Cambodia and Me

I am back! Back to blogging. Back from Cambodia. I went to Cambodia this summer with a team from my church who also happen to be some of my closest and dearest friends. We brought 900 lbs of medicines, hygiene items, baby clothes and jewelry making supplies. I was especially excited to visit my friend Holly who I have mentioned before. She runs a home for vulnerable young women in Phnom Penh called ‘The House of Refuge’. 

The rehabilitated girls at Refuge make jewelry to raise funds to live without ever having to return to their old lives which usually involved sex trafficking. Unfortunately it is the norm for the poor people to sell their young daughters to pay off family debt. Holly rescues girls from different places, but one way is street outreaches. This is when you go out at night to the red light areas, speak to the girls, and offer them a new life.

Much prostitution centers around the temples, such as this one. We split up to cover more ground, each of us had a Khmer (Cambodian) girl from Refuge to translate. The girls who are rescued are so brave and eager to go out to the brothels and streets to help others. One girl did come home with us that night, which was beautiful. My heart broke though for the countless girls who didn’t.

My favorite place has got to be the province of Kampong Cham. I fell in love with the place and the people. They are living in a kind of poverty that we don’t know here in the US. This is a small “village” that is actually the dump. The garbage trucks dump the trash, the people here sort it and the trucks pick it up another day and pay them a pittance.

Such Beautiful children! Dirty and scarred from playing in the trash, but ever eager to flash you a playful smile. They are malnourished and are in great need of clean water and medicine. We hooked up with a local church that makes weekly visits to bring food and supplies. For these people the church is their lifeline.

This beautiful woman was left in the dump by her children. She lived through the Khmer Rouge. I asked her how she survived, I know they killed everyone who had a defect and she is blind. She says they spared her because she could cook! Everywhere we went we heard amazing stories like this. I so badly wanted to take her home, take care of her, and hear all of her stories. 

We got the word out that we would be having a medical outreach at the church near the dump. Many people came, for 6 hours we nonstop served the people. I was helping out my friend Jodi who is a chiropractor, she told me where to rub, massage or tap. She had 5 tables set up with patients and a long line out the door! It was hot and I should have been exhausted, but it wasn’t that bad. Once you get a patient you just want to do anything to help. Many people walked away who hadn’t walked in years! Crooked people stood and walked! 

Jodi said never in her practice would one treatment cause results like that. It was all God. We prayed with and for all the people we treated. Many people renounced Buddhism and walked out with Jesus after witnessing his power. Truly amazing!

We were able to get into a prison and a hospital. The Aids Ward at the hospital was my most horrible memory, it just makes you feel so helpless. I didn’t take any pictures because I think it wrong. We asked them if they wanted prayer, that we could give them. 

At the prison we had to leave everything electronic at the gate, all phones, cameras. Pictures are a no-no. They offered the prisoners the choice to come talk to us, sing with us and study the bible. We also brought gift bags of hygiene products.

It was all emotionally and physically draining, but great! I definitely want to go back and stay longer. I continue to support my friends who are full time missionaries with encouragement and finances. They are doing amazing, life changing work and it is not easy!

Yes, it is very hot and humid and it floods… There are bugs. I even ate some. (Yep)

But, Cambodia is one great adventure that I highly recommend. You will overlook the uncomfortable parts because the people will touch your heart and hopefully you will be able to touch theirs. 

My daughter's Cambodian Adventure HERE

Baby Owls and a Green Jacket

A couple of weeks ago my 11yo daughter began making plans. Those plans included a friend sleeping over, bike riding and a picnic. A REAL picnic. "Like in books. Not just taking food out of a bag", she told me. Her "real" picnic involved a wicker basket filled with specific foods and most important...no plastic containers.

Last week the sleepover-picnic day arrived and it SNOWED. Just a bit, but enough to put a damper on the idea of outdoor dining. "I defy you snow! We will picnic!", I roared. The kids laughed and we proceeded with our plans.

I made and packed the required foods: tea sandwiches with tomato butter, freshly baked buns, hot dog octopuses, strawberry lemonade, hot tea, popcorn, and chocolate candy. While the octopi were frying I went to put the bike rack on the car.

It started raining. 
My hands were wet and cold, the bike rack kept slipping. I stomped back into the house..."I defy you rain! We will have our picnic" Now the kids were more skeptical. With hard rain coming down and full wicker basket in tow, we were on our way.

 I had heard there was a mama Great Horned Owl with three babies in a park near us. We headed down there.  My 15yo daughter optimistically said that we could eat under the pavilion if it was still raining. She was wearing a jacket of mine. Green wool, military style, a little too big for her. She went on to say that she wants a jacket styled like mine, but for summer.

"I want a green light weight jacket with pockets for summer, but my size."

When we pulled into the park it was obvious where those owls were. People were congregating around two trees with very large cameras. They pointed out the owls to us, speaking in excited yet hushed tones. The mama had her eyes on us, you could feel it. She was majestic, the babies were fluffy and adorable. Everyone seemed to feel this was a very special thing indeed.

We had our picnic while the sky alternated between cold drizzle and sunshine. All was well until the violent wind and hail began. By the time I packed everything up the hail had stopped and the kids were walking down the beach looking for treasure. 

I followed a few paces behind them until I came upon this cross. As I stood there looking at it, listening to the sound of the waves it started to rain again.  
I thought, "It rains on the just and the unjust". 
 Life giving rain. We are all dead without it.  

And then I laughed at myself for "defying" the rain! I knew in that moment that Jesus completely understood the silliness of me, and I knew that he would continue to shower me with his life forever. World without end. 

I looked at the people standing in the rain under the owl tree. Gathered to get a glimpse of...what? Is it a couple of birds in a tree that gives us that instant communion with each other? The childlike eyes filled with wonder? The hushed reverent tone of our speech? On the surface maybe.  We are all grasping after new life. Life we know we don't deserve. 
Communion with our Creator. 
Creation from Nothing.

Eventually the children decided it was time to go home. As we made our way back to the car they spied a playground and started pleading for more time. My teen continued on to the car, she was eager to categorize her beach findings and write in her journal. I agreed to some playground time for the other two. I told them I would sit on a bench and knit until the rain became too much.

As I approached the bench I could see something green and crumpled laying on it. 

"A green light weight jacket with pockets for summer, but her size!"

YES, there it was! I held it up...green, pockets, shoulder tabs. I read and reread the tag... J Crew, too small for me, just her size!

 I sat there in the rain knitting with the green jacket beside me. I couldn't wait to show my lilly of the field her new jacket.

Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  "But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you?

prayer hat

A good friend of mine is fighting an aggressive cancer. A couple of weeks ago she was telling me how she was going to start very strong chemo and her hair was most likely going to fall out. In the two decades that I have known her I have always been struck by two things when she walks into a room: her long-legged height and her thick long brown hair. When she told me about her hair I tried to not let my face react the way my heart felt. I know that in the grand scheme of things hair does not matter. But, it is the needle on the haystack of a series of already unbearable things.

As soon as she said she would lose her hair this exact hat popped into my mind. The style, the color, the fit. It was all there. I knew I had to make it. Four days later I was sending it off to her. It also happened to be her birthday. 

She called me yesterday. She has been feeling lousy from the chemo and yes, she did lose her hair. She loves the hat, it's the hat she has been looking for. She found one on etsy but it wasn't right. She said she never takes if off because her wig looks bad without it. I feel like this hat was a gift from God to my friend. I just had to follow a path that was already laid. 

I  prayed for healing through every stitch I knit. 

Would you please say a prayer for my friend?