Vedya's Tings!: #247 - The Re-opening and a Dress with a Train!

Vol.# 247

Good morning from sunny Phnom Penh!

It is a holiday today celebrating Cambodia’s independence from France and it is lovely to be at home without rushing out to go to work! As I sit here and think over the past 3 weeks, the pace of life has definitely picked up with Cambodia officially being reopened with schools, churches and businesses back on track! Our leadership at New Life Foundation decided to do a ‘soft’ opening 2 weeks ago for all of our volunteers! So we set up the chairs with the required social distancing and had 3 services, each service time honouring different ministries within the church. It was beautiful to see all of the volunteers, being prayed over, and worshipping God so freely, happy to be back together, reconnecting with each other on site as opposed to social media and then at the end of each session, eating together! The theme of giving thanks and celebrating GOD’s hand over us, during the difficult time of the pandemic, acknowledging the new normal within COVID-19, praising God for His guidance over all and the land of Cambodia!

PREPARING THE CHURCH FOR REOPENING

NAME TAGS FOR VOLUNTEERS

CELEBRATING VOLUNTEERS

VOLUNTEERS EATING TOGETHER

EACH MINISTRY MEETING TO PRAY FOR EACH OTHER

Let us switch over to the celebration of the wedding of Oun Pheareak and Oun Mey! Oun Pheareak led the Life Guideline classes for the native and non-native speakers and he is one of the younger brothers God has put into my life as one of my mentees! We celebrated his wedding at a BBQ restaurant because the government had not yet said yes to churches being opened to a large number. At the restaurant, with the booth type seating, we were able to have a small worship ceremony (no singing, no dancing!) but a time of communion and blessing by the pastors over this couple!

I was chuckling because there I was at the bank right after the reception with my long dress with the train saying sorry to everyone when it got in their way, or when someone stepped on it by accident! I was wondering if I should go home to change before going back out to do my errands, but then I decided against it to be practical since the bank and grocery were on my way home, and I would save on tuk tuk costs! So my tuk tuk driver was helping me to get out of the tuk tuk with the train and as I stood in the line at the bank, I got many stares but I also was pulled out of the line and got VIP service! Then I went to the grocery, where I had to hold the train with one hand and push the shopping cart with the other! It had been about 2 years since I got that new dress. Melodia had taken me to a discount dress store in Willowdale and had picked out that dress with her keen eye and then insisted on buying it for me. I know that she would be chuckling now if she could see me finally wearing it all over the city in a tuk tuk!

WITH BRIDE AND GROOM AND OUN PISEY

DRESS WITH TRAIN

Project 5P’s: It began as an information gathering time for the booklet which introduced each of the ministries from New Life Foundation church to visitors, to one where I had to put my pen down and listen to the heart of each one sharing about their ministry with the highs and the lows. A supposedly 30-minute interview sometimes turned into a 2-hour heart sharing time. Oun Sreylin from HR is the one with whom I am editing and sharing information with. It is a joy to work with someone who not only loves her work but is also wise enough to wait on the leaders of each ministry to share their personal vision without writing something that is not from their hearts. It would be easier to just write down anything, especially as we have a time limit to get this booklet out, but we wanted to be true to each of the ministries’ leaders. The booklet will be in English and Khmer and hopefully I will be able to get one to show to all of you in person!

Opening of the church: Our day began at 7 in the morning, which meant that I had to leave my house by 6:40 to get to the church on time. When I got there exactly at 7, there were already many other people setting up their ministries. I quickly went to the back where I was helping with the preparation for communion, where we cut up the bread and put into small plastic bags, poured the grape juice into little containers with covers, a total of 500 for the first 2 services, then had to do an extra 150 for the evening service! I was able to join the first service at 8 then switched to the information desk at 10:30 for the second service, greeting many and making sure the non-native speakers had translation service set up on their phones! I left there around 6:30 in evening as the last service was going on, glad to be with the teams until the ‘end’ of the day.

I did contemplate going home after the second service but after finding out that help was needed for the last service, I decided to stay and was in tears to hear one of the maintenance workers, the main cleaner at the church, say to Oun Aly who I was assisting that ‘Bong Srey Vidya’ has been your helper all day, she knows how to help even if she is a foreigner! I felt even more thankful when this same Khmer sister was able to correct the way I was doing something to be more efficient! This to me meant that I was accepted as ‘family’ since usually they would not say anything but keep quiet if a non-native was not doing something in the correct way and they would then do it again when the person went away! I was glad that the leadership learnt from the last time and kept the services to 2 in the morning and one in the evening as opposed to 3 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon to accommodate the numbers allowed by the government in the previous season! This meant we were able to rest for a longer time (we put the chairs together and slept in the a/c sanctuary!) and were refreshed for the third service!