We have been in our new home nearly two weeks and we have already had the opportunity to host visitors for a total of five nights. After years of feeling quite isolated as an at-home Mum in a foreign culture, I’m loving it!
Our first visitors have been friends who have been living in Cambodia for YEARS, working out in the provinces. They are using their medical and agricultural skills to assist their very needy area through a TB clinic and fish-farming project.
Yet, they have also been active in developing and supporting the local church, running discipleship groups and have most recently established a class for developing leadership / life skills within the next generation.
As I talk with them I am mostly amazed by their ongoing softness towards to the suffering of people, their distress about injustice, and their willingness to give give give.
These very inspirational friends have just started sending their eldest son to Hope International School for his high school education. As they are such a close-knit family, they are planning to visit Phnom Penh every second weekend.
Being so close to school, our extra self-contained level upstairs is perfect for them and they have been able to try it out a number of times over the last two weeks.
They have been incredibly thankful but as our lives connect, our children see the example of their children and we also are reminded of our friends’ example, I am thinking that it is we who should be thankful.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Moving house
Sometimes you just have to trust God that He knows what He’s doing.
Last month when I got the news that we had to move house, I was mildly devastated. I loved our old house. But on the weekend, we moved out with the help of friends and friends of friends.
Once we were all done, one friend commented, “this was the weirdest move ever”. We had moved only three doors down the road to another townhouse at the other end of our block… placing the furniture and boxes in exactly the same places except that it was in the mirror image. After a couple of days of double-takes and disorientation, we have settled in nicely.
Despite my early misgivings, the new house is no hotter than our previous place and the landlord has only been mildly patronising to me. The bathrooms are pretty gross, but a bit of Draino did wonders for clearing out the smells (but the worms continue getting in somehow).
In fact, I have found some great benefits to the new house. The extra floor on top means that our home is mildly cooler as well as providing room for guests (we already had our first visitor last night!). The kids have been making fine use of the spare block next door, climbing trees and getting very very muddy. They are loving the new freedom of a yard.
I would never have moved from my old place, and I was even willing to stay when I found out the day before the big move that the landlord had changed her mind and wanted to sell the place or rent it again.
But God had something better in store for us and I am thankful that He knew how to get me “moving”.
Last month when I got the news that we had to move house, I was mildly devastated. I loved our old house. But on the weekend, we moved out with the help of friends and friends of friends.
Once we were all done, one friend commented, “this was the weirdest move ever”. We had moved only three doors down the road to another townhouse at the other end of our block… placing the furniture and boxes in exactly the same places except that it was in the mirror image. After a couple of days of double-takes and disorientation, we have settled in nicely.
Despite my early misgivings, the new house is no hotter than our previous place and the landlord has only been mildly patronising to me. The bathrooms are pretty gross, but a bit of Draino did wonders for clearing out the smells (but the worms continue getting in somehow).
In fact, I have found some great benefits to the new house. The extra floor on top means that our home is mildly cooler as well as providing room for guests (we already had our first visitor last night!). The kids have been making fine use of the spare block next door, climbing trees and getting very very muddy. They are loving the new freedom of a yard.
I would never have moved from my old place, and I was even willing to stay when I found out the day before the big move that the landlord had changed her mind and wanted to sell the place or rent it again.
But God had something better in store for us and I am thankful that He knew how to get me “moving”.
Home..
Monday, August 11, 2008
How hungry am I?
Five thousand hungry people followed Jesus to a remote place when all He wanted was some “me time” to process the news of His cousin’s murder. With great compassion, He put aside His own needs and healed the sick among them and fed them with a truly meaty miracle (Matt 14:13-21).
Then again in the next chapter, He is healing people on a mountainside when He tells His disciples to feed the crowds because they have been following Him for three days and have nothing to eat. They scrounge together a few loaves and fish and Jesus again feeds them all.
For once, I put myself in the shoes of the crowd. I was amazed that Jesus didn’t rebuke me for being annoying or irresponsible, for not being better prepared for the journey (or a better steward of my resources), for not going home when I'd already been healed.
He knew that it was a deep hunger that drove me to follow Him at a moment’s notice to a remote place. It was hunger for Him, for His touch and His words, that sustained me for three days, camping out with a crowd of sick people, ignoring the hunger pains, the smells and the discomfort. It was hunger for Him that caused me to linger there when I should have headed for home.
He rewarded my spiritual hunger with food that could satisfy my soul and brought healing to my body (as well as dinner!). No rebuke. Only great compassion, healing and provision.
All this He has for me if I follow Him singularly, hungrily, daily…
Then again in the next chapter, He is healing people on a mountainside when He tells His disciples to feed the crowds because they have been following Him for three days and have nothing to eat. They scrounge together a few loaves and fish and Jesus again feeds them all.
For once, I put myself in the shoes of the crowd. I was amazed that Jesus didn’t rebuke me for being annoying or irresponsible, for not being better prepared for the journey (or a better steward of my resources), for not going home when I'd already been healed.
He knew that it was a deep hunger that drove me to follow Him at a moment’s notice to a remote place. It was hunger for Him, for His touch and His words, that sustained me for three days, camping out with a crowd of sick people, ignoring the hunger pains, the smells and the discomfort. It was hunger for Him that caused me to linger there when I should have headed for home.
He rewarded my spiritual hunger with food that could satisfy my soul and brought healing to my body (as well as dinner!). No rebuke. Only great compassion, healing and provision.
All this He has for me if I follow Him singularly, hungrily, daily…
Thursday, August 7, 2008
A small dilemma
As I've previously mentioned, Steve often receives little thank you gifts from grateful patients. These usually consist of fruit picked from home, but of late there has been a larger number of wealthier patients (friends of the Head of the Physio School).
This week, one such patient brought Steve a box of individually wrapped chocolate covered almonds. As Steve is no longer eating dairy foods (including chocolate) for environmental reasons, I discovered it sitting in our fridge, un-opened.
As a loving mother, empathic and healthy wife, environmentally conscious misso, should I...
(a) leave them in the fridge, and offer them to visitors when I would be expected to serve a snack anyway
(b) save them for the children as treats / rewards, sneaking a couple for myself from time to time
(c) join my husband, refuse to eat any myself and give them as a gift to a foreign friend who might be craving chocolate
(d) give them away to a rubbish collector along the street who could use the kilojoules
(e) eat them myself only sharing with anyone who happened to be in the kitchen when a craving hit
(For those who don't know me that well and who are wondering, I went for "e").
This week, one such patient brought Steve a box of individually wrapped chocolate covered almonds. As Steve is no longer eating dairy foods (including chocolate) for environmental reasons, I discovered it sitting in our fridge, un-opened.
As a loving mother, empathic and healthy wife, environmentally conscious misso, should I...
(a) leave them in the fridge, and offer them to visitors when I would be expected to serve a snack anyway
(b) save them for the children as treats / rewards, sneaking a couple for myself from time to time
(c) join my husband, refuse to eat any myself and give them as a gift to a foreign friend who might be craving chocolate
(d) give them away to a rubbish collector along the street who could use the kilojoules
(e) eat them myself only sharing with anyone who happened to be in the kitchen when a craving hit
(For those who don't know me that well and who are wondering, I went for "e").
Such a beginner
“Until we are carried quite out of our depth, beyond all our own wisdom and resources, we are not more than beginners in the school of faith”. Hudson Taylor said that.
“Out of my depth” is definitely a phrase that I would apply to my life at the moment, particularly in parenting. I am astounded by my self-delusions that I had what it takes to raise THREE children (or even one for that matter). And if I really knew how hard it would be, I wonder if I would have stuck with my career as a humble public servant (nah!).
Maybe this is just end-of-school-holidays-exhaustion, but my own wisdom and resources are certainly depleted. (Strangely enough, I cannot recall one piece of parenting advice that I so thoughtfully gave my parents during my own childhood).
The up-side is that parenting is certainly good for my spiritual walk (which seems more like a toddle at times).
My prayer life is suddenly alive since my 7 year old told me that he had a hard time believing that God really created things by just speaking. His doubts and questions have begun as my need for God’s wisdom, grace and love grows exponentially.
Also, I cannot instruct them to obey God, if I am not doing so. And how can I teach my children about a God whom I don't know? Or love that I don't possess? My faith needs to be authentic before my children will follow.
I am not alone in this. I have recently heard of a mother who is now attending church with her young children, despite being antagonistic towards God for many years. The reason? It was the only place that she could find that would teach her children to be GOOD people (not just nice people).
Avoiding tough times is an all-consuming past-time for many of us, yet they are essential for taking our faith beyond the L-plates.
“Out of my depth” is definitely a phrase that I would apply to my life at the moment, particularly in parenting. I am astounded by my self-delusions that I had what it takes to raise THREE children (or even one for that matter). And if I really knew how hard it would be, I wonder if I would have stuck with my career as a humble public servant (nah!).
Maybe this is just end-of-school-holidays-exhaustion, but my own wisdom and resources are certainly depleted. (Strangely enough, I cannot recall one piece of parenting advice that I so thoughtfully gave my parents during my own childhood).
The up-side is that parenting is certainly good for my spiritual walk (which seems more like a toddle at times).
My prayer life is suddenly alive since my 7 year old told me that he had a hard time believing that God really created things by just speaking. His doubts and questions have begun as my need for God’s wisdom, grace and love grows exponentially.
Also, I cannot instruct them to obey God, if I am not doing so. And how can I teach my children about a God whom I don't know? Or love that I don't possess? My faith needs to be authentic before my children will follow.
I am not alone in this. I have recently heard of a mother who is now attending church with her young children, despite being antagonistic towards God for many years. The reason? It was the only place that she could find that would teach her children to be GOOD people (not just nice people).
Avoiding tough times is an all-consuming past-time for many of us, yet they are essential for taking our faith beyond the L-plates.
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