We're here!

We are now safely in Chukk, we will be here for two full days of church leader development known as Agenda 1. We are to be out of the guest house by 7am so we can eat breakfast before the teaching begins at 8am.

Today has been a travelling day flying overnight to Hong Kong we spent a couple of hours waiting for our transfer. Feeling a bit thursty we found an excellent water dispenser which gave sterilized drinking water at the temperature you asked it to, so anything from cold to boiling water was just the touch of a button away.



Water dispenser


The flight to Phnom Penh was only a couple of hours and we were treated to another meal followed by luxury ice cream. Those of us who did not sleep last night are now quite tired! Everything went smoothly in Phnom Penh airport and thankfully all our baggage arrived at the same time as us.

The rest of the team were assembled to welcome us and it was not long before we were driving south out of the city. The traffic chaos, sights, smells and sounds are now familiar but they are at the same time very different from home!

 

 

When we arrived at Chukk we went straight to a street cafe and ordered dinner. They brought out marinated beef, vegetables, noodles and soup. The beef and vegetables were cooked at our table on a table-top bbq grill sort of thing. Not sure how to describe it so here's a picture:

We are now in our rooms, mine is lovely and has air conditioning so it won't be too hot. Provided I can sleep through the rattle of the machine of course. There is a spectacular thunder and lightning show going on outside the window, we have arrived just at the end of the rainy season. Now to test out the bed...

Almost there

We have made it safely to Hong Kong and are waiting for our connecting flight to Phnom Penh. Yesterday we had breakfast in Norway, lunch in London and dinner somewhere over Lithuania and breakfast this morning over China! The overnight flight went smoothly and was on time. Some of us slept better than others however so it will be good to sleep in a bed rather than a chair tonight.

Dinner in a London pub

The final part of our journey is a flight of 2 hours 40 min to Cambodia where we will be collected by the rest of the team and driven by mini bus to Chukk. The final leg of the journey taking about two hours depending on traffic around the city centre. We will have the same minibus and driver for the whole trip. Cambodia is 6 hours aheas of Norway and 5 hours ahead of the UK.

Teaching preparation, the same book in two different languages.

We will spend tonight in a small privately owned guest house and I assume we will go out to a street café for a meal before turning in for the night. Our first teaching session starts at eight o'clock tomorrow morning (2am in Norway), a time when many of you will still be in bed!

Getting ready for another trip

I am getting ready for another trip to Cambodia. This time with a small team from Norkirken and Steve Bruns (Imi Church) who will meet us there. I will be travelling with and working with Tom Kenneth Ravnås and Anne Kate Usken and I am very much looking forward to it.

Steve

Tom Kenneth

Anne Kate

We will be visiting Tbung Khmum province which is towards the boarder with Vietnam and Chhuk province which is south of the capital Phnom Penh. I was at both places doing taster days when I was last there in February. It will be nice to go back to both places and see some of the same people again.

 



Sithuon

Chakreya

There are also three other people I am looking forward to seeing when I arrive. Members of Normisjons local team, Sithuon, Lysom and Chakreya. They will, along with Steve, be at the airport when we arrive and we will travel in private minibus directly to the first province.





Anne Kate has been to Kambodia twice before although she is not so heavily involved in the leadership training we are giving to the local churches. Her role on the team will be prayer ministry and general information and support. Tom Kenneth has not been to Cambodia before but he and I have been involved with the leadership training for some years.

Does God speak today?

The title of this blog was for some years ago a topic of discussion. Does God speak today and if so, how, when and to whom are just a few of the questions which immediately spring to mind.

I believe he does and I also believe he speaks to people in as may ways as our minds can think of, pluss some more. I will give you an example:

Some time before I left to come to Cambodia I was praying for and about this country and I felt that I should buy 5 + 1 bibles in the Khmer language. There were no flashing lights or big booming voice, nothing like that just a feeling that I should do it. I tend to act on these feelings because past experience has shown me time and again that this is usually the voice of my Heavenly Father. I know it sounds wierd but read on and see.

Next, I thought where in the whole of Norway would I get a total of six bibles, preferably new ones, in Khmer. Norway has many many more products in the shops compared to when we first arrived here over 25 years ago but still, Khmer bibles? I thought that if I was being asked to get them, well a bit of common sense ought to show me how. I rang the Bible Society in Oslo and spoke to a very friendly man. I explained what I wanted and then held my breath. "Yes, we have them in stock, how many would you like?" I needed to quickly recover myself, tell him I thought I needed six, and give hime the church address to send them to. What could have been a long chase with no luck turned out in the end to be a five minute job as though it was something I did every day.

Ok, so I now have my bible pluss these six pluss half a suitcase of other things I was taking to give away. There was just room to cram in a few clothes for myself. It's a good job I had 30kg hold luggage allowance pluss 7kg hand baggage. The problem which immediately showed itself was that I couldn't actually lift my suitcase! It's a good job it had wheels and I did not need to see it again until I arrived. If God had whispered to me about bringing these bibles I said that he must also show me who to give them to. I had been told to get 5 + 1 bibles so I assumed that someone was to have one and someone else the other five.

I carried them with me throughout the first week but there were no obvious recipeints. At the end of the first week I shared with Steve and the team the reason that my suitcase nearly dislocated the arm of anyone who tried to lift it. They did not know of anyone who they might be meant for. I transferred them into my backpack which meant I had them with me all the time during the second week. Also my suitcase was decidedly lighter as all the other things I brought to give away had been passed on by then.

On the penultimate day of our time in the provinces we knew who to give the one to. It happened like this: The church leaders were gathered when we arrived at 8am and we got straight doen to it before the temperature began to soar. Both Steve and I are practiced in "reading" a congregation and we were reading the gatherings all the time and listening to hear if God was pointing anyone out to us. Both Steve and I honed in on certain individuals and it was great to chat and see that they were the same people each time. Except this time I had also been drawn to a little girl in a green velvet top. Throughout the day she was listening to the teaching and taking part in the activities. We found out later that she was nine years old. I pointed her out to Steve and he immediately saw what I meant. There was something special about her but we could not pin down what it was. We believe that God by his Spirit had pointed her out to us. Nobody else noticed her.

Towards the end of the final part of the day Steve turned to me and asked if I had a prophecy or word for her. I sat and thought about it for a while, sent an arrow prayer up and tried to listen for an answer. It came, not A WORD Tracy, THE WORD. I was to give her the word of God, a bible. We stopped them at the end and with the help of our translator (see previous post) explained about the bible and that I would like to give her one of them. We also said that we believed God had seen her and had a special future planned for her. Her Mum was pleased but speachless for a while. The little one could not stop grinning!

Although there is compulsory education here there is nobody to enforce it so it is in real terms up to the family whether they send there children to school. There is a lot more to say about schooling in Cambodia, especially in the provinces but here is not the place. There was no certainty that she could even read not least because she had not been to school that day, she had been with us. Did she go to school even... when we asked, yes she could read.

Here she is with her bible. Was it all in my mind or was it listening to the whispers of God the Holy Spirit? You decide.

What about the other 5 bibles? Well, you'll have to ask me when you see me!

Translaters

Our trip would have been very much the poorer and our teaching impossible if it were not for the translator. Chakreya is employed bt Normisjon to translate during the team trips. She is also an English teacher and has started a church due to the number of her students that were coming to faith.

When she translates for us what is being said in Khmer it is really easy to understand her. She is one of the best English speakers I have met here. She has also simultaneously translated all the teaching we have done. No mean feat! There have been three sessions each lasting a couple of hours per day.

Those of you who have ever tried simultaneous translation will know it is not as easy as it looks. Either you have to translate while the speaker is speaking and speak the translation at the same time as listening to what is being said so you can translate the next part. I promise you, it is enough to get you brain in a muddle. Or the speaker says a sentance or two then stops and waits for the translation to be given. This is what we have used in the teaching. Chakreya is such an excellent translator because she not only translates the words, she also translates what is being said in terms that are culturally appropriate, ie. she translates the meaning.


If you are lost, think about it like this, if I translate 17th May from norwegian to english, I translate what is being said, a date. All the meaning and cultural understanding gets lost. Or if I translate Remembrance day into norwegian, just translating the words looses the meaning in british culture.

Steve says when she translates his sermons his preaching just gets better. That is because she is apssionate about the topic, faith and Jesus and she conveys it.

Chakreya also notices when the people have glazed over and are struggling to concentrate. She then pops in a game mid-teaching. Cambodians love playing games! After the game which might only last a minute or two, we carry on where we left off. As I say, we would struggle to do this without such excellent translators as her.

Playing a game mid-session.

Dara has also translated quite a bit last week. He is studying a masters degree in Vietnam but has spent his college holiday working for the teams in lots of different ways. Another fantastic person we would struggle to be without.

Dara in action.















Sithuon has coordinated the trip and been responsible for it all running smoothly. He to is an amazing person who as well as being employed by Normisjon full-tme, leads a student church. He has seen lots of them become Christians in the past couple of years.



There is now a better internet connection and so I have been able to add a couple of pictures to the previous two posts.

An even busier day!

We  started the day at 7am when we headed to do the Agenda 1 taster. There were about 15 churches interested in knowing more about how it works and what Agenda 1 is, altogether there were about 80 people in the church, mostly pastors and leaders from other churches in the province. Some had travelled as far as 60km to be there today. As well as lunch we shared a traditional snack of rice starch steamed in a banana leaf.

Some of  the pastors.

We presented the Agenda 1 concept in as manageable language as possible so people would be able to understand. We also gave then a taste of the Method and Tools Agenda 1 uses. The people were from lots of different denominations and did not know each other from before. The atmosphere was one of expectation and interest and they remained interested throughout the next 6 hours. It would seem there are lots of churches wanting to be part of this process.

We then set out on a 6 hour Journey to the guest house in Chhuk which is the province we will be holding a taster day tomorrow (Tuesday). It is very comfortable and clean with a big double bed and en-suite bathroom (to say bathroom is a bit of a stretch).

The journey down to here meant we drove, or should I say bounced as the road is so bad, past an enormous lake. The sun was a ball of deep red fire as it set over the water. There were small fishing boats and individuals hoping to catch their evening meal. The reason for the bumping was the standard of the road. It was a main trunk road to and from the capital but it was so bumpy that I was regularly leaving my seat behind as I bounced along! Even the heavy suitcases were bouncing. We had a couple of toilet stops on the journey and for those of you who have been to Cambodia, you will know what I mean when I say the toilets had to be seen to be believed. I was very glad of the anti-bac!

We skirted round the outskirts of east of Phnom Penh at 6pm as the factory workers were finishing for the day. Workers in factories here have an eleven hour day, 7am-6pm which means they are never home in daylight. They are transported to work standing on the back of an open-topped truck. Some trucks were so over-loaded that the tail-gate was left open for people to stand on. There were hundreds of people loaded like animals onto these trucks. On the one hand we might with our western view think it is terrible but at leats these people have jobs and an Income.

We ate our evening meal in a street cafe, marinated beef which we barbequed outselves on a small barbeque which was brought to the table as well as noodles and vegetables. It was very tasty and I would happily have that meal another time too.

A busy day

The day started with a lovely breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, fresh french bread and butter, freshly squeezed orange juice and darjeeling tea. We then left for church in a tuctuc, 3 suitcases, 3 backpacks and 3 adults made for a bit of a squash but we made it safely.

Steve preached at the service and I shared a bible text. Rom 5:1 and my point was that when we are God’s children we are adopted into his family. When things are going well we feel secure as His child however when something doesn’t go well or we do something daft, we do not cease to be His child. In the same way that we would not cease to be the child of our earthly father just because we misbehaved. We have the same right as any child to come their father, say sorry, receive forgiveness and start again.

After church we set off across the city to an island in the middle of the Mekong river and a lovely restaurant. We ate a tasty lunch with a fantastic view of the river and another island on one side and the city of Phnom Penh on the skyline opposite. We then drover a further 2 hours north east and are now in province north east of Phnom Penh not far from the Vietnamese border. 

The Capital from the roof-top restrauant.

 

We are staying at a guest house near where we will be doing the Agenda 1 taster days. Before heading to the restaurant I watched the blood-red sun slip down behind miles of rice paddies. We had another great meal in a street café, I really do love Khmer food, it seems to have the right balance of spice and mild flavours. Now to sleep in the guest house, I have a clean room with a fan above the 2 double beds to keep me cool. I can hear grasshoppers and other insects outside my window and I am watching a lizard of some sort eating flies and mosquitoes off the bedroom wall.