Vol.# 266
A Blessed Christmas to one and all!
YES! I AM BACK in Toronto, and NO, I did not bring the snowstorm!
Thankfully I got in just before it started. I want to thank all of you who prayed for safety and good seatmates on the flight. We had an hour and 20 minutes delay in Phnom Penh and an hour and half delay in Seoul, but we got in with luggage intact at Pearson. My seatmates, a young couple from Mississauga, stayed after they retrieved their own luggage to help me get my luggage from the carousel! I am so grateful to my own family here for the warm welcome back and to you whom I saw at church last Sunday! It has been 3 years since I have been physically on site, and it was a bit emotional as memories came flooding in of time spent at RAC!
At my local church in Phnom Penh, New Life Fellowship Cambodia, the focal point of the Christmas decorations was a HUGE gift box! Three weeks ago I was a bit disappointed when I walked in early on Sunday and saw this huge gift box centrally positioned in the lobby. We as a staff had been trying to change people’s perspectives on the reason for the season, which was NOT gifts and presents! However, those who planned knew and understood their own Khmer culture. So many came to take pictures and selfies and were posting them on social media! Then the box was slowly being turned each week. On the second week the message was that we were part of the presents, people themselves, relationships and families. Many were urged to take pics of their families, friendships, and cell groups. On the last Sunday I was there, the box was fully turned to reveal a crèche. The cradle with the straw was in it, and I know that this Sunday it would be fully revealed with the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and the wise men! I thought it was a brilliant way of truly reflecting on the REAL REASON FOR THE SEASON! We went from the fanfare of the wrappings, to the relationships, to the core of Christmas which is Jesus coming to earth as a babe for us. God then gave me little gifts that were more tangible and worth more to me than any physical gift could have because it was only Jesus who knew what was in my heart!
This began with the 5P’s Christmas get together! Again as I was leaving earlier than most of the dates of small gatherings among the ministries, our group decided to celebrate before I left! Usually we would go out for a special dinner and take a gift to be exchanged! This time, the decision was a day trip to the beach! I was overwhelmed since I had been praying and asking God if it was possible that I could go to the beach to get a reprieve from the city before coming back for Christmas! I had not been out of the city for over a year! As I had told no one but Jesus of this desire, I knew this was His special gift specifically for me! Oh the joy of it all! We had never done our Christmas gatherings like this before! So off we went on the new beautiful highway that was just completed for the Economic Conference of world leaders. A trip that would have taken 4-5 hours on a bumpy dusty road only took 2 hours on a smooth road with beautiful landscaping along the highway to be viewed! The weather was perfect, the water warm and salty and the bbq we did on the beach was delicious!
There were 2 activities that we did that day that stood out to me and goes back to the heart gifts of the season. In the van as we began our trip, we got to choose a name and for that day we were to be ‘angels’ for that person but to act in a way that was anonymous so that at the end of the day as we travelled back in the van, we had to guess who our angel was! So we had to know the love language of that person in order to truly be their angel! The next activity was that our leader gave each of us a big sheet of paper that we stuck on each other’s back and then we got to write something positive about that person on the sheet! Since we were writing on each other’s back, it was anonymous who wrote what! I tried to capture in a photo what was written, taking into account English is not the first language of all my team members, and also that it is difficult to write on someone’s back while standing up! Again, it was a tangible gift, and though the words and actions cost nothing in dollars, it is priceless and I am blessed!
Another usual prayer I had as I left to go to the airport was that God would bring those in whom He wants me to invest in the upcoming new year. Unexpectedly three of my former students from Rescue came to see me off, and I got the opportunity to not only pray for Oun Sreyleak, Visal’s wife who is now 5 months pregnant, but also they all in turn prayed over me AT THE AIRPORT! The leader of the 5P’s came, Lokru Pheatra, and the other Oun Sreyleak, who is another former student who is studying the life of Abraham, came with another former student who is now a new member of the 5Ps’ group! Lauren, my friend and former classmate from Khmer language studies and now part of my community in Phnom Penh graciously drove me to the airport (sorry, no pics of her!). It was a God-given gift to be able to pray over this couple, and I love that no one is self-conscious to be prayed over in public especially as this young wife is young in the faith!
Can I encourage so many of you that in this season, maybe it is that ‘word’ or phone call or smile rather than the physical gift/present that is worth more than the dollar gift itself? You know that love language of those in your circle, as GOD gave us the ultimate gift, His SON, He captured all of our love languages into ONE, Jesus the Christ!
Have a Blessed Christmas and I pray I get a chance to see many of you face to face!
Love, His Warrior and Disciple,
Submitting to be His Dance partner here in Cambodia,
Your sister, Vedya
