Snacks

While I was in HK over Chinese New Year Kate asked me about what kinds of snacks are popular in Cambodia. At the time I wasn't sure. Now I am confident to report that the most popular snack in our home is sliced green mango dipped in a mixture of salt, sugar and chilli. At first I found this just a good way to wake up on a hot, sleepy afternoon but now I'm starting to enjoy the taste too. Another great snack is made with battered, deep fried bananas. These don't come with nutritional information on the side but I can tell you that this is no diet food!

Last weekend I discovered a new treat that would have to be my current favourite. "Mum" cooked up some taro in palm sugar syrup. I got a few pieces while they were still hot in the wok, added a generous dollop of crunchy peanut butter and ate them with a cup of coffee. Soooo very fine!! (...wondering if tastes anything like the peanut butter & sweatened condensed milk waffles DJ was so excited about in HK?)

In Australian snack news, rumour has it that Arnotts have brought out Chilli Tim Tams? Sounds good to me. Anyone tried them?

Easter Thoughts

Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly… (Matthew 28:6-7)

At the end of Matthew’s gospel we read the account of when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary go early in the morning to the tomb of Jesus. They expected to see the rock cut tomb sealed with a heavy stone. Instead, the saw the stone had been moved and an angel, sitting on top of the stone said to them, “Take a tour of this vacant room if you like but the guest of honour has just checked out. Girls- time to get those booties moving!” [some liberties taken with the exact text…]

Point being: Christ is alive, raised up by God! The Word of God is not decaying in a tomb someplace but alive and able to bring life. The risen Jesus has gone on ahead.

Moses heard a similar message in the great Mission Impossible story of the Old Testament. Joseph had been led into Egypt but it was never going to be forever. After decades of hardship and struggle, God chose Moses to lead the people in their escape to freedom. They had just left Egypt and they found themselves with the Red Sea in front of them and all the forces of Pharaoh’s army behind. The people cry out to God but God said in reply to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!” God was already in action- it was time for God’s people to move too.

For us, following the God who is on the move doesn’t have to involve frantic activity or being burdeneded by countless obligations. This story I read this week illustrates what it can be like:

A three year old was recently preparing to go to church with some relatives for the second time in her life. Her mum isn’t a churchgoer so she was explaining as best she could what it would be like when the children had their class. She said it would be like when mum went to the gym and there was a special class for the kids to enjoy some exercise while the parents did their work-out. The three year old immediately understood and from that point on referred to church by the name of the kids class at gym: she called it “Stretch and Grow”.

“Stretch and Grow” for pre-schoolers doesn’t make me think of burdensome drudgery. It sounds to me like a great name for church! A place where we can, as individuals and as the risen Body of Christ have space to move in new directions and so grow into all God has for us.

This Easter I have opportunity to meet with other believers and to think about how this message challenges me- challenges us- to stretch and grow. There is stretch and grow as I face new situations almost daily as I’m not always confident how to respond to them. There is stretch and grow when I choose to believe the things God has spoken to me about why I’m here. There is stretch and grow as I wonder what it means to read the bible, pray and follow God in this new land. There is stretch and grow for many friends and team-mates I know as they realise that they alone aren’t able to meet the overwhelming needs they face.

We must be flexible, learning to be people on the move, following Jesus who goes ahead of us. I’m not saying that we should change our message or apologise for those things that set us apart when we choose to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God. I’m saying that we should let the Risen Christ continually change us so that we might be freed from everything that would keep us from living life.

The risen Christ is still speaking, working, teaching, healing and stepping in to be in situations that seem to be Mission Impossible. When we follow Jesus’ journey back to Galilee we hear that he sent his disciples out to continue following God on the move. The promise given to them is for all who are on the move with God and are invovled in this stretch and grow gospel- that Christ will be with us always, to the end of the age.

I Suck At Sharing

In this collective culture I'm learning that food must be shared. This week I saw one of my Khmer siblings preparing a snack- a single serve portion of instant noodles. In the time it took to boil the water, cook the noodles and put them into a bowl, three other relatives had emerged. The bowl was put on the floor and using eight chopsticks and a couple of spoons the snack was quickly gone.

I used to think I was pretty good at sharing but I'm being challenged again with this lesson. On Wednesday evening we had a team meeting so I knew I wasn't going to be at dinner time. I went to the market in the afternoon to buy some fruit and bread. Thinking it would be nice of me to share, I arranged about two thirds of the fruit on a plate and explained to my family that they could eat as much of this as they wanted (just don't eat my fruit still in the plastic bag!)

I came home at 8:45pm ready for some food. I wasn't at all surprised when my younger brother Ramy sat down at the table with me since he seems to be able to eat six or seven times per day without any problems. Ramy and I started eating my dinner. Five minutes later there were six of us, including myself, around the dining table. There's enough Khmer in my to offer food to everyone- aware that they will probably all have at least a taste, if not more. But there's enough Australian in me to feel like saying, "I love you but couldn't you just leave me alone to eat my dinner?" Yup- I'm still learning to share.

Five Signs

I know I'm starting to feel at home when:

1. I fall asleep thinking about how good it will be to eat rice again for breakfast.
2. I forget which side of the road the traffic is supposed to be on.
3. I turn around when someone speaks my Khmer name.
4. A long bus trip seems strangely quiet without Karaoke.
5. I think a $5 dinner is expensive.

MOJ (moment of joy) for the day: seeing that Britney T-shirts are still being worn...by both sexes!

Why You Sad Today?

Last week I had my first sad day in Cambodia. There wasn't any one major reason but a number of small frustrations that seemed to hit me all at once. In the afternoon I was a bit quieter than usual but I didn't expect my Khmer family to notice. They did. Three family members asked the same question, "Why you sad today?"

If we could converse fluently I'm sure I would have quickly covered up how I was feeling with a torrent of words. In 10 seconds I would have talked my way out of any acknowledgement of my need for others; for comfort, for sympathy or to simply share the reality that sometimes I do struggle in this new place. I'd probably then make an extra effort to "act cheerful".

In this case, however, the barrier in verbal communication became a bridge to relating at a deeper level. They asked, "Why you sad?" and I had to stop and think before speaking. I felt a bit exposed but that moment of having to wait opened the way for more honest, simple communication.

Handing It Over

Due to popular demand (a couple of comments at least!) I'm blogging the message I will preach to myself this Sunday.

Handing It Over

Matthew 26:14-16
Then one of the Twelve- the one called Judas Iscariot- went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they counted out thirty silver coins. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.”

If we were to do a word association game with the name Judas, I’m sure that the words “betrayer” and “traitor” would quickly surface. It was indeed Judas who went to the chief priests, negotiated his price and then waited for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them.

Note, however, that the NIV translates the text to “hand him over”. Some translations say “betray” but scholars tell us that the Greek word that occurs twice in these verses says, “to be handed over”. What is the difference? It is the same word used in Romans 8:32- “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (NIV). The use of this phrase in the context of Romans 8 sends the clear message that ultimately it wasn’t just a mere man who handed Jesus over, it was God. This is not a Shakespearean plot; a story of a noble man who is deceived, trapped and meets a tragic end. This is part of God’s redemption plan.

This phrase, “to be handed over”, plays a central role in the life of Jesus. It divides the life of Jesus radically into two. The first part of Jesus’ life is filled with activity. Jesus performs miracles; he speaks; he heals; he raises the dead; he casts out demons; he travels; he teaches. Immediately after he is handed over, however, Jesus becomes the one to whom things are being done. Now Jesus is arrested, Jesus is taken to Pilate; Jesus is being mocked by the crowds; Jesus is being nailed to a cross. Things are being done to him.

Every wondered how the same Jesus could speak of giving streams of living water that never run dry and then say on the cross “I am thirsty”? Ever puzzled at the comparisons between the celebrated procession as Jesus rode into Jerusalem one week and the crown of thorns on his head with the sign above reading, “The King Of The Jews” the next?

Everything changes at this point in the narrative. Before Jesus did all kinds of amazing things. Now things are being done to him. This is the meaning of passion- “being the recipient of other people’s initiatives” (Henri Nouwen). It is a very different idea to the common definition of passion- doing something with intense emotion or force. This “passive” form of passion is the theme of this week in the Christian calendar, known as Holy Week or Passiontide.

Despite his agonising sorrow, Jesus handed himself over to do the will of God in Gethsemane. From Romans 8, we see that God handed Jesus over- to the rulers of the day, to the angry mob, to those in the crowd who would watch anything so long as it was free. In short- God handed Jesus over to us. And waited. “All action ends in passion because the response to out action is out of our hands. That is the mystery of love, the mystery of friendship, the mystery of community- they always involve a waiting… Precisely in that waiting the intensity of God’s love is revealed to us. If God forced us to love, we would not really be lovers.” (Henri again!).

While at one level the life and work of Jesus Christ on earth is entirely unrepeatable and doesn’t need to be relived because “it is finished”, we who say we are Christians are called to be followers of Jesus. I am challenged this week to consider what it means to follow Jesus in his passion.

Firstly, we are often taught that the path to maturity involves a movement from dependence to independence. However, this is not always God’s way. I recall Jesus’ final words to Peter, “When you were young, you were able to do as you liked and go wherever you wanted to. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will direct you and take you where you do not want to go.” This is passion! This is following in Jesus’ passion. Often I desire to follow Jesus’ action, to do and see amazing things on earth “as it is in heaven”. Yet am I willing to let God lead me through others, even take me to places I do not want to go? Am I willing to make a fool of myself? Am I willing to waste a life for God? To learn to enter into the suffering of others? To find joy in sharing my life with the poor? Am I willing to become like a child even as I grow older? To share in the passion of Jesus?

I am often reminded of the doctrine of grace; that God accepts me, loves me and embraces me not because of anything I do but because of what Jesus has done for me. Yet in seasons of waiting my belief in God’s grace is put to the test. These places where I cannot see constant, visible, measurable signs of growth in me or around me require faith. At these times I’m not doing anything much at all, just waiting with expectation knowing that God will show me what is already growing right before my eyes.

One final thought on what it might mean to share in Jesus’ passion. I’m starting to think that those who do amazing actions also wait. They create space for others to respond. Their love waits and draws action from others. Therefore, it is not just the actions of one person towards another; it is making space for God to act, for others to respond and for God to work in turn through others. This is a great mystery but I’m starting to believe that perhaps the most powerful revolutionaries are also the mystics who have learned to wait.

Instant Feedback

My Cambodian mum is pretty cool. One of the things I like about her is that she gives me instant feedback on my language progress. A laugh means that I've said a new word of phrase correctly. If I say something she appreciates, the laugh is accompanied by a gentle slap on the top of my arm. If I manage to impress her greatly the slap follows through with a push that threatens to send me right off balance! Oh yeah- and the chuckle becomes a roar that resonates throughout the house.

God Of Ebb And Flow

This is a prayer by Henri Nouwen. It spoke to me so I hope you like it too!

A Prayer To The God Of Ebb And Flow

Dear Lord, today I thought of the words of Vincent Van Gogh: "It is true that there is an ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea." You are the sea. Although I experience many ups and downs in my emotions and often feel great shifts and changes in my inner life, you remain the same. Your sameness is not the sameness of a rock, but the sameness of a faithful lover. Out of your love I came to life; by your love I am sustained; and to your love I am always called back. There are days of sadness and days of joy; there are feelings of guilt and feelings of gratitude; there are moments of failure and moments of success; but all of them are embraced by your unwavering love.
My only real temptation is to doubt in your love, to think of myself as beyond the reach of your love, to remove myself from the radiance of your love. To do these things is to move into darkness of despair.
O Lord, sea of love and goodness, let me not fear too much the storms and winds of daily life, and let me know that there is ebb and flow but that the sea remains the sea. Amen.

New Olympic Sport?

I heard it said this week that if crossing the road were an Olympic sport then Cambodians would win the gold medal. Anyone want to argue with me on this one? Any other suggestions for countries that might make the final? Love to hear from you. Post a comment!

Preach'n It Up!

Confession: part of me misses preaching regularly. I miss having to wrestle with the texts in the bible on a regular basis in order to bring something out from them that I hope will speak to whoever comes to hear.

This year I have chosen to keep preparing messages anyway, even when I’m not preaching to a group. So far this year I’ve preached to a couple of people on a Sunday morning at home in a little “faith community” in Sydney (now disbanded!), a friend in Hong Kong at 11:45pm one Sunday night, a vacant spot on my bedroom wall and in various other forms by myself, to myself and for myself.

I’m preaching from the lectionary. This is a longish word for sets of readings put together for the year to help ministers etc. preach from a variety of passages from the bible in keeping with the seasons of Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter etc. There are a few minor variations but I’m going with the USA’s Baptist Lectionary- which I pretty much chosen at random except that I used to go to a Baptist Church in Australia but Baptist churches in Oz don’t seem to do the lectionary thing. (Anyone out there want to tell my I’m wrong and that they too are deeply passionate about the lectionary?)

The readings for this Sunday, March 13 are: Ezekiel 37:1-14, Psalm 130, John 11:1-45, Romans 8:6-11. (These are definitely worth a read if you have a spare half hour over the weekend.)

If I was going to preach this Sunday, the theme would be Out Of Desperation. There are some great thoughts on the passage in John 11 at Dylan’s lectionary blog. (http://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/) [Note to self- learn how to add links...] Read it all or my short version here:

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
My soul waits for the Lord
More than the watchmen wait for the morning,
More than the watchmen wait for the morning.
Psalm 130:1-2; 6 (NIV)

Martha and Mary called to Jesus out of the depths of desperation. Their brother Lazarus becomes “very ill” and the sisters call to Jesus. But Jesus doesn’t come. Lazarus dies and while “many Jews” come to pay their respects and to comfort the sisters, Jesus is conspicuously absent. When Jesus finally arrives, he weeps with them. Yet the sense from those looking on was that surely if Jesus opened the eyes of the man born blind, he could have done something earlier to help Lazarus. Jesus’ tears were testimony to his love, but surely his actions seemed like too little, too late?

If nothing more, Martha’s situation reminds us that nobody is immune to tragedy. Those who enjoy close fellowship with God, who serve God with wholehearted devotion and who give generously of their lives and their selves still may suffer great losses. Yet when we call out to God, God hears.

When Jesus seems slow in coming, he still comes. It is never a case of “too little, too late”. For when Lazarus was dead, four days and stinking dead, Jesus called into the tomb, “come out” and Lazarus did. In our lives we are sometimes acutely aware of this odour of death. At various times we see and feel loss, separation, decay, suffering, sickness, aging and the seemingly indiscriminate nature of life’s tragedies. Yet while we grieve death in life, God is able to reach in and bring life in death. As we read in Psalm 130:7 “with the Lord there is unfailing love and an overflowing supply of salvation.” (NLT)

Hide And Seek

"Do you know how to play hide and seek?" This was the first question I asked my language tutor at 7:25am this morning. After some persuading that yes- I did want to spend time talking about this children's game- my tutor admitted that while it had been a while since she had played, she was familiar with the basics.

Last night the three year old boy who lives next door dropped in. (He often stops by to have meal, a shower or a sleep...) Last night was the first opportunity I've had to hang out with him and play a little. As well as play-dough and some other games we made up as we went along, we played hide and seek.

Hide and seek isn't much fun played in silence. So, as the one doing the seeking, I had to think of things to say! "Little brother- where are you?" "In the cupboard?" "On the table?" "Here?" "There?" Although my vocab was limited (and my pronunciation probably terrible!) he seemed to have fun. This morning I listen to my tutor pretend to play hide and seek. I heard some more great phrases to use such as, "I will close my eyes and count from one to ten" "I can hear you but I can't see you" "There you are" and "You stink like death!" (apparently a saying commonly used by the winner of a game when it is over).

I hope that I get to play hide and seek again in Khmer sometime soon!

Want to Da-Leng with Me?

"Leng" is a great word in the Khmer language. It roughly means to play or have fun. You can use leng by itself in a sentence. For example- I "leng" the guitar. It is also commonly joined with other words to give a sense or style of doing something. For example, I can sit down to study or I can sit-"leng" (sit down for fun, hang out...). I can have a serious discussion or I can just talk-"leng" with friends over a meal.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to go to the River on Saturday morning. I ate breakfast, read a book and went for a stroll before taking a motorbike taxi home. The moto driver seemed a little perplexed at 1. why I would want to go by myself? 2. why I would choose to read a book for pleasure? and 3. why I would bother walking at all if I could have caught the moto the whole way?

By the third round of questioning I was getting a little tired so I reached into my Khmer vocab and told him I just went to "da-leng" (walk around). I knew he understood when he said, "Oh...ummmm...do you want to da-leng with me?" No thank you. I am very busy studying Khmer every day. Sorry. I have no free time. At all.

A Second Verse

Last night I was thinking about a possible second verse to my song Kynom Ngam Bai. As we were preparing for dinner, my Cambodian mum showed me some dried fish that she had bought from the market. I won't go into all the details, but it looked as though quite a bit of work had gone into preparing these small (15cm?) fish.

Dinner time came. Seven of us sat down to rice, fish, sauce and vegetables. The fish are a popular favourite. Keen to try, I tuck into one. Wanting to show my sincere liking of this new variety of fish, I eat a couple more. A few minutes later I notice that everyone else is gradually building a pile of fish heads on the table in front of them. I have no such pile. I take another dried fish, eat it and push the head towards my younger sister. It is quite possible that any missing heads could have ended up in her little mound....

Even so, as I finished my rice I wondered whether I should include a second verse containing lyrics such as, "this idiot eats the fish heads too"?

My First Khmer Song

I wrote my first song in Khmer over the weekend. My buddy Lisa figured it must be something really deep and meaningful....not quite! The title is Khnom Ngam Bai- in English I Eat Rice.

Rice is a very important part of life here and I figured it is worth singing about. Our family gets sacks of rice (50kg?) from their relatives in Battambang. There is always at least two full sacks in the dining room (stacked on top of each other to make an informal chair). We eat rice every day as the staple for two if not three meals.

In this hierarchical society there are many different ways to say "eat rice" depending on whom you are addressing. There are different words for speaking to the king, a high official, a monk, someone who is older, someone who is younger or to an animal. The verse of Khnom Ngam Bai talks about how to invite people of different ranks to eat rice.

The chorus brings in a bit of a personal testimony. The words, in English, are as follows:

Every day, every day
Every day, every day
New country, new food
I eat rice.

I hardly think that Khnom Ngam Bai will become a karaoke hit in Cambodia. But I'm stoked to have written a short song in this new language!