Vol.# 217
I love the early mornings here. Life has not yet come alive on the street below, the air is still cool, the birds are singing, the cocks are crowing. The muffled sounds of the same 5 people walking every morning for exercise tells me that I am on time here for my morning date with Jesus. Around me the sky, though dark, is just beginning to come alive with the sun filtering in through slowly.
The construction sounds in the nearby building has not yet begun. I noticed that the workmen there begin at 6:30, so it is true bliss for that one and half hours from 5 till then! I thought in the midst of this God-ordained season of partial lockdown and total lockdown all over the world, I would talk about those things I am truly grateful for through pictures!
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| My Morning View |
I am using pictures because I am thinking of Ravi Zacharias who is now in heaven with His Saviour and who has used the power of words to simply express whom the Lord Jesus Christ is. I am aware of many who have written about the impact of his life on their walk with Jesus. For me, it was through his books that I learnt how to explain and communicate about my faith, his way of answering those deep questions in love and with respect, never in an antagonistic or condescending manner. May I encourage you to read our own Shyamala Krishnan’s words about her brother Ravi in her blog, shyamalapgz.wordpress.com.
Bro. Ravi you taught us much, you imparted much wisdom, and my prayers go out to not only his wife and grownup children, but also to his siblings and their families as well! As my own sister Sita remarked on one of her postings, we all need to carry on his legacy of talking about our faith, through whichever media we are gifted in, art, music, spoken or rhythmic word etc. As part of my thank you to Jesus, I now will use pictures!
- I am so thankful for my IPad!
- I am so thankful for my IPad!
Ah, I can feel the disappointment from some of you thinking, “Really Vidya, how materialistic!’ Ah, but for the IPad, I would not have seen the kindness and creativity of others! I am not sure if you can see the crack at the bottom of the IPad on the photo shown, but a couple of weeks before l returned to Toronto on my last visit, the magnetic ‘ting’ which held the screen to the keyboard pad was no longer holding the IPad together, and it fell out of the case and cracked! It was frustrating trying to use it, as I would have to prop it up and make sure that the IPAD itself was secure before using it. Well, Ian and Ramona L. saw this, and Ian, being the MacGyver that he is, promptly put double-sided tape to keep the IPAD in place, and put a screen saver on the part of the screen that was cracked so that it was safeguarded and would not crack anymore! On my return here to Phnom Penh, anytime I used this, many Khmer would comment on the creativity and the low cost of repairing the cracked glass, which by the way is Jesus showing His love to me, because the location of the cracks are at the bottom of the screen, so I can still see clearly to do my work on this!
After 3 months back in the extremely hot conditions here, the double-sided tape began to lose its effect and the top part of the apparatus that holds the IPAD in place began to break off! This is where others here came in to help. When Teacher Pov saw how difficult it was becoming to work on this, he immediately said he had special tape, but we had to get rid of the old one which ironically was so glued to the back of the IPAD but not strong enough to keep it stuck to the key board holder. He was trying to peel it off when Sister Chhoung Sary came in, saw what we were trying to do, and immediately went and got a rag and just took the IPAD and gently began to try to remove the tape!
Sister Sary is one of the two maintenance workers here at the church, the hardest hit economically by the pandemic since now we only use a part of the building (school area and church sanctuary are not being used). There is no school for her children who are usually fed 2 meals at the school, so now she has to prepare three meals for them on a reduced salary. She is one of those who received a blessing package of groceries from YOU, since you all contribute to me financially being here. For thirty minutes she slowly and methodically and carefully removed the sticky backing. Then Pov took me down to the market area and someone else there put a protective plastic on the back of the IPAD for only $2.50 before we repasted the double sided tape. The seller and the customers there were commenting on the creativity of the screen saver and asking about the costs of the keyboard (each of the three customers hazarding the costs of it!). Then we went to another seller in the market who sold phones and accessories and he took a look at the broken part of the keyboard holder and proceeded to glue it so that my IPAD would stand in place when I was using it. He worked on it for 5 -10 minutes, then gave it back to us. When I asked how much the cost was, he said, “No charge!” I am overwhelmed by the generosity of all who gave their time and efforts over this tool. So humbling to me! God provided the help I needed here through others that I am so thankful for!
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| Pastoral Team with Sister Sary on Far Right |
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| Two Maintenance Workers From Church |
- I thank God that I have the space to wash and hang my clothes and sheets! I know that many like my parents are closeted in an apartment with no such ‘luxury’!
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| Hanging Clothes |
- My role has been changing here from teaching in front of the class to helping in the background doing the prep and voice-overs on the educational videos. I am helping with the prep but my Khmer teachers are the faces on the video teaching and being creative with different forms of social media to reach out to the students.It has been exciting to see my fellow Khmer teachers rise up and use social media to communicate the English lessons. Since there is no immediate interaction with the students in the classroom, the hours spent in trying to construct sentences that would accurately but simply reflect the meaning of the words has been challenging and gratifying!
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| Recording English Lessons |
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| My Co-Teachers |
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| After Almost 2 hours of Prep! |
- I get to meet with other ministry leaders now. Pastoral care ministry has grown and since we are now looking after those in immediate financial need, I get to see the generosity of others. I get to help transcribe the blessing experiences of the Khmer recipients for the English speaking ex-pat donors, and I am blessed to get to know those in charge with whom I ordinarily would not have spent so much time!
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| First Dinner Out |
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| First Staff Prayer Meeting After 2 ½ Months! |
- I am humbled to be reminded that my ‘presence’ is sometimes all that is needed here to encourage others! I was told that my energy and cheerfulness always brings a smile! In actuality after being in self-isolation I am SO READY to be in contact with ANYONE that it is easy to radiate such joy! LOL!
- I am thankful for YOU all for your calling in on FT to surprise me. Thank you Meech in Colorado, and to Ian and Ramona who came up with the idea of us watching a TV series together on FT! For the past three Saturday mornings I got to watch with them, coffee and popcorn handy in Phnom Penh as they watched it in Toronto, and yes, on my IPAD!!!!!
- I thank God for the deepening of relationships. Since I cannot go out to meet with many, I can do one on one or invite one or two to my house and spend quality time with them.
- Thankful for Chloe whose picture I will not show since she is only one year old, but her parents Lauren and David have been my online life lines here and to see this little one grow, though social distancing, has made me smile and laugh with her purity and innocence. Thankful to Mel who is in Singapore and cannot return but whose insights and love for her Khmer family here is awe inspiring through her ministry BRAVE!
- Grateful to my own family, Mom and Dad with whom I get to WhatsApp and to my siblings who keep me laughing during this time when I am on my own!
Just before I sign off, I had been having trouble her with the Wi-Fi, as in NO Wi-Fi. The company tech and I were becoming fast friends, since I have been calling every morning for the past 4 days! After the third visit by a technician (each one being sprayed with sanitizer on arrival here much to their surprise!), which happened to be on a Sunday, I decided to watch the worship service on my IPAD (yes!) using the hotspot off my 4G, and figured if the technician was going to stay long as the others, I would play the worship service loudly so that he could hear it as well and go to church with me! So I did! THE WORD was being presented in rhythmic form as well as SPOKEN, and as role-modeled by my parents when we had workers come to our house in Trinidad, this tech was given refreshment as he sat and worked on the Wi-Fi!
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| Wi-Fi Guys Listening To Sermon |
Thank you for your continuing support and dancing with me here in my heart country!
Love, His Warrior and Disciple,
Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia,
Your sister, Vidya
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