My sweetheart is in my arms

We had not seen each other for seventeen days, not the most ideal for your first couple months of marriage. But I guess that is the lifestyle of two people involved in international ministry. So there I waited at the train station for my wife to arrive from southern Thailand. She was there with OMF meeting the short term coordinator talking about short term ministry. I first saw her in the window of the train and then caught her as she jumped off the train into my arms. I kissed her and she commented that this is probably a little too much PDA for Thailand, but we didn't really care.

The next couple days we will be checking out different ministries in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand and Laos. We would appreciate your prayers as we travel and see how our hearts respond to what God is doing.

Making money at a casino

After five straight days of children, medical, and english outreach in the camps...in the sweltering humidity, we headed to Chiang Mai. On our way there we stopped at a hotel on the border. It happen to be a casino but had decent accomodations. Initially it was quite frustrating as we needed to pay for the rooms up front and have a deposit on each room. After about two hours we were finally able to get to the rooms. They had a promotion running with the casino where with each room we got 300 baht ($9) of promotion chips. So with our five rooms we had 1500 baht. It was free money so we had to use it. Well it turns out that we made 5000 baht on Roulette. I kind of felt like it was God's humor as we were fretting over finances and money. From the extra money, we enjoyed a good meal in Chiang Mai.

The Affects of the Killing Fields

We were doing an English lesson with about fifty kids teaching them words such as father, mother, grandmother, and grandfather. We would often ask how many of them have a grandmother or grandfather. When we asked if they have a grandmother pretty much all of their hands were up. But then we asked how many have grandfathers and four out of the fifty kids had a grandfather. We first thought we had asked incorrectly but found out that many of their grandfathers died during the killing fields...crazy.

The Team

This is our team with the Cambodian doctors. We are taking a break and visiting an ancient temple dated back to 700 A.D. Our days are usually filled with driving on bumpy roads, "jumping roads" as Sareth says for an hour and fifteen minutes to the camp and then we wait for the kids and those seeking medical attention. In the morning we do crafts with the kids making a gospel bracelet or we make a sheet with 1 John 3:16 in Khmer and challenge them to memorize it for a treat. They get to decorate it with glitter paint. In the afternoon we are playing games and just seeing where things take us. Sometimes we will just have impromtu question and answer time using the translators as we ask questions of people who are there. Having the medical and children outreach together is great because it draws a lot of attention and the mothers can drop the kids off as we play with them. The doctors said they treated about 600 people in the last two days. It is pretty sweet to see what God is doing.

Prayer Request

We have stayed pretty healthy through this trip and God continues to sustain us in our travels and relationships. There have only been a couple times motorcycles have hit our vehicle on the road and other interesting moments. Please pray for the next four days, we have five long days of reaching out to kids, speaking to people, english lessons, and medical outreach with Cambodia doctors. Overall, we just want to "be" with the people. Pray for strength as the days go by, God's patience and love to each other in the group and to others. Please also pray that our actions, words, smiles, and whatever God likes to use would be life breath to those we encounter.

From the glory of Angkor to the glory of God

On Tuesday, we headed to Angkor Wat - an area spanning 20 square km with several temples celebrating the grandeur of the Angkor empire. This was an empire from 900 - 1300 A.D. that span the whole South East Asian peninsula reflecting the Buddhist and Hindu kings. These temples were incredible with their stone carvings, steep steps, stone pools, and beautiful reliefs. And you could climb all over them. There was another temple called Bayon that through the maze of stone and different levels you would be stared upon by a stone face carved into the many towers - it is kind of spooky. I believe that there was about 45 of these faces on the different spires that make up this temple. It is almost as if this king wanted to make sure he was remembered. Or to think of Angkor Wat and its glory, reflecting a huge civilization. The question echoed through my mind, “how did God pursue these people?” “Were there any Melchizedeks who some how knew of the great high God? Someone who did not settle on the glory of man but saw it as a mere shadow of the glory of God and that he is to be praised.”

And from the glory of God we went to the rural village of the military base Unit 51 - jumping roads, dust (they call it Cambodian snow), no running water, no electricity, but an alive Church reaching out to the community. Only one day after Angkor we were sitting around a circle sharing about our lives. The Khmer women and men decided to sing from some of their local Khmer Christian hymns. It was beautiful as they argued over which songs to sing and trying to get everyone together in there singing. For many of these people had just come to Christ a couple years ago. You could see it in their smile - the true glory of God.

Preaching

I did a little bit of preaching and a lot of sweating...I think God used it both.

S21

Some of the phots at S21 during the Khmer Rogue reign from 1974-1979. It is estimated that 20,00 died in this facility and 1.5 million in the country.

Wednesday, May 30th: Unit 1

Tammy Gavi and Matt Eyser Teach english. Eyser soon learned to sit down so that the kids wouldn't get too freaked out from his height. Christina Rollins with the help of Sareth is sharing the gospel bracelet in the background. There were around 120 kids in all.










Christina sharing the gospel bracelets.

Some of the cute Cambodian girls at Unit 1

Bryce Shaffer is dripping with sweat after he had been playing soccer outside with the kids.

some pictures

We are headed up to Siem Reap today, we would appreciate your prayers in the long travels. If you want to check out another member's blog with pictures go to http://tmgavi.blogspot.com.

Preaching in a small Cambodian Church

We got off the Tuk Tuk's and headed through this passage way into the backside of the city - it was poor, destitute, a mix of shacks all cluttered together. The view from the streets often creates a facade to the grim reality behind it - kind of the reflection of many that only care about what is seen. So there tuck behind the views from the streets was a church that reached out to the poor part of town. A military doctor who came to Christ in 2003 with the partnership of others started with a clinic in this area and soon a church was born. It was cool to worship with them in their Khmer style - loud keyboard music, clapping, dancing, and hearts wanting God.

I hesitate when preaching in another culture in fear of being the arrogant missionary coming in and teaching from the word of God considering the huge cultural differences. Thankfully God can do a lot of the talking. I shared from Galatians 5:1, challenging them to be Christians who smell like freedom. I shared the observation that as our group travels around the country we see people relaxed enjoying each other and think that they have freedom. But then Cambodian children will come up to us and ask us if America is like heaven. Everyone seems to pursue freedom but never gets it, therefore looking in other places - almost like we are not a part of this world.

I think that our efforts for freedom are like a facade covering the greater reality of bondage inside. Our efforts can be very convincing but then when you get beyond the surface, you start to really see. It is encouraging to see that God's church is beyond the streets into the backside of the city, in a place where the grim reality of life can not be ignored. I pray that God's freedom might reign.

S21 and Killing Fields

It is hard to imagine that after walking through S21, the prison that executed about 20,000 Khmer soldiers and women and children during the Khmer Rogue regime (1974-1979) that Pol Pot was never brought to justice. Sareth tells me that there are so many in power now who were a part of the atrocities that there would be no way to bring people to justice. The only one who has been sent to prison is the general who accepted Christ and confessed to his crimes. It makes me think about what is really looks like to take up your cross and follow Jesus. For this man took up Jesus and also took on judgment. But he is probably the only one who is free among them all.

A mass of kids

On our first day in Cambodia we drove through the city and coutry side taking in the sights of a family of four on a motorcycle, cars weaving in and out of traffic, people peeing on the side of the road, 150 cc motorcycles pulling a cart of twelve people, cows wandering on the streets, monks walking along side of the road, and lotus plants in bloom - we are in Camboida.

We were headed to Unit 1 to help with a children's camp in progress. Right when we got there we walked in and 105 kids were sitting on the ground patiently as Sareth said to me as he handed me the mic, "Are you ready to do your program." Actually I wasn't but had an idea of what we were going to do and just flew with it.

Our time there was composed of teaching english to kids, sharing a gospel bracelet with them, and teaching them some baseball. We called it a Cambodian version of baseball for you hit the baserunner with this softer version of a baseball. They loved it for they could hit the ball and pelt people with a ball - they were actually pretty good at it. Some on our team have theories that they have planted a seed for baseball that will spread through the country. We would also play games, teach them children's songs which we had to reach back in the recesses of our minds for ('Hokie Pokie', 'Head shoulders, knees and toes'), and do a skit of the prodigal son. Within all this stuff our prayer was that we would just "be" with these kids. It is so easy to fall back into the western mindset of 'doing.' And with our lack of Khmer (Cambodian language), it sometimes feels like we are not doing much.

We have been spending out time in 1 John as we are here and it is striking that a big part of the message is fellowship with others - just being there. I think about love and how love can easily be communicated by a laugh or a smile. And that is what we can do. To say to the many that white foreigners from half way around the world would come and just "be" with them. To just come and love them. As we were having lunch there was a separate group of kids off to the side eating. We later found out that they are muslim so they can not eat pork and want to respect their beliefs. That was incredible to think of the many different stories of these kids and how all of them were here and from the efforts of the local pastor and community planting a seed of light and life into their life.

As we left it was quite the contrast to enter into this community of kids and at first feel so awkward but then leave with many good byes and hugs. Just the sight of kids smiling and waving as we headed off is a sight to remember - it felt like we were loved and we had loved.

Getting to Cambodia

After flying from Denver to LA to Hong Kong to Phnom Penh, we have finally made it - and that even includes our bags. I do have to admit that my 6'6" frame was not meant for these planes. The team composes of (clockwise) Adam Long, Matt Eyser, Tammy Gavi, David Hendricks, Bryce Shaffer, and Christina Rollins. We met up with David DeJong from Moody Bible Institute and Paul Bradley our host with Cadence International. After I unfolded myself out of the plane we got through customs and met up with Paul and David. In the comatose state of jetlag, we kept ourselves awake through the afternoon with food, a little nap, going to a market, and more food. The food is great hear - very Asian which I love. Tomorrow we are headed to military camp unit 1 where we will be hanging with about 100 kids. This will be the first of two days at unit 1. I guess that will keep us awake. These camps are more like villages. The exciting part is that as we talked to Paul and Saeret (Cambodia contact), they have not done too much children outreach. So the children are really excited for us to come.

Prayer request:

- Good night sleep and fast adjustment

- Being Christ as we spend time with the kids

- Safety in heath and as we travel

Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos

May 27— June 17: I am leading a team of six Young Adults from LMCC to Cambodia. We are teaming up with a ministry called Cadence International that reaches out to Cambodian military and police. We will be working our way up north from the capital city of Phnom Penh to different military camps where we will be involved in medical outreach, children programs, and teaching English. We are excited to be a part of the incredible healing God is doing in Cambodia, a nation which has experienced horrific pain and loss.

Another exciting element of this trip is that I will be meeting up with Angie in Chiang Mai, Thailand at the end. We will be visiting different OMF ministries in Thailand and Laos. Our hope is to explore different possibilities where God might be leading us in the future.

The wedding and honeymoon

The wedding is over and the marriage has begun. The wedding ceremony was incredible as we celebrated with over 400 of our friends and family. Many people told us it was one of the most worshipful weddings they have attended which was so encouraging to us, considering our thankfulness that God finally answered our long awaited prayers for a mate! God has been a source of grace to us as we have been getting to know each other more, and working through the moments when we have two different schedules and personalities coming together.. As many mentors have shared, marriage is sanctifying. I would agree, but it has been a joy for us to talk together at night about the day, pray together, and serve together.

The Honeymoon: Kauai...well what can you say, it was beautiful. And even better to enjoy it with my new bride, Angie. We ate, relaxed, visited waterfalls, kayaked, ATVed, hiked along the Nepali Coast (below), flew in a motorized hang glider, and other good stuff.