who do not know. Naru, the World Relief worker on the left, travels to 3 different villages every day. And then there was Vanni, who had been coming to the group, but decided that day to place her hope in Jesus Christ. It was difficult to process the immense emotions of joy and pain that were intertwined. But it was definitely the joy that won out.



One last stop to a Hope church. These young people had traveled from different provinces and were spending a few months training to be interns for World Relief. It was great to hear their hearts of worship. The church floods every year during rainy season so the only way to get in was to drive the truck right up to the wall and climb in!


This is Joke van Opstal, the founder and director of the Hope Program. She's the single mother of seven adopted children - smart, funny, passionate, loves the Lord, unstoppable ... and my friend.

I Love Young Life!

Last night, Marty and I got another glimpse into the wonderful, busy, connected world of Young Life. Scott and Holley are leaders for high school students in Frisco Young Life where Holley teaches physics.

With Young Life, we have seen the amount of time Scott and Holley connect with the football, basketball, volleyball, track, homecoming, graduation events and games that they have gone to just to enter the world of where these kids live. They care enough to lift these kids up over the noise and crowd of high school life so they can see how special they are and how much Jesus loves them.

Plus, there is Club night every Monday, which is a bit of controlled chaos, and Campaigners, which is a different night of deeper study, and the fun of camp in the summer ... these kids are connected.

It was fun seeing all this energy - the high school kids and the young adults who care so much for them.

Horsing around ... and having fun

It was great to have Brian, Julie and the kids join us in Colorado this summer,


where we got to share Toby and Joe with Grant and Abby.
(Toby made sure to walk slow enough for Grant)


Getting ready to ride,



and we all had fun!




A long ride up Oh Be Joyful Valley with our friends, Steven and Lee.



16 horses, 2 mules, 5 dogs, 18 friends and neighbors ride
8 hours over Red Mountain to Ohio Creek Valley.
(With that many, we should've pushed a herd of cattle!)