Vacation!

Right now we are in the middle of a public holiday called Ptum Bunn, where families make a trip to the pagoda to offer sacrifices to their deceased ancestors. They believe that during the past 15 days the spirits of their ancestors have been freed and are floating around. They need to bring them food to appease them so that they can rest for another year. If they are not appeased than Khmai's believe that the ghost of their ancestors' will haunt them. This Monday to Wednesday are the last days of Ptum Bunn and so they have become a public holiday and the whole city shuts down.

(This is a picture of a family traveling to the wat to bring their sacrifice of food.)

(One of many wats, all decorated for the holiday).

(A couple of us ladies decided to head to the resort to spend one day of our holiday.)

(It rained most of the day and so the way out of the resort was flooded.)

(My landlord gave Marije and I some Khmai cakes that are made for the holiday. This one is made of sticky rice, beans and pork. It tasted very bland. I prefer the banana cake which is the same but with banana instead of pork and beans.)

(Today I went and got my hair cut... it looks better than I thought it would.)

Pictures

Stefan (my roommate's boyfriend) standing in our street.

The following pictures are of people leaving the city for Ptum Bunn (a Buddhist holiday). The whole city, almost, has left for their home provinces. It's very quiet here.

New Address

Hey folks,

I have a new mailing address. Please send any mail now to:

Rebecca Osmond
c/o Assemblies of God
PO Box 130
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Thanks!!!!!!!

:)

Expectancy

I just have such an amazing feeling of expectancy. I have no clue what it is for... but I feel like I am on the edge of a precipice for something exciting. I just had to share it.

FLOOD

So today when I went to leave my language school I discovered that the street was flooded. It only rained for an hour but it must have been really hard, because the water level in the street came up past my ankles. So I thought I'd write about my first really flood experience. The water looked really nasty though!

Pictures

My Bible Study Group (minus 2 students).
Bich teaching the Bible lesson at the kindergarten.
Me and one of our kindergartners.
One of my favourite kindergartners

(I know I am not supposed to have favourites... but she's special).
My language teacher and I. On the cards are letters of the alphabet which I have to read and put in order at the beginning of each class.

Neaq Kruu

Neaq Kruu means female teacher in Khmai -- and that my friends is my title. A while ago I was asked to teach English at the Bible College here and, well, I am probably one of the most unqualified people for the job. A)I am not a teacher B) I never went to Bible College C) I spent the last four years proclaiming that I never want to be a teacher. So, needless to say, I have been feeling intimidated by it all. I have been praying about it but I just didn't feel God answer me... well He did but not the way I wanted Him to. I was hoping for some definite answer saying that I shouldn't do it. Instead, I keep bumping into stories in the Bible where God called people to do outrageous things: Moses going back to Egypt to confront Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of captivity and John the Baptist having to live in the wilderness and eat locus. I asked my Bible Study whether or not they would be obedient if God asked them to do something that seemed ridiculous to them and so I had to ask myself the same question. On Friday night I got a call saying that my Bible Study was cancelled as there was a special service going on that my students wanted to go to and they wanted me to come. So we went... and guess what the guest speaker from Australia spoke about?! He said there were two options, we can respond like Moses did and tell God to send someone else, or respond like Isaiah did and say "send me". So, I said that I would teach English at the Bible College. I met two of my students today and they are in their mid 20's like me and they started calling me Neaq Kruu. I feel like that is a title of honour that I do not exactly deserve but I will try my best. Please pray for me as the one thing I learned in Kazakhstan was that I am not a good teacher. Yet, even though some of you may think this is crazy, I know this is something that I am supposed to do. It is something I am going to need God's help to do. So please pray that God helps me be the best teacher that I can be.

PS. I also received the official term extension for the next 3 months. Yay!

Reality Check

I am sitting in the cafe to kill some time while I wait for some pictures to be developed. A couple tables away this cute guy walks in and starts skyping. He started using words such as "freakin" and I went whoa... a Christian? Yes he is. In the middle of a cafe he is talking on skype about how Jesus is his everything. WOW. Reality check for me. I don't do that. Why? Am I to shy or something to start talking about Jesus to my computer in a public place? Ouch... that hurt. I am not ashamed to talk about Jesus... because He is my everything. So why do I keep my mouth shut?! Yesterday in Bible Study we read about how John the Baptist's tongue was loosed to praising God while he was still a child. I want my tongue to be loosed. I want to talk about Jesus because Jesus is wonderful! So why don't I?! A little challenge to myself.

3 Months!

I just wanted to say that I have now been here for exactly 3 months. Yay! Now it is time for my second term of 3 months (even though I still have not received an official time extension from head office yet). :)

The Holy Spirit

For those of you wondering who/what the Holy Spirit is, the Holy Spirit is a part of the Holy Trinity – there is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is a hard concept to grasp, three people yet at the same time only one divine person. The Holy Spirit is sent as a gift to those who believe in Jesus (Luke 11:13) and He is sent by God to comfort us (John 14:16). The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to give us power to be a witness about Jesus (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit lives in those who believe (Luke 3:16) and He leads us (Luke 4:1). The Holy Spirit also gives gifts such as faith, wisdom, knowledge, the ability to speak in an unknown language, and the ability to heal (Luke 12:7-11). To some of you this may sound really strange, but that’s okay. It’s what I believe.

This week I was preparing for the Bible Study that I am leading and I felt God show me that He wanted me to go deeper into the concept of the Holy Spirit. However, this week I have been plagued with sickness. It started with a heat rash that covered my whole body and then before the heat rash went away I began to have digestive issues, but I refused to let that stop me. Instead, the rain one day and a power outage the next caused the Bible Study to be cancelled this week. I believe that Satan was trying to stop us from talking about the Holy Spirit. But he could not stop us completely. Pastor Neit also felt God prompting him to speak on the Holy Spirit this morning at church and so he scrapped his old sermon and was obedient. It was beautiful to see so many young people worship God this morning, the Holy Spirit was there. My stomach was starting to act up during worship and so I placed one hand on my stomach and the other I lifted to Jesus... and today has been the first day in 5 that my food has stayed in my stomach! Jesus healed me! Thank you for all your prayers. I believe God is doing something amazing at my church and that Satan is trying to stop it... but he will not succeed.

Market Food

This morning I met up with Anna (the daughter of some fellow missionaries) to spend a morning at the market. It was rather fun and it was the first time I ate market food. I have been afraid of it causing stomach problems, but seeing as I haven't been able to keep food in me longer than a couple hours over the past four days, I figured it didn't matter. She took me to this little restaurant outside of the market which sells sandwhiches. It looked like a Toronto street meat stand with a daycare sized table behind it plus an umbrella above the table to protect you from the rain. The sandwhich was actually really good. Then we headed inside for fresh squeezed orange juice. YUM! To squeeze the oranage they shave off the peel and then squish it.

(The orange juice shop. The green things that the man is peeling are the oranages...

they're green here.)

(Anna and I with our glasses of OJ.)

(Noah, because I was unable to show you the gecko on skype, here he is. This is just one of the many geckos that hangout on our ceiling each evening.)

(It rained a lot this week so this is a picture of the flooded street that is right by my house -- taken from my balcony.)

Loneliness

Lately I have been struggling with loneliness. It seems to happen to the best of us. I don't think I have met a single person who can say that they've never felt lonely before. It happens in small waves but the last couple days it has come in a huge wave. My roommate has gone to Preh Veng (the province where she is doing her research) for a couple days and so it is just me, myself, and God. But even when she is around, we don't have the kind of relationship where I could just say "I need a hug" etc. I miss that. Simple things like hugs are easy to take forgranted. Tonight is one of those nights where I could use a hug.

Christine, you are so right in saying that often we go to others before we go to God when we are lonely. I am guilty of that. Last night I called mom and dad on skype and today I went to the cafe to facebook and send off a bunch of emails. I am so grateful for all of you! Thank you to all the wonderful ladies who wrote me encouragement cards to read on days like this (I haven't opened them all yet. I try to keep them so that I have a new one to open each time I have a hard day or just need some encouragement). Anyways, my point was this, we don't need to have it all together. Its okay to have a bad day! I am grateful for such wonderful friends at home! I wish I had friends like you guys here... but I guess that will come with time. But, I have God and He hears me when I call and He has blessed me beyond belief. (He also has a sense of humour!) Today I ran out of gas which is needed to operate my stove... so I had to go out for dinner by myself, which I normally don't mind doing. Anyways, one of the employees wanted to practice his English and so he sat down and talked with me while I ate. It was nice having some company (even though it was kind of awkward). It also made for an entertaining dinner as he kept calling his brother his son and he called my zit a beauty mark. LOL. (I wish zits were mistaken for beauty marks more often.)

I love you guys! Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement! You mean the world to me!

Odds 'N' Ends

- The cafe was playing Christmas music this morning.

- Marije tasted Peanut Butter Nature Valley Granola Bars for the first time here (we can get them here) and she is planning on packing some in her suitcase to take home :)

- I work with a young girl with HIV. From the outside she appears healthy and you would never know unless you were told. We think it was passed onto her from birth/breastfeeding. It's sad that she has to have HIV -- she's only a child.

- This week has been odd and everything keeps getting canceled. First, the director of the orphanage called me to let me know that the kids were switching back to going to school in the afternoons; therefore, my class with them was canceled on Tuesday. Today I got a call from my pastor. She said that all the young adults have left for the provinces/were moving, so they wanted to cancel tonight. Odd.

- I wanted to get a gym membership so I don't turn into a blob here but the place that I wanted to go to is a little pricey and sketchy. Pray that I can find somewhere close, cheap and good.

Are you living fearlessly?

This week I have been challenged by living fearlessly. The book I am reading discusses how you can either tiptoe your way to death or you can run, hop, and skip your way there. What are you doing? Are you living what you believe or are you tiptoeing over issues in fear of offending someone or not being liked? I think I have been doing more tiptoeing then living fearlessly. I am too scared to do some of the things that I really want to do. I am too scared to try to talk to some people in Khmai because I don't want to look like a fool. What are you afraid of and why? If we live in fear we are not living in faith. If God tells us to do something we need to do it and trust Him to protect us and give us the boldness to do it.

The Vietnamese School

Two times a week I volunteer at a school in a Vietnamese community/slum. As most of the people who live in this area are squatters, they do not have a lot of the things we take for granted... such as garbage pickup and fresh water. Most families use the river for drinking, bathing, and as a toilet. Last week we were able to offer the kids families water filters for $5 (half price) which many families decided to purchase. It costs $3 for families to enrol a child in the school and right now we are offering kindergarten, grade 1 and 2. My role in the mornings is to teach the kids to brush their teeth and take care of their fingernails. In the afternoons, I assist with teaching kindergarten. This is a picture of the kindergarten. Notice the many kids who stand outside the gate each day to listen in.


This is a picture of the view from the school. The homes that you see are homes of our students. To get to them they have to walk across the narrow pieces of wood that are beside the fence. This field is also used to collect the neighbour garbage.

Right now the field is filled with big old tires to try to slow down the flood. We are anticipating that soon the water will flow up onto the path and into the school.