#240 - Behind the Scenes in a Red Zone Lockdown!

Vol.# 240

 

In the midst of your third deadly COVID-19 wave in Canada and our first wave here in Cambodia, specifically Phnom Penh, I want to share some praiseworthy ‘tings’.

PRAISE: I had asked for creative ways to reach out, to connect with others here so that we can be His hands, His feet and most importantly, His heart to those within the church and to those not yet ‘in the church’!

- As we are in lockdown, we can travel within our areas, so with my usual tuk tuk driver as my sidekick, I did ‘tuk tuk drive-bys prayer and grocery deliveries’! I found out from some friends that groceries were needed, so when I went to drop them, I prayed with them, and I prayed over them.

STREETS DURING CURFEW IN THE CITY

 

- As I was going down the streets, I noticed that the police had blocked off the market area. This is where most Khmer bought their daily provisions and where the poorer Khmer earned their money from the sales. Well Khmer are creative. They set up tables in front of their houses, or little carts, and were selling the meat and produce from there! I marvel at this opportunity some took to not see the ‘door being closed’, but rather a new door being opened for them to earn a living!

DIGGING INTO GARBAGE TO GET RECYCLABLES TO SELL. MANY IN NEED!

 
- With certain areas entering the ‘red zone’ within which most of our congregants and staff at New Life Fellowship live, the leadership decided to invite all to join in a Friday night ‘connecting time’. This was set up 2 hours prior to ZOOM time, and over 100 people joined in. The people were so eager to connect and I laughed as I listened to their teasing and joking around. For me, a follower of Jesus Christ is all about relationships, my relationship with JESUS being the most important of all. That emotional and spiritual connection goes to the core of the soul. The leadership under Lokru Samdy recognized this, so on Friday 30th we are all invited to have dinner together online! I love it! I immediately thought of Jesus feeding the 5000, and here we will be ‘supping together’, not only physically eating (and comparing what each of us has prepared for dinner!), but also connecting emotionally and spiritually. We would then go into our break-out rooms to more intimately check in on each other!

FRIDAY NIGHT CONNECTION TIME

- I got a call asking me to drop a pin for my location on Google map (some of you will be VERY surprised to find out I can actually do that!). Imagine my surprise when I waited in front of my house to see this person coming on a moto bike and waving at me. When he stopped I realized it was the senior pastor from NLF! A member of our church owns a food delivery company, and since only food deliveries are allowed to come through the barriers, Lokru Samdy asked to be a volunteer worker, so riding on the company’s motorbike and getting an ID, he is able to travel to get deliveries out to those who need it! CREATIVITY INDEED! Again he along with the HR team and others have been working tirelessly to serve their community and I have been blessed to be a part of this!

LOKRU SAMDY DELIVERING FOOD SUPPLIES

 
- Since I am part of the elder portion of the community here, it is usually expected for me to be the one to reach out. Again this was turned around by one of the ministries I am involved with. My younger sister not only is making sure we are okay by daily sending out messages enquiring of our health etc., but this same younger sister is from Rescue, the orphanage where I first worked at back in 2015! This makes me smile but I realize once again it is all about connecting, not just waiting to connect but reaching out to connect with someone especially when one is feeling isolated!

BLESSING PACKAGES: YOUR SUPPORT LEADS ME TO SUPPORT OTHERS!

 
- “Bong! Bong! Are you home?” I was startled because well, where was I going since we are in lockdown? This was the question on the phone to me. It was my tuk tuk driver. He asked me to meet him downstairs at the door. He came on his bicycle to bring a watermelon that his wife had bought for me! He knew that I had wanted that but on Saturday when we went out we could not get any! I was touched. I asked how much it cost because I wanted to reimburse him, but he said, “No, Bong Srey, this is our gift to you!” He was touched when he received a surprise cake from me 3 days prior from the bakery! I could hear his whole family laughing and chatting in the background when he called to say ‘thank you’! It was the first time they received a gift like that from a foreigner! 

- “Vidya, Vidya where are you?” NO, it was not Jesus calling me as he was calling Samuel, but Sister Liep and Bro. Krong dropping by to check up on me escaping from their area! Well, they were allowed through, but it all depends on which police are on guard and whom you know! So after 20 minutes of chatting and quick prayer, they were on their way again with extra groceries and food. I had doubled up on praying and hoping they would not be in any trouble with the police! FYI, here the police are carrying ‘whips’ and some of the people who have broken curfews have been beaten!

BRO. KRONG AND LIEP'S IMPROMPTU VISIT

Prayer Requests: 

- Please pray that I would be even more disciplined in my morning rooftop time with Jesus. This time it is more crucial than ever to be in intercessory prayer mode. Most of the leaders are getting tired with ZOOM calls and having to be ‘on’ 24/7. Before, your hours of work were clearly established. One of my roles is to be their support and I can only do that when I myself meet with Him to hear His voice. Please pray that I would not say one word less or one word more than what God is leading me to say.

- As of last night my area is now designated ‘red’. So I pray for God to show me how to truly be His within this red zone. I am blessed to have a fridge with food stocked up, and a place where I can go up on the rooftop to get a reprieve. However, many who live in dorm-like conditions, or with multi-generations do not have that space, and in a red zone even going out on the streets to walk and exercise will be curtailed!

 
- Pray for favor even as I go within this area to buy vegetables from the local vendor. It is a win-win when I can support them, give money to the tuk tuk driver for his family, and be able to tuk tuk prayer for many!

 
FYI: coming soon on a worship service near you! I was officially commissioned by the pastoral /elder leadership of RAC on ZOOM. I had asked my accountability team and community here to be a part of this, so the senior leader and his wife from NLF church, Pastor of Church Planting and his wife, the Director of Bible Society Cambodia and his wife, the Exec. Director of Prison Fellowship Cambodia, my expat community, and the Director of BRAVE ministry were able to join. The Country Director of Global Leadership Network Cambodia was in the USA in quarantine and could not join in time, but I wanted to show those I am accountable to here to those I am spiritually accountable to in Canada! Thank you to all for your precious time and Bro. Ken Hassanally for his amazing prayer and charge over me, and also Bro. George Repetski for his prayer over my Khmer leadership here!

COMMISSIONING

 

I know how exhausted many of you are in back in Canada with things worsening there. Please know you are all in my prayers. I pray for you to know that His Presence is on you, next to you. He goes before you and is behind you. In the midst of it all I dance here in spite of visible reality, because I know that my Dance Instructor/Partner is the One Who is in charge of it all! 

Love to you and please continue to send in your prayer requests! 

Love, His Warrior and Disciple, 

Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia, 

Your sister, Vidya  

#239 - Lockdown Opportunities: Meetings and Cakes!

 Vol.# 239

 

It is a muggy morning here in Phnom Penh. 

NEW A/C AS TEMPERATURE GOES UP TO LATE 90'S HERE, HOTTER WITH HUMIDITY!

The numbers keep going up for COVID-19, so much so, that we are under curfew from 8pm to 6am. Certain neighbourhoods, where the factory workers live in dorm-like housing and where some have tested positive for COVID-19, have been ordered into lockdown. Here it is taken very seriously with the police or the army coming in to stand guard at the entrance/exits of certain neighborhoods. Even now as we are celebrating the Khmer New Year from 13-16th of April, a time of travelling for most Khmer, leaving the city to go to the countryside or the beach, we have been ordered to stay in Phnom Penh (the city). No one can come in either from the other provinces. So it is a subdued kind of celebration. Yet in the midst of all of this, HE is working more powerfully and has gone beyond our borders into the far reaches of not only Cambodia but also to the rest of the world! How can this be, you ask? The internet and social media! More than ever, we have had to adjust not only our thinking of what is ‘church’, but how to be creative and BE the church to others! 

Staff meetings are still on every Tuesday mornings from 8 to 11. Each ministry gives an account of how they have been connecting to our members while at the same time reaching out to others.

 

Prayer Request: Please pray that my concentration remains strong as it is all in Khmer and after an hour or so of focusing, my mind starts to waver.

 

One of the gems that has arisen out of this pandemic time is the need to reach out to those who need our help emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Normally ‘soul care’ is not a topic addressed here within the Khmer culture, but because of this time, seminars and FB postings from within the church community are being highlighted! I was blessed to join a 3-hour seminar on depression, anxiety, soul care and God’s perspectives on these issues sponsored by our church here and taught by 2 amazing Khmer Christian women! 

 

OVER 75 JOINED IN THIS SEMINAR

Prayer Request: Please pray that those who need the help would have been released by this seminar to reach out. There is a negative stigma still attached to those who are having difficulty coping with the realization that now COVID-19 is not only about loss of jobs and financial stability, but also that one can die from this. Deaths have risen to 30 here, a small number compared to Ontario, but within the infrastructure here this is alarming! 

Every Friday from 10-11(though sometimes it may go to 11:15 or so), I ‘meet’ with the Executive Director of Prison Fellowship online and we discuss the Bible, and pray. I get to listen and am learning how to ask the right questions so that both of us can grow deeper in God, of course with lots of laugher in between our conversations as well!

FRIDAY MORNING MEETING WITH EXEC. DIRECTOR OF PRISON FELLOWSHIP OF CAMBODIA

Global Leadership Network Cambodiais growing at a fast pace. On April 29^th, we have a meeting online with our counterparts from this side of the ocean, home base being Singapore. On May 5th there is another regional meeting preparing us for a May 26th mini seminar online, and an onsite (we hope we can meet!) seminar on August 6-8^th, where our team here will watch and rate speakers who are relevant to the Khmer experience, which we would like to present on our country seminar in September!

 
Sunday morning seminar:I am co-hosting with Bro. Pheareak. It has become apparent that it is not only good that we know and are able to understand from the Khmer perspective how they view Christians, but also how important to know where each one of us stands on ‘justification’, ‘sanctification’ and the importance of understanding His Word and seeing how the Old Testament is a continuum into the New Testament. As I listen, I realize that all of us do not have the same perspective on certain issues, which is problematic if we have influence over our Khmer brothers and sisters! 

SUNDAY MORNING SEMINAR: KHMER PERSPECTIVES ON CHRISTIANITY

Prayer Request: Please pray that as Oun (younger brother) Pheareak facilitates, I am able to help him with class management/control via messaging, so I can help him to get to the main points of the lessons, and not have one or more persons take over the class to get their views aired! The Khmer are so gracious and will let a person talk, but we have to keep within the structure of the lessons and to respect each other’s time as we also have to join in one of the worship services as well.

Praise: God has shown Himself to be the God who will do things in His way. I went to the local Health Clinic here in my neighborhood to see if I could get the vaccine. Lokru (teacher) Krong, who is the Assistant Director to New Life Foundation, was going to come to help, but the night before, not only did his neighbourhood go into lockdown, but also the area surrounding the church! God allowed my tuk tuk driver to become my angel. He helped to speak with the guards and doctor at the clinic and was told what paperwork I needed. I relayed this to Lokru Krong and his wife Liep. Within an hour, we had a group chat established called ‘Vaccination”. HR from the church was getting someone to get the paperwork done in Khmer. Then my driver had to go to the lockdown area and at the ‘border’ of the neighbourhood, they handed over the document. 

KHMER PAPERWORK FOR VACCINE

We headed off to the clinic where we found favor and I was given a number to get the vaccine. However, when I got there it was the vaccine Sinopharm that is for the younger ones because supplies of Sinovac and the Astra vaccine were finished. So for the next 2 days I got up early to go across town to different hospitals we were guided to by the government, but each time they were only giving the vaccine for the second dose! You may be wondering why I named this part ‘praise’? Well, the paperwork was accomplished IN LOCKDOWN, the group chat was made up of the leadership only from the church who were praying and encouraging me each step of the way as they themselves have already received the first dose of the vaccine, and my tuk tuk driver hopefully got to see me, the foreigner, respond and not react in a spirit of entitlement when I could not get the vaccine! I got to see my community here rise up to help me: FYI, the HR had given my name to Ministry of Health, but was told ‘in process‘ when they double-checked with them.  In other updates from the government social media’s posts, they were saying I could go in myself to get the vaccine if I had the paperwork! So I wait for God’s timing for the vaccine that He wants me to get!

 
SO what does one do in this time where one is in lockdown/curfew and cannot go anywhere? One sends out cakes! Yes! I wanted to support a local Khmer bakery Coincidentally the young owners are from my church, and in collaboration with them, I ordered cakes and sent them out for Khmer New Year! I have included pics of them!

The yellow cake is a traditional Khmer cake design. I sent it to my landlady who was so surprised to get it as I was told that they should give me, the foreigner, a gift. But God told me no, that I should be gifting them.

 
I have seen the rise of COVID-19 rates not only in Ontario but the rest of Canada, and I am in prayer as lockdown continues there and in some areas intensifies! Please know that you are in my prayers! I thank you for your continued financial and prayer support for His work here. You are my dance partners here in Cambodia. We continue to send out ‘blessing packages‘ to those in need here, and I thank you for your sacrificial giving! I love hearing your stories as we do this dance of life together and I continue to be your prayer partner, so please send in your prayer requests! 

Love, His Warrior and Disciple, 

Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia, 

Your sister, Vidya