Sharon's Story

My friend Sharon sent me this email recently. Blogged here with her permission:

Sometimes God puts you in the right place at the right time.

My morning walkI went for a walk around at Shelly Beach yesterday. I usually like to startat the Styne and walk to Shelly. This time I did something different; Idecided to drive up as close as I could to the car park at the top at ShellyBeach. I went for my walk and came back up through the car park. I had kindahad enough of walking but for a strange reason I walked the long way aroundthe car park. I looked up at the cliff to my amazement I saw a girl danglingher feet of the edge of the side of the cliff, so close to the edge if sheslipped she would fall. She edged her way to as far as she could to the edgeand then moved back again.

Two girls that had been walking there dogs were watching her and wonderingwhat to do. I asked them "Do you think she is ok? do you know what is goingon?" They said no we don't have a phone to call someone to help her. Theythought she might jump off the 200m-300m cliff. My car being parked just upthe road I ran to get my phone that was in the car.

I wondered if the Police was the best thing for this girl in the long-termhelp? Someone walking by went up to talk to her. I was hoping someone would,as I wasn't really sure what I would say. She needed help right now, so she would not kill herself.The Police came quite quickly with in 5-10mins.

They sent up, a plain clothes Police officer to talk to her. The uniformed Police chatted to us and watched to see what happen. The girl must have seenus watching her and saw the police car and ran back into the bush. The Police found her and brought her down. She looked quite stressed.
By the end of it we had about 8-10 Police officers there and one ambulance.I think two Police Officers and the ambulance would have been wellenough. Did they have nothing else better to do?
I chatted to one of the Police officers and he said this happens every nowand then. I thought it is pretty sad that they have got to this state.

I have been thinking, what I would have said if I was talking to the girl andtrying to get her to move away from the edge.

New Vocab?

I was searching for a word today in the English-Khmer section of the "Technical Words Dictionary"(2004). I wasn't expecting to find "wanker" in there- but it is.

Help

I figure that most of you receive my email newsletters every month or so. But just in case here's the lastest news. Life is good at the moment. But it feels rather ordinary. Language study five days a week. Swimming on Saturday. Emails once a month. Hmmm.... must be something brewing out there?

One of the first phrases I learned in Khmer was, "Can I help you?" I wanted to be friendly. I wanted to build relationships. Can I help you cut the vegetables? Can I help you sweep the floor? Can I help you wash the dishes?

There's another question I'm learning to ask that also helps to make friends. "Can you help me?" I'm learning to ask for help in a thousand ways.

A week or so ago I asked the waitress at my local coffee place if she drank coffee. (Partly as an excuse to start a conversation in Khmer.) Surprisingly, she said she did. (It isn't too common for Khmer women to drink coffee.) So I asked, "Can you help me? I don't know which one to drink. Which one do you like?" The waitress was more than happy to help! She told me her favourite used to be the vanilla cappuccino. But the vanilla powder from Malaysia had been replaced by a US vanilla powder which wasn't quite as good. So her new favourite, I discovered, was the caramel cappuccino. The iced caramel latte also came highly recommended. I went with the caramel cappuccino and it was very good.

Can you help me.

Can you help me by speaking slowly? Can you give me grace to make mistakes? Can you give me time to learn to speak again?

Can you help me find my way around? Can you tell me how to get to this place? Would you mind giving me a ride?

Can you help me learn how things are done? Can you tell me how you feel? Could you share with me your stories so that I can begin to understand?

God, can you help me worship you in this place? Can you help me sing new songs of praise? Would you help me pray when our house is so busy and I cannot close the bedroom door?

I'm constantly asking for help- requiring it from people that six months ago I didn't have to "burden"at all. Yet these experiences begin to build webs of community. While it is humbling, I'm learning to ask, "Can you help me?"

soy milk fuels another random conversation

Yesterday I was unlocking my bike from the front of a shop when the guard started up a conversation. I wasn't in a rush (hardly ever am these days...) so we spent a few minutes chatting. The guard seemed keen to do some language practice so he was asking questions in English. I (being an equally oportunistic student) would answer in Khmer. Finally I gave in and asked him in English, "Where did you study English?" He grinned, "I study by myself for one hour every morning before work. I use a children's book."

I had just been working on some Second Grade exercises with a soy bean drink for company. I pulled it out to show him that I too use a kid's book to help me study. We kept chatting in more of a free-flow mixture of Khmer & English when he asked me, "Do you read the bible." I said, "Yes- do you?" The guard told me that he read it sometimes but found it difficult to understand. "Maybe after you finish studying Khmer," he said, "You can teach the bible in our language."

Teaching the bible in Khmer is about a thousand steps from my Second Grade workbook. However, I figured that it was such an unexpected request from someone I'd only just met that it must be worth considering.

Remember Surrender

Remember surrender/ Remember the rest/
Remeber that weight lifting up off your chest/
And realizing that it's not up to you and never was/
Remember surrender/ Remember relief/
Remember how tears rolled down both of your cheeks/
As the warmth of a heavenly father came closing in/
I want to do that again/

This is the first part of Remember Surrender by Sarah Groves. I must have listened to this song five times already today and am loving it. Thanks to the friends who sent me some new CDs this last week- Louise, Mark & NBC.

As I was enjoying these new tunes I was reminded of times long ago in my slightly over-zealous youth group. We used to have opportunity for public confession some Friday nights (yeah- I know- not quite pizza & bowling...) and I recall a few weird confessions coming out. One night there was the earnest confession from a young guy of how he'd backslidden because he hadn't read his bible every day that last week. Instead (on more than one occasion) he had dared to kick back on the couch and enjoy listening to some fav worship CD's. He sincerely wanted to repent of his laziness and apathy... Ouch.

(You will be relieved to know that I haven't completely fallen away... I read some great lyrics from Psalms today too.)

Doing Church Spontaneously

We have a team from Sydney visiting Cambodia for 3.5 weeks. Yesterday they came to the Khmai service in the morning so I invited them to hang out at my place for a while afterwards. I said that I'd be really blessed if they wouldn't mind us simply talking together about what God has been teaching us lately. We sang a couple of songs and then opened up the floor.

One person spoke about a passage in Hebrews, one read a portion of a Psalm and one read a bunch of favourite verses that she'd asked her friends to write down especially for the trip. One young woman talked for a bit and then said, "Actually, I've got a word for you too Pip." And she did. And it was encouraging.

But even that first sentence got me excited. I just love hearing young chicks preach it up! I love hearing young chicks prophesy. I love seeing young people step out- take risks- and bless others in the name of Jesus. Oh to be a youth pastor again!

Stop For The Dying

Rosie sent me a book by Rolland and Heidi Baker, There Is Always Enough. I've been so challenged by reading it this week. The Baker's tell their stories about ministering amongst the poor- particularly in Mozambique. The chapter that hit me the hardest was Chapter 8, "Stop For The Dying." It begins with this stupidly obvious sentence, "We should stop every single time for each person."

In the light of all the stats I've been reading lately about global poverty the question of how we stop people from dying from hunger and disease has been on my mind. One part of how to answer the question, "How do I stop people dying?" is to stop for the dying.

I met with one of my language classmates over lunch this week. She was telling me about how her husband was riding his motorbike along a main road in Phnom Penh recently when he had to literally dodge a woman sitting in the middle of the traffic. He couldn't just continue on his way. He turned around and helped the woman off the road. They were beside a supermarket so, if I remember correctly, he went inside to buy her some food. He also found the manager of the shop to ask his advice about what could be done for the destitute woman. The manager, however, was not at all concerned. His reply was something like, "Oh yeah- we know about her. Is she still hanging around then is she?" In reality, perhaps it would have caused a problem for him if she had died on the steps of his supermaket. Perhaps it would be easier for him if she were struck down quickly by a passing vehicle. I don't know.

I know that my friend's husband tried to do something but still felt so helpless. But at least he stopped for the dying.

20 Seconds...

A Prayer Of Confession:

God our Father, our sins are too heavy to carry, to real to hide, and too deep to undo. Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open us to a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more into the likeness of your Son, Jesus Christ.

We prayed these words together yesterday at the international church I attend. These 20 seconds out of some 90 minutes of church were enough for me. These were the words I felt I needed to speak out.

Holiday & Heroes

I've had some time off recently. My language course at uni had a 10 day break between Level 1 and Level 2 so I decided to stop having tutoring too and give myself a rest from this language obsesssion. Conveniently, mum was able to visit for 4 days on her way to the UK during this window. It was great to see her and to show her some of the sights of Phnom Penh.

Another thing I did while I was kicking back was to find a new hero. I've got a few of them now. Some are close friends while others are people I've never met in person. All of them have influenced me in various ways, however, and their voices continue to speak into my life. My new hero is.... (drumroll) an economist...(surprised? you shouldn't be!) by the name of.....Dr Jeffrey Sachs.

I don't know if you have heard of him yet? If not, how about Live 8? The Millenium Development Goals? or Make Poverty History? Are we getting warmer? Sachs writes about this huge and often complex issue of global poverty in his book "The End of Poverty".

This book has helped me to find some perspective on questions that I've had in the back of my mind for 10 years or so. The End of Poverty has given me a broad perspective and the incentive to continue reading and researching about poverty reduction in Cambodia. Jeffrey Sachs makes me think seriously about becoming an economist when (if?) I grow up...

Sachs writes about how we can end poverty by 2025. He writes as one who has spent the last two decades wrestling with how to do it- not just in theory but in advising national and international agencies. Sachs believes it is possible to see an end to absolute poverty in this generation. He explains how and why he makes such claims. Interested? Go and buy a copy for yourself! I'm keen to be blogging some more about these unfolding thoughts and I'd love some feedback/ discussion.

For today, let me just give you one quote from the introduction:

"Am I an optimist? Optimism and pessimism are beside the point. The key is not to predict what will happen, but to help shape the future."

In response, if it is possible to Make Poverty History in my generation then in some way I want to be a part of it. It starts as simply as this. I don't want to just sit on the sidelines and wonder. I want to help shape the future.

Got to go- my class starts in 1 minute so I'm late already!