#193 - Fluctuating power; a trip to Vietnam; and a Saturday faith!

Vol.# 193

HE IS RISEN! Blessed RESURRECTION Day! 

This greeting may be late after the official dates, but this is what I awake to each day, thanking God that HE not only chose to die for me (in spite of who I am when nobody else is looking) in order to give me access to Him and everlasting life, but that He also chose me to be part of His plan on earth, thus giving me purpose and value! Yay! That is why I can dance with Him!

I just spent 45 minutes looking for a ‘cool’ uncrowded place with power! This morning the power went one hour earlier than normal. Usually if it goes, it will go at 8:30, so I plan accordingly. We lose power every day, but it changes from no power during the morning one day to no power on the afternoon on the consecutive day. Yesterday was the worst for me. I had left home by 7-ish in morning so I did not know whether or not we would have power. I had my meetings and lunch with the teaching staff, only to return home to find no power and the water in the shower so hot that I could not shower!

I had gone on a 4-day tour with my friend Annette to Vietnam thinking it would be refreshing and a retreat. But hey, the word ‘tour’ means you are on a schedule and on a bus surrounding by people 24/7! The 3 families we were with were Khmer and wonderfully boisterous and entertaining! Once I readjusted my expectations I was able to join in the experience that I knew that God had provided. However the first day would have been rated a 0 on the travel experience on the second leg of the journey. However, once I voiced my opinion to ‘said’ tour guides, I was good to go! In fact, I became ‘big sister’ to the Vietnamese tour guide, Mr. Hae and our Khmer tour guide, Mr. Bopha. 

 

TOUR GROUP TO VIETNAM

It was on the third day when one of the young girls from our tour group came up to me and asked ‘Are you a Christian?’ I said yes. She said she attended a Christian school in Phnom Penh and had received Christ, but she was the only one in her family! Her parents and the parents of the other families wanted to know where we taught so that Annette and I could be their teachers! I had a few “God conversations” with this young girl and the rest of the group who spoke in Khmer and English. However, because I was trying to understand what they were saying in order to communicate, I did not get a ‘break’, so my mind was not rested. However, I am truly grateful to have shared this adventure with Annette who so generously provided this as her gift to me!

My heart goes out to my brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka over the bombings and the killings there. I pray for His grace and strength over all of them as well as to my Sri Lankan community in Toronto.

Praise: We have had some upheavals in our church here, but through this God has brought about ‘real’ conversations about trust in God and not in man; about accountability; and about being able to honestly talk about feelings. This goes against the cultural experience here, a legacy from the Pol Pot regime about not being vulnerable and open with others. The church is going through a ‘shake-up’ that can only lead to a deeper relationship with God

Prayer: The heat is sometimes making it impossible to focus. Please pray for His refreshing breath to be upon me so that I can be creative and focused. Semester 2 begins on May 2^nd, so now we are preparing lessons and doing placement tests. My schedule is that I teach in the mornings starting from 8, which means I leave home at 7 to beat the traffic. I have 2 classes in the morning, which were created especially for me to teach Conversational English and Office Skills training. I am praying for God to breathe life into the content so that it will excite the students and enable them to learn. 

Prayer: I am still on the lookout for new place to live. So please keep in persevering prayer for me please! I just had to get all 3 air conditioning units cleaned and fixed up but other things need maintenance here, and the landlord is not responsible for this. In our rental contract it says that the tenant has to pay for all things here even though we did not break it. The landlord came to fix the tiles and in fixing it they broke it, but in the end the tenant is responsible for paying for it! Channak, my housemate, knows repairmen, so he has to call and get them to come in to repair etc. I am blessed to be here at this house for a season, so I will wait upon Him for the next suitable ‘home’!

Last note: 

I have been listening to many speakers via YouTube, notably Nabeel Qureshi who so lovingly spoke of his relationship with Jesus but who now is seeing His Saviour face to face. My faith grows stronger and I am in awe of how Jesus draws each one of us to His heart. For Bro. Nabeel, it was in his dreams and then through the love of a university roommate. Then one other author talked about the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday; the day when it is anti climatic. On Friday they were witnessing and grieving Jesus being crucified with the adrenalin and intense emotions of suffering. Then Saturday comes and it is when you become drained emotionally. Your hope seems to have gone. Do we still trust in God? Do we rest on our emotions and use our emotions as a basis to make unwise decisions? I had never thought about the ‘Saturday’ before. My focus was on Good Friday and then Resurrection Day! I thought about the ‘Saturdays’ we are experiencing here with the ‘shake-up’ and Saturday really being our testing of faith time. I am grateful for His Word that keeps my faith strong. I am so humbly grateful that I have access to His Word in so many translations, but more than that for His Holy Spirit who is the ultimate interpreter and translator of words and feelings! 

 

Love, His Warrior and Disciple, 

Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia, 

Your sister, Vidya