Vol. #120
I
saw glimpses of many of you when you so graciously Skyped with me last weekend!
I
want to thank those who gave up time to come out to hear and pray for us, the
international workers! For those who were unable to be there, I will just
summarize briefly the past two weeks.
It
has been hectic, studying until midnight sometimes, and then getting up by 5 to
study again before going to school. I had this routine for 2 weeks prior to my
exam last Thursday. Then on Thursday, I was the first one to go into
the speaking part. I spoke for 45 minutes on 2 specific topics that we were
given prior to the test. So it was like doing a monologue in Khmer!
I
am grateful for the help I received in the prep (Channak) for the topics, and
for the rest of the test (Dong, Julia, and the coffee crew at G2K).
In between
the spoken and the reading/answering grammar part, the Director of the school
came in to say that I did well on the speaking part but that she strongly
recommended that I repeat this level because my reading and listening needed to
be improved upon, and barring me doing extremely well in the second part, it
seems that I should be redoing Level 5!
Well,
it was not exactly a confidence builder going into the second part of the exam,
but I prayed and I knew you all were praying for me, so I went in and did it.
So I was exhausted mentally on Thursday, but in the evening the conference was
beginning and I gave my word to help out and to go to the conference!
CONFERENCE:
 |
| New Friends at the ACC |
 |
| Having Lunch |
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| Volunteering at Information Desk |
It
was amazing to see so many come to be discipled, to listen to the 4 speakers
from abroad.
They came from all parts of Cambodia to the conference, from Laos
and Vietnam as well! It was heart-warming to see the hunger for Him!
The young
people just swarmed the place. They were up at front dancing and singing
praises to Him and then praying over and with each other! I had the privilege
of praying over those who came in from the countryside, even though it was not
in Khmer, it was in His Spirit as we just laid hands and prayed for them!
At
first when I volunteered, my co-volunteers smiled and chatted in English with
me but as the hours went on, my co-volunteer who was from another church,
started to ask me when I came to faith and then she shared her story! Everyone
wanted to practise their English, and I tried to speak in Khmer to tell everyone
about YOU and when I started to volunteer at RAC!
As
the days went by, people began to recognize my face and so we were exchanging
smiles and pics and hugs! Many of my former students from Rescue who now live
in the New Life dorm (my church's dorm here in the city) were also volunteers,
so it was good to eat lunch with them and reconnect!
Then
one day as I was sitting, one lady came over and gave me a big hug and before I
knew it, 2 others were hugging me, and a pile of kids began calling out “Cher"! They were the house moms and
kids from Place of Rescue! They had come in by bus. Some of them looked so
grown up that I did not recognize them at first. And they kept saying “Cher, what is my name?”
As if I would
remember their names!
There were so many of them and you know how I am with
remembering names! (Now Pastor Wade's wife is Bonnie, NOT Beckie! (LOL!). I
called her Beckie on Skype! )
On
Friday, my helper from my house, Dane, came to the conference. I had given
her a free ticket and invited her and she came! We arrived when all the people
were up in front singing and praising, so I could not see where there were
empty seats for us to sit. But as the people began to go back to their seats, just
before the speaker came on stage, I saw that that front row had no one sitting
on a couple of seats, and I prayed and asked God to give us seats so that Dane,
who is shy, would know that she is favoured and that God had reserved a special
seat for her!
Well
as we held hands and walked over to the seats, there were ‘reserved’ signs on
the seats, and I hesitated for a moment before taking the signs off and sitting
down on them. Dane was surprised that we sat there as she thought that only
'special' people were allowed to sit there! I wanted her to feel that she was
that special to be chosen by God to be sitting up front! I did explain to the
leader of the prayer team, who had reserved the seats, why I was sitting there
afterwards, and she said, “Vidya, that
was a creative way to show Dane about God's love for her!”
One
of the teachers from G2K came with his fiancé (I had given him 2 tickets), and
then the cleaner from G2K was able to come, so I had given her a ticket as
well! I had given two other teachers who are not of the faith but I’m unsure if
they did come! It was a huge auditorium!
At church this morning many remembered me from last weekend so I was
getting hellos and hugs!
Praise:
As
I was trying to discern and battle my own feelings of 'shame' (being honest
here!) of having to repeat Level 5, I received an email from one of my mentors
and encouragers. He had prayed that through Scripture, singing (dancing), and
community I would find HIS encouragement, and that in my weakness (struggles
with direct dimensions of learning Khmer), I would learn what it is to live by
the power of God in my dealings with others in my life here!
I
did go to His Word and as I prayed, He reminded me that I wanted to pass and do
well in Khmer studies with integrity and not just barely pass!
So
I had to answer the questions, “Am I
willing to walk the walk and submit to the authority of the Director who I know
to be an educator and a woman of integrity? Was I willing to repeat level 5?”
So
as I made my mind up to obey and redo level 5 without knowing the outcome of the
whole exam, I received an email from the school asking me to come in to discuss
my results! I replied that I was at a conference but that I had made a decision
to redo level 5.
Once I did that I felt a peace and joy in my heart!
My
community at G2K, my former classmates, were happy that I felt this joy and was
not discouraged! (I had invited a new girl I had met who is in a higher level
to come over to study in my guest bedroom since she had no privacy where she
was living, and needed that space and Julia was excited to see that I was truly
happy with the decision to redo level 5!)
Praise:
The
results of the tests: On Friday my teacher sat down with me to discuss the test and showed
me how I performed: First part: 7 / 9; second part: 5 / 5; third part: 5 / 5;
fourth part: 4.8 / 5; and fifth part: 4.7 / 5!
I
had actually done extremely well!
I am not sure who was more surprised, my
teacher or me! LOL!
But I am glad I did not receive the results until after the
decision was made to redo level 5! I want the Khmer teachers to know that I
want to learn their heart language to the best of my ability; that I respect
and love my heart country; that I want to do His best!
WELL,
I have to tell you, my new classmates are awesome. I am part of a group of 6
and I am loving it! There is no pressure on me and I am reading and wanting to
read! If I had gone on to Level 6 I would have been too stressed because all
they do is read and speak, and I would have kept my classmates back at the pace
of their learning! I still get to hang out with them at the break, but I am so glad
I submitted to God and to my Director here!
Prayer requests:
-
I still need a speaking partner. I need to be more involved in a Khmer setting
so I am praying and asking Him how to do that.
-
My home! Pray that I can focus more on finding one. I love my set-up here, but
the location and neighbourhood are very noisy. I had no power for 12 hours a
couple of days ago, so no fan etc. So please pray for a neighbourhood and house
in a safe area at a good price!
Personal note: One of my first cousins
died last week in Trinidad. His name was Suresh and he did have a lot of health
problems but I did not know he was that sick! I have great memories of our
relationship as cousins. I am not sure where he is right now!
You
all know that anytime anyone gets pregnant I always say, “Hey, you know that Vidya is a good name for your child, eh?” Then I
would proceed to say why etc. And this has gone on for many years! Well Vescka,
who is a member of the Cambodian church at RAC, had a baby girl and named her Esther Vidya!
Yay!
I finally have a baby
named after me!
But there is more to this story. In 2009 when I went on my
first mission trip to Cambodia, Pastor Nancy, who was part of our group had
asked each of us to find a name from the Bible that would reflect our partner
in the group! My partner at that time was not able to give me a name until
perhaps a year later! As Melinda (former partner from trip) was cutting my
hair, she said God finally gave her my name and yes, as you already guessed, it
was Esther!
Vescka did not know this
story so she was also surprised!
I also had a lady from New Life church come up
to me 2 years ago who said to me that I reminded her of Esther from the Bible! I
am not sure why since I did not know her and have not seen her since, but she
felt led to come up and pray for me and used Esther as a basis of her prayer for me!
I
battle mosquitos now as the rainy season is upon us and it is raining every day.
At the same time I am thankful for your prayers and I pray His grace and love
rains down upon you all!
Please
keep sending in your prayer requests because it is a joy and a privilege to go
to His feet on behalf and with you in prayer!
I thank God for His wonderful
blessing of allowing me to listen not only to preaching from RAC, Upper Room, and Connexion, but to Steven Furtick at Elevation church where they have been
doing a 10-day revival series with some very powerful and challenging sermons!
Keep dancing!
Love, His Warrior and Disciple,
submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia,
Your sister, Vidya
