#186 - Final weekend in Toronto!

Vol.#186 

I pray you had a Blessed Christmas and you are looking forward to see what God will do in the New Year! 

As I look back over the last 3 months back home here in Toronto, and Florida and Georgia and Trinidad and Tobago, I am humbled by the love shown to me through your words, gifts, shared confidences and prayers.

Thank you for not only being His dance partner in Cambodia but also my dance partner through your prayers and financial support . My ‘dance’ there continues to be one of joy and gratitude as He continues to set the rhythm and work amongst my Khmer community!

This will be my last weekend here in Toronto as I return to Cambodia on Jan.4th! 
**(If you would like to continue to support please message me for important information!) 

Love, His Warrior and Disciple, 

Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia, 

Your sister, Vidya 

#185 - From Morton House to Temple in the Sea to Heart Country of Cambodia

Vol.# 185

From Morton House to the Temple in the Sea to my Heart Country of Cambodia

Reverend John Morton was the first Canadian Missionary to the East Indians (1868) in Trinidad and Tobago. He came under the auspices of the Presbyterian denomination and initiated education for women when there was no opportunity for girls of East Indian descent to get an education. My parents remembered learning hymns in the Hindi language.

The Temple in the Sea is a Hindu pilgrimage site built by Siewdass Sadhu, an East Indian immigrant who came to Trinidad and Tobago from India. 
Mr. Sadhu had a vision and deep yearning to build this physical site which is seen as a testament of one man’s love of Hinduism. It is a story of human perseverance, personal sacrifice, and enduring efforts of Siewdass Sadhu. It was the creation of one man alone, unaided and ridiculed, his largest tool an ordinary bicycle. Mr Sadhu came over as an indentured labourer to work in the rice/sugar plantations here in Trinidad and Tobago. He used to make the pilgrimage to India each year to go to the temple there, but found that he could not afford it. So he decided to build a temple where others like himself could go to worship and pray. He used to take each tile of material on his bike to the site after work each day to build the Temple in the Sea.

As I muse over these two stories which I had never heard of, our caretaker here is ringing the church bell at Morton Guest House. The bell is manually rung at 6:30am on a Sunday morning preparing those to come and worship for 7:45am. I knew that our staying here was no coincidence. 

MORTON HOUSE ORIGINAL CROSS AND CHURCH BELL

A better chance at an higher education was one of the reasons why our parents migrated to Canada, thinking that going to a Canadian university would improve our chances at a better quality of life, a life easier than they had growing up. 
I thought of how God had planted that seed in my heart to go to Cambodia through the passion of one other person (Lisa Cheong) and an organization (Ratanak International), to teach English as one of the many skills which would give those from an impoverished background a better chance to find a job that would provide a better quality of life for them; a chance to not being at risk for predators by having a choice and opportunity for a better job; to be able to make a wise decision from so many unwise income-making opportunities. 

I am very grateful for the education I received, not only from the academic world in Canada, but also from the jobs (both paid and volunteer) that I had along the way, and the mentoring I received both formally and informally from RAC, Youth for Christ and other secular agencies in Canada. I think of Mr. Sadhu who had this single passionate goal to build this temple and I wonder, do I have this same passion, perseverance and tenacity to serve Jesus the Christ as this man? Visiting this site and listening to the story of Mr. Sadhu, I reflected on my own personal mission and purpose, recalling the first day I heard about the country of Cambodia through the passion of another, Lisa Cheong, and Ratanak International; visiting Cambodia in 2009; working at Place of Rescue from 2011 for two years; returning later and going to language school to learn the heart language of Khmer in order to share the Father’s heart of grace, redemption and love to my now heart country of Kampuchea (Cambodia). 
I became excited and challenged once again as I thought of the many opportunities I have had and how God is using me to pass on what I have learnt to the next generation of Khmer! Intertwined in these experiences is not only the academic teaching, but also the spiritual aspect of discipleship and mentoring; teaching work skills; building on spiritual relationships that goes beyond the border of academic skills, overlapping into how we live our lives; giving of our very best in every area of our lives as God gave the best for us, His Son Jesus Christ. 

As I sat at my last Sunday service at the church on the Morton compound, and watched the seniors and youth perform in their Christmas programme, I was re-energized by the wisdom and wit of the skit performed by both groups, but I was in tears as I watched the skit by the youth group there. They had written the script for the Christmas enactment with the usual nativity scene, Mary and Joseph, the wise men and shepherds. What was impactful was that where the Christmas story usually ends with the wise men going away thinking of the true gift of Christmas, the youth group added the other most important part: Jesus carrying the Cross for us and then dying for us. The youth leader talked about the ‘whole story of Jesus’ and ended with the youth bowing at the foot of the Cross where Jesus hung! 

I felt the real impact of the reason why we celebrate His birth, so that He would make the choice to die for you and for me, so that we can have eternal life with Him.
A story of redemption and grace and unconditional love!

Praise: 
Thank you for praying for our safety here. My Dad was able to visit his old hometown and walked through his childhood haunts. The driver that we hired just happened to have lived there, so he knew how to get to and around the old places. Even though most of the sites had been torn down and rebuilt, our driver was able to reintroduce Dad to the ‘new’ built up town. My parents then got a chance to pray for Alum, our driver. I also was able to meet with old high school friends!

 RECONNECTING WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Praise: 
My parents were able to bless the caretaker and his wife from Morton House, and to pray over and with them. Mr. Jimmy came over earlier, not only to help us move the suitcases down the flight of stairs but also to be prayed over by my Dad. My Mom got to reconnect with two special young women with whom she had been praying while she was here. My Mom had that honor of listening and praying over them again here.

Praise: 
I am thankful to have this opportunity to be here with Dad (92 years young) and Mom (82 years young) on behalf of my siblings! Now as we are in our sister island of Tobago, I got a chance to speak a prayer over one of the workers here. I was sitting looking at the butterflies and singing when this worker came by and said, "Enjoying the scenery eh? You talking to yourself?" I replied yes to the first, and no that I was praying. He responded that God woke him up early as he was thinking over a life-making decision he had to make! So I prayed for wisdom and faith for him.

Thank you all for continuing on this journey with me! I am returning to Canada on the 16th and will return to Cambodia on Jan. 4th. If you would like to meet up with me, I would love to hear your stories and to pray with you as well!

Love, His Warrior and Disciple, 

Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia, 

Your sister, Vidya 

(P.S. **For those who have been sacrificing to help me financially, please refer to the page about 2018 tax receipts etc. in the prayer letter or email me.)