When I hear the sound of rain, I remember my childhood days back in Trinidad and I feel a sense of comfort and happiness. I remember working at Place of Rescue and finishing class early when the rain began so that we could all go out to play and even shampoo our hair in the rain, because usually it is so hot and we never have enough water!
However for the past few weeks whenever I hear the sound of the rain, I feel a sense of dread for I know what that means for so many here in Cambodia. It means flooding, loss of livestock, loss of livelihood, and loss of life! The following pictures speak for themselves and I ask you to pray for the land of Cambodia please!
FLOODING AT PLACE OF RESCUE 11
However, in the midst of the rain, we have used the water that has been filling up in the dams and ponds to perform baptisms! Out of these dire circumstances we had baptisms in one of our satellite plant churches in the countryside!
With the rains came a loss of power last Sunday when I went to join the church services in one of our smaller church plants in Toul Sang Kai. Yet we did church with the worship singer, a guitar and a beat box! It was moving and inspiring to see the whole church filled (with COVID seating), and to hear the voices raised in worshipping our Lord!
Thank you for joining me in praying for my heart country of Cambodia!
And yes, I will return on November 17th, and will quarantine for 2 weeks at the duplex, but more of that in my other update. I want the focus to be on praying for Cambodia right now.
Love, His Warrior and Disciple,
Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia,
As I am about to write my latest update here in the office, determined not to be distracted, I look up and watch as one of the staff tenderly picks up the plant which is on his desk, and carefully looks at each leaf and then puts water in the plant pot. One word comes to mind, 'ថែរក្សា' which means to look after, to take care of. As I look back down on my IPad, this same staff member, Oun (younger brother) Reaksmey, comes up to me and says, “Bong (older sister) Vidya, I want to give you this pen!" Oun Reaksmey will be leaving his job at the church to go with his family back to his hometown to live and to look after his parents who have been asking him to come back home. Oun R is married now with 2 kids and could not go since his wife was a 'city girl'! So he waited and prayed. A couple of months ago when they were at his hometown on a visit, his wife told him that she wanted to live there! I looked at him and again said to him 'ថែរក្សា''. He is indeed going to look after his elderly parents who are not yet followers of Jesus Christ. He has waited for and looked after his wife and kids in the city and has been faithful in his calling to look after those God had given to him here, and now will now embark on a new season! I got the opportunity to pray with him and started to write my report!
What a busy 3 weeks this has been! I had the opportunity to help the country leader of Global Leadership Seminar Cambodia facilitate a workshop to leaders from diverse business sectors including a conglomerate, insurance, medicine, real estate, education, architecture. They got to hear speakers of influence from around the globe, from a Christian and non-Christian perspective, speaking on integrity within the workplace, time management, and how failure is really an opportunity to do something else etc. We had chosen around 12 speakers whom we thought would be easily understood in a Khmer context and would not be too hard to translate into the Khmer language. The first workshop was on site at the business headquarters with 35 attendees, only 2 of whom were Christians. We quickly recognized that the room was not conducive for discussions since it was difficult to view the screen (the seminar was not live but on screen) and then rearrange the chairs for group discussions. The head of the conglomerate recognized this and switched the workshop to a new arena, the Himawari hotel. Instead of doing one morning of seminars, they asked us to combine the 2 following sessions into one day! So we began at 8 and ended at 5 after handing out certificates of participation. In the midst of this we had our first church openings, with 6 services, each 30 minutes in duration according to the government regulations!
GLS Attendees: Elder (without mask) and his PA
GLS Workshop and Certificate Ceremony
GLS Workshop
With the GLSCAMBODIA, the COVID precautions were simpler, the wearing of masks, the disinfecting of hands and temperature checks. Those who were meeting were already their own 'bubble'! With the church services, it was different!
Can I now take some time to say thank you to you at RAC for training me in the coordinating of big events like our Easter services with breakfast and the Christmas banquets with Pastor Sam, Jerry and Maggie Ages, Ruby I. and Christine S. being the leads In different areas and also Bert and Jo Anne Van Lange and Sureshmi F. for the annual Garage Sales!
It was and is amazing to see these teams sit and analyze the new COVID seating, the setting up of the registration online/onsite, the barriers to delineate the entry and exit lines, the temperature checks etc. Last Sunday was the second Sunday of restarting our services, and the overseeing team leaders had a banner made up to say, not Welcome Back, but Welcome Home!!
First Sunday: Ready to Re-open! Welcome Desk
Welcome Home!
Each pastor has had to learn to edit and refine each sermon to 15 minutes, the rhythm worship part to 12 minutes with announcements to 3 minutes, and guess what? So far all on time and on target! We have 2 different worship teams on and 2 pastors who do 5 services in Khmer and one pastor who preaches one service in English! For us Sunday begins at 7 in the morning and finishes at 6:30 in the evening. The first Sunday we ALL were on for the full day, but last week we worked in 3 hour shifts. My favourite job on a Sunday is chair ministry (I named it that!). I get to re-position the chairs after each service (we have blue tape on the floor for the setting up of each chair so it is easy to re-position!) and pray over each as I do my section! I shadow Oun Ally and am her chief helper on a Friday going accompanying her to buy extra things needed for Sunday, cleaning the headsets and making sure each is fully charged, to trouble shooting with her on different scenarios and providing solutions together.
Schools have reopened here, but our Skills Training Center at the church has not reopened yet. The government representatives have to go into each school faculty to check to see if COVID precaution measures are in place and to look at the classroom enrolment. Since we are not a school but rather a skills training centre that supplements the school training, we are not a priority yet for re-opening! However our New Life Fellowship School, which has from SK to Grade 10, will be reopened next week. They just got the government approval!
As I continue to write this, I look up to see 2 different staff members staring at me so I immediately look down at what I am wearing to see if anything is wrong. Then I realize maybe I should go and ask how each is doing, so I walk over to one and she wanted to share a prayer request while the other one wanted advice on English wording for a report due. Both were hesitant to approach since I was so focused on my report writing! As I finish this up, the head coordinator of the church onsite services and online services just randomly said to me, “You know, I was thinking of your role here, Bong! And I think it is to take care of us the leaders!” Again the word 'ថែរក្សា'! Don't you love the way God connects things to verify certain things within your heart? Love it! I am grateful to Pastor Sunder and his thoughts on Isaiah 40: 9-11:..mount up with wings as eagles…' I always interpreted this as strength but as I read his words, 'to get perspective', I thought, yes that is also what this season has been about for me: new perspective on my new role in this season here. He has been using me to give new perspectives on COVID -19 scenarios here at New Life Fellowship. How relevant is His Word, how comforting to know that His Word is for all seasons, for all generations and specifically for me ...and for YOU!
My new song on my playlist is King and Country's 'Together'!
Thank you for dancing together with me on this journey!
Love, His Warrior and Disciple,
Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia,
